Their small economy was booming with the start of new restaurants and shops, but every time the coffers opened, the residents of Jasper Falls shared their opinions about where the money should be spent.
Opinions were as common as assholes. Everyone had one. And being mayor meant Rhett got an up close and personal whiff of each one. Some were harmless, but others really stunk.
He couldn’t renovate the park without justifying why they were not repainting the curbs. If one street got new landscaping, he needed to replenish all of the public gardens.
Some days, dealing with the unending complaints from the townsfolk was worse than fielding the one hundred how come questions he got from his four-year-old daughter. Speaking of…
He hadn’t emerged from his office since his meeting ended. The sky had darkened and the phones had stopped ringing hours ago. He closed out his emails and straightened his desk then went to find Addy.
Her tiny, sleeping body curled up on an upholstered chair in the waiting area, a tartan scarf draped over her arms like a blanket. Jan’s desk was tidy and her chair empty. All traces of constituents gone.
He turned to find Erin holding a freshly rinsed coffee pot. “You’re still here?”
She drifted past him, returning the kettle to its home and readied the grounds for the next morning. Her stocking feet were bare against the carpet. “You work late, I work late.”
His concern returned to his daughter. “Did she eat dinner?”
“Jan made her a cup of noodles.”
A sense of failure crowded him. His daughter deserved better then dehydrated noodles cooked in an office microwave.
Brushing a tangle of curls back from her face, he whispered, “Addison. It’s time to go home, sweetheart.”
Her eyes opened, and she bestowed a smile he didn’t deserve. “Daddy.” Wreathing her arms around him, he scooped her off the chair.
His body came to attention as the soft, wool scarf brushed against his face and he breathed in the delicious scent of cinnamon and vanilla. The subtle hint of perfume held a womanly appeal, completely contradictory to his daughter’s youthful scent, and his mind jerked to images of Skylar Marcelli.
Addison hooked her legs around his hip and he rubbed the wool between his forefinger and thumb. “Where did you get this?” He already knew, but he needed confirmation.
“Skylar gave it to me.”
“Do you like Ms. Marcelli?”
He wasn’t sure why using her surname felt safer than her first. Perhaps it was the knowledge that he was out of nannies and needed this arrangement to work. No room for missteps.
Addison crunched her face. “Who’s that?”
“The woman you met today. That’s her name.”
“Nuh-uh. It’s Skylar.”
“Marcelli’s her last name.” They were getting off track. “Did you like her?”
She nodded. “She rescued my b’loon.”
“Would you like to see her again?” She wouldn’t have a choice, but he was curious.
“Okay. I can give her back her scarf.”
“First we’ll have it cleaned.”
They waited as Erin gathered her coat and belongings, then locked up the office. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
She glanced back, her gaze lingering on Addison as she sighed. “Goodnight, Rhett.”
“See you tomorrow, Erin.”
Rhett had all intentions of adding the scarf to his dry cleaning that evening, but somehow the soft accessory skipped the pile of wrinkled shirts and jackets. He refolded the material and breathed in Skylar Marcelli’s recognizable fragrance, shutting his eyes and wondering why he found the fading scent so comforting.
It reminded him of department stores around the holidays or bakeries on Sunday mornings. There was something nostalgic but borrowed in the scent, something he knew didn’t belong in his memories, but captured a sense of longing he’d suppressed years ago. Maybe it smelled like a teacher.
Setting the folded scarf aside, he let his curiosity move to more pressing concerns. By the end of each week, he always felt like his world was on the verge of collapse. And since losing his last nanny, things had only gotten more hectic. Hiring Skylar Marcelli seemed like a good call.
Despite not knowing her, he couldn’t escape the gut instinct that she would be good for his daughter and that meant she would be good for their situation. He loved being a father. Addison was his entire world. The challenge rested in not just being her parent, but figuring out how to be a good parent, a role-model and dependable source of security, something he didn’t have while growing up.
He needed another term as mayor to continue all the changes he envisioned. If he got reelected, he stood a chance of building a community perfect for his daughter, a place where she would be safe and always know a sense of home.
Growing up in a situation with pronounced limits, he developed an obsession with knocking down barriers. If someone said something was impossible, he proved them wrong.
The biggest obstacle of his past had always been his background. People saw a boy dressed in hand-me-down rags with unkempt hair and assumed privilege would always be lacking in his life.