Summer Street Secrets (The Hills of Burlington Book 3) Page 10

  Somewhere along the way they had all set Monday mornings aside to discuss all that needed to be. No one really wanted to call them meetings or God forbid, staff meetings, but in essence that was exactly what the Monday morning breakfast get-togethers were. They could be held in any number of places. They'd started out in Mary's kitchen but had also been held in the Marshall Street kitchen, then at Aunt Charlie and Mallie's Carriage house kitchen, occasionally at Pete and Casey's kitchen, a few in Mark and Terry's more spacious kitchen, and had even met a couple of times in the small kitchen at the back of Grace's store. This morning they crammed around the table in Mary's kitchen and dug into the freshly made coffee cakes supplied by Grace.

  No matter how much they worked to keep their various projects from taking over their lives, more specifically the lives they wanted to live, they knew for them to continue successfully they would have to keep some manner of organization flowing. Thus the Monday morning breakfast get-togethers provided them the time to review the week before and work out the week to come in a way that was satisfactory to all.

  This morning was the first time Addie was included and while quiet she joined the rest of them in the simple enjoyment of warm cake and coffee and the company of each other. So far nothing more serious had been discussed than the newborn litter of kittens that Beth and her father had found in their garage. And the general consensus was that those who wanted one of the little fur-balls, first-choice was going to be on a seniority basis. The older you were gave you preferential treatment. Mallie was already in deep discussion with her grandmother considering she...meaning they were going to get first choice based on that very criteria.

  Mary looked around the table pleased as a pink pickle at where they were and where they were going. She watched as Casey carefully banged her spoon against her coffee mug trying to get everyone's attention and a modicum of quiet as she tried to get the real purpose of the get-together going. Most often it was either Casey or Grace who got things started which in Mary's mind was best. Between the two of them and their vast experience in business, especially in the fields of marketing and public relations, they’d gotten them going on the right foot and with their continuing guidance they hadn't gone astray since. Yet even though Casey and Grace kept them on the right track everyone brought their own special talents to their little group of ventures. Mary looked around the table, watching as Casey lost track of her intentions as she delved into another deep conversation with Aunt Charlie. Dear Aunt Charlie, who had pushed them all in one way or another every time someone, anyone, felt overwhelmed. Her paintings had brought tremendous interest and traffic to their growing online store. Three Sisters Inc. had started out small and grown faster than any of them could have possibly anticipated. Besides Aunt Charlie's wonderful paintings, which rarely stayed in inventory for more than twenty-four hours if that long, they also sold her art in prints, on mugs, and just about anything else Casey could make work. They also sold a line of vintage and antique clothing and gifts that pretty much had fallen to Carrie to be responsible for. With her classic sense of style she had taken over that entire division of the store including setting up the photos and then uploading each and every item. Everyone kept an eye out for inventory when they were out and about but it was Carrie who made special trips around the region for that specific purpose.

  The cookbooks that featured family recipes that she’d compiled and published the year before was carried exclusively at Three Sisters Inc. Since she had semi-retired from writing it had surprised her when there had been an immediate and huge response to them and a continuing steady trickle since.

  In addition to the store, Casey, who seemed to have an endless supply of energy, continued to run her own video production company. After leaving her high paying and extremely stressful job as a news anchor for the national WNO network she'd made an agreement with her former employer to provide a handful of soft news videos to fulfill her contract and ease all the speculation about why she'd walked out minutes before her scheduled daily news show. She’d found in doing so she enjoyed working behind the camera as much if not more than her work in front of it. She had continued making regional history and travel videos on her own as well as being the driving force behind the unbelievably successful cooking videos Aunt Charlie and Mallie were featured in. The exposure provided by the videos she’d done for WNO once they were aired had brought them even greater interest and Casey was turning down as much work as she accepted. Fortunately since the arrival of Mark and Terry, who had moved from the D.C. area to Burlington the year before, Casey now had more help in that aspect of their business. She and Terry had both been employees of WNO as had been Terry's husband Mark who had been Casey's boss. Between Casey and Terry there was little the two of them couldn't pull off when it came to video and news production. Each had their strengths and weaknesses and because they were able to acknowledge and accept them as such they were able to work better together than they had anticipated. Mary wondered if one of the topics they'd be discussing that morning would include how Casey wanted to handle the video production of the renovation and restoration of the Summer Street house. It wouldn't surprise her at all if Casey, despite her family connection to the house, turned the project over to Terry. Knowing her cousin as well as she did, Mary knew that Casey would worry that because of her connection she wouldn't be able to give it the unbiased eye that such a production required.

