CHAPTER ONE
Maddox rested his hands on the edge of the rabbit enclosure and stared at the little furballs. In all the years he’d owned Wonderland, he’d never had much interaction with rabbits. Now, he stood before their display in Arbor Ranch and Supply, desperately hoping this last-straw idea of his would work.
It was hare-brained—no pun intended—but he couldn’t lose the park. He had to do something. Sympathy wove through him as he took in the animals’ gray, brown, and multi-colored furs. Stuck in their enclosure, no hope for escape without someone else’s assistance.
“I get where you’re coming from, guys,” he told the rabbits.
“Tell me again why we’re here?” his friend and associate, Duncan Hawthorne, asked from behind him. In suit pants and a tan button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, Duncan stared at the display of animal feed and various accessories with disdain. “I’ve never pegged you as much of an outdoorsman. Or a pet person, for that matter.”
Maddox peered down at his own suit and tie. The irony would have made him laugh if he didn’t feel so downtrodden. Neither of them fit in with the store’s rustic décor.
Duncan had come at Maddox’s request, and he had it about right. This was the first time Maddox had ever set foot in a store offering western wear or livestock feed. He was more of a tennis player and golfer himself.
“Scavenger hunt,” Maddox said. He’d given a lot of thought on how to increase interest in his declining theme park, and oddly enough, his mental deliberations had led him here of all places.
He couldn’t let a rabbit loose in his theme park. Too many issues sprang up with that option. People might sneak their own white rabbit in and claim they’d found his. There also wasn’t a way to humanely prevent the poor little creature from escaping the park, short of caging it, which would then make its location too obvious. And then there was the prospect of someone catching the rabbit at all, which was nearly impossible. On their own? With their bare hands?
A scavenger hunt throughout the park with a white rabbit at the finish line, though. That was totally doable.
“You’re crazy,” Duncan said. “Have you ever considered that the fact your numbers aren’t where you want them to be is a sign you should just pack it in? Cut your losses, sell the place and move on to something that actually will be profitable?”
“Wonderland was profitable,” Maddox argued. It’d made him a billionaire, after all. “I can’t just walk away from the place. If I could just get some investors on board, I could do so much more with it.”
Duncan read Maddox’s not-so-subtle hint about wanting him to invest and lifted his hands. “I’m staying far away from that sinking ship. You opened a theme park in Vermont. You could have done it anywhere, but you picked Westville, Vermont.”
True, the town was small, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t an ideal location for a theme park.
Maddox had appealed to his friend over a year ago, and many times since. But every time Duncan had asked for prospective numbers, what Maddox presented had never managed to impress him.
Several chicks in their nearby heated cages chirruped loudly. They were cute, too, if Maddox was interested in farming or free-range chickens. Which he wasn’t.
“It’s not a sinking ship.” Maddox strolled to the opposite side of the rabbit enclosure. “People in Vermont like roller coasters as much as anywhere else. Besides, look. Here’s a white one.” He reached in to stroke it. The rabbit shuffled on the pen’s shavings. “I wonder if we can have a little waistcoat made to fit him.”
“You’re going to dress the rabbit? Why not just get a Build-a-Bear?”
Maddox gave him a blank look. “Dude, have you even read Alice in Wonderland?”
“I don’t need to read it. Everyone knows the story.”
“Then you know Alice follows a rabbit wearing a waistcoat down his little hidey-hole, and that starts her whole adventure.”
“I’ll tell you what you need to do,” Duncan said, clasping his hands behind his back and joining Maddox as he stared at the rabbits. “You’ve got good bones to the place. What it needs is a makeover. A new look.”
“Wonderland doesn’t need a new look.” Maddox had used his mom’s old sketches of her vision from the beloved story when doing the initial layout. He wasn’t about to change a thing.
“Come on,” Duncan said. “Everyone needs a makeover once in a while. Just spiff up the place. Add new signs, redo the décor. It might show certain investors you’re serious about the future.”
Duncan ran an extremely successful business where he offered financial advice as well as backing. Maddox had begged his friend to give Wonderland a chance and choose it as one of his investments. Was Duncan suggesting what he thought he was?
He held out a hand. “Hang on. You’re saying if I give Wonderland a facelift, you’ll consider backing it?”
Duncan tilted his head to one shoulder. “I might. The place does have some serious potential. To the right person.”
Maddox had known him long enough to know he never even hinted at something unless he was serious. Empty promises were too risky when money was involved. For Duncan Hawthorne to even imply interest was a milestone.
Maddox gripped his shoulder. “You won’t be disappointed.”
“I haven’t agreed to anything yet.” Duncan shrugged out of his grasp. “Why not start with a new brand? You find the right image to rep the park, and you might be turning me down.”
Maddox laughed. He couldn’t help the way his insides swelled like a hot air balloon. “Let me see how this rabbit stunt goes. It’s a scavenger hunt, and I’m sure it’s going to triple the numbers I usually get. I’m increasing publicity to spread the word. People are going to be all over this. Searching for the next clues to riddles? Finding the white rabbit at the end?”
“It is clever,” Duncan said with an obliging nod.
“Come on, man, it’s ingenious.” Or so he hoped. He muscled down the worry tying knots inside him.
“Where’d you come up with it, anyway?” Duncan asked.
Maddox winced. If it was anyone else, he never would have confessed as much. But this was Duncan. They’d been best friends since freshman year at UVM.
“It was Ruby’s idea,” Maddox said.
Duncan’s eyes widened. “Ruby, as in your ex?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you seeing her again?”
The insulting question stung. It didn’t help Maddox’s surly mood. “You’re seriously asking me that? Come on, man. You know what she did to me.”
Duncan knew just how much that breakup had rattled him. It was the sign of what a good friend he was, that he hadn’t gone public with as much detail as he’d been privy to. With the amount Ruby had invested in Wonderland, calling their breakup messy was the understatement of ever.
Ruby had backed out of both their engagement and his business when profits had begun to sink. Evidently, she’d only been interested in him if his park was successful.
Her version of success was different from his. He had a billion-dollar theme park that reflected his mother’s favorite book. He’d started it for her. It had made him a huge success and he couldn’t lose it.