“Not if one of those ‘friends’ is you,” she said. “I may be wrong, but somehow I don’t think there’s anything innocent about you.”
Tom didn’t even try to deny it. “It’s the dimple, isn’t it?” he said with exaggerated dismay.
“You, Mr. McDonald, are entirely too full of yourself. Something tells me you’re a player.”
“I was always told that self-confidence is a good trait. Did I get that wrong?” he asked worriedly.
“You say self-confidence,” she teased. “I say arrogance.”
“I’ll work on that,” he promised.
“We’ll see.”
“Hey, I’m all for self-improvement, especially if it means you’ll eventually say yes to having dinner with me.”
“Self-improvement should be its own reward,” she said. “Good night.”
“Do you need a lift?” he asked hopefully.
“No, thanks. I have my car.”
“Then, can you give me a lift?”
“What about the car in which you just offered to drive me home?”
He shrugged. “I’ll get it tomorrow.”
For the first time all evening, she laughed. “You’re incorrigible.”
He shrugged, unrepentant. “You’re not the first person to tell me that this weekend.”
“Apparently the women in your life are all on to you.”
“The other one was my mother,” he admitted.
“Well, I rest my case. She would definitely know.”
She climbed into her sporty little convertible, gave him a jaunty wave and drove off, leaving him in her dust. Being rejected by Jeanette Brioche was getting to be a little hard on his ego, which of course only made him more determined to win her over. He had a hunch he knew the rules of this game far better than she did and, in the end, he never lost. Not when something mattered to him.
* * *
Despite knowing that the Christmas committee would throw him into contact with the elusive Jeanette, Tom had hoped Howard would back off for a while. Unfortunately, when he arrived at work on Monday morning, it rapidly became evident that this was one area in which the mayor was highly efficient. Tom’s secretary beamed at him.
“The committee’s waiting for you in the conference room,” Teresa announced. “I’ve had coffee and doughnuts brought in.”
Tom frowned at her. “What committee? I don’t have a meeting on my calendar for this morning.”
Her smile never wavered. “Oh, dear, I must have forgotten to make a note of it on that calendar you insist on keeping yourself. It’s on the one I keep.”
“What committee, Teresa?” he repeated impatiently.
“Christmas festival, of course. I know Howard discussed it with you. He asked me to set it up.”
Sneaky SOB, Tom thought uncharitably. And as for Teresa and her annoying tendency to take orders from people like Howard Lewis, she did know more than anyone else about how this place operated. He needed her. Otherwise his career in public service in Serenity was going to be very short-lived. That might make his folks happy, but he didn’t want his career to falter even slightly because he’d offended a knowledgeable secretary within his first two weeks on the job.
“Okay, give me a quick rundown on the committee members,” he said, grimly determined to see this through. Once it was over, perhaps he could reconsider whether he was at all suited to a life of public service, after all. It had sounded darn noble once upon a time, but that was before he’d been confronted with making decisions about hanging snowflakes on the town green or whether Santa’s chair needed to be repainted with gold and adorned with glitter or whatever other little crises this committee dreamed up to waste his time. He was pretty sure nothing like this had ever been mentioned in any of his public-administration courses. And he definitely hadn’t run into this sort of thing during his tenure in the planning and finance departments of the other towns in which he’d worked.
He listened as Teresa described the makeup on the committee. In addition to Howard and Jeanette, the other two members were Ronnie Sullivan, who owned the hardware store on Main Street, and Mary Vaughn Lewis, the president of the chamber of commerce.
“You’ll want to watch out for Mary Vaughn,” Teresa added. “She’s bound to make a play for you. It’s what she does.”
Tom appreciated the warning, though he couldn’t help wondering if another woman’s interest might be just what he needed to spark a little life into the relationship he hoped to have with Jeanette. Then again, plans like that tended to backfire, he thought as he prepared to go to the meeting.
* * *
Jeanette sat at the conference table tapping her pen impatiently on the mahogany surface. She was thoroughly annoyed that she’d had to switch her entire schedule around at the spa to be here, but to make things worse, Tom was nowhere to be found.
Not that she was anxious to see him again. Dinner the night before had been awkward enough. She’d been rude, and she wasn’t likely to hear the end of it from Maddie anytime soon, either. Nor was she looking forward to more of Tom’s advances. She had a hunch he was persistent.
She turned to Mary Vaughn. “This is a waste of time,” she groused. “You could have sold another house this morning and I could have done two or three treatments. If the town manager isn’t here in five minutes I am out of here.”
Across the table Ronnie Sullivan, Dana Sue’s husband, winked at her. “Settle down, sugar. Things move at a slower pace in Serenity.”
“Tell that to Maddie,” she retorted.
He grinned. “The way I understand it, Madelyn is the one who sent you over here. I’m sure she knew what to expect.”
Discovering that Ronnie was on the committee had been a surprise. Dana Sue had never mentioned that. She wondered if Dana Sue had any idea that Mary Vaughn was on the committee, as well. No way, she concluded. If Dana Sue had known, she’d have been here herself, protecting her turf: Ronnie.
Jeanette stole another glance at Mary Vaughn, who was wearing one of her expensive designer suits, chunky gold
