No Good Deed: A Small-Town Romantic Suspense Novel

12. Game Plan

Piper felt the smile on her face as she woke. Her dreams had been spectacular. That smile widened when she felt the warm weight of Troy’s arm holding her snug against him.

The dreams had nothing on the reality.

Troy had explored every last part of her skin. He’d made her feel treasured. Even loved. She knew she was jumping ahead, but she couldn’t deny it any longer. She was falling hard and fast for Troy Phail. If she was honest, she’d already tumbled.

Part of her was terrified at the thought. She was supposed to leave in a few days. They hadn’t really talked about feelings or the future. But most of her was happy. More content than she’d been since the death of her parents.

Troy’s arm tightened around her. “Morning, beautiful. You tensed up there. Are you having regrets?” His sleepy voice rumbled in her ear while his thumb caressed the skin on her belly.

“Absolutely no regrets. You?” Better to ask when she was facing away.

“Not a one. Not even an inkling of one. So, if not regrets, what were you thinking about?”

She wasn’t about to tell him she’d fallen in love with him in days. It was far too early to be talking love. But she could share the rest. “I was thinking I haven’t felt this happy in years. Not since before my parents died.”

His arm tightened again, and he kissed her hair. “What happened to them?”

“They were traveling to my graduation when another driver lost control of his truck. He was texting on the highway, and he rammed them from behind. The truck shoved them forward into a semi.” Her voice broke.

Troy gently turned her so he could wrap his arms around her. “I’m so sorry. That must have been horrible.”

She nodded into his chest and tried to blink back the tears. “It was. Even though it was years ago, it still slices into me every time I think about it.”

“I bet. I can’t imagine how awful that was. And you said you don’t have brothers or sisters. That would have made it even more difficult. Who helped you through it?”

She shrugged. “I had a few classmates who tried, but it was graduation for my Masters’. Everyone was celebrating with family and heading off to their jobs.”

His hands ran over her, offering comfort. “So you handled everything more or less on your own. You’re so damn strong, Piper. I know your parents would be proud of the woman you’ve become.”

“Thank you.” Her voice was soft and shaky, but Troy cared and that made all the difference.

“Tell me about them.”

Wow. No one ever asked that. No one wanted to talk about them. “Mom was an environmental scientist. She was bubbly and happy all the time. She loved her job, and it showed. Dad was quieter. He was the steadiest man I’ve ever known. He loved numbers and organizing things.”

“What kind of job did he have?”

“He was an accountant who helped small businesses. They made a good team and were always ready to help out others.”

Troy chuckled. “I can totally see how you became who you are. Some of your mom, some of your dad. Planning to improve the world, one splash park at a time.”

That made her laugh. “I do love a good splash park.”

“Do you have one in mind for Phail?”

She stacked her hands on his chest and looked at him. He rivaled her dad for his steadiness. “I do. I was planning to show you all of my ideas last night.”

His eyebrows rose, and his eyes sparkled. “But we got a little sidetracked.”

She laughed. “We sure did.”

He tapped her nose. “How about you show me those plans after we get sidetracked in the shower?”

Piper reached up to kiss him lightly. “Best idea ever.”

After the best shower ever, they moved to the living room, where they found Oreo sleeping on his dog bed. He lifted his head when they entered, and then stretched his little body before bouncing up to greet them. “Good morning, Oreo. Do you have to go outside?”

Troy headed into the kitchen. “I took him out a while ago. He’s probably good.”

What? “I slept through you getting up?”

He turned and grinned at her. “You were out cold when he barked. I didn’t want to wake you. I’ll make some coffee.”

For a moment, Piper could only stare. She would have never thought she would have been comfortable enough to sleep through Oreo’s bark or Troy leaving the bed, and then sliding back in. She lifted Oreo, kissed his nose, and kept her voice whisper soft. “We’ve got a pretty special guy there. Do you think we’ll be able to keep him?”

Oreo wiggled in her grip and licked her nose, making her laugh. “Good, we’re on the same page.”

She’d left her laptop open and on after she’d been distracted by Troy and his cooking. And then making love for hours. The battery was still okay, so she picked it up and moved to the kitchen to sit at the island, along with her Cloud Gate tin of USBs.

Troy had eggs and bacon in a big cast iron pan on the stove. “Is this good for breakfast? I’ve got Fiona’s homemade bread for toast as well.”

“Sounds and smells delicious. I can handle making the toast.”

Troy laughed and shook his head. “You’re going to have that chef’s hat in no time.”

She loved being able to make him laugh and smile. She’d never had such fun in regular conversations with anyone.

When breakfast was ready, they sat side by side at the island. Piper dumped the USBs out of the Cloud Gate and found the one marked with a P.

Troy picked up the tin. “This is pretty cool.”

