“Maybe if I was their new activities director, but I’m the city manager.”
“This is a small town, so everyone interacts. Nothing would get you launched better than sitting around the table with Willow’s Eve’s longest residents. Heck, Caroline White is the mayor’s mother—you passed her on our way out—and Marcia Carter was Fannie Snow’s cousin, once or twice removed, but still...Fannie was important. She left all her money to the town, and her trust fund provides a big chunk of your salary.”
He sighed. “You’re probably right, but I drove all night and would like to see my house and unpack my car.”
Guilt hit Mandy. After all, while she loved to travel and wander, not everyone did. Besides, driving all night wasn’t “traveling.” It was merely transportation. “I understand. Just follow me.”
“Thank you.”
She got into her Volkswagen and led his Jeep out of the parking lot, keeping track of the trendy SUV in her rearview mirror. She took several turns and twists as she drove to the edge of town. Finally, she swung into a circular driveway and stopped in front of the huge Victorian with the big yard. Several leafy trees provided a pleasant shade—not that it ever got that hot on the Northern California coast, and now that it was September, the weather was already showing hints of fall.
Daniel climbed from his SUV and studied his new home with a peculiar expression.
“This is it,” Mandy said, getting out of her car. “Isn’t it great? Just perfect for the days when people had huge families filling up all corners of the house, with the kids arguing about who gets the tower bedrooms. The town couldn’t figure out what to do with it until they decided it should be part of the city manager’s employment package.”
“It’s very nice.”
She rolled her eyes. “All you have to say is ‘nice’? This is the best house in town,” she informed him. “Old Man Bertram was the richest person around, after Fannie, that is. So when his grandson said he’d rather eat worms than live in Willow’s Eve, Oscar Bertram willed it to the community.”
“I didn’t mean anything negative,” Daniel said. “It’s magnificent and I’m sure I’ll enjoy living in it.”
Mandy cocked her head and studied him. He hadn’t said anything negative, just sort of neutral, and neutral wasn’t going to cut it in Willow’s Eve. “Sorry, I know you’re tired and maybe I should keep my mouth shut, but everyone is proud of the place and they’ll expect more than, ‘It’s nice.’”
“Yes, of course.”
“You don’t know much about small towns, do you?” she asked.
“I’ve never lived in one, but I’m sure I can adjust.” He smiled slightly.
“I never lived in one, either, until I came here, or at least not one this small,” Mandy admitted. “But I’ve learned a great deal. You can’t have a big-city attitude here. It won’t work.”
Brother, her vocal cords were having a wild-and-free day. For a moment, she felt the same as Bridget Jones in the movie and its sequel, riotously running off at the mouth and getting herself into one mess after another because of it.
Mandy led Daniel up the steps, wishing he’d been a pleasant middle-aged man. It wasn’t fair he’d turned out to be so attractive. Well, his face was attractive and his body mighty sexy. His personality? That might be another story. So far, he gave the impression of being uptight and humorless. But she’d barely met him and he might be a barrel of laughs once he had a decent night’s sleep. That would be nice—she didn’t do well with people who couldn’t laugh.
Luckily, she had a sense of humor to keep her going. Not that “lucky” was the way her professor father would have described it when she’d been eight years old and had shown up at a faculty reception dressed as Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt. It had seemed appropriate—after all, the older profs lapsed into Greek and Latin at the oddest times—and it was a heck of a lot better than the scratchy wool dress she had been told to wear.
Oh, well.
After her father had stopped yelling, she’d been sent to stay in her room all evening. Her mother had actually thought it was a punishment for her to remain in her bedroom instead of being downstairs in the living room with the professors and their stuffy spouses.
“Believe it or not,” Mandy said, dragging her mind back to the present, “there’s an attached garage. Back in the eighties, Mr. Bertram had a sunroom built that connects it. The garage door opener is in the kitchen.”
Daniel opened the front door and motioned for her to go ahead.
“Beautiful,” he declared after a minute staring about the entryway.
She nodded.
His admiration appeared genuine, which it ought to be. The entryway was an architectural masterpiece. Quickly, Mandy walked through the hallway and into the kitchen at the rear of the house.
“It’s been remodeled with all the latest conveniences,” she said. “Old Man Bertram left money to do it, though it’s too bad he didn’t put in the modern kitchen before he died. His housekeeper cooked on a fifty-year-old stove and says she still has nightmares.”
Mandy opened a drawer to reveal two garage door openers and various small gadgets to use around the house.
“There’s food in the freezer. Casseroles started arriving two days ago. We were going to have milk and fresh food in the fridge, only since we got mixed up about your arrival date, I’m afraid it’s still empty.”
“I’m sorry if I upset the plans.”
Mandy shrugged. “It’s not your fault. We just wanted to have it extra nice when you got here.”
“We?” Daniel asked. “How are you involved?”
“I was asked to be on the welcome committee. Anyway, the bed in the upstairs master bedroom is made, so that’s done. It’s on the right at the front of the house as you go up.”
“Thank you,” he said and began walking her to the front door.
“Oh, drat.” She mentally slapped her forehead. “I forgot your office keys. I’ll go get them now.”
“You’ll be at City Hall tomorrow, won’t you?”
“Yeah. Well, barring a blizzard or something,” she qualified.
“Right. Just unlock my office door if you have to step out. I have enough to do here. I can wait until tomorrow for the keys.”
“Sure. Say, you’d better turn up the hot water heater in the garage. It’ll just be lukewarm, otherwise.”
“Thanks.”
He turned and disappeared into the house, much to Mandy’s relief. There was something overpowering about Daniel Whittier, making her glad to escape.
* * *
BLEARY-EYED, DANIEL looked out the window at his Jeep Cherokee. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to park it in the garage and catch a nap. Not only had he gotten no sleep the night before, he’d been short on it for the past month. He was thirty-five now, not eighteen, and it was catching up to him.
Daniel walked through the pleasant sunroom off the kitchen and sure enough, the opposite door opened into a spacious garage. He parked his Jeep in the garage, closed the automatic door and then went up to find the master bedroom Mandy Colson had mentioned. He sank onto the bed, thinking about her. Lord, the woman had made his exhausted brain spin with her verbal detours and runaway mouth.
But she had an engaging smile that probably turned her boyfriends into melted butter and delighted the senior citizens she worked