Page 116 of Talk About… Rivalry

“We had a lot of the booths in storage, but I need to pull it all out and do a test on each then figure out how many more to buy,” he started.

“We can help with that,” Bennett said, his scent preceding his footsteps. He settled into his chair and sat a bag of food down. We didn’t all lunge for it, instead just soaking in this pack moment. It felt too significant to break and I liked to think that me being in Mav’s arms was helping him reach out to us.

“How are you funding it?” Taylor’s voice joined us now, settling on Bennett’s lap. I smiled over at them both. They were beautiful together and a pang of need hit me, even as my body protested.

Just seeing them turned me on but this wasn’t the time.

“Table fees,” Maverick said. “If we get enough slots filled we should be able to cover the initial costs. Mayor Adams is giving us the permits for the old distillery grounds for free since it’s such a benefit to the town.”

I snorted. “I bet the town council loved that. Avery always said the others were stuck in their ways.”

“That’s putting it nicely,” Leo muttered. “It took me a two hour explanation with visual aids before I could get my business license.”

“Even they couldn't argue Rockwood Valley needed this boost,” Maverick said. “That and my glare holds power sometimes.”

Taylor chuckled. “It does.”

“Run us through the rest of the fair,” Bennett encouraged.

“If Leo handles the form, then we simply go through and pick this year’s vendors. I’ll have to check the booths and figure out just how many we can accommodate,” he explained. “Then I’d like to book live music to fill the times we’re open.”

“What about things for kids?” Taylor chimed in. “It’ll be different times of year, but in fall we could do a haybale play area or something.”

“That’s genius,” Maverick said, his voice perking up now. “We could rent out some inflatable things.”

“Or build a play area out on the grounds,” Leo said. “The council could use town funds for it, the space would benefit everything they run.”

“Maybe a face painter, there’s no way one of those submissions wouldn’t be something like that,” I added.

Now that everyone was throwing in ideas I could picture the festival in my head. Kids laughing and walking around with their cute little faces covered in art, the smell of food and sweets in the air, music filtering through the chatter of the crowd, and people moving up and down the aisles of the vendors.

“We used to have bigger areas for the blacksmith and glass blowers to do demonstrations,” Maverick said. “I’d love to have that again.”

“We should create some kind of welcome basket or tote for the vendors, something extra for the demonstrations,” I said. “Kind of like the one we just got though very different things inside.”

Taylor cracked up. “What, you don’t want to hand out lube?”

“It’s not that kind of demonstration, love,” Bennett joked, pulling him closer as he looked at me, a smile tugging at his lips.

“I love that idea, Sidney,” Maverick said. “Leo, can you add a note to the document that’s open?”

“On it,” Leo said, the keyboard tapping gently filling the following silence. It was comfortable enough I snuggled in closer and Maverick brushed a kiss over the top of my head with a contented sigh.

“Alright, I saw the logo on the document and used it for the form,” Leo said. “Now we just need the questions outside of basic information, like name, business name, location, number, and email.”

“If there’s long answer options, I’d like to have them explain what they bring to the Fair.”

“Add in a disclaimer that this is for artisans only, meaning hand-crafted goods and homemade food,” I suggested, turning to face Leo. His eyebrows were furrowed as he typed in what we were suggesting.

“Okay, done,” he said, glancing up at us. “What else?”

“You should offer an advertisement add on. Feature in a newsletter, the paper if we can talk to the local paper as well, maybe even a feature on the website. Avery will be up and going by then so she could fix that up as well.”

“Good idea, angel,” Bennett said, pride in his voice.

“I think if you need someone to run this with you, Sidney has a good mind for this,” Leo said absently as he typed in the additional section. My cheeks warmed and I bit back a smile, feeling their pride and Maverick’s appreciation in the bond.

Right now with us all so close it was humming between us, growing stronger as we fell into a comfortable companionship that was missing before.

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