Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
RUSTY
W ith the fake dating details out of the way, Ash is able to focus completely on marketing the town's businesses, and of all the strokes of genius I've seen her get, this one might take top billing.
"I was thinking of this problem wrong the whole time. We don't need to treat every company like they're an individual one out for themselves. We're not going to bring in nearly as many tourists with a one-off attraction. How many people come to Sugar Maple for the farm but don't stop by the town?"
"A lot," Jane says.
"Exactly," Ash says. "We need to show people that these businesses are best when experienced together."
There's a collective intake of breath, like a universal ah-ha, and it makes me smile when Ash feels it. She's so intuitive that she can read a room, and her energy matches it.
"I know how Dumfries Holding works. They want to pick out the weakest in the herd and isolate each company from the other so they can buy them up and force the others out. We can't let them do that. We need to make Sugar Maple commerce stronger than ever, and we need to make the town tighter than ever. We need to create one account that shows why Sugar Maple is unique, and we need everyone to be in on it. You know what I mean?"
We all nod.
Within only a few minutes, the Janes have put their heads together to work out how to turn Ash's vision into reality.
And this is where these women shine.
Jane is a big picture person, so as Ash shares her ideas, Jane asks questions that only expand it. Millie emphasizes the emotional side of each idea, Lou gives it all a uniquely lyrical flow, and Parker translates the whole thing into actionable steps. And I contribute, too. I give feedback on the visuals we can use to best grab attention.
Soon, we're all up and off with our own assignments. Ash and I leave the office at the same time, but we're heading in opposite directions.
"Aren't you going to kiss me goodbye, lovah ?" Ash asks, a teasing tone to her question that is like a knife to the gut.
"You can't call me lover."
"If you can call me gorgeous, I can call you lover."
"No you can't."
"Give me one good reason."
"Mine is the truth, yours isn't," I say. Ash narrows her eyes. I let her get away with almost anything, except murder. And her calling me lover will kill me. "Calling me 'lover' has connotations the town will not be okay with outside of wedlock, if you catch my drift."
"GASP."
I shake my head. "You are too much."
"Am I?" Her brows thread together .
"No," I say quickly. "Not for me. You're exactly enough. You're perfect."
She bites her lip, hesitating for a second. Then she smiles softly. "Thanks, Farm Boy." She turns and bounces away.
"Anything for you, darlin'," I say.
She spins around and grins with enough volts to jumpstart a car. "'Darlin'? It's okay, but not as good as 'Gorgeous.'"
I take my cap off and hold it over my heart as I watch her go.
I don't know how I'll ever come back from fake dating the love of my life.
Hours later, we’ve all sent Ash our videos, and she’s put together a rough draft of a reel for socials.
It's a GoPro style video of various businesses along Maple Street, as well as clips throughout town that have been spliced together.
Ash starts the video and talks over it.
"Imagine a POV reel, like 'You wake up and realize your lamp is broken, but you want a new one with style, so you drive to Sugar Maple, South Carolina to go antiquing. You find the cutest end table to go with the new lamp, but in taking it to your car, you spot a fudge shop. You walk into Jorge's Fudgerie and get the chocolate lava fudge, and fall madly in love with the cayenne kick, but then you realize you're thirsty, so you go to Sugar Maple Diner, where they have the McDonald's Diet Coke of Cheerwine. And because you're only human, you order the shrimp and grits to go with it. Then you take your drink to go and wander toward the riverwalk. But on your way, you see fishing signs, so you circle back to the bait and tackle shop and accidentally spill your Cheerwine on you as you walk because you're so distracted by all the cute shops. Luckily, you spot the best thrift and vintage store in the Southeast, get a little bit barked at by the owner for interrupting him watching a soccer match, put on your cool new outfit, finally make it to the bait and tackle shop, and go fishing. After a couple of hours, you're flat out starving, so you go to Food Truck Friday at Sugar Maple Farms, decide you never want to leave, and end the night in the cottage of an influencer's dreams.'"
It's ingenious.
Instantly, everyone is both complimenting Ash and adding ideas. Speed up the walking segments, slow down the parts highlighting shops and attractions. Try a video with the voice sped up while it's popular, but do some with a slower voice. Different lengths of videos, various flows. They share ideas with the bookshop and bakery and others where the car breaks down and someone goes to a mechanic and walks through the historical society. They plan a video of things to do in town with children, highlighting the splash pad and pool, various nature walks, and the petting zoo at the farm.
