Until She Met Daniel (17 page)

* * *

M
ANDY
 
EXCUSED
 
HERSELF
 
early from the party to relax on her patio. With Celia and her new husband there, it seemed best to leave, especially since the party was running late, anyhow.

With a large glass of iced tea at her elbow, Mandy buried herself in the new book she'd discovered. She'd never been interested in mountain climbing, but the
Ghosts of Everest
was compelling, recounting the search for a lost expedition from the 1920s. She read until it was too dark to see the print, only occasionally looking across the yard at Daniel's house.

The day had been weird by any standard. She'd played children's games with the daughter of a man she was having erotic thoughts about...but didn't want a relationship with at any cost. Then his ex-wife had shown up with her new husband.

It wasn't the weirdest day she'd ever had. Just the second weirdest. Her benchmark for weird days had been when Vince asked her to marry him and she'd accepted. After all,
what
had she been thinking? Oh...yeah, the look on her parents' faces,
that's
what she'd been thinking about. Quite probably, it was the one and only time they were ever proud of something she'd done.

Guilt poured through Mandy at the memory. What a lousy thing to do to Vince.

“That's a very pensive face.” Daniel's voice startled her as he came through the bushes with Mr. Spock draped in his arms.

“I was just thinking.” She made a face. “About my ex-husband.”

“You miss him?”

“Heavens, no. But I feel bad about messing up his life.”

“Not to repeat a theme we've already been over a few times, but shouldn't he take equal responsibility?”

Mandy blinked. “Well, yes.”

It was something she knew in her head, but having Daniel say it that way was startling. Vince hadn't been a hapless victim, but it sometimes felt as if the blame had been laid at her doorstep, and she'd simply accepted delivery.

Daniel handed Mr. Spock to her. “He showed up as soon as the crowd went home. Samantha is already in bed, but wouldn't close her eyes until I promised to bring him home.”

“That's sweet.”

“I hope the day wasn't too uncomfortable for you.”

“You were the one on the hot seat.”

“Yeah, and imagine my surprise when Celia announced she'd liked to see me happily married again,” he said drily. “I think she feels guilty.”

“About getting a divorce?”

“No, I've suspected she cheated on me. That woman only cares about herself.”

“I don't know,” Mandy said thoughtfully. “I overheard what she said about having another baby. She sounded worried about the kind of mother she'll be.”

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Anyway, good night.”

“Night.”

Mandy cuddled Mr. Spock closer as Daniel disappeared into the twilight. She hadn't expected to see him, and while it had been a neighborly thing to bring her cat home, it had provoked her imagination, something she didn't need.

* * *

O
N
S
UNDAY
 
MORNING
,
Celia and Dirk came by to ask Samantha out for breakfast before they left. The stray thought crossed Daniel's mind that they might try taking her back to Southern California. Yet child snatching would end Dirk Bowlin's political career, and Daniel knew the guy would cut off his right arm before jeopardizing his shot at the state senate.

Sure enough, an hour after picking her up, they dropped Samantha at the door, saying they had to hurry to catch their plane.

“Remember, you're going to be a big sister,” Dirk told Samantha heartily. “We know you're going to do a good job with it.”

“Yes, Mr. Dirk,” Samantha answered, making Bowlin laugh.

“We're getting there,” he said. “Next time maybe you'll be comfortable just calling me Dirk.”

A mulish expression came over her face, startling Daniel. “I want to call you Mr. Dirk,” she asserted. “You said it could be what I wanted.”

“Oh, sure, sure.” Bowlin chuckled as Celia clumsily hugged Samantha, then her mother.

“Have a safe trip, dear,” Joyce urged.

“I'm glad you came,” Daniel told them, which was mostly the truth. For his daughter's sake, he was glad. And Mandy had made him wonder about Celia. It was possible his ex wasn't as self-absorbed as she seemed, but it didn't make her a better mother.

Later, Daniel went for a run. A long run. He desperately needed to ease the tension of the weekend. After a couple of hours, he headed home. Out of the entire weekend, the one image that lingered most was the one of Mandy letting the girls dress her up and paint her face. She had laughed until she'd gotten hiccups, which made her laugh even more.

