He stared at her with abject horror. “You want to turn my town into a tourist attraction?”
“I’m not talking about a theme park, Cam. I’m talking about taking advantage of what makes this town special and bringing in others who would appreciate that personal touch. Rural tourism is a booming trend across the country, and it’s a means of revitalizing and diversifying a lot of formerly agrarian and rural communities that have suffered economic downturns, exactly like Wishful has.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Think about what you show people who come here from out of town. You take them to the fountain, tell them the story, and get them to make a wish. You take them out to Hope Springs. You take them to Dinner Belles or The Spring House. You show them all the things that make you proud of Wishful. And people respond to that.”
“I still don’t see how that translates into tourism.”
“You can’t appreciate this because you’ve always had it. You’ve always lived here, except for when you were away at college. The fact is, a whopping eighty percent of Americans live in urban areas. They’re caught up in the go go go go go, and they want somewhere they can go for a change of pace, for a reminder that there are still places in this country that remember what’s important. People want to slow down—whether they realize it or not. Jesus, look at me.”
“If you call what you’ve been doing the last couple of months slowing down, then we need to have a talk.”
Norah laughed. “Okay, so maybe I’m a poor example. But think about it. Think about how I couldn’t turn off or relax. Even as busy as I’ve been since we started the coalition, I’m less stressed, less everything since I came here. Largely because of you, yes, but also because I finally shifted gears. And it’s been amazing to reconnect with that. I want to give that to other people. And I want Wishful to reap benefits.”
“You really think people would come?”
“I know they would. This is the answer, Cam. This is how Wishful can take care of itself instead of relying on outside industry. And it’s something that can grow and adapt as the town itself does. It’s a viable alternative with far more long-term benefits than anything Vick Burgess has up his sleeve.”
“Okay.” Cam nodded. “Okay, let’s do it.”
His ready agreement threw her. “Really? You like the idea?”
“I love it. It completely gets at the heart of what I want for Wishful. Sustainable community improvement that strengthens and enhances what’s already here rather than changing everything.” He lifted her hands to press a kiss to her knuckles. “Someone’s been paying attention.”
“I wouldn’t be good at what I do, if I didn’t.”
“I’m counting on those rock star capabilities.”
Norah grinned, thrilled to be needed, to have his faith in her abilities. “Fantastic. I’ve got calls in to several people who run the rural tourism campaigns in their towns. I really wan
t to pick their brains about what they’ve done that was successful. I’ve got a ton more research to do on it before I can pull together a proper prospectus.”
“You’ve got two days.”
She gaped at him. “Two days? Are you kidding me?”
“The public debate and the City Council vote is in two days. You’ve been saying we need an alternative. We’ve got to let people know about it.”
And suddenly that faith felt like the weight of a world rather than motivation. “Cam, I’m good, but I can’t possibly have a full work-up to show the public done in two days. I don’t know enough about it.”
“Then don’t do the full work-up. Boil it down to the essentials. I can arrange for you to meet with the Council in private before the debate so you can present to them. They’ve got to have something else to sway them to vote down this special use permit.”
“The permit is specifically about giving them permission for commercial activity on that particular piece of land, right?”
“Yeah. If the permit gets voted down, then GrandGoods has to find another location. It’s not a full win. It’d just buy us some time. Unless they decide it’s more trouble than it’s worth, and they choose to pull out.”
“Okay. Okay, so let’s approach this not from the perspective of stopping GrandGoods in its entirety. Let’s approach this from the angle of stopping them from building on that land. Hope Springs is one of the biggest existing assets Wishful has. It will only stay that way, stay a viable resource, if there’s not a big ass store plunked down on its banks. Okay, I can work with that.” She reached for a legal pad.
Cam handed over a purple pen. “Get to it, Wonder Woman.”
“I require fuel in the form of Chinese,” she told him. “It’s going to be a really long night.”
“Anything you want.”
“Bulletin boards.”
He laughed. “Seriously?”