Authors: Rachel Brimble,Geri Krotow,Callie Endicott
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Series, #Harlequin Superromance
“The council is simply examining different possibilities,” she said finally...for the hundredth time. Why couldn’t he be part of the process, instead of automatically assuming the entire thing was going to be an environmental disaster?
“You know very well they’re going to do that.”
“How would I know?”
“Because your father is behind it.”
“He’s simply concerned about jobs,” she tried to say evenly.
“Jobs? The only thing he cares about is the almighty buck, and he doesn’t care what he does to the environment to get it.”
Susan slammed the silverware drawer shut. “That isn’t fair. You know that Dad no longer buys lumber from people who clear-cut.”
“So he claims.”
“It isn’t a claim. It’s true,” she snapped back. “I’m the financial officer for the mill and I know what businesses we’re dealing with.”
“It doesn’t make any difference. You can’t do one token thing to look politically correct and then call yourself an environmentalist.”
“Don’t be so self-righteous.”
Chris crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s better than destroying the environment for the sake of a dollar.”
Couldn’t he
ever
see the other side of an issue? The environment was important, but people needed to live and to make a living, and all of that required water.
“Be reasonable,” she said through gritted teeth. “The paper mill is the only major employer here in Willow’s Eve.”
“Naturally you’re taking your father’s side.”
She opened her mouth to retort, but he turned on his heel and strode out the door again.
Susan ran after him. “Where are you going?” she yelled.
“To my office.”
Damn. Damn.
Damn.
If she’d been holding the salad bowl, she might have thrown it at him.
* * *
A
T
FOUR
ON
Friday afternoon, Mandy decided she may as well leave for the week. She stretched and thought about what to do with the weekend. She could drive into Vicksville and watch a movie. There was a new science-fiction flick playing at the theater that looked interesting.
Of course, it would be more fun to go with someone. She considered asking Daniel if he’d be interested, but decided against it. She didn’t know what kind of movies he liked, and even if they’d cleared the air so there wouldn’t be any misinterpretations, she didn’t think spending two evenings together in a row was the best idea. Oh, well. She was good at doing things by herself.
Humming, she drove home and found Susan Russell sitting in one of the front-porch chairs.
“What are you doing here?” she called. “Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready for a date with your husband this evening?”
“I wish.” Susan looked up, her eyes red and miserable. “Chris and I aren’t going out tonight. It’s that wretched water project. We’ve been arguing more and more about it, to the point we’re practically at each other’s throats. So this afternoon I finally said we shouldn’t go anywhere.”
A cold chill shivered through Mandy’s gut; she hated having her friends at odds with each other, especially friends who seemed to be so happy together. Maybe it would help if she gave Susan a chance to vent.
“Come in,” she invited. “I have more than enough ice cream to get us through the evening.”
Susan sighed and held up a grocery sack. “Good. I brought potato chips.”
* * *
C
HRIS
R
USSELL
SUCKED
down the last of his nonalcoholic beer and tossed the bottle into the recycle bin outside the office door. He would have preferred the real thing, but alcohol wasn’t permitted in the forestry station. Of course, technically he was on the porch and not
in
the building, but he refused to split hairs on technicalities.
Anyway, it wasn’t the beer he needed, it was the solitude, so he’d come out to sit on the porch and look into the woods. This way he also wouldn’t have to wait before heading home to be sure his blood alcohol levels were within legal limits. He’d been careful with booze since some stupidities in his youth.
A young buck stepped out of the woods and dropped its head to nibble on wild grasses. It was so beautiful that Chris’s chest ached. Every year, more of the wildlands were lost, and even within his own field of study, experts didn’t agree about how the remaining land should be administered.
He sighed.
It wasn’t just the water and sewer issue bothering him; he shouldn’t have agreed to canceling date night with his wife. Of course, the two things were tangled up together and Susan had claimed they’d just argue. Maybe she was right. Their relationship had seemed out of whack lately, and he wasn’t sure it was only their differing opinions about the proposed town project. But what was it? Evan leaving for college?
