Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek) - By Tina Leonard Page 0,68
Ask Lassiter, if you don’t think Maggie would take the job.”
Minda looked at him. “The thing is, Maggie hasn’t lived here long. We don’t know how long they’ll stay here. We need someone who knows Pecan Creek. Pecan Creek has its ways.”
Dodie nodded. “It’s true. This is a special town. How long is the lease the Cassavechias signed?”
“Four months. We start going month-to-month after that, if they want to stay.” Jake didn’t want to think about Sugar leaving—but he did know what would keep her.
“What possessed you to give them such a short lease?” Vivian asked.
“Because the house hadn’t been rented in years,” Jake said. “We don’t exactly live in a metropolis. Anyone who had the faintest dream to live in the country at least wants to live somewhere close to a large town.” Not to mention the décor was a bit of a hard sell for families. Vivian knew all this. “Anyway, here’s what I need to put before the council. The Cassavechias want to lease the billboard on the road into town.”
“The Pecan Creek billboard?” Vivian stared at him, her face astonished. “Whatever for?”
It was time to let all kinds of sugar hit the fan. “The Cassavechias would like to advertise their family business on it.”
“Which is what?” Charlotte asked.
“Hotterthanhellnuts.com,” Jake said, and the four women stared at him, electrified.
“What did you say?” Vivian asked.
There was no easy way to spring the truth on the council. “The Cassavechias leased the grove from us, and they plan to harvest the pecans and sell them over the Internet.” Just like the rest of this council has online businesses. They just don’t advertise it.
“You want Pecan Creek to have a billboard that has a curse word in it on the way into town? When we’re trying to show everyone what a nice, clean family place this is?” Vivian said.
He wasn’t supposed to know about the doodahs and the willy warmers and the love potions. Jake sighed. “What could be more family friendly than nuts?”
“Jake,” Minda said, “we can’t have a billboard that isn’t family friendly in Pecan Creek. Would you feel good about us looking like Houston or Dallas?”
Dodie nodded. “What we’re selling here is family values.”
“Honest values,” Charlotte said.
Vivian set her china flower tea cup on the table. “Whatever were you thinking, Jake? You’ll have to ask them to move out, of course.”
Jake blinked. “Move out?”
“Of course. They can’t run a business out of the house, for one thing. They have no permit for it.”
“That doesn’t mean they have to move out of the house,” Jake said.
“The contract states that the house is not to be used for anything other than a single family function,” Vivian said, a bit too triumphantly, in Jake’s opinion.
He’d stepped in it here. The town council had DBAs but no permits for their businesses. Jake didn’t think calling the Pillars out on that would necessarily endear the Cassavechias to the town council, who clearly operated under a set of rules that only iron-clad Southern belles might understand.
He knew the rule: anything was all right as long as it wasn’t discussed. It was a cardinal rule the Cassavechias were breaking.
He wondered if Sugar would consider changing the name of her business.
Then again, why should she?
She just wasn’t going to get the billboard. That was all there was to it. He backpedaled to save the Cassavechias socially. “Of course, as the mayor pro tem, I do feel the need to point out that the important thing about having a new business in this town is tax revenues. And if their business ever gets off the ground, maybe they’ll have need for additional hiring.”
They looked at him with four pairs of still-indignant eyes. But they smelled the bone he’d thrown out, and since it was the bone they wanted most of all, he would become the mayor to save Sugar.
“Just think about it,” Jake said, grabbing his hat and departing. “You wanted new blood in this town. Now we’ve got it. I’ve tasted the secret family recipes, and my taste buds went ka-ching.”
They’d think about it, Jake knew. It would be discussed endlessly, and at the end of the day, the Cassavechias would probably get the social cut. There would be many reasons for that, but the uppermost was that the Cassavechias had broken an unbreakable and sacred code.
But Vivian wouldn’t force Sugar and her hot nuts out of the house.
Yet his attempt at being a hero had failed miserably.