She nodded. “It’s a replica of the real Cloud Gate in Chicago. It’s an amazing place.”

“Never heard of it. I assume the real one is bigger.”

That made her grin. “Yes. It’s huge. You can walk inside it and see the reflections from there too.”

Troy tilted the tin around, and then set it down with a smile. That changed to a laugh when he picked up a USB. “Cloud Goat? Seriously?”

She laughed. “Someone had these printed by mistake. I was in the right place at the right time, so I got a box of them.”

He chuckled and then picked up the tin again. “I’d love to see this in real life. Maybe we can go on a trip someday, and you can show me.”

Her heart leaped at that. Maybe she wasn’t the only one thinking long term. “I like the sound of that.”

Troy kissed her and then motioned with a slice of bacon. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Piper pressed play on her laptop. She’d made dozens of presentations over the years. To her professors. To her bosses. To business directors and community groups. They all made her nervous, but this one meant more than any of the ones before.

She clicked open the first screen where she’d mocked up a website for the town. She’d incorporated the Phail family crest and the blue and green of the tartan to create a circular logo.

Welcome towas written in the top arc of the circle with Phail in a banner across the lower part. “When I researched the Phail clan, some crests showed ravens. Others had a deer and a lion or griffin head. We’ll discuss mascot ideas in a bit, but if the town chooses something, we could incorporate it into the logo.”

Along the top of the mock website, she’d included the tabs. Phood. Phun. Relax. And Phun Phail Phacts. All the F sounds had been changed, so they were spelled with a Ph like Phail.

Then she clicked on the second screen, which showed the same website with the incorrect Ph spellings changed back to regular spellings. “I can’t decide if the overuse of Ph instead of F is fun or obnoxious. Might be better to do it sparingly, especially when it comes to search engines. People won’t know to search for phood with a ph. I prefer the second screen myself.”

She blew out a breath. She hadn’t braved a look at Troy’s face and he hadn’t said a word while she’d shown the two slides, but she needed to know. “I have more, but what do you think so far?”

* * *

Troy heard the shaking in Piper’s voice and turned to her in surprise. “Are you nervous?”

Her face flushed and he decided the next time they made love, he’d want a light on. He wanted to see how far that flush reached and follow it with his mouth.

Instead, he yanked his attention back to her face. She gnawed on that lower lip again and shrugged. He leaned forward to kiss her and ran his tongue over the spot she’d bit to soothe it.

Then he leaned back. “Nothing to be worried about. This is great so far. I love using the blues and greens of the tartan as the main colors. I agree with you about the overuse of the Ph joke. It’s a little overwhelming when you use it on all the words. Kind of waters down the fun of spotting it in the wild, so to speak.”

Her eyes cleared up. “Okay. Good. I didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot.” She turned back to the laptop and deleted the first screen.

With the new Home Screen up, she hovered over the tabs. “Having a website would be a big boost to the town. There aren’t many tourist-type things yet, but you can add those as the town grows. If you use a drag-and-drop website, the pattern would be easy to follow.”

She clicked on the next screen which had various examples of menu buttons. “Because the town isn’t formal, I thought more casual labels would work, but I’ve created options for each menu tab.”

He looked over the options, and together, they decided that Food, Stay, Explore, and Fun Facts would do for a start. With a few clicks of the mouse, she returned to the Home Screen and updated it with their choices.

The next screens showed what would appear when someone clicked on the menu. Food brought them to a photo of the No Fail Diner. Piper had included a picture of the outside and a description alongside it. Another box held information about hours of operation and a button that led to a menu with mentions that choices changed regularly. “It would be easy to snap a picture of the chalkboard and update the site whenever the menu changes.”

Beneath it, she had done the same with the BB showcasing Jim and Carl’s new occasional dinner service.

Another showcased Phail Phoods, mentioning Fiona’s homemade items along with regular groceries.

The other tabs followed the same pattern but weren’t as filled out. Because there wasn’t yet a lot to explore. But she’d included Phail General, Doc’s, Yoganna Love It, and Phail FireHall, complete with a picture of the I-Phail Tower.

“Each place in town can have its own page with more information and pictures. Images draw people in and keep them clicking.”

Troy shook his head. “I can’t believe you’ve put this together so quickly. These pages show you know so much about us already.” And that pleased him enormously. The energy from the website showed someone who liked his town. Enough to stay?

Piper clicked on a new screen, and he laughed. Animals covered it. A pheasant, fox, and firefly in the top row. A whale, a snail, and a quail on another. On the third was an empty box with a question mark inside.

“After looking at Bloo Moose like you recommended, I wondered if Phail should have a mascot animal or fantasy creature. The top row has the only animals I could come up with that start with an F sound and live in Vermont. The others rhyme. I’m hoping someone with more creativity than me can create a fantasy creature to give everyone another choice.”

