When We Met

“Good, yours?”

“I went to a conference in Sacramento.”

“Greenpeace?”

“No, but it was on animal rescue and preservation.” Larissa leaned forward. “What do you know about marmosets?”

Taryn shook her head. “No.”

“But they’re adorable.”

“No. Don’t even think about it. No monkeys. Not here and not at your apartment. No.”

“But...”

“No. I mean it, Larissa. Don’t go there. We’ll all regret it.”

* * *

“YOU SHOULD BE happy I’m coming with you,” Jack said as they drove through town.

“That remains to be seen,” Taryn grumbled, not sure how she ended up having to be the one to talk to Mayor Marsha about the town slogan. Although it wasn’t as if she could have let Kenny and Jack go by themselves. Heaven only knew what they would have said.

He parked his Mercedes in front of City Hall and walked around to help her out of the car. As he put his hand on the small of her back and guided her up the steps, she had to admit that for all her complaints about the boys, they were basically good men with nice manners. Even better, they respected women, paid their bills on time and in Jack’s case, put up with Larissa’s craziness.

“By the way,” she said. “If Larissa says anything about a marmoset, tell her no.”

Jack frowned. “What are they? Monkeys?”

“Yes, and they bite. I checked them out on the internet. They’re wild animals and we don’t want them anywhere but in their natural habitat. Which is not your house, by the way.”

“Okay.”

Taryn glanced at him. “Really?”

Jack shrugged. “Sure. I can stand up to her.”

Taryn laughed. “Yeah, we’ve all seen that happen.”

“You’re saying I can’t?”

“I’m saying you won’t. There’s a difference.”

They walked into the old building. Taryn paused to take in the architecture. There were murals and a wide staircase. All very pretty when she wasn’t there to deliver bad news and no doubt get sucked into doing something she didn’t want to do.

“I blame you for this,” she told Jack.

“We’re giving back to the community. That’s a good thing.”

“I’ll remind you of that later, when I’m beating you with a stick.”

He winked at her and pointed to the stairs. “Mayor’s office is that way.”

“How do you know?”

“I’m a man of mystery.”

“You probably looked it up before we left.”

“That, too.”

They went up to the second floor. As they approached the mayor’s office, a woman came out of another office and walked toward them. Taryn recognized the beautiful, pregnant redhead. Felicia Boylan was in charge of festivals in town. Taryn had met her when she’d first come to check out the town. Felicia was extremely intelligent and more than a little blunt. Taryn admired her for both qualities.

“Good afternoon,” Felicia said as she approached. “Mayor Marsha asked me to sit in on the meeting. If the town slogan is changing, we’ll have to address that in our advertising for the festivals. Depending on what the change is, we can use it to our advantage. Although I must point out that there are costs involved. Printed material, banners, updating online.”

Jack looked startled by the information that accompanied the greeting. Taryn only smiled.

“Nice to see you,” she said. “I agree, there will be costs. The question comes down to value.”

“I like the slogan,” Felicia murmured, leading the way into the waiting area by the mayor’s office. “I have my own Fool’s Gold happy ending.”

Jack made a choking sound. Taryn looked at the other woman’s baby bump and knew exactly what he was thinking. She elbowed him to keep him quiet.

As they approached the double doors leading to the mayor’s private office, she saw an older woman sitting at a desk.

“Hi, Marjorie,” Felicia said, smiling at her. “Should we go in?”

Marjorie nodded and motioned to the half-open door.

Mayor Marsha was waiting for them. She shook their hands, then led them over to a small conference table by the window. The mayor was dressed in a suit, with her hair up in a bun and pearls around her neck.

“How can I help you two?” she asked when they were all seated.

Taryn glanced at Jack, who smiled back. She held in a sigh. Obviously he was going to make her do all the talking.

She wished she’d brought paperwork. Handing out files was always a nice distraction. But what was she supposed to do? Diagram out a “happy ending”?

“We’re concerned about the town slogan,” Taryn began.

“So you said in your message.” The mayor looked pleasant but not overly interested. “Fool’s Gold has been the land of happy endings for nearly a hundred years. I’m not sure we want to change now.”

Jack started to chuckle. Taryn glared at him.

“I agree with the mayor,” Felicia began. “People come here and fall in love. The happy ending is—”

She froze, her mouth still open, as if she were going to continue speaking. Then her jaw dropped and her green eyes widened. “Oh no.” She turned to the mayor. “They’re right. The land of happy endings. ‘Happy ending’ is a euphemism for a male orgasm. Like at the end of a massage. When the female masseuse stimulates the man’s penis until he—”

“Thank you,” Mayor Marsha said forcefully. “I get it.” Color stained her cheeks. “None of us ever thought of the name that way, but now that you’ve pointed it out, it seems like something we should have noticed long before this.”

Taryn resisted the urge to squirm in her seat. “Yes, well, Jack, Kenny and Sam noticed it. For obvious reasons.”

“They’re immature and driven by their need to ejaculate?” Felicia asked.

Taryn grinned. “Yes, that would be it.”

“Hey,” Jack said, sounded wounded. “There’s more to us than that.”

Felicia nodded. “Yes, of course. You have emotional depths. It’s just the male drive for orgasm is very powerful. It can cause focus problems and poor decision making.” She leaned toward him. “I’ve noticed that falling in love and making a long-term commitment tends to redirect a man’s sexual energy. When a man has a partner he truly loves, he is more able to direct his energies in positive ways.”

The mayor cleared her throat. “Perhaps we could keep on the topic at hand. The town slogan.”

“We’re working on several options,” Taryn said. “If you want to hear them at a later time. Or you could brainstorm in-house.”

