“Be thankful I restrained myself from taping it all over your walls. It was a near thing.”
“You’ve been busy.” He herded the dog toward the treat bucket in the kitchen, peering at some of the stacks on the counter. “You’re looking at unemployment rates for the last three decades? Isn’t that kind of excessive?”
“Not when you’re mapping economic trends and trying to forecast the impact of future actions. It’ll be relevant at the debate and something Dr. Brosnan will be bringing up. She’s hoping to have her preliminary findings for the second economic impact study by then.”
“Here’s hoping.”
Norah set her stack of papers down and crossed over to him.
“Don’t touch me. I’m filthy.”
He smelled of earth and man and good, hard work, something her soft-handed ex had never done. Ignoring his edict, Norah rose to her toes to brush her lips over his, careful to keep from pressing up against him, as he really was covered in dirt. “Welcome home.”
“Give me five minutes to shower, and I’ll show you how much I appreciate you being here to say that.” His hazel eyes glinted with promise.
“Five minutes, then come out here ready to listen. I have a lot to tell you. Maybe there’ll be time after that for you to show your…appreciation.”
With a flash of dimples he disappeared into the bathroom.
By the time he came back in clean jeans and a t-shirt, his hair damp and skin pink from scrubbing, Norah had reconstructed her piles. He poured himself a glass of tea and came to join her on the sofa, evicting Hush.
“Okay, I’m ready to hear your genius solution, Wonder Woman. Lay it out for me.”
Norah almost hated the look of expectant faith on his face. “Wishful is on the verge of bankruptcy. That’s nothing you didn’t already know. It’s symptomatic of a larger economic trend that has been progressing for the last three decades.”
The faint trace of humor in his expression faded. “All true, but that’s rather overstepping the bounds of the problem we’re facing.”
“No, it’s really not. GrandGoods is only a small part of the full problem. Even if they came, they wouldn’t be the answer. They’re simply not big enough, and they’re going to have further detrimental effect on other businesses in the local economy. Plus, whatever short-term gains they may bring wouldn’t be immediate. It would take time to build the store, to stock it and get it open. They alone won’t be enough to reverse the larger economic trend.”
“All of which we’ll bring up at the debate. But how does that fix the problem in the short term?”
“Unfortunately, there is no short-term fix. You can't produce jobs out of thin air, certainly not in this kind of compressed time frame.”
Cam set the empty tea glass aside. “So what are you saying? That it’s hopeless? That we don’t stand a chance of stopping this?”
“I’m saying we have to think bigger than a Band-aid for this situation. If Wishful is going to be saved from economic ruin, you have to realize you’re playing a long-haul game.”
“If you wanted to depress me, you’re doing a damned good job of it.”
Norah curled her hands around his and squeezed. “I wouldn’t bring this up if I didn’t have a plan.”
He eased somewhat at that. “I’m listening.”
“Do you know why I come here? Why I’ve always loved coming here?”
“Miranda. Because we’re your second family.”
She tipped her head to acknowledge the point. “That’s part of it. But I love this town for a whole different set of reasons, reasons I’m not sure you can fully appreciate having never lived in the city. Compared to all the other places I’ve lived since my parents divorced, Mississippi is a whole other world, a whole different way of life. A more…personal way of life.
“I loved Wishful from the first time I came home with Miranda. I love that people smile and nod and speak here. I love that Mama Pearl will dish up a dose of sass to complete strangers, and will remember their order, even when she hasn’t seen them in six months. I love that everybody knows everybody, and that you can’t get away with shit because somebody will tell your mama. I love that people still have moral values here, that they’re generous and open. I love that I haven’t been here in three years, but so many people still know who I am and have been keeping up with me through Miranda. I love the town itself because it’s adorable and charming, but it’s the people here who really matter, who make Wishful special.”
Cam smiled. “My mom has said much the same.”
“The culture and way of life here is, as the reporter said, this wonderful little slice of Southern Americana that simply doesn’t exist in urban areas. And that is what we need to capitalize on.”
“I don’t understand. How would we do that?”
“By promoting rural tourism.”