Within a few hours, we've storyboarded dozens of different videos, each one as good as the last.
"And Sonny, Duke, and I can all be collaborators," Lou says. "Make sure we get as many eyes as possible as quickly as possible.
"I don't know," Ash says. "That feels like cheating."
"It's not a competition," Lou says. "Who would you be cheating against?"
Ash looks at Lou. "Come on."
Lou groans. "Philip? Ash, that guy would use AI to make it look like Dolly Parton and Post Malone both have houses here if he thought it would help him beat you. It's not cheating to use resources to sell a product, it's business. If this were any other company, you'd use every connection available to you, right?"
"But this isn't a company," Ash says.
I glance at Millie, because she's usually the one to make sense of people's emotional angst, but she's looking at me .
"What do y'all think we should do?" Lou asks the group.
"Use the connections," Jane says, and Parker, Millie, and Sonny all agree.
All of them.
Then Ash looks at me.
The thing is, I think Lou is right. I've sat in plenty of meetings with Jane & Co., and I've seen a lot of stuff get hashed out. When I'm asked for my opinion, I give it. If this were business-as-usual, I'd tell her I agree with Lou. But everything is different now. The second Philip showed his face, the stakes became higher.
I want to help my town more than just about anything.
I want to help Ash more than everything .
And besides, if she doesn’t partner with a single famous person, I still think it’ll be a success, because she came up with it.
"I support whatever Ash thinks is best."
I don’t know what I expected, but the way Ash is studying me ain’t it.
Shoot.
What did I do?
"Let's take a break," Millie says. She pushes back from her chair and stretches. "I need another Diet Coke if we're going to keep hashing this out. But we have a hard stop at five p.m., gang. Lottie has a T-ball game tonight, and you're all invited." Millie takes everyone's drink orders and then looks at me. "Rusty, come with me and help me carry all these, will you?"
"I'll come, too. I want nachos," Lou says.
When we get out to the street, the sun’s high enough that our shadows are squat beneath us. I watch them as we walk, the way my hands are stuffed into my pockets, the way Millie and Lou’s swing freely.
"If it were up to you, would you use Lou and Sonny and Duke to market the town?" Lou asks .
"Yes."
"Then why didn't you say that?" Lou smacks my shoulder.
"Because I meant what I said."
“But you didn’t tell her your opinion! Ash needs you to be you, Rusty. Philip lied to her constantly. He always said it was for her own good, but, well, he was lying."
Great. If I didn't already battle with feeling like I'm a bad person, now I'm being compared to a guy who emotionally abused her for months?
My stomach sours.
"You're nothing like him," Millie stresses. "Nothing."
“I know I’m not,” I say, and I’m surprised by the surety in my voice. “But I wasn’t lying. I’m positive that whatever she comes up with will work out.”
I hold the door open for them at the diner, and a few minutes later, we're walking out with drink carriers and Lou's nachos.
"So maybe you weren’t lying,” Lou says. “But you were holding back your thoughts to give her the support you think she wanted. Is that right?”
“Maybe, yeah.”
“I think that may be a pattern worth looking at,” Lou says. “You show her pieces of yourself, but she’s never seen the whole picture.”
“Is that what you think?” I ask.
"Has she ever been to your place?" Lou asks.
"No," I say.
“That’s my point. You’re so enmeshed in her life, but if you want her to see you differently, she needs to see all of you.”
"And you think that'll help?"
We're almost back to the office, so they stop me. A trickle of sweat runs down the side of Millie's face. It's a warm day, but I've worked out with her a lot in Duke's gym —their gym. The girl breaks a sweat warming up. Tripp teases her about it all the time, and she tells him redheads are more susceptible to thermal pain and that he can suck eggs.
I like Millie.
"Ash thinks you're a good guy because you are. You're a great person," Millie says.
"Don't say that," I say.
"Rusty, you are quality !" Lou says. "But Ash's biological dad is the world's biggest jerk. He makes Philip look like an intern at Jerk Headquarters."
Ash has never mentioned her bio dad, only her stepdad. Her parents have video chatted with us when we've worked together on campaigns, and I’ve gotten to know them fairly well. Greg’s a bit of a goofball, but he's cool. Imagine Neil deGrasse Tyson with more Star Trek and less astrophysics, and you've got Greg. He has a big heart that he wears in his eyes when he talks to his daughter.
