The kitchen appeared to be built for entertaining with a large island at the center, but the room mostly showcased what appeared to be pickling supplies and other various projects. Bright pink jars of what I assumed were pickled red onions lined the breakfast bar, their fermentation complete. Marty was writing names on handmade tags as he caught my entrance. His face lit up when he saw me.
“Is it time already?” His eyes went from my navy-blue A-line dress to the folders in my hand. “So professional.” Marty snapped the rubber band holding a tag onto a mason jar and walked with us to the living room.
We took seats in front of a wrought iron and glass coffee table hosting an antique vase filled with fresh indigo hydrangeas.
“It’s so nice to have someone from Starlight come down here. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Hazel and Leo.” Joy’s face softened at the mention of our camp’s owners. They’d met with Marty and Joy when we moved in to promise that we’d be good neighbors and had bumped into them in town, but we’d never had any issues with our noisy camp thanks to the acreage between us. “They’re such a nice couple.”
I nearly laughed at the idea of the two of them being interpreted as a couple. They would say that was crazy, but it wasn’t like we hadn’t all thought it. “Oh, they’re not together.”
Joy’s face scrunched up. “Really? I swear they were finishing each other’s—”
“Sentences,” Marty cut her off.
Joy gave him a wry smile. “So, Autumn, as much as we like having company, you look like you’re on a mission.”
“I wouldn’t call it a mission… I have a proposition for Foxglove.”
“Ooh, we haven’t had a proposition before.” Joy’s gleeful handclap made me think she wasn’t thinking of the innuendo that posed.
I moved on quickly. “As you know, we’re neighbors.” Wait. That was obvious.“And we both have camps.” This wasn’t going well. “Sorry, I’m a little nervous.”
“Nothing to be nervous about, sweetheart. We’re just chatting.”
“Right.” I opened the folder and pulled out two sheets with facts and figures on them, passing them off to the couple. “So, Camp Starlight offers a variety of activities. As you can see, they’re listed on the second page. We change them out every season and keep the most popular ones. I was curious, what days do you have camp running?”
“We host camps Friday through Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday,” Marty explained. “But we’re thinking of pulling back slightly because there’s been a lack of interest.”
I nearly bounced out of my seat. “That’s perfect.”
Joy looked over her sheet. “Perfect for what?”
“Well, I was thinking maybe we could partner with Foxglove. If you had, say, one day a week free, we could have campers from Starlight coming over here throughout the day to experience your ranch.” I was practically crossing my fingers as I awaited their response.
Marty nodded in agreement. “So we’d be teaming up?”
“Exactly. We would pay to rent out your camp for the day. And we would provide staff—”
“We already have staff,” Joy interjected.
“Then we could provide support. But the takeaway would be our campers getting a different experience and you getting the guaranteed business. And we were hoping, well, if you flipto page three, you’ll see—” The flipping sound distracted me for a moment. “As you can see, sixty-seven percent of our campers have children. We were thinking that this would be an opportunity for you to showcase your camp to our campers and potentially gain business from their interactions as well.”
“I like this idea, I do, but I’m not sure how beneficial it will be toward your visitors. We mostly gear our camps toward children,” Joy observed.
“Most of our campers will probably have no experience on a ranch or with horses, and I think you’ll find that our adults are children at heart. I know if I was visiting camp, I’d love the opportunity to ride a horse and participate in the activities you offer. We want this to be beneficial to both parties, obviously.” They were quiet for a moment, and I wondered if I’d lost their interest. “If you don’t mind my asking, how much do you make per day when kids attend camp?”
Marty whipped out an old-school ink printing calculator and typed in some numbers. He ripped off the piece of paper and handed it to his wife.
“You’re not including staffing, Marty. But you can leave off food and beverage.”
Marty nodded and went through a few more numbers before handing it over again. Joy amended it with a red sharpie and slid it over to me facedown. I smiled at the theatrics.
I lifted the paper and nodded, relieved to see that this was under my budget. “We could work with this,” I said, tamping down my excitement.
Once the hard numbers were worked out, the couple agreed to come by Starlight to see our grounds and meet with Hazel, Leo, and me to iron out details.
Marty looked up from my document, his eyes sparkling. “This says you offer macrame? And they have pottery, Joy.”
Joy nodded, suddenly all business. “I think we can agree to your terms, but I’d like to add an addendum. A monthly date night at Starlight for the two of us. I think that could be valuable to our partnership.”
