that either.
“Silas’s been trying to get me to look over the new tourism ventures some people here are starting,” he said, keeping it offhand. “Told me the mayor’s the one I need to speak to about it.”
April’s gaze turned shrewd. “Oh?”
“I’m not bad with money, so I offered to check out the financials for free.”
“Well, well, well. More than just a pretty face, huh?”
Damon grinned. “Hidden depths, you might say.”
She laughed. “It’s always the charming ones that are the most surprising. Well, the town could surely use someone with financial know-how looking over those ideas. Especially seeing as how most folk here keep their cash under a mattress and wouldn’t know compound interest if it bit them in the butt.”
“You do, I take it?”
April tapped the side of her nose. “Oh, I know my way around a greenback, don’t you worry.”
“Perhaps you should be the one looking them over,” Damon said, amused.
“No, better for that kind of thing to come from a neutral party.” April nodded sagely. “People get twitchy otherwise. Think you have ulterior motives, that kind of thing.”
Yeah, he could see that happening in a small place like this.
“Fair enough. So, I need to speak with her this morning because I’m taking off this afternoon.”
April’s face fell. “You’re leaving? But you only just got here.”
Disappointing a lady was never Damon’s favorite thing. Especially an elderly lady.
“My mom is in LA,” he said, giving her a little bit of truth. His mom wouldn’t mind that. “Have to get back to her.”
April’s expression softened. “Well, can’t argue with that, though it’s a real shame.”
Damon became aware of a constriction in his chest, as if part of him agreed that yes, it was a shame. But it was only slight. He’d never planned on staying here for longer than a few days, and now he couldn’t anyway.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll come say goodbye before I go.”
April waved a finger at him. “You’d better. Now, if you want to find Astrid, start with the mayor’s office above the tourism information center. But if you want to catch her, you’d better get there quick because she doesn’t stay for long.”
* * *
Astrid sat behind her desk in the mayoral office and ticked off another task on her considerable to-do list with some satisfaction.
It had been a productive morning.
She’d chatted to Gwen, Harry the survivalist’s hippie girlfriend, about the success of the hot yoga classes that they’d started up as a way of getting the townspeople more involved in fitness, and then Astrid had suggested running some nutrition classes at the community center in the evenings. Gwen was, as expected, very receptive and had also wanted to talk to Astrid about her eco-resort tourism idea, though Astrid had been a little too pressed for time to get into it in any detail.
She’d had to go and talk to Mal about the fruit and vegetable co-op she’d been trying to organize. Fresh produce was expensive in Deep River, mainly because the bulk of it was airfreighted in, and so Astrid had been looking at ways to get the prices down. There were a couple of growers in the area, including Clive Henderson who had a greenhouse, so she’d decided to put together a co-op, where people could pay a flat fee and get a box of fresh, in-season produce each week. Mal had agreed to organize and stock the boxes in the market, and because Mal was a good guy, he hadn’t wanted a cut, since people generally bought things from him whenever they went in there anyway.
It undercut his own products, but he’d told Astrid that airfreighting was a pain in the butt and he’d prefer it if people bought locally.
With the co-op now certain to happen, Astrid needed to visit Clive and a couple of the other growers and have a chat with them, which was going to take a bit of time.
Then she had to go over the ideas that people had been presenting for generating tourism in Deep River, not to mention go through the boxes that were waiting in the library for processing, since she also managed Deep River’s library.
She was busy. Which was just the way she preferred it.
Astrid had never wanted to be mayor, but it was an old Deep River tradition to elect someone who didn’t want the position. Sometimes, when the populace didn’t like the selection of candidates, they voted for someone totally random in protest. Jesse, the goat, was mayor for a month before