Green Mountain Collection 1 by Marie Force (4)

Angry voices greeted them at the top of the stairs.

Seeming embarrassed by what they’d walked in on, Will said, “Give us a minute. We’ll be right with you.”

“Sure, no problem.”

“You can have a seat in my office.” He flipped on the lights for her. “Make yourself comfortable.”

“Thanks.”

Cameron stepped into the room that smelled like him—outdoorsy, fresh air, pine trees and citrus. Because he’d told her to make herself comfortable, she sat at his desk and pulled her laptop from the computer bag. While it booted up, she took advantage of the opportunity to do some high-level snooping.

The first thing she noticed were the shelves laden with trophies. With a peek at the door to ensure no one was watching, she stood to read the placards. He’d won snowboarding championships in seven consecutive years. “Wow.” Mixed in with the trophies were certificates and medals and other awards from what had obviously been a rather illustrious career.

His degree in business administration from the University of Vermont hung on the wall next to a picture of him with two other guys in ski attire. Judging from their coloring, she decided they might be his brothers.

Under that was a framed portrait of what had to be the full Abbott family, looking like they’d just stepped out of an L.L.Bean catalog. Every one of them was attractive in a wholesome all-American way. Their parents sat in Adirondack chairs in the front row with their ten gorgeous children standing around them.

What a beautiful family, Cameron thought with a pang of envy. She couldn’t begin to know what it must be like to be part of such a family. While trying to ignore the raised voices coming from another room in the office suite, she sat to go over the PowerPoint presentation she and Lucy had labored over last week.

They’d gone into the preparation knowing little about the store itself, so they’d used images and samples from other country store websites to show the Abbotts what might be possible for their site.

As she clicked through slides she’d already memorized, Cameron realized her hands were trembling ever so slightly—and that the shouting down the hall had dwindled to a low murmur of voices. They were talking about her in there. Arguing over whether to allow her to make the presentation.

With so much riding on landing this account, Cameron hoped they’d at least hear her out.

Twenty minutes after he’d left her, Will appeared at the door. At first glance, he seemed stiff and maybe a bit peeved. And then she was peeved at herself for thinking she knew him well enough to judge his moods.

“You can come in now,” he said. “Nolan dropped off your projector. Do you need anything else?”

“No, I should be good.”

“You can leave your coat and anything else you don’t need in here. It’ll be safe.”

“Okay.”

Even though she knew he and his siblings didn’t want her here, it was comforting to go into the conference room with a partial ally in him. After the time they’d spent together in the store, at least she knew his animosity toward her wasn’t personal.

This was about business and business only, and she’d do well to remember that.

When she walked into the conference room ahead of Will, an older man jumped up to greet her. “Cameron. I’m Lincoln Abbott.”

She recognized Will’s dad from the photo in his office. Tall like Will, he had snow-white hair and twinkling blue eyes that drew her right in. He wore a starched light-blue button-down oxford shirt with khakis.

“It’s so nice to see you,” he said. “I met you once many years ago in New York with your dad, but you probably don’t remember because you were just a little girl at the time.”

She shook Lincoln Abbott’s outstretched hand. “I’m sorry I don’t remember, but it’s nice to meet you again. Thanks for having me.”

“My pleasure. Heard about the accident last night. I hope you’re feeling okay.”

“My pride is bruised along with my face, but Will was a tremendous help. I appreciated him coming to my rescue.”

“That’s my boy. He’s a helper, that one.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she swore she caught her rescuer blushing. How cute was he?

“Let me introduce you to my kids—well, some of them anyway. This is Ella, Charlotte, Wade and Hunter.” They sat around the conference room table wearing flannel, wool sweaters and jeans, except for Hunter who had on a white dress shirt.

Wade and Charlotte shared Will’s lighter coloring, but Ella and Hunter had much darker hair and eyes. They all said hello and attempted friendly smiles, but the tension in the room was palpable.

“Nice to meet you all. I just need a minute to set up my projector.”

“Need any help?” Will asked.

“Sure, that’d be great.” She showed him where to put the projector on the table and went through the motions of hooking up her laptop as her hands continued to tremble ever so slightly.

“Don’t be nervous,” he said softly and for her ears only as the others conversed while they waited on her. “We’ve never actually eaten anyone. We’ve just acted like we were going to.”

“Good to know. Thanks for the heads-up.”

There was that lethal smile again, but this time it actually calmed her nerves. She appreciated his effort to put her at ease. “Our issue is with him, not you. So don’t worry. Whenever you’re ready.”

Will took a seat next to Hunter, and all eyes turned to her.

Cameron clasped her trembling hands together and tried to forget about how hideous her face looked. “I want to thank you for your time today, and I apologize for my banged-up appearance. I went ten rounds with Fred last night, and I think I put a hurt on him even if his bruises don’t show.”

