17. Summer
Summer
“So let me get this straight,” Larissa says, wrapping both hands around her cup.
We’re tucked into the corner of Java Jane’s coffee shop after work, Larissa with her usual matcha tea latte, and me with a blueberry-lavender iced tea.
“You told him you could run a profitable wedding venue out of an old barn, with no marketing, no bookings, and no track record?”
“Correct. And all the brothers agreed to it before they left Golden Springs.” It’s only been a few days since the night I presented my proposal, but the idea has been in my head for months, so it seems much longer.
She tilts her head. “And you said this why, exactly?”
“Because Jaxon needed a new idea for generating revenue on the farm.” I pause, wondering if I should tell her the other part. “And…I had a dream about it.”
Her brows pull down. “A dream?”
“Yes, months ago, and I never remember my dreams.” I lean back in my chair, the image branded in my mind.
“I could see this bride, standing in the doorway of the old barn with light coming through the barn doors, flowers everywhere, and a man waiting on the other end of the aisle. I couldn’t see her face very clearly, but she was walking down an aisle sprinkled with flower petals.
Outside the doors was my teal truck and the words, Just Married.
” I stir my ice, leaving out the part about who was on the other end of that aisle.
“When I woke up, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. ”
She studies me. “You don’t think it had anything to do with the fact that you’re in the wedding flower business?”
“Maybe?” I play with my straw. “But I woke up from that dream wondering why nobody around here has anything like that, while we have this beautiful, old barn sitting empty.”
“Or,” Larissa says, pointing at me, “maybe it was because you were fantasizing about your own wedding.”
I tilt my head. “I was not fantasizing.”
Her pointed look dares me to admit it.
“I don’t even have time to date anyone,” I argue.
“Sure.” She takes her drink. “Heard that one before.”
“I’m working two jobs, three if you count getting this wedding venue off the ground. Even if I wanted to…”
I look out the window and catch Jaxon Chance on the sidewalk, wearing a pair of dark jeans and a collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He’s walking toward James’s office, and it’s enough to disrupt my train of thought.
“Is that why you’re staring at Jaxon so intently?”
My attention snaps back to Larissa, but I can’t deny it.
Her lips curl into a grin. “You didn’t finish your sentence.”
I shrug, drinking my tea. “I was distracted.”
She leans back in her chair, holding her mug. “For someone who doesn’t have time to date, you sure notice him a lot.”
“He’s hard to miss.”
She lifts an eyebrow. “When is the last time you actually dated anybody?”
I bite my lip and try to remember my last date.
“My point exactly,” she says when I don’t respond. “If you can’t tell me in five seconds, that means it’s been too long.”
“There aren’t a lot of men to date in Golden Springs,” I argue, setting my tea down a little too hard to make a point.
She leans toward me. “There’s always Blaine Callahan.”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t want to date him.”
“Good answer,” she says smugly. “Then why not Jaxon?”
“He doesn’t see me like that,” I say. “I worked alongside him in high school, and for most of that time, we couldn’t stop making everything between us a competition. That’s not exactly the foundation for romance.”
“Funny, because that’s not what he said in an interview right after he retired.”
I frown. “What are you talking about?”
“There’s a clip floating around the internet. Some reporter asked about his plans, and he said he was going to spend time with family, then mentioned something about a girl back home.”
“It’s not me,” I say, my stomach knotting. “We weren’t even together.”
“Did he date anyone else from Golden Springs?”
I think back to high school, but my mind’s blank. “Not to my knowledge.”
“Summer.” She levels her gaze. “It has to be you.”
“It can’t be. He never told me his feelings in high school.”
Larissa tilts her head. “You sure about that? Because the man who showed up at the Blue Moon and rescued you from Hank Branford didn’t look like someone who sees you as competition.”
I swirl the ice in my glass. “He wanted to make sure Hank wasn’t poaching me for his farm. And now that I’m his business partner, that’s complicated enough without adding anything else to it.”