It was one of the sexiest sights Daniel had ever seen. A man shouldn't get hard that way when his daughter was present.

Back at the house, he showered, directing cold water on the unruly portion of his body. Yet after fifteen minutes he snorted with disgust and turned off the faucet. Not only had it been unsuccessful, but he was also using the water that was so controversial in Willow's Eve.

The next day he dropped by Mandy's office first thing in the morning. She glanced up, her face bright and relaxed. It seemed apparent she'd slept considerably better than he had.

“Hi,” she greeted.

“I wanted to thank you for attending Samantha's birthday party. It meant a lot to her.”

“I had fun.”

“You get along great with the kids.”

“You mean I act as if I'm six years old, too?”

“No, what I was trying to say is...” He stopped, realizing she'd been joking. “Sorry, my sense of humor has taken a dive lately.”

“What a shock.” Her tone was dry. “I couldn't survive without mine, even when it gets me into trouble.”

It was something to think about. How long had it been since he'd been able to recognize the amusing aspects of life?

Suddenly, a loud screeching sound came from the general direction of the Senior Center.

“Excuse me,” Mandy yelped as she careened around him.

Daniel followed as she ran through the dining room into the kitchen.

Daniel had a brief impression of a middle-aged man standing with mouth open at the smoke pouring from a pot on the large commercial stove, and of Mandy smoothly grabbing a lid and slamming it on top.

“Vent the windows, Jim,” she called, turning off the burner under the pot.

The man went to the high windows with a long pole and hooked them open, while Daniel opened the back door that fronted on a section of the parking lot. As he found a wedge to stick under the door, a fire truck with sirens wailing pulled up nearby.

Two men vaulted off the truck and zoomed into the kitchen, stopping as they saw Mandy dumping the pot into the sink.

“Hi, Mandy,” the shorter one said.

“Good morning, Ted,” she answered as nothing had happened, waving her hand through the smoke that continued to pour from the burned cookware. “Nice to see you. How are Mary and the kids?”

“Down in San Francisco. Her mom is still recovering.” He pulled out a stepladder, climbed to the smoke alarm and did something that stopped the piercing sound. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed, telling someone on the other end of the call to cancel the alert for volunteer firemen to report.

The taller fireman fetched a huge, industrial-style fan and set it to blow out the kitchen door with an efficiency that suggested he'd done it on previous occasions.

“I'm...I'm really sorry,” Jim stammered. “Eva's sister called with an emergency, so she had to leave, and then I ran out to ask Barbara something. I didn't think it would be a problem. I, uh, guess I was gone longer than I should have been.”

Both of the firemen chuckled.

“Hi, Mandy, another disaster averted?” asked a third fireman as he came through the door.

“Hey, Chief,” she said. “We've got to stop meeting like this.”

“Yeah, people will talk.”

“Sorry it wasn't a drill this time.”

The fire chief looked at Daniel. “Hello.”

“Oh,” Mandy said. “This is Daniel Whittier, the new city manager. Daniel, this is Jeb Miller, the Willow's Eve fire chief. His cohorts are Ted Courtland and Pete Wells. If this had been an actual emergency, you would have also met the on-call volunteer firemen.”

Ordinarily, Daniel would have ensured he had met all city employees within a week or two, but he'd been consumed with the water issue. He shook the hands of the three men. “Congratulations,” he said. “I'm impressed by your response time.”

“Last year, there was a center director who burned the food so regularly, we practically wore a groove in the road between here and the firehouse. And then a month ago, the Senior Center put us through our paces with a surprise drill. We knew one was coming, just had no idea when, or that we'd have seniors lying around pretending to be in various stages of injury and smoke inhalation.”

“They loved doing it,” Mandy said.

The firefighters left with a cheerful wave while Mandy ran water into the blackened mass inside the pot.

“Do you need any help?” Daniel asked.

“Are you a good cook? We need to make a new pasta sauce.”