I get the feeling that Ash is holding a part of herself back with him, though, and now that I know a single thing about her bio dad — that he's garbage like Philip — some pieces are falling into place.
"Are you saying she goes for jerks because she's subconsciously trying to prove to her dad that she's worth loving?"
Lou and Millie stare at me. "Literally exactly that," Lou says.
"You really are perfect for her," Millie says.
"You can't say that," I moan. "It's hard enough fake dating her. Y'all actively pushing for this to happen will only make it harder when it doesn't."
Lou’s sympathy fits her like an old shirt. "Sorry, Rus. I'm pulling for you two, but I'll keep it to myself."
"Me too," Millie says.
"Thanks."
"But in the meantime, let her see all the parts of you that you're hiding. She gushed about how you were smoother than James Bond all weekend," Lou says. "That didn't come from nowhere. Show her those parts, too. Don’t hold back."
"Yes ma'am." I pause. “But can I say somethin’?”
“Anything,” Lou says.
“Y’all gotta trust Ash more. She doesn’t need all this pushing, she needs y’all to believe in her.”
Millie’s mouth falls open. “Is that what it seems like we’re doing? Pushing her instead of supporting her?”
I grimace.
Lou holds a hand over her mouth. “Oh, man, you’re right. We’ve all been too fixated on Philip. It was terrifying watching her with him. It was like he was systematically erasing her. First the stripe in her hair, then the curls, then the glasses. We thought we were gonna lose her.”
Her emotion pulls at my heart. “You didn’t, though. Whatever happened, she got through it because you guys are the best friends in the world. You gave her the strength she needed to leave him. But that’s over. She doesn’t have to rely on your strength anymore, she has to see that she has all the strength she needs inside of her.”
Millie dabs at her makeup. “Dude. If I sweat and cry through my makeup, you owe me another Diet Coke.”
I laugh. “I can live with that.”
When we get back into the conference room, everyone sits down, and I clear my throat before anyone can speak first, “Ash, can we revisit the collaboration idea?” She purses her lips but doesn’t say no. “Why don’t you walk us through the pros and cons you see in having Lou, Sonny, and Duke be part of the campaign?”
She frowns. “Okay, the pros are obvious: famous people sell stuff. But the cons are bigger.” She holds up a finger for each item. “It feels like exploitation. It feels like I’m saying our local products aren’t good enough to sell themselves. It feels way too risky to include Lou, when she hasn’t revealed her identity to the public yet. And,” she huffs, putting up a fourth finger, “I know Philip will have a nasty comment about it.”
Parker opens her mouth to object, but Lou must kick her underneath the table, because she flinches and keeps quiet.
“I can see all that,” I say. “What else?”
Her leg bounces under the table. “I mean, the Philip thing doesn’t really matter. You guys are right that he’d photoshop the Super Bowl over the high school’s stadium if he thought it would seal the deal. And when famous people rave about products, it does lend credibility, especially quality famous people like y’all.”
Sonny flips imaginary hair.
Ash chuckles. “As for Lou …” She taps her pen against the conference room table. “She doesn’t actually have to show her face for a collab. We just need her voice and name. And, if we do it right, it benefits everyone. Lou, what do your fans want more than anything?"
"To feel connected to me."
Ash nods, but she’s looking to the side, processing, putting things together. "Connection. Right. You're shrouded in mystery, but people feel like you're singing a soul-song just for them. Being where you've been, shopping where you’ve shopped, walking where you’ve walked? Talk about connection. People will speculate what you're doing in South Carolina. Do you live nearby? Is that why you're starting your tour in Columbia? They'll flip out trying to see what road you're coming in on and theorize whether or not it’s significant. And from there, everyone wins. Your fans feel connected to you and discover things that you like that they may like. Win for them. Giving them a peek into your life makes them more loyal. Win for you. And the businesses you highlight get the hype they deserve. Win for Sugar Maple." Ash stares at the screen where we just watched the video. “If we can protect your actual likeness, I’m not seeing the downside there at all. ”
"Hey, what about me?” Sonny asks. “Why is no one asking how I'll deal with it?"
"Because you're the face of four different brands," Jane says.
"Because you've been on the cover of GQ twice," Millie says.
"Because you love attention," Lou says.
