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A cynical smile curved Kanon’s lips, giving Patience the impression he was enjoying the show. Purposely ignoring his amused reaction, she focused on quelling the kerfuffle before it could turn into a real argument. Getting everyone to agree and move toward a common goal was rarely easy. The people in Hard Luck were like a big, unruly family. But it was imperative to the success of the festival.

“The thing is, Tara’s cookies are beautiful enough to be in magazines,” Patience said. “Especially her holiday cookies. I haven’t seen anything like the one decorated to be a Christmas sweater, for instance, at any other bakery. That’s what we want—something special that draws attention.”

Tara recognized her efforts to be a peacemaker with a “thanks,” but it was clipped enough to indicate she wasn’t completely mollified. “But if you expect me to do all the work of providing this incentive, I shouldn’t also have to pay for the supplies. You’re not suggesting I contribute the cookies, are you?”

“No, of course not,” Sue jumped in. “We’ll buy the cookies. It’s an expense we should all share equally.”

Kathy looked concerned. “But I’ve already spent all I can!”

Patience lifted both hands to gain their attention before the discussion could once again drift toward an argument. “I’ll take the price of the cookies out of the budget,” she said, even more grateful for the money Jack had given her on Saturday. Without that, there was no way she would’ve had enough to finish the festival like she wanted to. “The only problem I see is that we’ll need a lot of cookies. How many can you make, Tara?”

Tara flipped her long brown hair over her shoulder while she considered the question. “That depends on when I start.”

“You can’t start too soon—they need to be fresh,” Joss cautioned. “I mean…they’re beautiful, but they’re still cookies. At the end of the day, people are going to want to eat them.”

“Have you ever had anything from my shop that wasn’t fresh?” Tara demanded.

“No, ma’am,” Joss said, immediately backing off.

“That’s what I thought.” With an audible sigh, Tara folded her arms. “I guess I could bake them ahead of time and freeze them. What do we have—ten days before the festival begins? If I get busy right away, I should be able to bake five hundred.”

“Will five hundred be enough?” Judd asked.

“It’ll have to be,” Robin replied. “We can’t do too many in case we don’t get the turnout we’re hoping for and they go to waste.”

“We should be able to get five hundred people out,” Patience reassured them, but she wasn’t quite as confident as she sounded.

“I hope so, because no one’s going to be happy if this flops,” Harriet groused.

Fortunately, no one openly agreed with Harriet, probably because she wasn’t well liked, and Tara spoke up right away. “There’s also the issue of freezer space. I might be able to make five hundred, but I definitely don’t have room to store five hundred.”

“I can create a list of those with a freezer who might be able to let us use a shelf or two,” Kathy volunteered. “We can find places to put them.”

“Then it looks like I’ll be baking five hundred cookies,” Tara said. “Here’s hoping I’ll still be able to use my hands after I’m done…”

“I’ll help you where I can,” Patience said. “I’m not much of a decorator, so it won’t save your hands, but I can bake and handle the register while you decorate.”

“My husband and oldest daughter can join me at the bakery in the evenings,” she said. “I should be okay. But it’d be great if you’d check in here and there just in case.”

“I will,” Patience promised. “What we’re doing should drive a lot of traffic to your bakery. People will want to see what the prize is even if they don’t participate in the promotion.”

“Your cookies are such a work of art, they’ll probably want to post pictures of them on Instagram,” Henry said.

“And we all know how important Instagram is these days,” Kathy said. That was something that perturbed the older members of the community because they didn’t know how to capitalize on the opportunity.

“It’s a great idea,” Nancy said.

Tara puffed out her cheeks before letting her breath go. “Easy for you to say. I’ll be the one doing all the work.”

“We’ll pay retail for the cookies,” Patience assured her.

“We’ll what?” Harriet cried. “She’s going to make a killing! She might be the only one to come out of this okay!”

Thankfully, several people insisted that paying retail was only fair, given the time it was going to take Tara. And once Harriet had been sufficiently cowed—again—they were able to move on to who would design and create the card for the stamps.

No one would volunteer, so Patience said she’d do it. Everyone claimed she’d done such a great job with the flyer. But they pushed whatever they could off onto her. She wouldn’t have let them do it again, but it was getting so close to the big event that she agreed.

With that decided, they formed a work party with Judd and Joss at the helm to assist those who had last-minute decorations to put up—Patience didn’t want to risk that some people might not finish. The downtown area had to be a Christmas wonderland. Then Patience gave everyone the assignment of coming up with a cute new item they could sell or give away during the festival—like a pen, bookmark, magnet, hot cocoa packet or window-cling Christmas decoration.