“I'll go to the store,” Jim offered quickly.

“Great. Get mushrooms and zucchini. I can scrounge the rest of what we need here.”

Jim rushed out, looking relieved.

Mandy had a smudge of soot on her chin and Daniel reached up to wipe it away. The whole thing suddenly seemed quite comical and he grinned. “Things
are
entertaining around here, aren't they?”

Then he pulled her into a brief, hard kiss.

 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

C
HRIS
 
GLANCED
 
AT
 
the calendar.

October 31.
It would be the first time in years he hadn't helped with the community's carnival. But it was also the first time no one had called to ask if he'd volunteer, and he was trying not to read any hidden messages in it.

He wasn't staying at the forestry station any longer. Mandy had kept her promise about talking with the seniors. Dorothy Tanner and her husband had decided to rent him their guest bedroom. It had its own entrance, along with a private bathroom, and was considerably more comfortable than the ancient couch at the station. It wasn't ideal because it had no kitchen, just a microrefrigerator and a microwave. But Chris could get by on peanut butter sandwiches and chopped vegetable salads. Being a vegetarian was a big help in a situation like this.

The extra income would help the Tanners, who, along with everyone else in town, were worried about how an assessment for the water project might affect them. And the possibility of an assessment was the trump card that might tip the balance in favor of the environment.

His phone vibrated with a text message and he picked it up.

Boss gave me time off for thxgvng after all. B home 4 trky & tofu. Luv ur kid.

Chris read it and groaned. First Evan was coming home for the holiday, then he'd told them he had to work. Now he was coming home again, and he still didn't know his parents were separated.

What should they do?

“Something wrong?” Steven asked from his desk.

Chris looked across the office and shook his head. “It's a message from my son at college.”

“Let me guess, he needs money.”

Trying to chuckle, Chris wished that Evan wanting money was the only problem he and Susan faced.

He and Susan.
It was hard to stop thinking of them as a team. Now he had to wonder how solid that team had ever been. Susan seemed more of a stranger than the woman he'd been married to for twenty years. She'd probably say the same thing back to him.

“So, what is it?” Steven persisted. “Money, or something else?”

“His boss is giving him Thanksgiving off, after all, and we haven't told him what's going on.”

“Hell.”

“Exactly.”

Chris thought hard. He'd always felt proud that he and his wife could negotiate workable compromises, such as the one about alternating where they celebrated Thanksgiving. Maybe they could do that again. If he moved back into the house temporarily, they could pretend everything was back to normal. Then even if Evan heard about their problems from his friends or grandparents, he'd think everything was getting resolved. Of course, it was possible Evan already knew, but it seemed unlikely—he would have said something.

His cell phone rang. It was Susan.

“Evan just sent me a text,” she said without preamble. “He's coming home for Thanksgiving.”

“Yes, I got it, too. Can you wait a second?”

He glanced at Steven. “I need to step outside for a few minutes.”

“Sure.”

Chris walked onto the porch. It was a cool afternoon, with fall definitely asserting itself. Some of the ferns were turning yellow, and the tree in front of the building had turned a burnished red.

“I'm back,” he said into the phone. “I did some fast thinking when I got Evan's message. What do you think about me moving back into the house while he's here? That way he doesn't have to know for a while.”

Silence.

For it to work, Susan would have to agree, and she wasn't very agreeable these days. Still, it was for Evan's sake, and Susan fiercely loved her son.

Still silence. She was probably thinking of the various things they'd have to do to make it work. Such as...he'd have to spend nights in the bedroom, or Evan would realize something was wrong.

“I'll sleep on the daybed,” he said in the silence. When they built the house, they'd loved the view into the woodsy area behind the place. It was best from a small sunroom opening off the master bedroom, so they'd put in a daybed to take advantage of it.

“Maybe we should simply tell him,” Susan finally suggested. “It would be better than accidentally hearing about it from someone else.”

“I suppose. But if I'm there at the house, he'll think everything is getting resolved. I know it sounds like one of those absurd holiday films that come out every year, but shouldn't we try for Evan's sake?”

