Chapter 9
Only a couple of older men sat at the bar with beer in front of them when Chelsea arrived.
The mix of round and rectangular tables which spread out across the wooden floor were empty.
Was it an indication of how the town was dying, or simply because it was a Tuesday night and no one was going out to dinner?
She ordered a glass of white wine at the bar.
“You just passing through?” the bartender asked as he handed her the wine. He was an older gentleman, around his sixties, with quite a bit of grey in his hair, but his smile was friendly and his eyes twinkled as he spoke.
She couldn’t help returning his smile. “I’m not sure.
” She sipped her wine while she decided how much she should say.
Honeybrook was a small town where everyone knew your business, but this could be a good way to discover whether anyone had expressed an interest in Lilydale Cottage lately.
“I’m Chelsea, Maggie McGinnis’s great niece. I’m sorting through Lilydale.”
The man frowned. “I heard what Darren did. It’s such a shame to see Lilydale that way.”
She nodded, surprised he had already heard the gossip. “It was devastating, if I’m honest. Aunt Maggie would have been horrified.” She swallowed past the lump in her throat.
“She would have been,” the man agreed. “I’ve a mind to ban Darren from the pub.”
“Don’t let me stop you,” Chelsea said, her tone a little grim.
“What are you doing with the place?” the man asked.
Wasn’t that the million-dollar question? “I’m not sure yet. It’s a big property for anyone to manage. I don’t know how Aunt Maggie did it by herself all these years.”
“Maggie was one in a million.” The man mopped liquid from the counter.
“Yeah, she was.” Chelsea blinked away the tears. The pub door opened and Lauren walked in.
“Hey, Chelsea,” she called. “I’ll have a wine too please, Alex.”
The bartender grinned. “Yes, mayor.”
Lauren rolled her eyes as she sat on the stool next to Chelsea. “I hope I haven’t kept you waiting.”
“No, I needed to get out of the house.”
“I can’t believe you’ve put together a proposal already. I’m dying to see it.” She took the glass Alex handed her and gestured to a table against the wall. “Let’s go through it over there.”
Alex raised his eyebrows. “You two know each other?”
“Childhood friends,” Lauren replied. “She kept me sane during the holidays.”
Chelsea followed Lauren across the room to the table furthest from the bar.
Lauren lowered her voice. “Alex is a terrible gossip and I don’t want word to spread about what we’re doing. If people get their hopes up and it doesn’t work, it will be devastating.”
Suddenly the pressure hit Chelsea. She hadn’t considered what might be riding on the success of the fair. As her heart raced, she sank into the chair and busied herself getting out her laptop.
“You look fabulous by the way,” Lauren said.
“Thanks.” The truth was, she was overdressed. The two men at the bar wore dusty jeans and well-worn jackets. Perhaps she should return to the op shop tomorrow and find something more appropriate for cleaning out Maggie’s house.
“Let’s order before we start,” Lauren said. “I’m starving.”
The menu had all the usual pub meals and Chelsea chose the chicken schnitzel.
She opened the PowerPoint presentation she’d created and handed Lauren the print copy.
“I thought it might be good to appeal to people’s nostalgia,” she began.
“Many adults would have come to the fair as kids, and now they’ll have children of their own.
If we can play into that, we might attract people.
” She’d mocked up ideas with the graphics and video Lauren had sent her.
“I wasn’t sure whether you’d have a budget, but if you do, I’d spend it here.
” She outlined the best bang for their buck and then all the free options.
“This is incredible, Chelsea,” Lauren breathed. “You really know your stuff.”
Chelsea shrugged. “I’ve been doing this for years.”
“Do you work for a fancy Sydney firm?” Lauren teased. “Have you met lots of famous people?”
She hesitated, debating what to say. Lauren had always been her confidant when they were younger. Besides, who would she tell? “Did you hear about the recent Aria Simpson scandal?”
Lauren nodded. “What an insensitive thing to say!”
“I worked on the Tours Australia project with her. Her comment got me fired, so I’m not working anywhere at the moment.”
Lauren’s mouth dropped open. “Why did they fire you?”
“Because the client needed someone to blame, and I was the obvious choice.” She closed her eyes. “I begged Aria to apologise, but she refused.”
“So what are you doing now?”
“Attracting people to Honeybrook.” Chelsea smiled. “Going through Aunt Maggie’s things and figuring out what I’m doing next with my life.”
