Materially, he had everything he could possibly want. A beautiful house in the hills outside San Jose and another one on Big Sur. A private jet at his disposal. A career he loved.
Because of him, his mother had enough money for beautiful houses in Tuscany and Paris if she wanted. He was fiercely proud of all he had achieved, despite his father’s harsh voice in his head, telling him he would never amount to anything.
Hondo scratched on the door to come back in. The dog greeted him with that same constant, dopey affection. He scratched at the sweet spot between his ears.
Okay, maybe lately Ben had sensed an emptiness to his life, a certain sort of void he wasn’t sure how to fill. He certainly didn’t need to start by jumping into something with a woman as completely inappropriate as McKenzie Shaw.
She was the last person who should interest him, whether he was looking for a quick fling or something longer term. She was inexorably linked to this town, like the crystal-blue waters of Lake Haven and the steep, craggy peaks of the Redemption Mountains.
He would just have to be careful to keep things between them on a purely professional basis. As they had enjoyed a lovely evening together, he could only hope maybe she wouldn’t give him the skunk eye every time she saw him.
He decided to consider that progress.
CHAPTER EIGHT
HER FIRST OFFICIAL Lake Haven Days as mayor was turning out to be an unqualified success.
McKenzie couldn’t help the burst of pride as she walked back up Lake Street after climbing out of Carl Christopher’s beautifully restored 1959 Thunderbird at the end of the parade route.
She had been half dreading the parade since her election in November. A whole hour of being the center of attention, of having to wave her little heart out and be “on” for all that time seemed exhausting and, quite honestly, more than a bit mortifying.
In reality, riding with the city council near the beginning of the parade in Carl’s beautiful red convertible—behind the grand marshal—had actually been tons of fun.
It provided an entirely new perspective, the chance to see everybody along the parade route—small children waving little flags in honor of Independence Day, teenagers trying to look too cool to catch the taffy and bubble gum tossed their way, the older people on their lawn chairs clustered in groups who waved back with enthusiasm and vigor and clapped along with the military marching band coming up behind the convertible.
A dozen times during the parade, she had been aware of a goofy, warm burst of pride as she smiled at neighbors and friends on the perfect July morning, with the beautiful lake and mountains as a backdrop. Her town. How grateful she was to be part of it.
As she had been riding at the beginning of the parade, she decided to walk back to the grandstand at the intersection of Lake Street and Main to catch the last half. Though she had quite a walk, she didn’t mind. It gave her a chance to wave again and even stop to visit with a few people along the way.
She paused on her way to watch the high school band go past and couldn’t help thinking how much they had improved since the year before, thanks in large part to the infusion of a musical family with two sets of twins at the high school.
“Great parade, Mayor,” a woman’s voice called out.
She glanced over and found Eppie and Hazel, along with Eppie’s husband, Ronald, the surviving husband who squired around both sisters.
“Thank you, my dear,” she answered Eppie. She headed toward them and leaned down to kiss both their wrinkled cheeks along with Ronald’s. He smiled at her but said nothing—which wasn’t unusual for him.
“Why, in all our years here, I think this is one of the very finest Lake Haven Days parades we’ve ever seen,” Hazel said. “And it’s so wonderful that it’s on July Fourth this year.”
Eppie’s blue eyes twinkled at her sister. “You just like all those hunky firefighters who came through first.”
Hazel cooled herself vigorously with a red, white and blue fan. “Not true,” she protested in indignation, then gave an impish grin. “It was all those soldiers who came through before the firefighters. You know I do love a man in uniform.”
They both gave earthy laughs that made McKenzie shake her head. “Ronald, make these women behave themselves.”
He gave her a long-suffering look, the darling. “Believe me, I wish I could.”
She laughed and kissed his cheek again, hugged both women and continued on her way.
After several more stops to chat, she made it to the courthouse, where special guests had positions of honor on risers brought over from the baseball field at the high school.
This is where the city council members’ families sat to wait for them as well as members of the Lake Haven Days organizing committee, the grand marshal’s family and other town dignitaries.
Much to her surprise, Ben was sitting on the third row back wearing a baseball cap and sandwiched between Carmela Rocca and Roxy Nash, who looked as if they were talking over each other a mile a minute.
He spotted her and sent her a helpless save me sort of look, which she ignored. Instead, she gave him a smile and wave and headed over to sit by Edwin and Archie.
As it turned out, she had been so busy visiting on her way back to the grandstand that she caught only about five minutes of actual parade. She was able to see the search-and-rescue mounted posse riding past in formation, followed by a couple of young teens on an all-terrain vehicle and wagon on horse manure cleanup duty. After that came a flatbed trailer hauling one of the junior dance troupes, then Mike Bailey’s classic blue pickup bearing poster-board signs promoting his friend Luis Robles’s insurance company, and then finally one more patrol car to signal the parade was over.
Everybody clapped and stood up as it went past and the Lake Haven Parade became just another memory.