“This is great. We could run a contest or a poll, something to see what everyone likes.”

Her smile widened. “You’re reading my mind.” She clicked again, and under Fun Facts on the main page, she clicked on Polls. Sure enough, there was one for Mascots.

Another for slogans. He tapped the screen. “What’s under that one?”

“I don’t know if you’d want a slogan or tagline for the town. But I came up with Phail Better and Phail Forward. Welcome to Phail, where we don’t and Without Phail. I ran out of ideas after that, but I’m sure you can come up with something better.”

Troy pulled her in for another kiss. “We often use Phail Better because of that Samuel Beckett quote. For now, I’d say that one, but I like the idea of having input from the town. You’re amazing. Show me what else you got.”

The following slide showed photos of other small towns that she’d pulled off the internet. In each photo, the town was showcasing a theme. Christmas, Independence Day, Valentines, summer, frogs, and more. “These aren’t of Phail, but they show an easy way for the town to pull together and create theme days or months. If everyone puts out similar flower pots in the summer, it ties the whole area together. Same with adding banners to the light posts, or snowmen outside each shop.”

Troy leaned back on his stool. “That’s so simple. I bet everyone would get behind that idea.”

She nodded. “None of it would cost much money at all, especially when you have some creative people in the area.”

Warmth filled him as he studied the screen. He could see how easy it would be to improve the town visually with these ideas. She had a few similar pages and a list of themes and decorative ideas on another. Not only were these easy changes that would have a big effect, they showed Piper understood the town and its people. “I love it all. I bet you even have polls set up for picking themes and decorations.”

Her laugh filled him up too and he had to kiss her again. “Anything else? Or is that everything?”

She grimaced a bit at that. “Those things so far are pretty low cost. You’d need to build the website and find hosting for it. Make a decorating committee and get town input. Some of my other ideas aren’t quite so cheap to implement.”

He nodded. “I figured that. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“The first thing I considered were festivals and fairs. Do you have any already?”

“We do one in the late summer. It has kids’ rodeo stuff, artisan and food booths. Music by local artists, too.”

Her face lit up. “That’s perfect. It would be easy to tweak what you already do with logos and slogans once the town decides things. How about a Christmas festival? Do you have any town traditions for that?”

Huh. “Not a damn one.”

“There are still a few weeks before Christmas. We could make a town tree and have a tree lighting. Bloo Moose has a Merry MooseMas Days festival with fun events like obstacle courses and snowman building contests. I’m sure we can put together a few low-cost events. Then each year you can grow it if it works.”

“I like it.” Even if he’d have preferred her to say we can grow it as opposed to you. He wanted her here in the future. Wanted her to stay.

To distract himself from demanding she move in with him permanently after only knowing him for days, he asked. “That’ll be fun. And none of that is high in money. You’ve made me curious. What else are you thinking? And does it involve a splash pad?”

A pretty flush covered her cheeks as she clicked to another new page. This one had an aerial view of the town.

Piper pointed at Phail Way and the spot almost directly across from Phail General. “I think the town needs a few spots for residents to gather. The old saloon attached to Doc’s is an obvious one if you can get someone to set up business there. It’s central, and a bar or restaurant would also be great to pull in more people from nearby towns as well.”

Her words stirred something within Troy. An idea that had been niggling in the back of his mind for months. One that might just pull his team together. Give them a project to work on right here in Phail.

Piper tapped another area. “You’ve told me no one uses this group of buildings and they’ve been empty for a while.”

He nodded. “A few people tried different businesses, but nothing has stuck.” And the empty storefronts reminded him of that failure every time he walked outside his store.

Piper took a deep breath. “I haven’t seen the land behind it, but if you tore down these buildings, there should be a fairly large space there for a central park for the town. This park has a ton of potential, and there are dozens of ways to use the space, but I don’t know what’s under all that snow out there.”

Tear down part of Phail’s history? “A park?”

She tilted her head. “I know taking down buildings isn’t something you’d probably want to do, but I wanted to mention the option. A park could incorporate a lot of things. A walking or jogging path that would meander through it and to various ponds and creeks throughout the woods beyond. A few play areas for kids. Maybe a scavenger hunt theme for those Phail mascots or native flora and fauna. A gazebo for outdoor music or events. An outdoor screen for town movies. A softball field. And, of course, a splash pad.”

Piper clicked through a few slides, showing him her visions. It was all incredibly well done, even if it overwhelmed his brain.

Troy shook his head and stared at her. “How did this even occur to you? I’ve looked at those buildings and seen nothing but failure for years.”

Her eyes softened, and she took his hand. “I can’t tell you how to feel, Troy, but as an outsider looking in, I haven’t seen a single sign of failure in this town.”

His heart filled again, and he tucked her into his side as he looked back at the screen. “Show me again.”