"I do not," Sonny protests. "You guys already said it! It’s about connecting with people. Let me be your street-guy."
"We're not having a male prostitute," Ash says.
"That's a streetwalker, Ash," Parker says. "You mean a man-on-the-street, right Sunshine?"
"Yes. Emphatically, yes."
Ash snickers. "Then we’re all agreed? Not about Sonny being a male streetwalker, but about partnering with famous friends to market the heck out of this town, no matter what the haters say?” Everyone nods, but she looks at me. “Rusty?”
“Philip is a walking oil spill, and Teddy and Bill are looking for an easy payout,” I say. “You shouldn’t spend a second trying to change the minds of people you wouldn’t invite to Sunday brunch. Part of your genius is that you inspire people to rally around you, famous or not. And I think the way you’ll use these collabs will only inspire more people. It’s a yes from me.”
"Ugh, fine, so I'm super brilliant," Ash says, but she's smiling.
Everyone starts talking and brainstorming again, and when Jane throws a spreadsheet up on the screen, my vision swims. I glance up at the clock, and it reads 4:35 p.m. Twenty-five more minutes. With all these late nights and early mornings lately, I’ve tapped out my ability to understand, especially when the others’ devices don’t have the same accommodations as mine. I rub my eyes, and when I look up, Ash has a V between her brows.
“Guys, why don’t we circle back to this tomorrow,” she says.
"Uh, yeah, sure," Jane says. It’s not like Ash to stop in the middle of something, especially when there’s so much to do. " Good idea. I’ll go check a few emails and then close down my office."
"Me too," Parker says.
I'm closing my own laptop when Duke pops into the conference room. "Knock knock," he says. He and Lottie are both wearing red, yellow, and black Carolina Coral Snakes uniforms, and Lottie's is complete with eye-black.
"Momma!" She runs and launches herself into Millie's arms, and Millie peppers her with kisses.
"Baby girl! Are you ready to crush the other guys?"
Lottie shakes her head. "No, they don't keep score," she grumbles. Then she sees me and she ducks her head and twirls her dark brown hair under her hat. "Hi, Uncle Rusty."
"Hi, Pumpkin.” I smile. Lottie has a longstanding crush on me. It’s hard to believe I’m such a bad guy when a little girl like her can love me so much.
Millie starts to put her laptop and notes away. "Ash, are you coming to see Rusty in his assistant coach uniform?"
Ash gives me a look of surprise, though I'm not sure why. Tonight’s only the second game of the season, and I didn't tell her I'm the assistant coach, but this is the kind of thing she’s come to expect from me: the good guy who helps coach his goddaughter's T-ball team. So why does she look intrigued?
"Why don't we all go to the game?" Lou suggests. "At least a couple of people from the chamber of commerce will be there. Why not win their hearts and their votes?"
Everyone is on board with the idea, and Ash nods. “Good idea. Besides, I have a boyfriend to support."
We all gather our things and I stifle a yawn. Ash follows me out to my truck. I'm parked on the street instead of in the alley out back, where the Janes and the other shop owners and employees on this side of Maple typically park.
"Thanks for what you did in there,” Ash says. “For letting me figure it out instead of telling me what to do. ”
“I’ve seen you in action enough to trust your process.”
“I wouldn’t have gotten there without you.”
“Sure you would have. I asked a simple question.”
“No, you asked and listened. And because you listened, I was able to hear where my thought process was falling short,” she says.
I don’t know what to say, so I smile.
She doesn’t. We’re standing on the sidewalk in front of my truck, and she has her arms folded as she looks me over. “You've been up since before sunrise and you went to bed late last night. You trained an employee on the farm today and worked with Jane & Co.. Yet instead of going home to relax and go to sleep, you're going to coach a T-ball game for someone else's kid."
I shrug. "It's what you do in a small town."
"No, it’s what you do. Not everyone." She looks at me through her blue cat eye glasses, the same exact shade as the stripe in her hair. "You probably rescued a pack of raccoons on the way to work this morning."
I laugh. “No, rescuing Prairie was enough for me.”
“Rusty Fielding,” she says. “What else don’t I know about you?”
Don’t hold back .
"You wanna find out?"
She runs a finger over the side of her mouth. "The way you turn that charm on is seriously disarming."
She walks over to the passenger side of the truck and climbs in before I can get the door for her.
"What are you doin'?" I ask when I open my own door.
"Finding out."