“Great parade, Mayor,” Edwin said with his customary smile.
“Thanks, but I didn’t have much to do with it. Marie and her committee did a great job,” she said, smiling at Marie, who had somewhat reluctantly agreed to organize the event this year.
Ben looked as if he was trying to head in her direction but he kept getting waylaid by people trying to talk to him.
She was struck again by the memory of that moment in his kitchen when he had almost kissed her. In the five days since, she had relived that moment a hundred times—the pulse of blood in her ears, the catch in her breathing, the thick anticipation curling through her.
And then the raw disappointment and regret when she had walked away.
She hadn’t seen him since, other than occasional glimpses in the evenings as he threw a ball for Hondo in the yard and once when she watched the two of them take off for a sunset cruise in his Killy.
How much longer would it take for him to realize he loved that dog and wouldn’t be able to find him a new home?
“Nice parade, Mayor.”
She turned at the welcome distraction from her thoughts to find one of her least favorite people in town, Gil Franklin.
“Thanks, Gil.”
The man considered himself her biggest rival. She mostly considered him a pain in the butt. He had served as mayor three consecutive terms until health reasons forced him to step down.
She hadn’t been completely truthful when she told Ben no one else had wanted the job. Gil would have liked to keep the job as mayor until his deathbed but his wife decided twelve years was long enough.
He made no secret that he thought she was far too young and inexperienced to do a good job as city administrator and was continually offering her what he probably thought was kindly advice but which she took as anything but kind.
“Personally, I wouldn’t have permitted those belly dancers, but I guess some people must not share my delicate sensibilities.”
“Apparently not.”
Ordinarily, she would have laughed at this overt criticism but this was the same kind of caustic nonsense he always tried to pull and she was growing a little tired of it.
“It was nice to see old Coach Radford as the grand marshal. Good man. Good man.”
“He is, indeed.”
“He led the Haven Point Eagles to an undefeated season and state championship back when my oldest was on the football team.”
“Yes. I know. That’s one of several reasons he was selected. That and his many years of service on the library board of directors.”
“He’s a great coach—but I do have to say, I find him a bit of an interesting choice this year, don’t you think?”
Not at all. She had even been the one to suggest Coach Radford’s name to the Lake Haven Days committee.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
Gil shrugged and his mustache quivered. “It’s just that I would have thought Aidan Caine the logical choice, considering how we all hope he has big plans to revitalize this town. Never hurts to send a few perks the man’s way. You can’t go wrong with a genuine gesture of goodwill.”
If they had selected Aidan, Gil would have found some reason to complain with the choice. She made herself smile politely.
“Good advice, as always. Thanks, Gil. We’ll definitely take that into consideration for next year.”
He gave a careful look around to see who might be standing near them before he turned back to her and spoke in a low voice.
“Speaking of Caine, what’s the story with Ben Kilpatrick coming back to town after all these years? Are he and Aidan up to something together?”
She wouldn’t tell him, even if she could, which made her feel about eight years old. “That’s something you’re going to have to take up with Ben, Gil.”
“I just might do that,” he said pompously. “We have the right to know what they’re planning for our town. The town hall meeting Aidan had with everyone after the holidays was well and good, where he talked about how he wants to revitalize the downtown area and some of his plans for new businesses, but I, for one, would like to see a few more specifics before we roll over and let the likes of Ben Kilpatrick walk all over us.”
“Nobody is letting anyone walk anywhere.”
“Ben Kilpatrick. Well, personally I think he’s got serious balls to show up after all he’s done to destroy this town. He ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. Instead, everybody’s sucking up to him like he’s some kind of hero. When I think of all the times I tried to get him to do something with the property he owned here during my time as mayor, I get mad enough to chew nails.”
As annoyed as she could get with Gil, the reminder felt as if he had poked her under the ribs with one of those figurative nails he wanted to chew.
She looked around the downtown area at all the shuttered buildings, the peeling paint. Aidan was working on revitalizing the buildings but it was a slow process, one property at a time.
If only Caine Tech would move the facility here, perhaps her town could begin to heal again. How could she convince Ben?
“He’s here now,” she said to Gil. “There’s a chance we can all work together to turn things around in Haven Point, but not if we let anger and resentment for the mistakes of the past stand in the way of progress. He trusted the wrong people and they took advantage of him and of this town and he didn’t care enough to check on them. Great harm was done here. We all know that, but at some point, we have to let that anger go and move on, for the good of Haven Point.”
Gil suddenly looked over her shoulder with a pained sort of look and she knew before she even heard his voice that when she turned, she would find Ben standing there.
“Nice speech, Mayor.”
How much had he heard? Most of it, probably. She could feel her face heat to be caught talking about him—but she hadn’t said anything to Gil that she hadn’t already said to Ben.
“I’m glad you think so,” she answered. “I’m working on letting go of my anger. Can you say the same?”