  Mary continued around the table thinking about all the different ways they had come together and made everything work despite their many differences. Sometimes because of them. She watched Beth and Mallie quietly talk and subtly draw Addie into the conversation with them. All were close in age and got along better than any of them could have expected or hoped. Beth had come to them just months ago, still grieving the violent deaths of her parents. In her grief she reached out to the man she'd always known of but had never met. And Jake had handled the situation far better than some had given him credit for. He had quietly given Beth the refuge she so desperately needed and the love her lost parents had always promised would be there waiting for her whenever she chose to search it out. Just before her arrival Jake had bought one of the local skating rinks along with Aunt Charlie and Mallie. Once Beth had settled in after making the decision to stay with her father, he’d signed over his part of the rink to her claiming his days and much of his nights were kept busy by the other local business he'd found himself a partner in. He and Terry's husband Mark had bought a majority share of one of the local newspapers along with her younger brother Dave who owned a small and in his words, silent share of the business.

  Beth and Mallie had hit it off immediately and done wonders with the skating rink. They’d implemented new ideas, bought paint and learned the hard way that painting walls required preplanning and drop cloths. But the place had slowly taken on a whole new look and once word got around that Beth, a former medal-winning skating champ would be giving lessons, business increased steadily from there. She was so proud of them. She knew Jake was bursting at the seams at how well the place was doing. They were all excited about the wonderful strides forward both girls were making especially after all they'd been through.

  And then there was Grace who seemed to sense her focus on her and looked up from the notes she was making while waiting for Casey to finish her current discussion with Carrie. Grace, who was in all ways exactly what her name stated. She'd left behind the political world for numerous reasons. Mostly in her words, to find what was real again. Only after some of her conversations in recent months with Carrie as she’d been going through the process of her divorce from her husband, a well known and respected Senator, Mary had come to better understand exactly what Grace had meant. Carrie had told her in one of those conversations that there were the fifty states and how we the people lived. Then there was Washington D.C. and how they, the government lived. She didn't completely understand it but understood that neither of these two women, whom she respected beyond measure, could live that way.
Chose not to when given the choice. That said it all to her. And now Grace was part of their close knit entrepreneurship even as she ran her own business, the store on the corner that had once belonged to her grandfather. And she had come here to be the woman that her very much loved grandfather could be proud of. Mary knew with certainty from where he was now looking down upon them he couldn't be more proud of the woman Grace had become.

  Then her eyes settled on Addie. Even in just the short weeks she’d been with them, safely cared for under the constant gaze and loving shelter of her Aunt Carrie, she had come so far from the frightened and emotionally distraught young girl she'd been when she arrived. Even now as she watched her a hesitant smile bloomed on her face to something Beth was saying. She still had her own personal concerns about the plans they were going forward with on with the website, still being carefully designed and almost ready to implement. There were so many in the world today that interpreted freedom of speech to mean freedom to say whatever you pleased to damage whomever you pleased just for the heck of it. She didn't understand that type of thinking. Her own mother would have been right with them on this plan to stand behind Addie and those in similar situations and damning whatever the flashback on herself might be. And knowing that, Mary had easily decided she would do the same. Going public in a way she had never before done. Even in the interview she'd done with Casey for the network she’d stayed away from many of those issues she held near and dear. But in this there would be no turning back. There would be no fudging on what you believed and who you stood with. There would be those detractors who would name them Lord only knew what. But harassment of children in this way, bullying for the sake of the ability to do so simply could not stand. Not to mention the adults who were the victims of this type of online tabloid free-for-all. It wasn't a matter of privacy anymore. It was a matter of simple respect for your fellow man or woman. Mary sighed. There was no sense in getting herself all worked up even before the meeting...no not meeting she corrected herself wryly...they had gatherings...and it hadn't even started yet. But it looked as if it was about to as soon as Casey got everyone's attention.

  "Okay folks, I don't have a problem if anyone wants to keep nibbling on this great cake but if we don't get going we're still going to be here for lunch. And while I don't have a problem sticking around for one of Mary's great luncheons I know a couple of you need to go on to other things today." Casey handed out the financials that she’d stayed up late the night before going over before making copies for everyone. "If you'll take a look at this you'll see we’re doing relatively good." She worked hard to keep the smile from growing too big and watched the faces around the table as she waited to see the reactions to her vast understatement.

  Mallie was not surprisingly the first to react but Casey was watching so saw the subtle change in expression in several of the others too.

  "Wow! Is this for real?" Mallie looked up from the papers in front of her.

  "This is for real," Casey assured her cousin and the room at large. She looked around pleased with the reaction in its varying forms.

  "Casey," Mary knew they’d done well but this was beyond even what her optimistic outlook had allowed for. "I know this isn't a typo because you don't make those so how did we do this?"

  "Well," Casey clasped her hands together behind her back unaware that in doing so she took on an almost professorial stance. "We have you to thank in part for your wonderful cookbook which everyone and their mother's aunt and uncle and all other extended family members appear to want to get their hands on." She nodded at Mary then turned to her aunt to do the same. "We also have Aunt Charlie and her enormously popular talent to thank as the new gift items featuring her artwork have been a tremendously profitable success."

  "I have a question about that but first what is this huge number under sponsorship revenue?" Carrie felt like she should rub the paper just in case there was a smudge making the number to appear a digit larger than it was.

