The spring festival always brought out a lot of tourists and locals alike. Seagrove loved to have festivals at least four times a year. And then there was the local farmers’ market that was open every Saturday. Julie loved to go to that, and Lucy often went along with her to pick out things for the inn. The community atmosphere was what she loved most about her adopted hometown.

She was tired this morning, having been up late talking to her daughter about her upcoming wedding and trying to figure out the guest list. Meg was going back-and-forth between wanting to have a big wedding and a small, intimate one. Her ping-ponging was starting to stress Julie out. She liked to have a plan, and she liked to have one early. Meg was much more of a fly by the seat of her pants kind of personality, much like her father.

“Good morning!” Dixie said, grinning from ear to ear as she burst through the front door, almost flinging the little metal bell across the room.

“Goodness gracious! You just about gave me a heart attack! Did you take extra medication this morning or something?” Julie held her hand to her heart, feeling it banging against her sternum like a jackhammer.

“Sorry, honey! I am just so excited this morning I can hardly contain myself!”

“What on earth happened?”

Dixie smiled, dropped her purse on the table and then put both of her hands on Julie’s upper arms. “Get ready for this! I can’t believe what I found out when I checked my email this morning!”

“That they have reserved your spot at the funny farm?” Julie teased.

“No, they wouldn’t be able to handle me there. Anyway, I reached out to Charlotte McLemore’s agent a few days ago.”

“The author? Why?”

“Well, I told her just how much I love her books, and how everybody around here is just crazy over them. Well, everybody except for you who hasn’t read one yet.”

“I’ve been a little busy.”

Dixie nodded. “I know, sugar. But you really have to read these books. I have never gotten so attached to characters in my entire life! Anyway, I asked her agent if she might be willing to come here and do a book signing and maybe an appearance at the spring festival!”

“The spring festival? That’s next weekend.”

Dixie smiled and clapped her hands together. “I know, and she said yes! She doesn’t go on her big tour for another few weeks, so they said this would be a great little stop before they get started on the official tour.”

“So she’s coming here? Next week?”

“Yes, she is! And we can start marketing it all over town. This place is going to be overwhelmed with tourists and locals and probably people who drive in from other cities and states. It’s Charlotte McLemore, for goodness sake’s!”

Julie stood there looking at her, unable to understand why she was so excited over this particular author. I mean, they had a store full of books. She had never seen Dixie so amped up over meeting anyone, except for that time that she explained how she ran into Burt Reynolds down on the beach twenty years ago. Julie still didn’t believe that story.