It had set tongues wagging all around town. McKenzie had obviously been the product of an affair, as she was a few years younger than the Shaws’ only other living child, Devin.
What had life been like for her in that household? Adele Shaw had always struck him as a nice woman but she wasn’t a saint, by any stretch of the imagination. It couldn’t have been easy for her to have her husband’s love child suddenly thrust upon her.
He didn’t have the local monopoly on shitty childhoods, he suddenly realized.
“When you have unrealistic expectations of people, you’re setting yourself up for a firestorm of disappointment,” he said. “That’s a tough way to go through life.”
She shrugged. “I may be naive, but I like to put my faith in people, even if it’s overly optimistic. In my experience, if you demand much of people, they usually want to rise to meet those expectations.”
Or they fight back and do their damnedest to shatter them, he thought, but didn’t say.
“I overheard you talking boats with Mick Sargent.”
“He was talking about boats. I was mostly listening.”
Her smile was like the sun sliding over the peaks of the Redemptions after a miserable night. “That’s usually all you can do once Mick settles in for a chat. He’s a character. Eighty-three years old and still going strong.”
“He seemed old when I was a kid. I remember seeing him work a sander and wondering if he was going to keel over any minute.”
“Isn’t perspective a funny thing? When I was a girl, thirty seemed absolutely ancient. Now that I’m staring it right in the face, I feel like I’m still a baby.”
“You are still a baby. You’re probably the youngest mayor in the history of Haven Point, aren’t you? Though apparently not by choice.”
“Not really. I never sought this position and didn’t want it.”
“Why did you accept the nomination? Nobody can force you to run for office in this country, unless there’s some bizarre Haven Point compulsory service bylaw I don’t know about.”
She sighed. “You’re absolutely right. I could have said no.”
“But you didn’t.”
She gave a shrug that seemed both eloquent and simple. “This is my town and I love it here. People here embraced me when I was a strange kid who showed up out of nowhere. They have supported my business and opened their hearts to me in friendship. Haven Point isn’t perfect. We have our problems, like any other town—the economy being at the top of the list—but in general, this is a warm, caring place.”
She looked around the room. “I love this community—and if I can make it a better place to live for my neighbors and friends, I have an obligation to step up and do my part.”
He studied her, wondering if her earnestness could possibly be genuine. Yeah, he might be a cynic, but it seemed a little too good to be true. No one could possibly have this rosy a view of her hometown.
“And how’s that working out for you so far?”
He regretted the caustic words immediately, especially when her lovely dark eyes clouded and her mouth tightened.
“Great. And as a delightful perk of my job, I get to entertain all the visiting ass—” She caught herself at the last second before she could complete that particular sentiment and quickly amended the thought. “Er, awesome dignitaries.”
He deserved the original pejorative, he acknowledged. Finding himself the center of attention left him feeling awkward and uncomfortable and he was taking his unease out on McKenzie. Though she had misled him about the meeting, he still didn’t have the right to be a jerk to her.
“A difficult task, no doubt.”
“Sometimes. Last month, we had a delegation from the state clean water board. I got to enjoy four hours of stories about inorganics and metals, nitrates and nitrites. I now know more about water treatment procedures than I ever dreamed.”
She held up a finger suddenly. “That reminds me. I meant to mention to you that’s another big plus about Haven Point, by the way. We have a very plentiful supply of exceptionally clean drinking water. In fact, I’ve got an extra copy of their report that might be useful to you and Aidan. Follow me and you can take it with you.”
Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and headed down the hallway. Since he didn’t seem to have too many options unless he wanted to stand here by himself and deal with more of those sidelong glances, he followed her.
YES, THAT’S RIGHT, PEOPLE. Your stately, dignified mayor of Haven Point had almost called Ben Kilpatrick an A-hole.
On the way to her office, McKenzie wanted to stop in the hallway and bang her head against the wall a few dozen times but she forced herself to keep walking.
The man brought out the absolute worst in her. Okay, he had been a jerk but she was supposed to at least try to be nice to him. She was trying to convince the man to bring a major tech facility to her community that would be a total game changer and yet she couldn’t refrain from calling him names, deserved or not.
For heaven’s sake, what was it about him that brought out the worst in her and turned her into a second-grader in pigtails, sticking her tongue out at the cutest boy in school?
Forty-eight hours earlier, she had lectured all her friends to do whatever was necessary to be nice to the man during the short time he would be in town. Why couldn’t she take a little of her own advice?
She unlocked her office and led the way inside. It wasn’t the most extravagant office in the world—on the small side, utilitarian, with a basic oak desk and matching credenza and a couple of visitor chairs that had probably been ugly and uncomfortable even back in the eighties, when they had obviously been purchased.
If she had to guess, she would imagine about ten of her offices would probably fit into his private office space at Caine Tech, but she still experienced a burst of pride when she saw her nameplate on the desk.
She might not have ever aspired to the job but she could still appreciate that Mayor McKenzie Shaw had a lovely ring to it.
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