He came away with a lot of information that didn’t surprise him in the least—online shopping and big box stores had completely eviscerated the economy on the island, except in the summer, when the island became a tourist destination. But he also gleaned some that he couldn’t have known without their insight, and an idea. An actual idea that he thought might work.

Ash was behind the counter at Thorn, glaring at a calculator when Truman arrived.

“Did that thing wrong you?”

Ash looked up and his face softened. “Hey.” He came around and wrapped Truman in a warm hug. “God, you’re freezing. Get in here.”

Truman did not point out that he was already in here. He just burrowed his admittedly freezing nose into Ash’s warm shoulder and breathed in the scent of the man mixed with the light floral scent of Thorn.

“Okay,” he said after he’d smelled his fill. He was buzzing with excitement. “I have an idea.”

Ash’s eyes went lust-dreamy, and a slow, promising smile bloomed.

“Er, no, a business idea. But a good one! I think. Well, you decide. Okay, so I just talked to a bunch of the business owners on Main—I was doing some Christmas shopping anyway.” Truman held up his bags, lest Ash think he was only poking his nose in. “I asked them stuff about their bestselling products and what the challenges were to their businesses. Super interesting, by the way. Should I be a business coach? Anyway. They all agreed on one thing.”

“The business owners of Owl Island agreed on something? Was it that Jim Musgrave shouldn’t be allowed to cook out on the beach?”

“What? No. Wait, what does he…cook? You know what, never mind, if y’all have some kind of Fried Green Tomatoes barbequeing people situation going on here, I don’t wanna know. I’m sure you have your reasons. But listen, okay? They all agreed that one of the reasons there isn’t more business is because there isn’t that much to do here, so people leave the island to do activities and end up shopping on the mainland while they’re there.”

Ash nodded.

“Okay, you already knew that. But my point is that what we need here are things to do. Things to keep people here so they have an opportunity to shop.”

Ash nodded again.