“I think I’ll leave this to the professionals. Do you have any idea what direction you’ll be going in?”

Jack started to speak, but Taryn glared at him again. No way she wanted him telling the mayor anything like Fool’s Gold—Where Men Are Finally Coming.

“It’s early yet,” Taryn said instead. “Let me put together a presentation.”

“That would be helpful,” Mayor Marsha told her as she rose. “The work will be pro bono.”

The words were a statement, not a question. Taryn nodded. Later she would take up the matter with the boys. But as they’d created the problem by noticing it in the first place, she didn’t think they would be in much of a position to complain.

They all shook hands again and the three of them left. Once they were in the hallway, Felicia turned to Jack.

“I have to discuss a matter with Taryn. It’s female in nature and will upset you. I suggest you leave now.”

Jack glanced between them. “You don’t have to tell me twice,” he said. “Call when you want me to come get you.”

He practically flew down the stairs.

Felicia pointed to a bench in the open hallway. Taryn sat next to her and waited. She couldn’t imagine what the other woman would want to talk to her about. Especially under a “female nature” topic.

Felicia angled toward her. “As you know, I’m pregnant.”

Taryn glanced at her baby bump and nodded. “You’re past the point of hiding that from anyone.”

Felicia smiled. “Gideon and I started trying in December. I believe I got pregnant right away. I took the test the morning of our wedding and it was positive.” Her smile faded. “I’m having a girl.”

“I don’t understand. You wanted a boy?”

“No. I would have been equally happy with a child of either sex. My concern is Gideon has a son. Carter is very helpful and informative. I had thought to draw on his memories of his childhood to help me be a better mother. But he’s concerned his experiences as a boy won’t give me enough information when it comes to raising a girl.”

Taryn didn’t know Felicia’s whole story. She’d heard bits and pieces—that Felicia had been so intelligent as a young kid that her parents had been afraid of her. As a result, she’d been raised in a university lab. Somehow she’d made her way to the military, where she’d been a logistics expert for a Special Forces team. Now she ran the festivals in town.

While her background was extraordinary, Taryn could see how Felicia would feel unprepared to be a parent. “How can I help? I don’t have kids of my own. Or a lot of experience with them.”

“That is true. However, you and Angel are working together with a new FWM grove. I’ve talked a lot to Patience about raising Lillie, but I would like a more robust amount of information. I would like very much to come to a meeting and observe the girls. I thought spending time like that would help me understand them better.”

Had the request come from anyone else, Taryn would have told the woman to suck it up and get over it. That having a child would be an on-the-job training experience, as it had been for millions of women. But she knew Felicia was different. Taryn knew all about never quite fitting in. Felicia had experienced it because she was so intelligent. Taryn had been an outsider growing up because no one could be allowed to get close enough to guess the family secrets.

She lightly touched Felicia’s arm. “There’s going to be a mother-daughter tea. Angel just texted me about it.” She smiled. “He’s totally freaked, which is pretty fun. If you came to that, you can see the girls and how they are with their moms.”

Felicia nodded. “That would be wonderful and very informative. Thank you so much.” She paused. “I’d hug you, but I’m not sure our relationship has gotten to that level of intimacy and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Taryn laughed, then reached for the other woman. “Let’s be wild,” she said.

Felicia flung herself at Taryn and held on tight. When they’d both straightened, Felicia was wiping away tears.

“Hormones are very powerful. I find myself crying at the littlest things. It’s disconcerting. On the other hand, my sexual desire is significantly increased. Gideon says I’m exhausting him.” She smiled. “Which he adores.”

“You’re really weird,” Taryn said. “I like you, but you’re strange.”

“I know, but I’ve learned to live with it.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

ANGEL DISCOVERED THAT being a Grove Keeper took a whole lot more time than he had expected. It wasn’t the meetings with the girls that were the problem—it was how he was expected to attend biweekly Grove Keeper meetings. This time he’d dragged Taryn along. He’d said it was so he got all the details for the upcoming mother-daughter tea right, but the truth was he wanted the distraction of having her near him.

He liked being around her. Not just looking at her, but breathing the same air. He liked how she moved, how she spoke and how she laughed. Over the past few years, he’d discovered that he liked strong women with attitude. Marie had been like that, in her fiery Cajun way. She could cuss at him in languages he’d never heard.

Consuelo was tough, which was why he enjoyed rooming with her. She had simple rules, and if everybody followed them, life was smooth. If not, the offending party had a fifty-fifty chance of waking up with a scorpion in his bed.

Taryn was just as powerful, but on a completely different plane. She ran a multimillion-dollar business, kept former football players in line and then could spend an afternoon teaching seven-year-olds how to French-braid their hair.

As they walked into the conference room, he leaned close. “You ditched the power suit.”

“I wanted to fit in.”

He held in a grin. Her idea of fitting in was white capri pants with a black leaf design, a fitted short-sleeve white sweater and black wedge sandals with a bunch of straps. An outfit, he would guess, that cost more than the average car payment. Her handbag had a big bow on it and was made by somebody called Valentino. He didn’t know who Valentino was, but Angel would guess he or she had never come to Fool’s Gold.

They took their seats at the large table. Taryn leaned toward him. “The ladies like you.”

He glanced around at the other participants. They were mostly women, but that was to be expected. “There are a few dads who come to the meetings.”

“Yes, but you’re getting the special smiles.”

He flashed her a smile. “It’s the scar. Chicks dig scars.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Do they?”

Denise Hendrix walked to the front of the table, took her seat and called the meeting to order.

Each of the Keepers had to report on his or her grove. Angel waited until it was his turn, then stood and said the girls were doing well with their community service project. The puppies were responding well to the attention. He sat down as quickly as he could.