Page 51 of Sugar & Shadows

Marigold’s thin lipstick-covered lips curled up as she settled in. “So where do we start?”

“Well, then,” I said. “Let’s call this meeting to order.” Straightening, I looked at each woman sitting around the table. “We’re here, not because we don’t have better things to do, but because this town needs us. Trust me when I say that only the most dire of circumstances would motivate me to brave the library’s fluorescent lighting with you.”

Nina snorted.

“And in my experience,” I continued, “true problem solving is a team effort. Everyone here has skills that will help the town. Our job is to work together and get results.”

“Didn’t Bitsy tell you to form a committee?” Mom asked.

I nodded.

“What’s our name?” Harper tapped her pen against her chin. “Every successful operation has a name. Branding matters.”

I bit back a laugh. “We’re not official. We’re an off-the-books operation.”

“Even better.” My mom rubbed her hands together. “Cloak-and-dagger. I’m into it.”

Harper bounced up and down. “We’re like the Maplewood Avengers.”

Nina sneered. “Gross. More like the Suicide Squad.”

“Ooh.” Harper almost jumped out of her seat, her pen clattering to the table. “Can I be Harley Quinn?”

“If anyone’s Harley Quinn, it’s Marigold.” Nina pointed to the nonagenarian across the table. “She’s a wildcard.”

Marigold gave her a wink.

I cleared my throat. “Now, my plan⁠—”

“We do need a name,” Mom mused. “Something badass. Maybe an acronym like a clandestine government agency?”

Harper stood and headed over to my pristine whiteboard, her combat boots clomping on the industrial-grade carpet squares. She picked up a green marker and wrote Maplewood Recovery Task Force.

“MRTF,” she said, underlining the words proudly.

Meg’s tinny cackle echoed around the room. “Sounds like a group that investigates accounting fraud.”

Nina shifted in her seat. “We’re not investigating accounting fraud.”

“Yet,” Harper said, pointing at me with her marker. “This could go deep. Who knows what kind of conspiracies we’ll find.” She rubbed her hands together with glee.

Meg cheered. “I love it when things get messy.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. How the hell had we gotten off track so quickly? This was why I typically worked alone.

“What about Save Maplewood Now?” my mom suggested.

“SMN?” Marigold screwed up her face in offense. “Sounds too sexual.”

I tried to hold in a laugh and failed. This was truly going off the rails.

“It’s got to be something simple. A name people won’t think twice about,” Marigold continued. “We don’t want to draw too much attention.”

“What are our goals?” Mom asked.

“To identify and execute new economic plans for Maplewood utilizing strategic partnerships between agriculture and tourism,” I blurted out.

“Okay, then.” Harper uncapped the marker again. “How about something simple. Like TAP[3] [4] ?”