Page 16 of Mistletoe Dreams
Hannah figured they were talking about the divorce and about whatever issues Ben had with his ex.
Ben nodded.
"All right. I don't want to go on about that, and there'll be more people coming up. But I wanted to talk to the two of you together. We can have two separate committees, but like I said in the meeting, I would prefer to put the two of you together into one safety committee and makeyou co-chairs of that. It would be more beneficial for the budget. That way we can allocate wherever the money needs to be allocated, since this is our first time and we’re not sure exactly what we’ll be getting into."
Hannah did not want to agree to that. She really didn't want to have anything to do with Ben. The two of them couldn't seem to get along, and he irritated her in ways she couldn't explain.
There was also that moment that they'd shared across the room, and she didn't want a repeat of that, whatever it was. Although she couldn't say it was an unpleasant experience.
"That's fine with me," she said, and hoped that she didn't wait too long. The men seemed to be looking at her and waiting for her to speak.
"That's fine with me too."
"All right. Then I'll let the two of you hash it out. If you need help, you can grab it from your friends, or you can let me know, and like I said in the meeting, we'll call a meeting and we'll get volunteers. If I get anyone who comes up and asks to help, I can assign them to your committee as well. We'll just have to play that by ear. I hope that we're not jumping ahead of ourselves and expecting the festival to be bigger this year than it was last, but that certainly seems to be the way things are shaping up."
"It's better to be prepared than to be overrun when the actual time comes."
"Thanks. I hope you don't mind going through a lot of extra work and aren't upset when the numbers aren't there." Noah seemed to appreciate Ben's words and seemed to be letting them both know that they could be doing a lot of work for nothing.
Hannah didn't mind. She agreed with Ben.
"That's how I feel as well," she said.
Noah nodded and then said, "I'll let the two of you hash it out, figure out a time to meet and that type of thing. I've got a few other people I need to talk to if that's okay."
"We've got it," Hannah said, lifting her brows at Ben, whonodded. He seemed preoccupied, but that was to be expected after what had happened with his son.
Noah moved away to a few other people who had come up to the front to help out, leaving Hannah and Ben standing together awkwardly.
At least Hannah felt like it was awkward. Ben seemed perfectly at ease, other than the hard expression on his face and the obvious desire to be somewhere else.
So she figured she might as well take the bull by the horns.
"I feel like we didn't get off on the best foot, and I'm sorry. I'm really looking forward to doing my part to make the festival the best it can be. I owe a lot to Mistletoe Meadows and the small-town atmosphere." She thought about her own childhood and how the town had possibly saved her. Her grandma had a lot to do with that as well.
"Same."
She could've easily gone down the same path that Mason seemed to be headed down. In fact, she'd been on that path. Thankfully, people had intervened, people who cared. Like her grandmother.
There were times that she struggled to forgive her parents for what they had done, but in hindsight, she knew that what they'd done was in her best interest.
"Fair enough," Ben said, holding out his hand.
She looked at it for a moment, calloused and brown, before she took it in her own and met his eyes. She shook it.
"We have a few things we need to talk about, and the sheet that Noah gave us is something we should probably go over together," Ben began.
She nodded. "I can stay now, or we can set up a time to meet later?" She lifted her brows.
"I have a few things I'm going to need to see to, and I can't stick around."
She nodded and did not mention his son. Neither did he.
"Dr. Terry wants to keep the clinic open later in the evenings, andI volunteered to take those shifts, so before noon would work best for me."
"I'm actually working morning shifts this week."
Their schedules couldn't be any less similar.