Their chuckles defused some of the tension in the room and helped her to ease into her zone, as Lucy called it. Cameron was good at selling their business to prospective clients, and she tapped into those skills now for the pitch of her life.

“I know from talking to Will last night that some of you feel the store doesn’t need a website. I respect that opinion and the reasons behind it. You have a lovely small business here, and the website opens it up to the world in a way that might change things—and maybe not entirely for the better.”

Ella and Hunter nodded in agreement while Charlotte and Wade remained expressionless.

Cameron had to force herself to not let her gaze wander to Will, fearing she might be distracted if she looked at him.

“Before we talk about your business, let me tell you a little bit about mine. I founded Creative Web Solutions five years ago with my best friend, Lucy Mulvaney.” Cameron clicked on the slide that revealed Lucy’s impish face and corkscrew red curls. You couldn’t be in her presence for long without smiling, and a quick look around the room told Cameron that Lucy’s picture had softened up the Abbotts. “She’s as fun as she looks, and she’s a whiz with Photoshop and the other programs we use to build websites.”

Cameron introduced them to Lydia, who kept the books, and several of the junior programmers who might lose their jobs if she didn’t land this account. With them in mind, she forced herself to press forward with the presentation, even if most of the people in the room didn’t want to hear it.

She flipped through a variety of slides containing examples of sites they’d done for other clients, focusing on retail clients. That none of their previous retail clients had come close to the size or scope of the Green Mountain Country Store was a fact she chose not to share.

“Since you don’t already have a web presence, we took some bits and pieces from other country store websites to give you an idea of what we might be able to do for yours.” Cameron walked them through the various sections of a basic website, detailing the “About” section that would highlight the family’s story and the store’s history. Another section would detail the various hard-to-find products and items unique to Vermont.

“After spending some time in the store this morning, I believe you have a compelling story to tell. Your Vermont Made line, for instance, could make up an entire section on the site that could be used to promote local artisans and farmers and craftspeople who contribute items to the store.”

She finally allowed herself to look at Will and found him watching her intently, as if hanging on her every word. Her skin prickled with awareness of him that she could ill afford at the moment.

Clearing her throat, she zeroed in on Charlotte. “I understand your sister Hannah makes the beautiful jewelry I saw in the store this morning.”

Charlotte nodded in agreement. “She’s incredibly talented.”

“Imagine if you could give her worldwide exposure. Her business could grow as a result of your business growing. And then there’s Colton, who runs the family’s sugaring facility. I’m told there’s nothing quite like Vermont maple syrup. What if we made it possible for your syrup to be sold to customers in Nevada and Wyoming and Paris and Rome? The website would open up your family’s business outside the state of Vermont. In these tough times, people yearn for home and hearth and comfort. Your store offers all those things and so much more.”

Cameron turned to Mr. Abbott, who positively beamed as he listened to her. “I understand you’re a big Beatles fan.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Hunter muttered to laughter from his siblings.

“Wouldn’t it be fun to feature your collection on the website? It would be another reason for people to come into the store.”

“I’m very proud of that collection,” Lincoln said. “I’ve spent a lot of time cultivating it over the years, and I love to show it off.”

Cameron returned his warm smile. “I’d venture to bet very few people leave your store without finding something they can’t live without. Using the story behind the family that runs the store and things like the Beatles collection as a draw gets them in the door. Once they’re here, they’ll spend their money. How can they not with all the inspiration you’ve provided them?

“I’m sure there are tons of other stories to be told, such as your son’s Christmas tree farm. People are interested in things that are different from what they experience in their everyday lives. How many families have a son who runs a Christmas tree farm and another who runs a sugaring operation? How many families have ten siblings, most of them contributing in some meaningful way to a business that’s been in the same family for three generations?”

Watching Wade and Ella exchange glances, Cameron couldn’t tell if she was turning them onto the idea or turning them off.

“Did you tell her about Gramps?” Hunter asked Will.

“Nope.” To Cameron, Will said, “There’s a story and a half. Our mom’s grandfather, Elmer Stillman, Sr., founded the store during World War II. His son, Elmer Junior and his wife, Sarah, my mom’s parents, took the helm when his parents retired. Elmer Junior turned the store over to my dad about twenty years or so ago now and still lives in the area. He’s what you might call a character.”

“I’d love to meet him and talk to him about the store and his memories of the war years. That would make for some very compelling copy for the site.”

“How would you go about building the site?” Charlotte asked.