  "That," Casey couldn't stop the huge smile that broadened no matter what she did to deter it. "That is the lovely amount of money that Camden Paints is paying for us to use and promote their products in the restoration of the house on Summer Street." She looked around the table and couldn't help but be pleased with herself. It was no small feat to make any one of those around the table speechless and to successfully achieve in bringing the condition about almost across the board so to speak was beyond description.

  "Wow!" Addie looked up from the paper she didn't completely understand but knew what the numbers meant. "I don't think anything else works except Wow!"

  "Pretty much," Mallie agreed. "But what if we don't like their paint colors?"

  "I thought of that," Casey nodded her head in agreement. "Our contract with them allows that we do at least half the rooms with their paint on at least some surface. They do stain too and I figure if nothing else there is always the ceiling and floor in each room that's going to need something covering it."

  "That sounds good." Mallie looked up from the financials, still stunned at the huge difference from last month to this. "How did this happen?"

  "Perseverance along with a little bit of luck thrown in." Casey poured herself some orange juice before leaning back in her chair. "Once the idea of doing the videos of the house restoration came up I shot off a couple of emails mostly to get an idea from the markets we're in with our cooking show to see if they’d be interested in it. Somebody at Camden heard about it from some ad rep they deal with in one of those markets and contacted me. We went back and forth a little, mostly over what we just talked about, I didn't want us committed to using them exclusively." She looked around the table. "I've looked at their products and they've got a good selection and even better reviews. The deal was just finalized yesterday." She paused, mentally rubbing her hands together. "The amount you see there is half of what they're paying for the sponsorship. We'll get the other half once the series is completed and ready to air."

  "Like I said. Wow!" Addie grabbed another donut from the center of the table where donuts and muffins were piled high on a platter along with the coffee cakes.

  "And we get the paint from them free along with brushes, drop cloths, rollers...the works."

  "Sounds good to me," Mary said easily. "What did you want to ask about your Mom's new line, Carrie?"

  Carrie drew her attention away from the huge number she still couldn't quite get her arms around to focus on what her cousin was asking her. What was it she was going to ask about?

  "Casey was telling us how the mugs and what-all were selling nicely," her mother prompted her.

  "Right. I wanted to ask about the art on it. Is it from paintings that we've already sold or that we still have?"

  "We still have all that art work." Casey looked at her aunt who was nodding in agreement. "When we decided on what to offer Aunt Charlie did some smaller paintings of what she wanted on them. We've actually only used a couple of them but we're going to hang on to them for now."

  "Did you want one of them, honey?" Her mother turned to her.

  "Actually there's a couple I'd like first dibs on if possible."

  Charlie studied her daughter thoughtfully wondering if she realized she'd always had first dibs on everything she did automatically. They would have to talk about that later but for now said simply, "Of course."

  "Thank you."

  Completely unaware of the subtle undercurrents flowing between mother and daughter Beth spoke up for the first time. "When is the work on the house going to start?"

  Grateful for a change in topic Casey latched on to her niece's question. "Actually I was thinking we could all meet over there in the next day or so. We need to go through the house and start coming up with a general plan especially who is going to do what."

  "Are you going to be taking video of all the work or just parts of it?" Beth asked.

  "Not all of it but a lot of it," Casey answered. "We need to get about twenty minutes or so out of each room." She'd already
put a lot of thought into the process. It was going to be similar to how they put the cooking videos together but unlike one of her aunt's recipes redoing a room was going to take a bit more than an hour or two of actual work. "And that's going to include a couple minutes of intro in the beginning of each segment for that particular room." She looked around the table knowing they all had an interest in this. "I've been thinking we might want to do an initial segment that goes through the house as it is and basically does an overview of what's going to happen, who's going to be doing each room and so forth. Kind of like a "Before" and when we're done do a comparable "After" segment."

  "I think that's a good idea," Grace spoke as she continued to make notes. "Not everyone may be interested in every segment but since we're hoping to draw on Charlie's popularity and get a lot of the cooking show audience, those that might not be interested in what we're doing in the bedroom might make a point of watching the segment that focuses on the kitchen."

  "And maybe tune in again if they like what they see there," Carrie added.

  "That's a good thought and something we need to keep in mind when we start advertising for them." Casey made her own notes even though she knew Grace was doing the same. "Any other ideas?" She continued to take notes as everyone seemed to chime in at one time. They continued to bounce around ideas and agreed to meet at the house on Summer Street the next day to work out a tentative schedule and come to an agreement on who would do which room now that they'd decided that just about everyone would have a hand in it instead of just Mallie and Aunt Charlie.

  As everyone began gathering their notebooks and grabbing a last donut or muffin Casey caught Mary's attention. "Have you got a few minutes later?"

  "I'm going to have lunch with Dave later on but I'll be around here after that."

  "How about I stop by late afternoon?"

  "That's fine." Mary gave her cousin a questioning look but only got a wave as Casey made her way to the door and headed out. "I wonder what that's about?" She said more to herself than anyone else. And was surprised when she got a response.