Chris was ready to try anything. And if they could pull it off, maybe they'd be able to work on their other problems. Maybe. He thought back to the nineteen-year-old girl who'd defiantly told Joe Jensen she was marrying the man she loved and her father could stuff it if he didn't like it. Where was
she?

“It might be possible,” Susan said after another long pause. “I'll think more about it and get back to you.”

That wasn't like the old Susan, either, who had stormed out of her father's house and suggested they immediately head for Reno to get married.

“Okay,” he agreed. “Talk to you later.”

To be fair...
he
was the one who'd packed a suitcase and left. So Susan had a right to be cautious about letting him back in, even temporarily.

* * *

M
ANDY
 
LEFT
 
WORK
 
early to put on her Halloween costume and return to the community carnival. In some ways she didn't want to go—it had been hard to sleep ever since Samantha's birthday.

Okay, so the lack of sleep didn't date to Samantha's party; it was the hot kiss Daniel had given her in the Senior Center kitchen. He'd ended it as quickly as it had begun. In fact, afterward they'd both acted as if it hadn't happened.

But they couldn't avoid each other. If nothing more, the growing list of questions that the seniors were generating would have to be dealt with. So she needed to get back to treating him as a friendly coworker...who sometimes annoyed the hell out of her.

To help with her dragging energy, Mandy brewed an extrastrong pot of coffee and drank it with plenty of cream and sugar. Maybe the caffeine would take hold by the time the community party started. Putting on her cat costume, she surveyed the black turtleneck, tights and long tail. With the ears and whiskers, it wasn't too bad.

Back at the city square, she parked the VW in her designated spot, then walked around to examine the various decorated booths. The fire chief and his wife were stringing orange lights from car to car. Once it got dark, the parking lot would have a terrific atmosphere.

“Hey, Mandy, you look great.” It was Kevin McCauley, one of the volunteer firefighters. They'd gone out on a couple of dates and she liked him, but nothing more.

“Thanks, Kevin. Lookin' good yourself.” He was dressed as a Klingon and she grinned. One of the things they had in common was their love for
Star Trek.

Kevin was a reminder that not all young people left Willow's Eve when they got the chance, though a majority of them did. After getting his professional training as a firefighter, he'd decided to return to his hometown. He had confessed to Mandy that his ambition was to become fire chief after Jeb Miller retired.

The fun was due to start at five and families began arriving promptly.

“Meooooow.” On her hands and knees, Mandy peeked around the side of the fake door she'd erected behind her VW.

“Trick or treat,” Kelly and her sister yelled.

“Meow.” Mandy dipped her mittened hands into a hidden bowl and dropped chocolate bars into their bags.

Kelly giggled and they moved on.

Half an hour and dozens of trick-or-treaters later, Samantha arrived, Daniel trailing behind her. Mandy tried not to notice how sexy he looked in his black Levi's and leather jacket. Instead she concentrated on Samantha, who was costumed with big ears and greenish skin.

“Meow, Yoda,” Mandy purred. “May the force be with you.”

Samantha giggled and held out her bag of treats. Mandy glanced up at Daniel, who was staring at her with one of those inscrutable expressions he often wore.

“Good evening,” he said as Samantha skipped to the next vehicle. “How is it going here?”

“Great,” she answered. “In a couple of minutes I'll take a break and wander around to see if I can help with anything. We've had a great turnout.”

Pausing, she meowed and gave candy bars to another collection of kids, then stood and brushed the dust off her knees.

* * *

D
ANIEL
 
SWALLOWED
 
AND
 
glanced away. Mandy didn't appear to be aware of how provocative she looked. The turtleneck clung faithfully to every one of her generous curves, sloping down to her trim waist. And the tights left little to the imagination, the attached tail only calling attention to her nicely rounded rear end.

Yet apart from the discomfort his arousal was causing, Daniel found himself enjoying the evening. In the city he'd felt uncomfortable about taking Samantha trick-or-treating and had always sought out a similar event. This one seemed better, perhaps because the community atmosphere was so strong. People knew each other and were trading jokes, making teasing comments about costumes or decorations reappearing from prior years.

