Better Than Chocolate. Sheila Roberts

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      Why hadn’t she thought of that? Mimi LeGrande hosted the Food Network’s brand-new hit show All Things Chocolate. There wasn’t a bakery or chocolatier in the country who didn’t dream of getting included in one of her shows. If she were to give them a nod, orders would pour in from foodies and chocoholics, and their future would be secure.

      “I heard she lives here. I could ask around,” Bailey offered. “There’s got to be someone who knows her.”

      “That would be great,” Samantha said. Heck, it would be more than great. It would be a miracle. “But it’s a long shot. I think we need a more immediate plan.” There had to be one. Why wasn’t she seeing it?

      Silence reigned for a full five minutes until Cecily said, “You know, our baby sis could be on to something.”

      “Oh, not you, too,” Samantha groaned.

      “What if we did come up with some sort of event to bring in money for the business?”

      “A chocolate dinner?” Bailey suggested, coming back to life. “Every course could use chocolate. And we could do it at Zelda’s.”

      “Guys, I appreciate the thought,” Samantha said, “but a dinner wouldn’t even come close to raising the kind of money we need.” Maybe they were on the right track, though. “Let’s think on a grander scale.”

      “I did a chocolate tour in Seattle once,” Bailey said.

      “A chocolate tour, a chocolate weekend,” Samantha mused. Maybe they could pull that off. They could have a dinner and a chocolate high tea at Olivia’s B and B. But anything they got from that would only be a drop in the bucket. “A chocolate festival.” Too bad they didn’t have more time. Festivals brought in a lot of people and a lot of money.

      “Now, that’s brilliant!” Cecily exclaimed.

      “Brilliant but not practical,” Samantha said. “We need that money in six and a half weeks. It would take six months to plan something on such a grand scale.”

      “Then let’s plan on a baby grand scale,” Bailey said. “We can have it the weekend before Valentine’s Day when people are feeling romantic and buying candy.”

      Samantha shook her head regretfully. “There isn’t time. It’s a lot to plan, and you have to promote it.”

      “If you had people helping, you could do it,” Bailey insisted. “And with the internet and social media you can promote things fast now.”

      “It’s a great idea,” Cecily said.

      Was her entire family certifiably insane?

      Suddenly she could envision Icicle Falls buzzing with throngs of visitors all on a chocolate high. Something like this wouldn’t just help their company, it would help the whole town.

      Was she insane, too?

      “Let’s do it,” Bailey said eagerly.

      What was with this let’s do it stuff? They were down there and she was up here. On her own.

      “We can sponser a bunch of events, maybe have some sort of contest,” Bailey continued. “I couldn’t come up till just before, but I could help with planning over the phone and on email in between catering jobs.”

      “Actually, I can come up right away,” Cecily said.

      “You’ve got a business to run,” Samantha protested.

      “Things are quiet right now. I’ve got the time.”

      Quiet? What did that mean? Wasn’t her dating service doing well?

      Cecily tended to keep things to herself. When she had a crisis they never heard about it until it was long over.

      Still, this worried Samantha. “Not that I don’t want you,” she said, “but you can’t just up and leave your business for several weeks.”

      Cecily put on what Samantha thought of as her poker face; her expression gave nothing away. “I’m closing the business. It’s a long story,” she added before Samantha could press her for details. “Anyway, I’ve had all the sun I can take. I need seasons. I can rent out my condo, and I bet Charley would let me have a job waiting tables at Zelda’s a couple of nights a week. That would leave me free during the day to work on the festival with you guys. Mom, can I stay with you?”

      “Of course,” Mom said. “But I think you girls need to figure out a few more things first, like where we’d hold this festival.”

      “All over town.” Bailey almost whacked Cecily in the nose with her sweeping hand gesture.

      “I bet we could get all the B and Bs to participate and offer some special rates,” Samantha said thoughtfully. “No one has full occupancy these days, so maybe some of them would offer a special discount for that weekend.”

      “Oh, and the restaurants can feature special chocolate desserts,” Bailey said.

      “We could award a plaque to the one that comes up with the most creative dessert, using our candy, of course,” Cecily suggested. “Bragging rights for them, profit for us.”

      “I love it,” Samantha said. This scheme was looking better by the minute.

      Bailey nodded eagerly. “Our local artists can set up booths in the park along Center Street. Heck, we can all have food booths over on Alpine like we do on the Fourth of July.”

      “Girls, this all sounds lovely, but you have to have time to get people on board,” Mom said.

      “Since when isn’t the Icicle Falls Chamber of Commerce on board with anything that brings in tourist business?” Samantha argued. “I could work that angle.”

      “Me, too,” said Bailey. “I can phone people from here. Oh, this could be really big. We can hand out samples, give tours of the factory, all kinds of cool stuff.”

      “But there’s the matter of permits,” Samantha said, coming down to earth with a thud. “We can’t just decide to have a festival without getting permits for the sale of food and alcohol. And we need a special-event permit that all the departments sign off on. It takes time for all that to make the rounds in city hall.”

      “But if it’s good for Icicle Falls I bet you can find someone to move the process along,” Cecily said.

      Hmm. Her sister had a point there.

      “Let’s try it, anyway,” Bailey urged. “Think of all the chocolate-lovers we can lure up here. Oooh, and we could have a chocolate ball,” she added dreamily. “I can see it now, an old-fashioned masked ball where everyone dresses up.”

      “And have that chocolate dinner before,” Cecily put in.

      “We can sponsor the dinner and the ball and sell hot chocolate and truffles in a booth.” Bailey was beaming now, on fire with a million ideas.

      If they could manage to pull off even some of them…Samantha felt the fire catching СКАЧАТЬ