Alex delivered their meals. “Enjoy, ladies.” He smiled, as he not so subtly tried to see what was on the printout.
Lauren gathered the papers together. “Thanks, Alex.”
Chelsea glanced at her plate as he left. A dry schnitzel with a small pot of gravy to pour over it, overcooked chips and a tiny serving of salad which consisted of lettuce, a couple of cherry tomatoes and some grated carrot. “You said this was the only restaurant in town?”
Lauren laughed. “Not the gourmet food you’re used to?”
“No.” She wasn’t a snob, but, “It’s not the type of food which will attract people to the area.” And that was the problem. Even if she got people to the fair, there needed to be something that would keep people coming back regularly. “Why else do people come to Honeybrook?”
“The lake attracts people for picnics, but they rarely stop in town.” She tapped her finger on the table.
“What about a bakery, or antique shops, or a children’s playground?”
“The bakery is nothing special, and I heard talk the family who own it are considering moving to Perth. The antique shop is more of a junk shop and aside from the lolly shop, there’s nothing special.”
“Any wineries in the area?”
“There’s one, but people head to the Swan Valley if they’re going on a day trip.”
“So we need to inform people our winery is better.” She made a note.
“Our winery?” Lauren asked with a grin.
Chelsea shrugged, not wanting to think about her wording. “You know what I mean. Do they have a stall at the fair?”
“I’ll have to check.”
“It might be worth giving them a stall if they don’t,” Chelsea said. But still there wasn’t much to keep people returning. “Anything else?”
“There’s nowhere really for people to stay,” Lauren added.
“The pub has a couple of rooms upstairs and there’s an old motel down the road tradies and road workers stay at, but that’s it now Lilydale is closed.
We don’t even have a caravan park and the campsite by the lake was vandalised recently.
” She shrugged. “Aunt Maggie hosted weddings on a semi-regular basis and they attracted day-trippers or weekenders.”
Chelsea sat back in her chair. “I had no idea Lilydale was so important to the town.”
“It was enough to keep Honeybrook on the edges of the map, but it wasn’t our saving grace.”
But it was a way to save Lilydale and perhaps help the town. If she brought Lilydale back to its former glory and added workshops and weddings, it might help. She had the promotional skills to come up with a great campaign, especially if she played into the rejuvenation of her aunt’s dream.
“Chelsea?”
She blinked and glanced at Lauren.
“Where did you just go?”
Nerves teased her stomach. Why was she even considering this? It wasn’t the way to a stable income. Still, she couldn’t stop the words coming from her mouth. “Maybe I can bring Lilydale back,” she said. “Restore it and expand on what Aunt Maggie was doing.”
“Stay here?” Lauren asked.
She hesitated. “I don’t know.” It was such a huge risk.
But the idea of making Lilydale her forever home appealed.
“You know what you should do?” Lauren drew out her phone.
“Get this guy in. He takes overgrown gardens and clears them, recording the process on social media. He’s got so many followers.
” She showed Chelsea a video of a man in high-vis clothing, hacking back lawns and overgrown trees until they were tidy.
He had several million followers and each post had hundreds of comments on it.
“He’s perfect!” Chelsea found his contact details, saw he was based in Perth, and added it to her to-do list. She could create videos documenting restoring Lilydale, and create a channel on social media.
She added Kylie, the woman who reworked the Tours Australia ad in record time, to her list of people to contact tomorrow.
She’d give Chelsea some tips on how to do it.
“I can see your mind is running away with itself.” Lauren laughed.
Chelsea typed a couple more ideas as she smiled a little sheepishly. “Sorry. Almost done.” She put down her phone.
“You don’t need to apologise if you think it will help bring this place back to life. Tell me if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“I will.” She turned her attention to her friend. “So, what have you been up to for the past ten years?”
Lauren chuckled. “Now that’s a story which will take a while.”
***
Chelsea hadn’t got home until late last night.
Not that Ethan was keeping tabs on her, he was just attuned to noises, especially at night, and the sound of the car engine woke him from where he slept in his swag in the barn.
He’d listened to the car door shut and then waited until he heard the telltale thud of her shutting the front door before he’d settled down again.
It wasn’t any of his business what Chelsea did, but he couldn’t help wanting to make sure she was safe.
The shower he’d had yesterday had been pure bliss, and it felt significant that she’d given him a key to the house, but perhaps he was making too much of it.
They hadn’t talked about anything important. His reasons for leaving her were still valid today.