He and Samantha worked their way through one row of cars and then his daughter spotted the fire truck, with kids climbing over it.

“Can I go, too?” she asked.

At his nod, she shoved her bag of candy into his hands and ran to the line where the kids were waiting their turn.

“Kind of makes you wish you were a kid again, doesn't it?” Mandy said, coming up beside him.

“Definitely,” he agreed.

“I have a feeling they'd let the city manager climb up on a truck anytime he wants.”

“Let me guess...and bring the Senior Center director along as his guest?”

“Too late. When we had the fire drill, they let several of us satisfy those impulses. It's really something to see an eighty-seven-year-old man with his face as excited as a kindergartner.”

“I'll bet.” Daniel found himself oddly disappointed he hadn't been there to see it. He had to admit that Willow's Eve had its appealing aspects. In fact, it was hard
not
to appreciate the town, especially when seen through Mandy's eyes—she loved the place wholeheartedly. And while he still couldn't see spending more than a year in such a remote community, he could enjoy it while he was there.

As Samantha got to the head of the line, Daniel juggled her bag of candy so he could take pictures. His daughter's face was alive with enthusiasm as she explored the huge red-and-silver machine.

“Notice the plaque?” Mandy asked as he lowered the camera.

“Excuse me?”

She pointed at a small silver plate on the side of the fire truck, proclaiming it a gift to Willow's Eve from Fannie Snow.

“I have to admit this woman is beginning to interest me,” he said. “Where did her money come from?”

“That's a deep, dark, murky secret. She left Willow's Eve penniless when she was a teenager and came back in her forties, loaded. She never revealed where she got her wealth.”

“That could lead to interesting speculations.”

“No kidding. Everyone says she was still drop-dead beautiful when she returned, and that the only person she snubbed was Oscar Bertram.”

“It all sounds—” He stopped as Samantha came running around the end of the fire truck.

“Did you see me?” she demanded.

“Sure did,” Daniel answered.

“And he got pictures, too,” Mandy told her. “I'll see you later. I have to go paint faces.” She headed toward the face-painting booth.

Daniel handed the treat bag back to his daughter and hoped she wouldn't want her face painted next. Fortunately, she ran over to join a group of friends.

* * *

A
FEW
 
DAYS
 
after Halloween, Mandy leaned back in her office chair and stretched. She needed a minute of transition between the activities of the day and her upcoming meeting with Daniel. Reviewing the calendar of volunteers, she found that Jim Sandler wasn't signed up in the near future to help with one of the senior lunches. She made a mental note that if he
did
volunteer, she'd need two experienced cooks backing him up. Not that it was likely to be a problem. After being responsible for getting the fire department out, she doubted Jim would ever volunteer for kitchen duty again.

Her gaze fell on the stack of papers about the water issue. Jiminy. The whole thing was an enormous pain in the neck...in addition to a few other places.

Still, she'd found her discussions with Daniel interesting. And stimulating. He might be a stick-in-the-mud, but he was smart and talented. She didn't know if he was talented enough to find a way out of this mess with the water, but it was clear he knew what he was doing when it came to city government. The word from folks in other departments was that he was easy to get along with and the changes he'd suggested had actually made their work easier.

Willow's Eve was small, but it needed good management. Unfortunately, Daniel was temporary. The city council had hoped he would stay, but from everything Daniel had said, the town appeared to be just a stop on the road to something bigger.

It annoyed Mandy.

When
she'd
been hired, she'd told them up front that she didn't expect to hang around for long. But Daniel had implied in his interview that he would consider staying longer than the term of his initial contract. Susan had told her how happy the council was about it.

She checked her watch, then grabbed her notebook and headed into Daniel's office. He was on the phone, and motioned her to sit. He continued listening to the speaker, making notes and saying “uh-huh” occasionally. Finally, he said, “That's something we will pay attention to as we go along, Chris. Thanks for calling. 'Bye.”