Larissa sighs. “So that’s a no on Blaine, it’s too complicated with Jaxon, and you don’t have time to date anyway.” She sets her mug down and leans on the table. “I’m just trying to figure out who exactly you’re saving yourself for.”
“No one,” I insist. “I’m trying to build a business.”
She glances out the window to where Jaxon disappeared into the law office. “You know what I think? You’ve already decided he’s going to disappoint you, so you’re building your entire life around that.” She looks back at me. “You’re protecting yourself from the worst-case scenario.”
“I’m protecting my interests first,” I say. “If they sell the farm, Wildflower Farms is still mine, and I can at least keep my business.”
“What about the venue?”
“The barn belongs to the Chances. If Jaxon and his brothers agree to sell, the wedding business goes with it, unless the next owner wants to keep it running. I’m basically just the manager.”
Larissa sits back in her seat. “So you’re building your dream on someone else’s land.”
“Story of my life,” I mutter with a shrug. “That’s why I need it to work.”
I watched my mom build her life on a man who didn’t stay. Which meant when he walked out, everything fell apart. I can’t make the same mistake.
“Okay,” she says, like she finally sees my side. “So you’ve got a venue to launch. Let’s talk strategy.” She pulls out her phone. “Have you started a social media account yet for inquiries?”
I sit up straighter. “No.”
“That’s your first step. That, and a way to get information on bookings.”
Larissa’s naturally gifted at thinking through strategy and social media because she’s in the music business. If anyone can tell me how to make people fall in love with a barn they’ve never seen, it’s her.
She leans toward me, propping an elbow on the table.
“You need a separate social media handle for the wedding venue. Something that brides will find, because brides are always the ones choosing the venue. Make it pretty and dreamy, like a venue they’ve been wanting their entire lives. Just like that dream you had.”
“Okay. I can do that.” I write down her suggestions on my phone.
“Second thing to do is get Jaxon in these posts.”
I shake my head. “I can’t ask him that.”
“Summer, you have to.”
“He hates that stuff. He doesn’t even want to be involved with the farm’s social media.”
“He doesn’t have to be. You only need him in the pictures occasionally.
” She lowers her voice. “Listen, I know his brothers have bigger followings, but they’re not going to be around on the farm as much as Jaxon.
Use the brothers when you can. Four professional athletes learning to run a horse farm?
People love that, but you know what’s even better?
” Her mouth curves into a mischievous grin. “You and Jaxon together.”
“Wait, why would I be in the shots?”
“Because brides need to see a couple in your photos.”
I frown slightly. “Are you saying we should look like we’re together?”
She puts a hand up. “Just hear me out…”
I lean back, shaking my head. “I know what you’re suggesting, and the answer is no. I’m not pretending to date Jaxon just to get online engagement. Besides, he’d never go for it.”
“You don’t need to pretend anything. Just put up some videos that feature you and Jaxon together.
” She lifts a shoulder. “You’d be letting them draw their own conclusions.
Social media isn’t the real world. It’s the world people want—and what people want when they’re booking a wedding venue is a feeling.
” She tilts her head. “You want them to look at that barn and imagine their wedding in it. What better way to do that than show them two people who look like they could be something more?”
“But we’re not together,” I point out.
“I know that. You know that.” She gives me a coy smile. “The internet doesn’t need to.”
“But why couldn’t I just find another couple?” I ask.
“You could.” She lays her phone on the table. “But you and Jaxon are more interesting. Rivals turned business partners, trying to save a horse farm? That’s the kind of thing people click on.”
She has a point. Posting content with Jaxon isn’t a lie since we’re working together. It just makes it more of a story. And people love an origin story.
She leans toward me. “Best of all, it’s free.”
Free is exactly what I need. This venue is already going to cost way more than we can afford.
I stir the melted ice left in my glass. “One video. If I can even get him to agree to it.”
“That’s where you start.” She picks up her cup. “Use what you’ve got. A gorgeous athlete on a horse farm, and a barn that’s going to make brides kick their feet.”