“That’s a great question.” And Cameron took it as a sign that she’d sparked their interest, at the very least. “The first thing we do is research—lots and lots of research. I’d work with each of you in your various capacities to determine priorities and products you most wish to feature. You’re selling a way of life here—simpler, calmer, refined in its own unique way. That’s your brand. From all my reading about Vermont and the Northeast Kingdom in particular, I assume conservation and geotourism is important to you, and we’d want to reflect that in the site as well. So research comes first.

“Then we progress into site maps and what we call ‘wireframes,’ which is basically a drawing of the site and how it will look when it’s finished. I could bore you with terms such as bread crumbs, which is what we call the various links between pages, and design stages, but suffice to say that once we know what you want and need, we’ll do our very best to give it to you as quickly and as efficiently as we possibly can.”

“How much will it set us back?” Hunter asked.

Cameron passed out a quote she and Lucy had put together with the specifics of a two-phase project. Included prominently on the page was the down-payment amount required to start the process.

“For a site of this size that includes a retail function, you’re looking at well into six figures for phase one, which is the primary bones of the website,” she explained. “I’d have to spend significantly more time on the research and get a sense from all of you about what items you wish to sell directly from the site before I could give you a final quote on phase two, the retail portion.”

“Six figures,” Hunter repeated, as if he hadn’t heard her correctly. “To start with?”

Cameron forced herself to press on, even though the vibe in the room told her she’d lost most of them with the words six figures.

“A site of this magnitude will involve significant customization and programming that will require a tremendous commitment of work-force hours. When it’s done, you’ll have something you can be proud of. I promise you that. I’ll also promise you’ll earn back your investment within three months of going live if you build in an e-commerce component to sell merchandise from the store via the website. I don’t usually like to give return-on-investment estimates to prospective clients, but I feel very comfortable offering you assurances on that based on what I’ve seen of the store so far.” Cameron swallowed her anxiety and forced herself to finish. “We’d require a deposit of fifty thousand to begin work.”

“We need to talk it over,” Charlotte said as the others nodded in agreement.

“Thanks so much for coming in and walking us through the process,” Lincoln said. “It was very interesting.”

“My pleasure. I’ve never been to Vermont before, and it’s incredibly beautiful. I’m glad I had the chance to come up and meet you all.”

“Give your dad my regards,” Lincoln said.

“I certainly will.”

“I’ll bring your projector to the inn later,” Will said.

“That’d be great. Thanks.” Feeling like an unwanted circus animal in the center ring, Cameron moved as quickly as she could to unhook her laptop and gather her belongings. “Thanks again, everyone.”

Back in Will’s office, Cameron put on her coat and grabbed her purse, slinging the computer bag over her shoulder to head down the stairs to the store. As she walked from the back of the store to the front, she saw a host of things she’d missed the first time through. Herbal remedies for everything from gout to athlete’s foot, a facial massager and wrinkle cream.

She stopped to view a collection of antique typewriters and thought about how they could use them in the site design.

“What’s the point?” she whispered as she wandered toward the front door. They weren’t going to get the job, and this whole thing had been a huge waste of time she couldn’t afford to lose with payroll looming and no influx of cash forthcoming.

She absolutely could not go running to her dad for money. She’d prided herself on her independence and had never relied on her dad’s mega resources to pave the way for her. Something would work out. It always did. Or it always had …

Taking a last look around the eclectically wonderful Green Mountain Country Store, she thought about how fun it would’ve been to bring the store to life online. Just as well, she decided, stepping into the cool, crisp air. It would’ve taken weeks of research to do it right, and that would’ve been way, way too much time in the oh-so-tempting company of Will Abbott.

Will shut the door behind Cameron and returned to his seat at the conference table. A jumble of thoughts crowded his mind after her enlightening presentation. First and foremost, he’d been impressed by her response to the store and her innate understanding of what they were about as a family and a business. If she could infuse that much insight after half an hour in the store, what would she produce after a couple of weeks?

Her intuitiveness had caught him off guard. He’d expected to hate her ideas for modernization, which were in direct conflict with his desire to keep everything exactly the way it had always been. After hearing her presentation, he was officially torn.

“Well, that’s that, I guess,” Hunter said.

“Yeah,” Charlotte added. “Six figures for a website?”

“Think about it, Charley,” Will said. “Imagine the challenge of trying to capture this place in a way that makes sense. Besides, she said we’ll earn it back in three months.”

“If we add more staff to fulfill orders, which will also cost money,” Wade said.

“Yes, that would be an added expense, but think about the added exposure, too,” Will said.

“You’ve certainly done a one-eighty since last night,” Hunter said, frowning at Will.

“I tried to keep an open mind and listen to what she had to say. A lot of it made sense to me. We all know Vermont is a special place with so much to offer. But outside our borders, how many other people know that?”