He gazed down at her out of those blue eyes the same color as the lake. For one arrested moment, she felt as if the rest of the crowd had just slipped away. The noise and laughter, the traffic that had resumed after the parade—all of it seemed to fade away, leaving only the two of them standing with a sweet summer breeze blowing off the lake.
With perfect, almost painful, clarity, she remembered that moment in his kitchen—the house settling around them, the tingling in her stomach, the soft hoot of an owl outside.
Oh, for crying out loud. She needed to shove that memory away once and for all. He hadn’t kissed her, thank heavens. She could still hold on to a little bit of sanity.
She drew in a sharp breath and jerked her gaze away. “Ben. You remember Gil Franklin. He was the previous mayor.”
Ben nodded to the older man. “Hello. Good to see you again. I went to school with your son, Scott, right?”
“Right. My oldest. The two of you played ball together.”
“I remember. He was a great shortstop with a hot bat. How is he?”
“Good. Good. He still plays in a couple of rec leagues and still has a hot bat. He’s an electrician in Boise. You would not believe the work coming his way. He could work round the clock if he wanted. He and his wife built a house last year that has to be five thousand square feet, at least, with six bedrooms and a four-car garage, including a guest suite that’s like a four-star hotel. The wife and I go stay with them whenever we can and it’s like having our own little condominium in the city.”
“That’s great. Good for Scott.”
Ben sounded genuinely happy for the other man, something she found a little endearing. Compared to his own success as the chief operating officer at Caine Tech, a five-thousand-square-foot house, even with a four-star guest suite, was probably nothing.
Gil went on to talk about his two other children, girls much younger than Ben that he probably had never even met, but Ben still made polite conversation with the man and seemed genuinely interested.
It offered fresh perspective on the man she wasn’t completely comfortable about, that he could share small talk and set others at ease. She didn’t know how long Gil would have kept up the mostly one-sided conversation if his wife, Nancy, hadn’t stepped up with an impatient look.
“Gil, we’d better go. Aren’t you supposed to be selling brooms and raffle tickets for the Lions Club over at the fair? Hi, McKenzie.”
She smiled at Mrs. Franklin, who volunteered at the library several days a week. “Hello. Good to see you.”
“If I didn’t have my wife to keep me on schedule, I wouldn’t remember to breathe in the morning—at least according to her.” Gil shook his balding head. “But she’s right, I do have to run. Good to talk to you, Kilpatrick.”
How had Gil so easily shifted from being antagonistic and angry toward Ben to just about eating out of his hand? Ben had a way of making people think he was genuinely interested in them. Was it an act or sincere? And had she been stupid enough to fall for the same thing?
After Gil and Nancy took off for the fair, she and Ben were alone—except for the dozens of other people still hanging out at the grandstand, anyway.
“So,” she began. “You haven’t been to a Lake Haven Days in years.”
“Looks like a few more people come out than I remember.”
“It’s become a big summer event in the region. People come from miles around to enjoy the lake and our quaint small-town celebration. There are a dozen activities going on around town. A quilt show, an antiques sale, a craft fair over at Lake Park. There’s a baseball tournament over at the sports complex all day long and a tractor pull over at the fairgrounds. Oh, and don’t forget the wooden boat festival. There’s a regatta down at the marina and a boat show. People come
from hundreds of miles away to show off their boats. You’ll see plenty of Kilpatricks.”
“That sounds good. I think I’ll wander over to the regatta.” He looked down at her. “You don’t have to entertain me all day, you know. I can probably find my way there on my own.”
He was giving her an excellent out so she didn’t have to spend the day trying to resist temptation. She had a dozen things to do as part of her mayoral responsibilities. No matter the activity, from the Dutch-oven cook-off to the horseshoe tournament, people expected the mayor to show up.
It was also going to be a crazy-busy day at the store, with all the increased downtown traffic, but Lindy-Grace had assured her she could handle things.
No other demands were urgent. She mentally scanned the day’s schedule and decided she could adjust things and spend an hour or so with Ben at the boat show.
None of the other activities were nearly as appealing, which ought to set off alarm bells in her head.
She rationalized that an important part of her responsibilities as mayor was to promote Haven Point, to convince Ben that Caine Tech could come up with no better community for the company’s new facility.
How could she possibly accomplish her goal if she went out of her way to avoid the man?
She could manage to handle this inconvenient attraction for an hour or so. It was the least she could do for the town and the people she loved.
“Great. Let’s head for the marina, then.”
* * *
DESPITE THE CLOUDS of earlier in the morning that had clung to the mountain peaks in fragile wisps, the day had turned out to be a beautiful one.
The breeze off the lake was sweet and the perfect temperature for a late morning in July, pleasant and mild.
Ben walked beside McKenzie, struggling to accept the rather unnerving realization that for this exact moment in time, he couldn’t imagine anywhere else he would rather be.
He frowned, gazing out at the lake. Something must be wrong with him—either that, or the pleasure of McKenzie’s company was crowding out all common sense.
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