For a long time, Chris stared at the buck grazing nearby, but when it disappeared into the woods again, he went into the office. Might as well get something accomplished. He fired up the computer, and then tried to bury himself in his work.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” a voice asked twenty minutes later.
He looked up and saw his coworker John Marley strolling through the door. John was the newest addition to the staff and had earned Chris’s approval because of his passionate commitment to environmental preservation.
“Thought I’d come in and get that report finished,” he told the younger man.
“I didn’t know it was so urgent.”
“It isn’t, but I was restless and figured tonight was as good a time as any.”
“If I had a wife as gorgeous as yours, I wouldn’t be working late on a Friday.”
With a weak grin, Chris shrugged. “I think she’s hanging out with a friend of ours. By the way, we thought you’d like to meet Mandy—if you’re interested. She’s pretty and lots of fun.”
“She isn’t a vegetarian, is she?” John asked warily. They’d had a few “discussions” on the subject and he was firmly in the meat eater’s corner.
“Nope.”
“Then I’d love to meet her.”
“I’ll try to set something up.” Even as he said it, Chris thought a double date could have been the way to make the evening work out with his wife. With another couple along, it might have kept the conversation more neutral.
It seemed forever since
last
Friday and the kind of hot sex they’d enjoyed before Evan had been born—and on their recent vacation. You couldn’t be as spontaneous when you had a child, though appreciating their freedom didn’t stop either of them from missing their son. Susan had wanted more kids, but he’d convinced her otherwise. It was true he cared about overpopulation, only he hadn’t confessed his second reason...the fear of losing her with another difficult pregnancy and delivery.
“Say,” John said, interrupting Chris’s thoughts. “Do you know anything about this request for watershed information from the city manager’s office?”
His eyes narrowing, Chris glanced at the sheet of paper his colleague held. He’d angrily tossed it into John’s in-basket earlier that afternoon, since it was the younger man’s specialty. The letter had sent him home in a bad mood, resulting in the argument with Susan...which had brought him back to the office. It was one devil of a revolving cycle.
“Haven’t you heard? They’re considering options for additional water sources.
Again.
The issue came up years ago, but I thought it had been closed,” he said stiffly. “I should have known better.”
John’s lip curled. “I could give them a less-than-honest report. But I won’t, however tempted I might be.”
“No, it wouldn’t be right,” Chris agreed heavily. “Besides, my father-in-law will probably pay for an outside report to cross-check anything we provide. He’s suspicious of ‘tree huggers.’”
“What does your father-in-law have to do with it?”
Chris let out an ironic chuckle. “You don’t know? He’s Joe Jensen.”
“Of the paper mill,
that
Joe Jensen?”
“Yup. He doesn’t care how much of our beautiful countryside he has to rip apart, so long as he gets water to expand and make more money.”
“Puts you in one hell of a spot with your wife, doesn’t it?” John observed perceptively.
“I’m used to it,” Chris answered, not wanting to discuss his marital woes, though Susan would probably unload on Mandy that evening.
“I’m through for the day,” John said at length. “You’ll lock up?”
“Yeah, I’m only going to stay for a little while.”
“See you Monday.”
“Right.”
Chris worked another hour, polishing the report, before switching off the computer. He generally got to the office early so he could be home by the time Susan finished at the mill or with her volunteer projects. It hadn’t thrilled him when she’d gone to work part-time as the paper mill’s financial officer. She’d wanted to be a stay-at-home mom when Evan was little, but when he was older, she’d trained in accounting and looked for a job.
As he came into his very quiet, very
empty
house a while later, Chris considered having a real beer. But that was a slippery slope. One could lead so easily to another, then six more, as it had for his father. He turned on the TV instead and found a historical documentary to watch.
It wasn’t much of an evening, especially remembering last Friday. But it was better than spending it arguing with his wife. Why was she sticking up for her father’s point of view?
