“I wasn’t as confident—but I’m glad you were right. And there’s more. People are clamoring for the registration information she’s going to post on Monday. If the initial response is any indication, it appears we’ll be doing quite a few duplicate, concurrent sessions.” A dimple dented her cheek. “Guess which presenter is drawing the most interest?”

Uh-oh.

“I don’t think I’m going to like this.”

“You aren’t—but facts are facts. Your bio has gotten the most hits and comments. You may be worried about your credentials, but it’s clear readers have no such qualms. That should reassure you.”

No, it didn’t. Just the opposite. It added to the pressure to come up with a memorable and worthwhile session.

“I guess I better get to work on my presentation.”

“My offer to help you organize it stands. I bet we could have the framework done in one session.”

“And when would you shoehorn that into your already-packed schedule?”

“We could do it on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.”

“That’s your only downtime.”

“If I’m not helping you, I’ll be working on the festival. I could squeeze in a brainstorming session for a worthy cause.”

“I’ll tell you what. Let me take a stab at it. If I hit a roadblock, I’ll keep your offer as a backup plan.”

She hesitated, as if she was thinking about pursuing the subject, but after a few moments she stacked her papers on top of her laptop, pulled her keys from her purse, and stood. “I should go. Eight o’clock will roll around all too fast.”

“It is getting late.” For her, not for him. Now that he didn’t have to work on his book into the wee hours, he was getting a decent amount of sleep—unlike the woman across from him.

“I know—and there are a couple of tasks I want to finish tonight. I also owe our facilities chair a follow-up email.”

“Couldn’t all that wait until tomorrow? I’m sure Beth wouldn’t mind if you worked on the project at the shop. There must be lulls between customers—and everything you’re doing will benefit her too.”

“She’s 100 percent supportive. But after the Facebook page went live, there was an uptick in customers, which has kept me busy. Marci predicted that would happen. She said once you raise a town’s visibility, interest grows in general—and people begin to visit. I don’t think anyone expected a perceptible impact this fast, but there seems to be more traffic on Main Street in the past two days. Or that could be wishful thinking.”

No, it wasn’t. There were more cars on the streets—but he hadn’t attributed the busyness to the festival project.

Maybe he ought to take a look at that Facebook page Marci had created.