The Nerd and the Neighbor by Lainey Davis

Author:Lainey Davis [Davis, Lainey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lainey Davis

Chapter 21

Abigail

Diana and Indigo strong-armed me into joining them on the Autumn Apple planning committee. At first I felt like I was back at home—with everyone telling me what to do—but then I realized there’s a huge difference between my parents insisting I join the family business and my friends asking for my communication skills for social media and other marketing for the town festival.

And, after all, I do owe Indigo a solid for lending me all the furniture. I keep trying to give it back to her a bit at a time, but she pretends she can’t hear me when I offer. So I help her proofread the advertisements she puts in the tourist newsletters when she promotes the Inn.

The main issue in planning the Autumn Apple festival seems to be alcohol. Most everyone wants there to be some, but the people who don’t…really don’t want there to be alcohol. My outsider perspective is that this town seemed really relieved by Prohibition, and the residents opposed to alcohol sales have had family living in Oak Creek ever since.

I don’t think my parents would agree to live in a town where they couldn’t buy beer for football games. Where my brothers didn’t have easy access to a hockey bar. I snort, momentarily giddy that the town’s dry status might act as a barrier keeping my family out of my business for awhile.

Between lifting weights with Hunter, drafting up a funding proposal for Hunter, and Autumn Apple planning sessions with my friends, I haven’t had much time to miss my family…or respond to their phone calls.

The girls and I all meet after work at the Inn, where Indigo has a full house and spends our meeting baking scones. She keeps stopping between batches to draw maps directing her guests to Oak Creek’s various craft or antique shops.

Diana yanks the pocket door closed to keep people out of the kitchen and plunks a file on the counter, sending up a poof of flour while Indigo rolls out her next batch of baked goods.

“You see, Abigail,” Diana says, “Oak Creek is a dry town. The college campus is dry. But the Apple fest simply must include hard apple cider or the people will revolt.”

She points to a map of the town limits, a giant red line with angry hash marks drawn around the boundaries where nobody can sell alcohol. Some enterprising businesswoman built a bar directly across the street from the no-booze line, and I’ve spent a few nights with my friends drinking pints at the Nobler Experiment. “Tessy has a good thing going at her bar, and she will absolutely come at you with a shotgun if you try to sell hooch anywhere near her establishment. And the problem is that she is the county council woman in charge of festival permits.”

“So how are you going to sell hard cider?”

Indigo smiles so intently I wonder whether she’s heard us or just tasted one of her scones. She says, beaming, “Sara figured it all out! Didn’t you, babe? We aren’t going to SELL the cider.

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