Maybe it was old-fashioned, but Chris couldn’t help feeling that a husband and wife should be on the
same
side.
* * *
M
ANDY
SCOOPED
FUDGE
ripple into Susan’s dish, deciding on a much smaller serving of lemon sherbet for herself. After a bowl of potato chips and six servings of ice cream, she was nauseous.
Susan took the bowl and shoved a spoonful into her mouth; Mandy didn’t think she was really aware of what she was eating.
Pushing her sherbet away, Mandy told herself it was only an argument. Chris and Susan would work it out, she was sure of it. Chris loved his wife so much, he’d managed to live with the fact that his father-in-law held the opposite opinion on almost everything Chris believed in the most. And Susan had married him, knowing it would be a constant battle, but she’d loved Chris in return too much to let it stop her.
Of course, that didn’t mean there weren’t tensions beneath the surface.
“He seems to think I should adopt the exact same opinion as him, just because he’s the man and I’m his wife,” Susan grumbled. “He has all these enlightened ideas and then wham, one from the Dark Ages shows up. Strike that,
the Neanderthal age.
”
“Oh?” Mandy said, choosing her words carefully. “He never struck me as the caveman type.”
“He’s a man,” Susan answered, as if that was enough of an explanation. And it was true that some men still had a hard time getting away from old-fashioned attitudes. But Mandy had grown up with a father who was far worse, and brothers who could give lessons in regression, so Chris had seemed pretty fair-minded to her.
“It might not be that exactly,” she suggested. “People can go overboard when they’re arguing and say things they don’t completely mean.”
Her mind strayed to Daniel Whittier, and she wondered where he fell on the scale of progressiveness. She had been surprised to learn he’d been divorced and that his daughter would be living with him, which was a fair indicator his wife wasn’t interested in her own kid. It was good the girl had a dad who cared about her.
Mandy leaned forward. “I left my husband because he wanted to turn me into a Stepford wife, a clone of all those university wives I’d seen growing up. Surely things aren’t that bad, are they?” she asked carefully.
“I suppose not.” Susan made a face at her bowl. “If I eat any more ice cream, I’m going to be blotto.”
“You’re already a little pie-eyed,” Mandy joked, winning a small smile from her friend. “You’re welcome to spend the entire night, you know. I could make up the bed in the spare room. But is it where you truly want to be?”
“No. I just don’t want to go back to another argument.” Suddenly, Susan pushed herself off the couch. “Nevertheless, it’s almost nine and I’d better get going. Thanks for listening.”
“Anytime, you know that.”
Susan hugged her and left, her shoulders just as tense as when she’d arrived. Mandy put their ice cream bowls into the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen.
She could still go to a late movie, but wasn’t in the mood anymore after sharing Susan’s unhappiness all evening.
In every place she’d lived, Mandy had made good friends. They stayed in touch, mostly by email because they said that keeping up with her physical address was worse than chasing a shadow. Those friends had problems, too, and she’d written and sympathized, even phoned if things seemed especially tough. But their problems had never hit her as hard as what was happening with Chris and Susan.
Maybe it was because they had made a happy marriage look possible. Not necessarily for her, but for some people. Her parents’ lives seemed more like a collegial partnership than marriage, and she’d met a ton of people whose relationships were falling apart, or
had
fallen apart.
But if Susan and Chris couldn’t pull it off...
Mandy determinedly switched on the TV and tried to concentrate on a program, but when it was half-over, she realized she hadn’t paid any attention.
When the phone rang, she was grateful for the interruption.
“Hello.”
“Mandy, this is Daniel.” He sounded harried. “Sorry to call so late, but do you know where the water shutoff is over here? I’ve got water spraying all over the laundry room.”
“I’ll be right there.” She dropped the phone, grabbed a flashlight and raced out of the house.
CHAPTER EIGHT
M
ANDY
DASHED
AROUND
the side of the Victorian, Daniel following. Toward the back of the house, she squeezed between some bushes and the house and fumbled in the dark. Light suddenly shone on the area from Daniel’s flashlight, and she turned the shutoff valve.
