CHAPTER ONE
MAC
If one thingmade me feel like I was a child again, it was visiting my daddy at work. Except…I wasn’t exactly visiting him. In fact, I normally did everything I could toavoidit. But with my sister and one of my best friends working at town hall where the mayor spent all his time, it made trekking past his office nearly unavoidable.
Usually, I didn’t have a problem sneaking in. I’d long since established a routine to make this as easy as possible. And by as easy as possible, I, of course, meant no dad within viewing radius.
Most people might feel bad about dodging their fathers, but I wasn’t most people, and I could only assume those people didn’t have a daddy like Richard Haven.
Luck wasn’t on my side today, though, because some dumbass had locked my normal avoidance entrance—the back door no one was supposed to use unless in case of emergency. But if avoiding my father wasn’t an emergency, I didn’t know what was.
I’d nearly gotten past his door when he bellowed from inside. “Mac! What’re you doin’ sneakin’ on by? Don’t be rude. Get your butt in here and say hi to your daddy.”
I froze, my head dropping down between my shoulders as I sagged in defeat.
Okay, so my father wasn’tthatbad. He’d never abused us—physically, anyway, though his words sometimes left a lot to be desired—and neither I nor my three sisters had ever wanted for anything material.
We’d always had a (large and a bit ostentatious) roof over our heads, a spread of food fit for royalty, courtesy of our momma or gran and their amazing cooking, and only designer labels to grace our bodies. Because heaven forbid a Haven wear anything from a discount store. But if there was one person in the world who made me feel the smallest, it was my daddy.
And if there was one thing I hated most in the world, it was feeling small.
“Hey, Daddy,” I said as I entered his office.
I waved to Sally, my father’s newest assistant, who was furiously typing away—no doubt from some “urgent” matter Richard Haven had only deigned important enough to give her ten minutes prior.
Ever since my eldest sister, Rory, had left town hall to focus on King Haven Construction and Design—her new business with her boyfriend, Nash King—things had gone to shit in the mayor’s office. No one was supposed to know Richard had gone throughfourassistants in the past three months, but this was Havenbrook, and secrets didn’t stay secrets for long.
“What’re you doin’ here in the middle of the day?” he asked. “Don’t you have work or something?”
Work or somethingwas how my daddy had been referring to any kind of job I had had since…well, since I’d come back from Mississippi State mid-sophomore year, having flunked all my classes. And having absolutely zero desire to go back.
Instead of telling him I’d be working later that evening at The Willow Tree—or reminding him that I was a grown-ass woman capable of watching after my own schedule—I just said, “Nope.”
And that was it. I had learned a long time ago, it was best to stick to as few words as possible around him. Less ammunition for him to use against me later.
He grumbled something under his breath that I didn’t catch. If it was anything like the jabs he’d been taking at me for the past eight years, it wasn’t something I was particularly interested in hearing anyway.
“How’s the new assistant?” I asked, head tipped to where Sally furiously shuffled papers, her glasses sliding down her nose and gray-streaked hair disheveled.
It was eleven thirty in the morning, and the poor woman looked like she’d just spent three hours running through an obstacle course rather than sitting behind a desk in the mayor’s office.
Daddy didn’t even spare Sally a glance as he tapped a pen on his desk. “Dunno if this one’ll last.”
“Didn’t you say that about the last three?”
“Well, it was the truth, wasn’t it?”
I laughed. “Better be careful, or you’re gonna run out of eligible workers in Havenbrook. You’ll have to start pilfering from Parkersville.”
He waved a dismissive hand. “Plenty of folks right here in Havenbrook would love to work for me. Just have to find the right one.”
Ah, yes. That elusiveright one. Truth be told, Daddy had been lucky for the past ten years or so. His former assistant, Gloria, had been a hard worker who’d put up with just enough of his shit to make her life easier, but not so much that she was a pushover.
Trouble was, Gloria went on maternity leave last year and then decided to come back only part time. She and Rory had job-shared for months before Rory’d hightailed it out of dodge, too. But as of three months ago—right around the time Rory had left—Gloria’s husband had gotten a promotion with a fat pay raise, enabling her to quit entirely.
And poor old Dick was left with no one in their right mind wanting to work for the surly, antiquated bastard. Not that I could blame them.
“All right. Well, I’ll let you get back to…” I leaned over my father’s desk to peer at his screen. Solitaire. I barely restrained a snort. “Your important work,” I finished. “I’m meetin’ Will and Avery for lunch.”
