Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
L isa couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so stressed. It was a good kind of stress, though. The electrician that Rhett hired was able to fix the warming station—it just needed a new cord, and it was as good as new. She was excited about the festival and knew she’d done everything she could to prepare. They had a refrigerator to hold the quiches before they went into the warming station and Lisa had made a huge batch of the dark chocolate bread pudding made with the rich challah bread that Rhett had liked so much. They had several huge serving trays of it, along with plenty of canisters of whipped cream for the final touch.
She also had Kristen and Kate, as well as Marley on hand to help with serving and handing out the samples. The festival opened at noon, but they arrived a little before eleven to set up and make sure everything was ready and the electricity was working at their booth.
Kristen, who was the artistic one in the family, handled the decorating of the booth and she had gone with a white and Nantucket Red color scheme and gorgeous flower arrangements to help the booth stand out and draw people over. The colors of the flowers were vivid pinks and blues and creamy whites, with pretty pink knockout roses dominating the display. And Lisa also had a pile of brochures for the inn and info on how to order the quiches and other items online. She was optimistic that the festival might bring some new business her way.
She wasn’t happy though to see that Violet’s booth was directly across from hers. Violet seemed pleased by the placement, though, and waved a cheery hello as she arrived to set up her booth. Violet’s color scheme was bright yellow and nautical blue. She had sailboats, anchors and whales decorating her booth, playing up the Nantucket theme.
She had helpers too, including her sister and her two teenage nephews, who held signs saying “Nantucket’s best lobster quiche.” Violet glanced at Lisa triumphantly when the boys first held up the signs.
“Can they do that?” Kate asked.
Marley glanced at the signs and frowned. “I don’t think they can. That doesn’t seem at all fair. I’ll be right back.”
She left and returned ten minutes later with Paula, The Whitley Hotel’s general manager, by her side. Paula walked over to Violet’s booth and had words with her. Lisa couldn’t hear the conversation, but the boys put the signs down.
Paula stopped by their booth afterward to say hello. “I told Violet that she needed to wait until all the votes were in before claiming that her quiche has been voted number one. Good luck!”
By noon, Lisa was fully ready and eager for people to arrive. She didn’t have to wait long. Once the gates opened, people started streaming in and she was in constant motion, cutting squares of quiche, scooping up bread pudding and spraying whipped cream on top.
The lines formed fast and stayed steady. At a quarter past twelve, she saw the film crew and the cast arrive. Their presence drew a crowd of onlookers watching with interest as the influencers tasted the quiche and the bread pudding.
“This is heaven,” Katy said as she took a bite of lobster quiche.
“I need this recipe,” Honey said after sampling the chocolate bread pudding.
“I think everything is a hit,” Lauren said after they’d tried everything.
“So far, thankfully, people seem to like both,” Lisa said. She glanced across the way to Violet’s booth, which was also busy, but Violet was watching anxiously as the production team interviewed Lisa and filmed the cast eating her food.
“Is that Violet, the one you told me about?” Lauren asked as she followed Lisa’s gaze.
Lisa nodded. “That’s her. I suppose you’ll head there next. You’ll want to compare lobster quiches.”
Lauren grinned. “We’ll try them, and we’ll film….but just between you and me, that film won’t make its way onto the show. We can only fit in so much, you know. Showing the cast eating lobster quiche once will be more than enough.”
Lisa laughed. “I love it. Thank you.”
She felt lighter as she watched the group head over to Violet’s booth.