“Okay, that should do it,” she said. “Let’s check the damage.”
“I appreciate the offer, but it’s not your problem. I’ll mop up and see if there’s a plumber available.”
“Fred Curtis is the only plumber in Willow’s Eve, and he won’t go out at night unless it’s an emergency.”
“This doesn’t constitute an emergency?”
“Not now, the flood has been stopped. There are plumbers in Vicksville, but it would take a while to get one here,
if
they’ll come. Let me check the problem.”
“Don’t tell me, you’re a plumber, in addition to being the Senior Center director?”
She laughed. “Not licensed, but I worked a few months as a plumber’s assistant. The gang got a kick out of teaching me how to do things.”
“What other skills are lurking under the skin? A couple months as a surgeon? Ambassador to France or Italy? Dance instructor at Juilliard?”
“Nope, but I can do plenty of things around a house. I don’t mess much with electrical, though. That stuff scares me.”
“Okay, come on in.”
They entered his house and Mandy surveyed the pools of water on the laundry room’s floor. “Let’s sweep what we can out the door,” she suggested.
“That’s probably best.”
Daniel found a broom and they swept as much of the fluid outside as they could. Then they sopped up the remaining water with towels until the laundry room was damp, but no longer flooded.
“Okay,” Mandy said once they were finished. “Where did the leak start?”
He showed her a spot by the utility sink.
“You know there’s a water shutoff valve under the sink, don’t you?” she asked.
“It wouldn’t move when I tried to turn it. Then water started leaking there, too, so I left it alone.”
She dropped onto the floor to check the valve. Then she looked up at Daniel. “I can replace both of these, but I’d need some parts. I’ll call Dorothy Tanner and see if her son will let me get the supplies at the hardware store.”
“Excuse me?”
“Dorothy’s son owns Jordan’s Hardware.”
“Why isn’t it Tanner Hardware?”
“Because he bought it from Tom Jordan and everyone was so used to calling it Jordan’s that he didn’t bother changing the name.”
Daniel frowned. “It’s after ten and hardly fair to call the poor guy out on a Friday evening.”
Mandy made a face. “It’s either that or go without water tonight. Besides, he only lives a couple of blocks away from the store. Of course, this is such a small town, nobody lives that far from anything. You got a phone book?”
* * *
D
ANIEL
WATCHED
AS
Mandy spoke with Dorothy, then put down the receiver.
“She has a key,” Mandy explained. “All we need to do is go by her house and get it.”
“You’re kidding. We can’t just walk into a store and take what we need. There are rules about this kind of thing.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’re not
taking
it. We have permission and I’ll leave a list of what I get so it can go on the town’s charge account. Old Man Bertram left money to maintain the house, so it’s covered outside the regular budget.”
Still unsure, Daniel drove Mandy to a house several blocks away where she ran to the door. A gray-haired woman waved at him as she handed something to Mandy.
At the store, Mandy put a key into the first lock, but Daniel put his hand out to stop her.
“Are you sure the owner won’t mind?” he asked.
“Dorothy called him. Tom would have met us here, but he’s got a hot poker game going at his place. He just said to be sure to lock up.”
“What if the police see us going in?”
“Dorothy called them, too. She might not be as forceful as her sister, Margaret, but Dorothy is just as efficient in her own way. Besides, they see this as a good opportunity to show you that Willow’s Eve is a terrific place to live.”
Her comment reminded Daniel of his conclusions the day he’d arrived...that there was a hidden agenda in the welcome he’d received.
He worded his reply carefully. “I wouldn’t leave just because I had to wait a night to get my water back. I’ve signed a year’s contract and plan to honor it.”
“Of course, but they’re thinking in the long-term. You know, more than a year.”
His jaw tightened. “I told them I would consider staying longer. But I have a career to consider, and hope to take on the challenge of managing a large city before long.”
