Susan Mallery - Until We Touch

Her three friends stared at her. “And that would be?” Isabel prodded.

These women loved her, Larissa reminded herself. They wouldn’t laugh and point. Or if they did, it would be when she wasn’t in the room, which was almost the same thing.

“My mom went to see Jack. She asked him to fire me so I’d move back to L.A. and get married and give her grandchildren.”

Dellina frowned. “Okay, that’s not great, but it’s not horrible, either.”

“There’s more,” Larissa admitted. “She said the reason I had to leave Fool’s Gold was that I was secretly in love with Jack.”

She paused, waiting for the hysterical laughter. Or any laughter. Instead, the three women exchanged a look.

Larissa felt herself start to blush. “I’m not in love with Jack,” she insisted. “I’m not. I work for him. He’s great. But there’s nothing between us.”

“If you say so,” Isabel said knowingly.

“If Felicia were with us, she would say that the boss-secretary romance is a classic archetype,” Dellina said.

“I’m not his secretary.”

“Close enough,” Taryn told her, then picked up her drink. “If you say you’re not in love with him, then I believe you.”

Just then, Jo appeared with the nachos and the subject got dropped. Larissa reached for a chip, but found that she wasn’t the least bit hungry all of a sudden.

This was all her mother’s fault, she thought grimly. She’d opened a can of worms. Larissa was going to have to find every last one of them and put them back where they belonged.

CHAPTER TWO

BEING CALLED IN to see Mayor Marsha was a bit like playing against a rival team, without knowing anything about them, Jack thought as he headed up the stairs toward the good mayor’s office. There was always the potential for something unlikely to happen—and not in a happy way.

Mayor Marsha was California’s longest-serving mayor. Not only did she get intimately involved with the residents of her town, she seemed to know everything and no one knew how. Jack tended to be wary of people like that. He preferred life to be blurry. Honesty could be uncomfortable. Like his talk with Larissa’s mom. He could have gone his whole life without hearing those words.

Larissa had reassured him, which he appreciated, but being relieved and forgetting were two different things.

He paused outside the mayor’s office. A pretty redhead smiled up at him. “Hi, Jack. You can go on in.”

Jack nodded, thinking he should know the receptionist. He was sure he’d met her before. She was friends with Taryn and Larissa, he thought as he entered the mayor’s office.

Mayor Marsha was in her sixties, with white hair and a habit of wearing pearls. Now that he thought of it, he wasn’t sure he’d seen the woman wearing anything but a suit.

What concerned him more than her appearance, however, was her habit of getting other people to commit to things they didn’t want to do. No way he was going to be guilted into something, he told himself. He was a tough ex-jock. She was no match for him.

“Jack,” she said warmly as she stood. “Thank you so much for coming by to see me.”

“Ma’am.” He crossed to her desk and shook her hand.

She motioned to the seating arrangement in the corner. “Let’s get more comfortable.”

As they crossed the floor, he remembered something about her having been gone for a couple of weeks. “How was your vacation?” he asked.

“Very relaxing.” She settled on one of the chairs.

He took the sofa and realized immediately he was now sitting below her. Clever, he thought, respecting her power play. He was right to be wary.

“I went to New Zealand,” she continued. “Beautiful country. Did you know a lot of our skiers go there to train in the summer? Of course, it’s during their winter.”

Jack did his best to look interested as he waited for the mayor to get to the point. He hadn’t been summoned to talk about skiing.

Her gaze settled on his face. “I’ve followed your philanthropic work with some interest.”

Jack felt himself tense. He consciously relaxed and waited for her to continue.

“With the organ transplants,” she added.

Because that was his cause, he thought. Being a star with the NFL came with plenty of perks and some obligations. One was the expectation that he would take on a cause. Finding his had been easy and over his career he’d often spoken out about the importance of organ donation and transplants.

“I’m happy to help where I can,” he said easily, knowing it was true. Larissa handled the logistics and he showed up every now and then. She was able to serve a cause, which she loved, and he got to pretend he was involved. A situation that worked for both of them.

“The family connection must make it even more meaningful,” the mayor said.

Jack had known that was coming so he was able to nod. “Of course.”

“You lost a brother,” the mayor said. “Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“A twin?”

“Yes.”

An identical twin, Jack added silently. Only somewhere in utero, Lucas’s heart hadn’t formed right. Cells had misstepped or stopped dividing or something. The doctors had never been able to explain it well enough for him to understand. Or maybe they just didn’t know, he thought grimly. So one brother had been born perfectly healthy and the other...hadn’t.

Jack didn’t want to go there. He didn’t want to remember what it was like to grow up always worrying about his twin. He didn’t want to feel the guilt that came with being the one who never got sick, never felt weak, never wondered if he was going to make it to his fifth birthday or his tenth.

Jack knew where this was going now. Mayor Marsha wanted his help. Or more specifically, the money his presence would bring. She knew a family who needed help paying for surgery or finding temporary housing while their child went through a grueling but lifesaving surgery.

Easy as pie, he thought. Or in his case, as easy as telling Larissa what needed to be done.

“Who’s the family?” he asked.

The older woman smiled. “Oh, I don’t need your help with a transplant patient, Jack. It’s something else entirely. Are you aware that we have a four-year college here in town?”

The change in topic surprised him. “Uh, sure. UC Fool’s Gold.”

“Cal U Fool’s Gold, actually, but yes. They have an excellent academic reputation and they’re doing some work with UC Davis to expand the enology department.”

“The what?”

“The study of wine. Our vineyards are doing very well here and we’re starting to be known as a small but prestigious region. We’re petitioning the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to make Fool’s Gold an AVA.” She paused. “American Viticulture Area. For example, the Napa Valley is an AVA here in California. There’s also Red Mountain in Washington State. We want a Fool’s Gold AVA.”

“Okay,” Jack said slowly. “I don’t know anything about growing wine or AVAs.” Although he did enjoy a nice merlot.

“Of course you don’t,” Mayor Marsha told him. “I invited you here to discuss football.”

Jack’s head hurt from the lightning fast change in topics. The old girl sure knew how to keep a guy confused.

“You want help with your fantasy team?” he asked cautiously.

The mayor laughed. “No, but thank you for that offer. My problem is more real world than that. Cal U Fool’s Gold needs a new football coach. Well, more than that. The school needs a whole program.”

Coaching? A program? “Not my area of expertise. The athletic director handles that sort of thing, in conjunction with the chancellor and the president of the college. There are also headhunters who specialize in finding coaches.”