1 Chapter 1
And Good Will To All
Boyfriend Countdown
Grateful for You
Of Love and Feather Boas
Paulie and the Wedding Bell Grouch
The Hippie Whisperer
A Hippie Independence Day
And Good Will To All
My heart skipped a beat as I read the name on the last résumé in the stack of applicants on my desk. Lonnie “Mack” McDaniel was looking for a job as a seasonal night manager at the self-storage facilityI owned.
I hadn’t even known he was back in town. Of course, I tended to get lost in my work, since I lived and breathed this business. I set the document aside and leaned back in my chair, lost in thought.
God, it had been decades since I’d seen him. Our last words to each other had been filled with vitriol. It had taken years for me to forgive his need to leave our small town in order to see the world. It had just…hurt that I hadn’t been enough of a reason for him to stay. Okay, so maybe I was being a bit selfish, but when the man you thought was your soul mate skipped town…well.
Anyway, it wasn’t as though I’d been celibate in the last twenty years. But Mack had always been the man I’d used as a measuring stick to judge my infrequent lovers. They usually failed, but, hey, a man had needs, right? It still didn’t change the fact that, after all this time, I, Charles Mayburn, continued to carry a torch for one Lonnie McDaniel.
I sat up and reviewed his credentials. He was, far and away, the most qualified person for the job. He’d traveled all over the country and worked for a wide range of companies in a managerial capacity. The last few years were a little spotty, though. No address was listed, just a phone number.
Girding my loins, so to speak, I picked up the phone and dialed the number on the page before me. A male voice answered on the first ring.
“Hello?” Mack’s voice was a little bit deeper now, but I’d recognize it anywhere.
“Mr. McDaniel? This is the manager at MyStorageHouse.” I didn’t give him my name, wanting to see if he would recognize my voice without prompting. “You applied for a job here.”
“Yes, I did.”
Not a hint of recognition, but I had to admit to sounding raspier than I used to. Probably from the cigarettes I gave up smoking a year ago. Mack didn’t say anything further, so, trying not to let disappointment deter me, I ploughed on.
“Well, I’d like to setup a time for an interview. Are you available this afternoon, say, around three?”
“Sure, that would work.”
“Great. See you then.”
“Thanks.” He hung up before I could say goodbye.
* * * *
I stood behind the wrap-around reception desk across from the front door of the office at five minutes to three. Admittedly, I was nervous at seeing the man after all this time. Jenna Rizzo, my assistant, worked half days during the week so she could pick up her foster kids from school in the afternoons. But, since it was Saturday, I was on my own. The hours were nine until one o’clock in the afternoon on weekends.
I glanced up from the papers I was reviewing when the bell tinkled over the door as it opened. It was after hours, but I’d left it unlocked. A man with grizzled brown hair and a beard, about my height, wearing a long-sleeved Henley underneath an old winter jacket and faded black slacks, entered the office, bringing the cold air with him.
Mack was a sight for sore eyes, but he looked tired, with an air of fragility about him that surprised me. Something bad had happened to him, beaten him down.
He walked up to me. “Hi. I’m here for an interview with the manager.”
His eyes were the same clear blue I remembered from our youth. They seemed older, somehow, as if they’dwitnessed terrible things. The wrinkles at the corners cut deep. There was no recognition of me at all in their depths. I guess it had been too many years. Or I had mattered less to him than I’d thought. A blow to the ego that I tried not to take personally.
I bit the bullet. “You don’t remember me, do you, Mack?”
At the mention of his nickname, the one that only I had used when it was just the two of us hidden away somewhere, he narrowed his eyes and studied me closely. I tried not to fidget under the scrutiny, but itwas a near thing. I saw the moment he realized who I was. His eyes widened, and he reached out to grip the edge of the curved desktop that separated us.