“I’m glad to hear you say that, Will,” Lincoln said. “Those are my thoughts exactly. We’ve been lucky to escape the economic downturn somewhat unscathed, but we may not always be so fortunate. I know you all are angry with me for bringing Cameron here without talking to you about it first, but my sole focus is on ensuring this business continues to grow and thrive so it will be there for you for as long as you need it to be. I don’t think we can count on business as usual for the long haul. We have to innovate if we’re to remain relevant.”

“We’re as relevant as we need to be,” Hunter said. “We’re a country store, not a multinational corporation.”

“I’m not suggesting we become a multinational anything,” Lincoln said as he scratched George behind the ears. “I’m suggesting we spread our wings a bit and open our doors to the world outside Vermont to generate more business.”

“What happens when hordes of tourists want to come here and see what we’re all about?” Wade asked.

“That’s what I’d like to know, too,” Ella said.

“You heard what Cameron said about not being able to walk into our store without seeing something you can’t live without,” Lincoln said. “If those hordes come here to see what we’ve got, our business grows.”

“What does that do to our sweet little town?” Charlotte asked. “How will Mrs. Hendricks feel when there are buses pulling up outside her inn?”

“I’d imagine she’ll approve of anything that puts bodies in beds,” Lincoln replied.

“Let me ask this,” Hunter said. “What happens after the site is built? Who maintains and operates it?”

“I spoke to Cameron about this when I called her,” Lincoln said. “We’d have two choices. We can retain her company to maintain it for us, which they’d be glad to do, or we can hire someone here to work in-house.”

“Either way,” Hunter said, “we’re looking at much more than the initial six-figure investment.”

“Over time, yes,” Lincoln said. “However, you heard what Cameron said about the revenue generated by the site more than covering the costs of running it—and then some.”

“I’m opposed,” Wade said. “I think it’s the wrong move for us right now.”

“I agree,” Hunter said.

“Me, too,” Ella said.

“Me, four,” Charlotte said. “Sorry, Dad, but it’s too much. We don’t need it or the changes that’ll go along with it.”

“I understand,” Lincoln said, “and you know I respect your opinions—all of them, even if I don’t agree with them.”

Will felt the heat of everyone looking at him for the deciding vote, with fifty percent in favor and forty percent opposed. If he voted for the site, it would go forward. If he voted against, his mother would be brought in to cast the tiebreaker.

“What do you say, Will?” Hunter asked.

Will tried to balance his concern for the store against his interest in Cameron. And to deny that she interested him would be disingenuous. Yes, she might be a city girl, but it had taken half an hour in the store with her earlier for him to see that she was nothing like Lisa, who’d never shown an ounce of interest in his family or his family’s business.

Cameron’s interest had been sincere and not in any way tied to her desire to land the account.

Will was forced to admit he wanted to keep her around for a while so he might get to know her better, which presented an ethical challenge of sorts.

“What’re you thinking, son?”

Will glanced at his dad, whose grandiose ideas often made Will as crazy as they made his siblings. But in this case, he had to admit his dad made some good points about sustaining the business in the future. “I found the presentation interesting,” Will said after a long moment of silence. “I liked what she said about telling our family’s story through the website and incorporating all our interests. I like the idea of people outside of Vermont learning more about what makes us special here.”

“So you’re for it now?” Hunter asked, seeming stunned by Will’s change of heart.

“I’m not sure yet. I’d like to talk to her a little more about how it would work before I decide anything.”

“That’s fair enough,” Lincoln said.

“I’ll tell you what,” Wade said. “If we go forward with this, it’s all yours, Will. I don’t want anything to do with it.”

“Neither do I,” Hunter added.

Will’s sisters nodded in agreement.

“If we go forward with it,” Will said, “we’d all have to participate when it came to our own areas of the business.”

“Tell me this,” Hunter said. “If she wasn’t young and pretty and you weren’t bowled over by her, would you want to ‘talk to her some more’ or would you feel the same way the rest of us do?”

“Screw you, Hunter. It’s got nothing to do with that.”

“Ah,” Wade said with a knowing grin that made Will want to punch his younger brother the way he would’ve back in the day. “Anyone else notice he doesn’t deny that she’s young and pretty and he’s bowled over by her?”

“Screw you, too, and the rest of you before you can chime in.”

That set off the others into laughter that made Will’s face heat with embarrassment. He got up and walked out of the conference room, letting the door slam behind him. Storming into his office, he slammed that door, too, and quickly discovered Cameron had left her alluring scent here as well.

His brothers made him so freaking mad! Although, he couldn’t deny he poked at them every bit as much as they poked at him. He must’ve been pretty damned transparent if his interest in Cameron came through so obviously to them. Or perhaps it was his flip-flop on the website that had been his downfall. Either way, he had to face up to the fact that he was curious.

On multiple fronts.