Mandy stuck the key into the dead bolt and turned it. “As if I hadn’t figured
that
out already. You’re a type A personality all the way.”
“You don’t have to be type A to want a good career and provide a stable home environment for your daughter,” Daniel retorted, though she was partly right. He didn’t like labels, but he
was
success oriented.
Mandy’s lifestyle was a mystery to him. How could she just drift from place to place without building anything for herself? She’d talked about learning new things and having experiences, but what about financial security? What about a solid career and accomplishing something? He understood being reluctant to get married again, but not the rest of it.
Maybe he should keep Samantha and Mandy apart as much as possible. His neighbor’s chosen life was her own business, but Samantha was impressionable. More important, his daughter would be crushed if she became fond of Mandy, only to see her pull up stakes and disappear...not unlike his ex-wife. Celia showed little interest in her own child—to the point she had simply shrugged when he’d told her they were moving to Northern California, claiming, “Maybe it’s for the best.”
Lord, he would have gone ballistic if the Prada shoe was on the other foot and Celia had tried to take Samantha away from him.
Mandy opened the hardware store door and stepped cautiously inside the dark space.
“Dorothy said the light switch was on the right as we came in...
ouch,
” she yelped over a loud thud.
“Are you all right?”
“Sure, I said ‘ouch’ because I love stubbing my toe.”
The light came on and Daniel saw Mandy rubbing her right foot against the back of her left leg.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
“It will probably have to be amputated, but in the meantime, let’s find the parts we need.” She picked up a sledgehammer lying on the ground and put it to one side.
Mandy seemed familiar with the store, and Daniel watched as she went to the plumbing section and selected several items. She wrote a list and left it on the front counter under a paperweight, then they locked up and drove back to his house. The plumbing repairs were accomplished, yet he was apprehensive as Mandy went outside to turn the water back on.
She grinned when she returned and saw him checking for leaks around the repairs. “Not sure I knew what I was doing, right?” she challenged.
“No, of course...what I mean is that...okay, so I’m the kind of guy who uses professionals.”
“So that eliminates all the amateur...plumbers?”
Her lips quivered and her green eyes brimmed with laughter, but Daniel didn’t understand until after she’d said goodbye and left.
Hell.
She couldn’t have thought he actually meant...?
That was ridiculous. Maybe he
had
gotten too serious. The Daniel in college would have recognized a joke about prostitutes, even one delivered as subtly as Mandy had done it.
* * *
M
ANDY
SMILED
ALL
the way back to her house. It was fun yanking Daniel Whittier’s chain. And it was such an easy chain to locate.
She glanced at her watch; it was well after eleven, so driving into Vicksville for a movie was no longer an option. Instead, she slipped into the big claw-footed tub in the bathroom and soaked, sorting out the evening in her head. The last part, plumbing disaster included, had been considerably more fun than the earlier part. Regardless, it frustrated her she hadn’t checked the plumbing before Daniel moved in; she was the only member of the committee who’d had any knowledge in that direction.
She laid her head back on the porcelain tub, ignoring Mr. Spock, who was sitting on the bathroom threshold with a baleful glare—he didn’t approve of so much water.
It was upsetting to learn the Russells were fighting, yet at the same time, it was nice that Susan trusted her enough to come over when she was upset. A few weeks ago, she’d even mentioned how great it was to have a friend who wasn’t at all connected to the paper mill. Mandy understood. As a kid, practically everyone she’d known was tied to the college and her parents’ careers. She’d always felt as if she was on display...constantly being evaluated and judged.
Mandy raised her foot from the warm bathwater and wiggled her sore toe. It still throbbed from when she’d stubbed it on the sledgehammer, and the end was turning blue.
Klutzy move,
she mused.
Her thoughts returned to Susan and Chris. Ever since she’d met them five months ago, she had thought they had a picture-book marriage. Now Mandy realized she’d been fooling herself. From the hints Susan had dropped earlier, it sounded as if they’d simply brushed their problems out of sight, instead of dealing with them.
