door opened. “Mayor Langston, is it all right if I leave for the day? My son has his first soccer practice tonight and—”
Mariella Vency, his executive assistant, was a single mother whose teenage son had a tendency to get into trouble. He knew that she was trying to encourage better behavior through participation in organized sports. They’d recently moved to Bay Point from Los Angeles, and the boy had few friends.
She paused and moved nearer. “Mayor Langston, are you okay?”
Gregory reluctantly turned around. “I’m fine.”
Her brows knitted together in concern. “Are you sure?”
He forced a smile, nodding. “We’ve had a couple of late nights lately. You deserve the night off.”
Mariella grinned and looked relieved. She was a pretty woman and, as far as he knew, unattached. But she wasn’t his type, and besides, he valued her too much as an employee—and valued his own reputation too much—to get involved romantically.
“Thanks, Mayor. I’ll just leave these phone messages on your desk.”
“A parting gift, Mariella? Thanks a lot,” he replied in a mock hurt tone, even though he knew it wasn’t her fault that all of a sudden he was the most hated man in Bay Point.
She gave him an apologetic smile and cast a worried glance outside. “You’d better leave soon, too. It’s clouding up out there.”
Gregory glanced over his shoulder and saw fat gray clouds stretching and rolling like rumpled sheets across the late-afternoon sky, just above the horizon.
“You’re right,” he said, turning back. “A storm is brewing.”
“I just hope the rain holds off for practice.”
He nodded again. “Have fun, and see you tomorrow.”
As soon as Mariella closed the door, Gregory cranked the window shut.
Still, he couldn’t take his eyes away from the sky. It could have been his imagination, but it seemed as though the sun gleamed brighter now, ever valiant against the dark clouds. He pressed his palm against the warm glass. The low heat of April was just a kiss of what was to come in a few months, but the light ocean breezes always evened out the hot summer days.
The weather was one of the things he loved most about living in California; the other was being mayor of Bay Point.
He couldn’t let anything, or anyone, screw up his plans for the city or for the carousel. People were entitled to their opinions, but the bottom line was that everyone knew things had to change in Bay Point, and he was the only one with the power to do it.
Gregory turned away from the window, slid his trademark black fedora on his head and quickly checked his appearance in the full-length mirror behind his office door.
The entire town was counting on him. He had no choice but to push aside his fears and trust Vanessa...a woman he barely knew.
The bell on the door tinkled, and Vanessa’s head snapped up. No matter how she felt on a particular day, the merry sound always cheered her and made her smile. But when she saw who had entered her shop, her lips drooped into a frown.
In his entire term in office, Mayor Langston had never once set foot in her store. Why now? she wondered, her eyes narrowing.
He shut the door, looked about the room and wrinkled his nose.
Didn’t the man like flowers? she thought with dismay, watching him walk toward her.
She regarded him coolly while at the same time trying not to gawk. She had to admit that despite what she thought and felt about his politics, Gregory was as breathtaking as a drive down the Pacific coast.
His skin, burnished an even deeper brown from the California sun, held not a bit of shine. He wore a dark gray suit that looked as if it had leaped from the hanger right onto him. It was so clean and perfectly tailored. And though she knew he wasn’t much older than she was, he oozed the wisdom and class of powerful men twice her age.
Mrs. Barnell, the widowed owner of Bay Point Bed & Breakfast, was at the counter fussing over her daily floral arrangement. She always had a fresh bouquet in the foyer of her establishment, and even though Vanessa offered to deliver it right to her door, she insisted on picking it up herself. Vanessa suspected the woman was lonely.
“These California poppies are just gorgeous, don’t you think?”
Vanessa barely heard Mrs. Barnell’s question, so focused was she on Gregory, who was now standing a foot or so behind the elderly woman.
He swept the hat from his head, a careless gesture that also managed to seem purposeful at the same time. It made her knees feel brittle, even though she was standing perfectly straight, and she grasped the edge of the counter to maintain her balance.
“I agree. Utterly gorgeous.”
Vanessa parted her lips in shock. Instinctively, she knew that hidden in Gregory’s seemingly offhand response was something meant to be discovered by her alone, though she had no way of proving it. In the confines of the small room, his deep bass seemed like a hum, both sustaining and drawing energy, and the vibrations from his tone played low and pleasurably in her belly.
His hazel eyes held hers in a way he had no right to do, and a buzz of heat rose in her cheeks. She discreetly swallowed and her insides lit up, kindled by his intense gaze. It was clear that his comment had nothing to do with California poppies and, strangely, everything to do with her.
Mrs. Barnell turned and her mouth dropped open. “Mayor Langston! I was so busy fooling with these flowers that I didn’t hear you come in,” she gushed, her smile warm and genuine.
Vanessa’s heart beat faster as Gregory approached the counter. He rested one palm on the glass, not too far from her hand, and cleared his throat.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, ladies.”
“No need to apologize, Mayor,” Mrs. Barnell insisted brightly. She patted her silver-laden black hair. The style, though outdated, was attractive on her and reminded Vanessa of an ’80s soap opera where the women were catty and mean.
But Mrs. Barnell wasn’t anything like those characters. She was softhearted and kind. Still, her face virtually beamed in the presence of Bay Point’s most esteemed political official. It made Vanessa want to gag.
“Right, dear?”
She forced a tight smile. “Absolutely not. What can I do for you, Mayor? As you can see, I’m with a customer.”
Vanessa hated to sound so impersonal. Maisie was more than a customer; she was a good friend. But for some reason, she found it exasperating that Maisie was being so nice to the mayor, that she was being the only person she knew how to be. Didn’t the woman realize he was trying to destroy Bay Point?
Gregory smiled, his teeth gleaming
