Page 18 of The Birchwood House

If our house gets turned into a historical attraction,she thought with a grin,things will never get boring. There will always be someone new to meet and things to talk about.

She felt a surge of confidence in the answer that she’d given to Ruby. While it was true that she couldn’t know for sure how she would feel in the future, for the time being she was very happy living in Coral Sands.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Evan leaned back in his desk chair, blinking around his office as if he was waking up from a nap. He was not waking up from a nap at all—he’d spent the last two hours typing away on his computer and scanning important documents both on his screen and in paper form on his desk. He looked down at the stack of papers that he’d finished getting through and a small smile of satisfaction spread across his lips.

He liked working. It was something that took up all of his focus, as if it were some kind of high-stakes game he was playing that he was determined to win. When he was working, he didn’t think about anything else. If he wasn’t thinking about anything else, he didn’t have emotions about anything else. He liked it that way.

He usually got a great deal of work done, especially considering he didn’t have anything to focus on besides his work. He even hired a lawn service to take care of his yard. Since frozen dinners meant he didn’t have to cook, nearly all his time and effort went into his job as the mayor of Coral Sands.

He leaned his head to one side and then the other, noticing that he felt tense. He hadn’t even been aware of his posturewhile he was working, and he couldn’t deny that his body now contained a few stress knots.

He realized a moment later that he’d ploughed through so much work that there wouldn’t be much left for him to do the next day. He swallowed, wondering what he would do with himself if he didn’t have any work to do. Golf, maybe. He never really enjoyed golf, however.

Every once in a while this happened to him, this running out of work to do. He was too good at his job and he whipped through his tasks at an unusually efficient speed, even taking on tasks that most mayors would have assigned to assistants or other government officials. Evan liked working because it completely occupied his mind, and sometimes he thought to himself that he found work to be as stimulating as other men found hobbies such as rock climbing or motorcycling to be.

The truth of the matter was that he didn’t enjoy working all that much, but he didn’t have anything better to do with his time. He was just setting down his coffee cup, thinking to himself that he might get a refill, when there was a knock on his office door.

“Come in,” he said absent-mindedly, refreshing his email inbox to see if he’d gotten any new emails.

“Mayor McBride, there’s someone here who wants some information about getting a business permit,” his secretary said.

Evan looked up at her and was surprised to see that she was smiling. His secretary was a friendly person, but it was unusual for her expression to be quite this enthusiastic.

“Certainly,” he said, not meaning to sound gruff but sounding gruff anyway. His voice was like a rusty door that made a grating sound because of being seldom used.

His secretary disappeared and returned a few moments later with a woman. Evan caught sight of curly auburn hair, attractive bangs, and warm brown eyes, and for a split secondhe thought to himself that the woman coming into his office was exceedingly attractive. In the next second, he recognized her as the woman who had splashed her cappuccino all over his documents.

He blinked at her, and he had to stop himself from letting his jaw drop open. He’d thought that woman was some silly tourist. What on earth was she doing in his office, asking about business permits?

“Mayor McBride, this is Audrey Lowe,” said his secretary.

Audrey blinked at Evan, and she didn’t stop her mouth from popping open. “My goodness,” she said after a couple of heartbeats. “We—we’ve met. I—well, I didn’t expect to be speaking to the mayor himself. I forgot what a small town this is.”

Evan blinked at her for another couple of seconds. He had absolutely no idea what to say. “You got your hair done,” he said after a moment, and he was immediately disturbed by the revelation that he thought her hair looked fantastic. He cleared his throat far more loudly than was necessary. “I was just about to leave for the day. Perhaps we can take care of your needs another time?”

The secretary laughed. “Oh, he’s only joking Audrey. He never leaves the office before seven p.m.” She shot Evan an impish grin and left the room.

Evan felt his whole body go stiff with awkwardness as soon as the door closed, leaving him alone with Audrey. He cleared his throat again, wondering what he should say. Maybe if he paused for long enough, she would just start the conversation so he wouldn’t have to.

Her eyebrows lifted quizzically. “Is that true?”

Evan made a kind of grunting cough and straightened some papers on his desk that didn’t need to be straightened. “What do you need?”

“Well, I wanted to ask you about something.” She stepped closer to his desk eagerly, her face shining with enthusiasm. He twitched slightly and fought an impulse to move backward. “What would it take for me to turn my mother’s house into a historical attraction?”

“Your mother?” he asked, his brows furrowed with uncertainty.

“Elaine Sutton.”

“Oh.” He’d had no idea Elaine Sutton had a daughter in town. No, Elaine Sutton didn’t have a daughter in town. So this woman must be visiting. So why on earth did she care about getting permits for turning Elaine’s mansion into a historical site? “Well, Ms. Lowe, I wouldn’t bother with that kind of thing if I were you,” he said, trying for a moment to look at her face and instead settling his eyes on the wall directly above her head. “It would be quite a headache. Lots of permits. Lots of regulations. Not really something that would be worth your time, I think.”

Audrey lifted her chin almost defiantly, her body language seeming to say that she was accepting the challenge. He found himself somewhat attracted to her determined demeanor. “It might be difficult, but it’s a task I’m certain I can conquer,” she said.

“Very well,” Evan said after a short pause. He felt curious about why she was so adamant to turn the house into a historical site, but he decided not to ask her any questions about it. He rummaged in his filing cabinet for a few moments and pulled out the forms that she would need one by one. “Here you are,” he said, handing them to her. “You can fill all of these out and then bring them back to me.” He was about to add, “And don’t spill any coffee on them,” but he stopped himself, holding back a smile that surprised him with its suddenness.

“Sure. Okay, great,” she said, taking the papers and sloppily folding them in half before shoving them into her purse.