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“Let’s see if I can help you with the budget stuff,” he offered. “I know how mine works, and I think all the departments are about the same.”
He stood and walked around to the front of his desk, picking up a chair with one hand, like it was no heavier than a napkin, and set it down next to his behind the desk.
So I’d be sitting right next to him. I needed his help, but my heart raced at the thought of being inches away from him.
“Is there a problem?” he asked.
I met his gaze. “You know you’re imposing, right?”
He scrunched his face, confused. “Imposing? Like you’re scared of me?”
Was imposing the right word? I shuffled through options in my head as my heart raced. What was the right word for this man who commanded my attention anytime we were in the same room together?
“No, not scared,” I clarified. “You’re just…a lot.”
Grady balked. “You’re a lot, too. Now get over here because I’ve got a staff meeting in forty minutes.”
I walked over and sat down, setting my folder full of papers on the desk. “A staff meeting? It’s hard to imagine you in a staff meeting.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not a fan. Turns out the higher up you move in a police department, the more boring the work gets.”
“You don’t get to chase bad guys anymore?”
He smiled. “If there were bad guys in the Beard, I’d find a way to chase them.”
He put on his reading glasses then, and I had to clear my throat just in case he could hear the flutter in my stomach. He made those glasses look sexy.
“Okay, here’s my current year budget,” he said. “Our fiscal year starts November first.”
I peered at the screen, nodding slowly. “Yours make sense. But look at this public works one…” I flipped through the pages and pulled out a stapled packet. “This is the part that’s throwing me on this one.”
Grady furrowed his brow and looked at it for a few seconds, nodding. “It’s because of the bond debt service for the new wastewater plant. The revenue for that isn’t shown here.”
“Oh. I didn’t even think of that.”
He passed it back. “You should ask the public works director, Rich. He’s a good guy, he’ll explain it to you.”
I took out another stapled packet. “And what about this one? There’s a lot of money going in from Strauss Enterprises and a lot coming out to KSK Holdings.”
Grady nodded, meeting my gaze over the rim of his glasses. “Hasn’t anyone told you about Keller Strauss yet?”
“No.”
“He’s a billionaire businessman. I actually played baseball with him in high school when I was a freshman and he was a senior. His dad grew up in the Beard, so Keller built a big place outside of town and he’s there a lot. He gives a lot of money to the city, the library, the park, and local businesses to keep them going strong.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it costs a lot to run a business in a place so far from distribution hubs. Costs more to get things here. Keller offsets that, and more.”
I was floored. Had the answer to my problem been here all along?
“Think he might want to buy a newspaper?” I asked Grady.
He shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt to ask. He usually just gives money; he doesn’t have the time to run anyone’s business. But I’m guessing those Strauss Enterprises and KSK line items have something to do with him.”
I forced myself to focus on the issue at hand—understanding city budgets.
“Okay, thanks,” I said, returning my paperwork to its folder.
“Hey, have you met Mrs. Jenkins?” Grady asked.
His stubble was perfect. Dark and even, and I knew, looking at it, that it was perfectly coarse. Just thinking about the goose bumps it could leave on my bare thighs gave me preemptive goose bumps.
“Avon?”
“What? No. I haven’t.”
My voice was higher than usual and my face was hot. He hadn’t caught me fantasizing about him, but I still felt busted.
“I’ll take you up to meet her. She’s the city treasurer.”
I got up and walked back to the front of his desk, needing some space. It wasn’t just because of his size; anytime Grady was in the same room, I felt his presence more distinctly than anyone else’s. And when we were in a room alone, it was even worse.
“Does everyone call her Mrs. Jenkins?” I asked as I picked up my coat.
“Everyone,” Grady said, grinning. “Because we all had her for fifth-grade math. She taught it for almost fifty years.”
“Oh wow, how old is she?”
Grady considered. “I think she’s seventy-three.”
“And still working? That’s impressive.”
“The mayor recruited her a few years ago. She works part time. And…well, you’ll see.”
He opened a door beside a wall adjacent to his desk. “Get in there, Radar. I don’t trust you alone in here. Go hang out with the dispatchers.”
