Until She Met Daniel

“Hi, Daddy,” his daughter’s timid voice greeted him. “I miss you.”

“I miss you, too, pumpkin. But it won’t be long before you and Grandma are here. Did you have a nice day?”

“Uh-huh. I made you a present.”

“I can’t wait to see it.”

“Mommy says it’s not very good.”

Daniel was tempted to tell her Mommy wasn’t worth listening to, but he was determined not to head down that road. Kids shouldn’t be the battleground for their parents; his mother and father had waged World War III throughout his childhood. They were the reason he’d considered never getting married in the first place. It hadn’t seemed worth the risk of going through that kind of pain. Now...? Well, he wouldn’t give up Samantha for anything, but there was little doubt that his own marriage had turned out badly.

“I’m sure your present is wonderful, darling,” he said gently. “And I’m glad you had a visit with your mommy.”

Samantha’s voice had a forlorn sound to it. “She came to look for a purse she forgot.”

Hell. What could he say? There weren’t any words to fix his child’s pain. He just hoped time and distance would help. “It’s still nice you got to see her.”

“I guess so.”

“You know what? I’d better go,” he said. “I’ve got to explore our new house some more and guess which bedroom you’ll want.”

“It can be a game,” Samantha answered, sounding brighter.

“You bet, and whoever wins, we’ll get a pizza to celebrate, with no little fishies on it.”

A giggle floated over the wires as he invoked an image from E.T., one of Samantha’s favorite movies.

“Can you tell your grandma ‘goodbye’ for me?” he asked.

“Sure. ’Bye, Daddy.”

“Good night.”

He hit the off button and glanced around the cavernous living room. The Victorian was going to dwarf the odd little family that they’d decided to form, and he hoped Samantha wouldn’t find it alarming after their cozy town house. Well, he didn’t have to stay for more than a year. He’d signed a twelve-month contract and promised to consider staying beyond that, but he’d been up-front about saying it was unlikely. He’d been the deputy city manager for a town of several hundred thousand and in line to get the top job the next year when the current manager retired, so Willow’s Eve was hardly a step forward. Or, maybe it was in some ways. Here he wouldn’t be anyone’s deputy, and that would look good on his résumé.

Daniel put everything away except for the box he would take to City Hall in the morning. He was just finishing when the doorbell rang.

Mandy Colson stood at the door with an elderly woman and a middle-aged man. The man was holding a large box.

“Hi, Daniel,” Mandy said. She gestured to the two people with her. “This is Jane Cutman and Clark Green. They’re part of the welcome committee.”

“Oh, thank you. Won’t you come in?” Daniel asked awkwardly, wishing they had waited before doing any welcomes. At the moment he was still groggy and his stomach was grumbling.

“Nope,” Mandy answered. “We just brought the groceries we planned to put in the fridge for you.”

With a cordial nod, Clark Green handed the box to Daniel.

“That’s very thoughtful,” Daniel said, unsure of the proper protocol in such a situation. He’d worked in places where they had a cake or given a plant to welcome a new employee, but that had been at the office, never something like this.

“We’ll go now,” Jane told him. “Mandy, dear, I’ll see you tomorrow at the center.”

“Sure thing.”

The other two left, but Mandy lingered. “I wanted to tell you that if you need anything, I’m next door.” She pointed at a sparse row of bushes on the left. “And Jane is on the other side of me in the yellow house, so now you’ve met two of your neighbors.”

Mandy lived next door? Daniel’s stomach did a peculiar, rolling swoop that had nothing to do with hunger.

“Uh, thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She turned and ran down the steps, and even in the long evening light, he couldn’t avoid noticing the sexy grace of her movements.

Daniel quickly clamped a lid on his response—there was no way he’d get involved with an employee. And right now his divorce was too fresh and painful to jump right back into the hazards of another relationship, especially with a woman whose nature seemed utterly foreign to his own more sedate personality.

In the kitchen he unpacked the box. Milk, eggs, cheese, bread, a small jar of instant coffee, lunch meat, yogurt and a basket of fruit. Nice. Just the sort of things to tide someone over until the person had a chance to go shopping. Yet a frown creased his forehead as he put the perishable items in the immaculate refrigerator. What hidden agenda had made them go overboard this way? Or at least it seemed overboard to him.

One of the things Daniel had learned over the years, there were always hidden agendas, but hopefully he wouldn’t encounter any in Willow’s Eve that caused serious problems. He’d have to proceed cautiously, just in case.

With that conclusion, he ate a sandwich and a banana, then went back to bed so he’d be well rested for his first day at City Hall. It was difficult to imagine staying in such a small town for longer than the twelve months he’d promised them, but while he was here, he would give them the best he had. There wasn’t any other way for him.

Early in the morning, Daniel drove by the Handy Spandy market and bought a cup of coffee before heading to City Hall. His office door was open and he examined the room with appreciation—the clutter had been cleared away, the bookshelves dusted and various miscellany removed. It now looked reasonably ready for work, and the large, airy size was appealing—his office in Southern California had been little more than a closet.

“Daniel?” Mandy stuck her head through a side door he hadn’t yet explored. “Hi. I thought I heard someone come in while I was double-checking the parlor for crumbs. If any food bits get left behind we can have an army of tiny critters, and that sort of involved citizen we don’t need at City Hall.”

He gestured around the office. “Somebody worked hard in here. It looks good.”

“Glad you think so.”

Daniel walked to the side door where she’d come in and saw the executive assistant’s space. While his own office had a separate door into the hallway, this would serve as a reception area for most visitors.

“Yeah, it’s a disaster,” Mandy said, agreeing with his silent assessment. “I thought about working on it, but I was, uh, busy last night.”

She didn’t have to look so embarrassed about having a date, or whatever else she’d been doing. Of course, she might think it wasn’t appropriate to mention her social life to a senior city official.

“Not at all,” he reassured her. “It’s just that this space gives people an immediate impression about City Hall and the city manager. Is the assistant on vacation, or does it normally look this way?”

“There isn’t one. That is, an assistant.”

“I don’t have an administrative assistant?”

“’Fraid not. The last one left when the old city manager retired. There’s a rumor they were secretly married, and she did leave town around the same time he moved away. That’s what people tell me, anyway. Some of the folks in Willow’s Eve love to speculate about everybody’s private lives. Anyway, then the council debated whether they needed a manager at all, but the mayor kept saying they did, and to please get a professional from outside the area. When they finally agreed, next came a discussion on the salary. They settled on making the city manager’s income generous enough to get someone with experience, but unfortunately, that didn’t leave enough in the budget for an assistant to sit in an office and direct traffic.”

“There’s more to administrative staff than directing traffic,” Daniel managed to say after sifting through the extraneous details Mandy seemed to throw out at will.

“True, but I can pitch in with paperwork if I have any spare time, and the clerks upstairs are expected to help, too. Ask for Barbara, Janey, Ben or Ariel. By the way, just so you understand, you’re not my supervisor, even if I end up helping with typing and so forth. That’s purely voluntary.”

There was a defiant tilt to her chin and a part of his brain wondered why, but at the moment he was still processing the fact he wouldn’t have any support staff. It was yet another reminder he hadn’t asked enough questions during his Skype interview with the Willow’s Eve city officials. Of course, he’d just finished comforting Samantha because her mother had forgotten to pick her up as promised...for the third time in a row. So he’d focused on making an impression good enough to secure the job and take his daughter away from the Los Angeles Basin. And the truth was, even if they had told him he wouldn’t have an administrative assistant, he still would have taken the job.

“Thank you, Ms. Colson,” he said. “I appreciate the information.”