Depressed, Mandy got out of the tub and crawled under the sheets damp. It was nights like this she missed the idea of having someone in bed next to her. Not just for the sex, but for someone to laugh with and talk about stuff.
But if a couple like Susan and Chris didn’t really talk about the important things, she’d
never
find someone who understood and accepted her, even if she decided it was something she wanted.
Mandy turned over, trying to put the thought out of her mind. Daniel was making her restless. He was proof she could be attracted to someone the opposite of herself. He obviously liked rules and order and living life by a plan, focusing on his concept of success. It was a safe bet he already had a substantial retirement fund and a portfolio of investments. Well, unless his ex-wife had cleaned him out in the divorce.
Mandy didn’t know. She’d have to make other choices if she had a child to support, but she couldn’t see any reason not to go on doing exactly what she was doing. And if she found the perfect place to live someday, her own Shangri-la, then that would be great, too.
“Mr. Spock,” she called, and a moment later the cat landed on the mattress next to her. She swept a hand over his soft fur and he thumped himself flat, leaning against her ribs and laying his head against her shoulder.
“I don’t need another male in the bed, do I?” she said to him. “I’ve got you.”
His purr started rumbling, and with it sounding like a lullaby, Mandy drifted off to sleep.
* * *
M
ANDY
WOKE
EARLY
the next morning and decided to make oatmeal apple scones for breakfast. Once they came out of the oven, she slid one onto a plate and ventured out to the patio to eat with a big mug of tea.
It was a glorious day, the sun shining over the last pulses of summer, with just a hint of the coming fall touching the growth around her.
She’d eaten half her scone when she saw Daniel cross the yard to look at her over the sparse bushes.
“I’m not spying on you,” he said. “But I can’t help noticing when you’re there, especially when you’re wearing something bright.”
Mandy glanced down at her scarlet T-shirt and shorts. They weren’t the kind of clothing for covert action.
“I could hang a flag if there are times I want privacy,” she suggested. “That way when you saw it, you could pretend I’m not here. You could do the same when you want to work in the yard without being sociable.”
“An equitable arrangement,” he said. “Although I doubt Mr. Spock will respect it.”
“No, I think he’s decided your house is part of his territory.”
“I don’t mind. And besides, he might give Samantha a feel for having an animal around before we actually get one.”
“That’s nice. Do you still have water in the right places, and none in the wrong ones?”
“Thanks to you, yes.”
She made a face. “I feel bad about it. I should have checked to see if the sinks were okay when the welcome committee checked out the house.”
“It wasn’t your job. Besides, plumbing breakdowns simply happen, especially when a house has been vacant for a while.”
Mandy frowned. A lot of the time it felt as if she was supposed to be responsible for things that happened, especially if something went wrong. But Daniel was right. The committee’s job had been only to make sure the Victorian was clean and to provide basic supplies to help him get settled.
“Is something bothering you?” Daniel asked. “Besides this weird sense of responsibility you seem to get about things.”
“No.” She glanced at her plate. “You want a scone for breakfast? I’m having tea instead of coffee, but can make instant.”
“Tea is fine, and a scone sounds great.” He sniffed. “That must be what that wonderful scent is from.”
“Come on over. You’ll be doing me a favor.”
“Don’t tell me they’ll go to waste, too.”
“That depends on how you spell
waste,
” she said, and Daniel grinned appreciatively. “How do you like your tea? Black like your coffee?”
“The Irish way, with plenty of milk and sugar.”
That was the way Mandy liked it, too, so she quickly made him a cup and brought it out with a plate of scones. She wasn’t lonely, but being neighborly would be a way to offset any clashes at City Hall. And she had a feeling there were more clashes in the offing—their contacts so far suggested they had different approaches to how they did practically everything.
Daniel bit into a scone. “Mmm, delicious. But I’m getting fed again, and I actually came over to see if I could thank you with a meal or something.”