| |
I was still thinking about my lunch with Penny and Callie a few days later. It had been fun. Unexpected. Callie was a great kid and although Penny had been mostly quiet, I could feel the attraction humming between us. I wondered if it was just a shadow of the feelings we had as kids or if there was something else there, something more adult.
I was tempted to explore our feelings, but I had two hard and fast rules: I didn’t date anyone with kids, and I didn’t date anyone who lived in Diamond Bay. As my grandmother always told me, in her eloquent way, “You don’t shit where you eat.”
I nodded at a couple of locals as I wandered down the street on my way to the Friday morning department head meeting. The mayor led the weekly meeting, and it included myself as Sheriff, the fire chief, the Town Services manager and the Parks and Recreation manager. We were a tight little group and worked well together. Between us, we did a great job keeping Diamond Bay running.
The mayor’s admin handed me an agenda as I walked in. I smiled to myself. The mayor was old school, despite our best efforts we could not convince her to save some trees and email us the agenda. I glanced at the agenda as I slid into a chair, nodding my greeting to my colleagues. A name jumped out at me from the paper: Penny Peterson. Huh. It looked like the mayor was bringing her in to talk about updating the city’s website.
There was a tentative knock on the door, and we all looked up expectantly. Penny stood in the doorway looking professional in a dark blue wrap dress and matching ballet flats. Her hair was clipped at the back of her neck in a neat ponytail and her lips were shiny with some kind of gloss. Not that I noticed her lips.
“Ms. Peterson, come on in,” the mayor said jovially. She rose to shake Penny’s hand then led her to an open chair.
Penny looked around the room, smiling professionally at each person. She gave no indication that she knew me. The mayor asked us to go around the table to introduce ourselves and share our role in town management. Since I was sitting on the mayor’s left, I went last.
“You already know me,” I said easily. People around the table looked at us curiously.
“The sheriff rescued me off my roof last week,” Penny explained. “He happened to drive by right after I had a little ladder mishap.”
“And we dated for two years in high school,” I added. Her eyes flashed in irritation. That probably wasn’t professional of me.
“Ms. Peterson, I didn’t realize you were originally from Diamond Bay,” the mayor said, her tone pleased. “Welcome home. We’re always glad to have one of our own back in the fold. Now let’s see what you’ve got planned for our little website thingie.”
Penny passed out packets and went through her very thorough proposal for the website revamp. I felt myself frowning as we got to the cost projections on the last page.
“Madame Mayor,” I interjected politely. “This seems like an awful lot of money for something like a website.”
I could see Penny take a breath, but her voice was calm when she answered. “Sheriff Erickson, I can assure you that my costs are at the low end of the market,” she explained. “Since I’m restarting my business here in Diamond Bay and my work is new to people here, I’m actually giving the town a substantial discount off my regular rates.”
“This is a substantial discount?” I asked incredulously. “I could buy a new police cruiser for this much money.” I crossed my arms and did my best to look intimidating, though it seemed to have no effect on Penny.
She leaned forward in her seat to respond to me, but the mayor spoke first. “Ms. Peterson’s work comes highly recommended Mitch, and her proposal is in fact much lower than our other estimates from lesser-known consultants.”
She added, “I’m certainly more inclined to support someone local instead of one of those fancy pants consultants from Portland.”
“I don’t see why we need to update the website anyway,” I said stubbornly. “It’s working fine.” I wasn’t really sure why I was arguing; the website sucked and well knew it.
“Diamond Bay’s website looks like something from twenty years ago,” Penny said. “In fact, it probably looked much the same when we were in high school here.”
I rolled my eyes and she shot me an irritated look before she caught herself and schooled her expression.
“The site is mostly static, not interactive like people have come to expect. The graphics are dated, many of the links on the pages are broken, and there’s not much usable information on the site for tourists or residents. It’s essentially an electronic brochure not a website.”
She looked around the room confidently as heads nodded. “I can make you a town website that you’ll all be proud of, one that will actually be useful to you and your teams, as well as residents and visitors.”
The mayor clapped her hands once, a sign that she was pleased. “That sounds great Penny. You’re right, our website is an embarrassment.”
I resisted rolling my eyes again. I was pretty sure the mayor never used the internet. She still used an old school flip phone. I’d bet this was probably the first presentation that Penny had done handing out papers instead of showing a PowerPoint or something.
“I’ll have my assistant send you over a list of everyone’s contact information so you can start meeting with the department heads,” the mayor continued. She looked speculatively from me to Penny. “Since you and Mitch already know each other, I suggest you start with the page for the Sheriff’s Office.”
“That sounds great Mayor Jenkins,” Penny responded, her tone giving nothing away. “I appreciate the business. I’ll email you my standard contract this afternoon and after it’s executed we can get to work.”