Evans Creek Book 1: Mister Mayor

SIXTEEN

Photo Credits: Bounce house-ubounceinc.com; tents/crowd-elonnewsnetworkcom; highfive-readersdigest.com; face paint-pinterest unknown source; dunk booth-empireevents.com       Can you smell the popcorn and hotdogs?  Can you hear the laughter and the warmth that good friends, fun, and summer sunshine bring?  I wonder how many tickets were sold in the attempts to dunk the mayor?  Incidentally, there were also chances to dunk the highschool principal as well as the police chief and Miss Claymore County ( Crowned each year at the county fair).

***

"That's not—oh, you're teasing again!" she chuckled, shaking her head at him.

"So... Jesse wanted to help." Graham shrugged as he presented a large card made from pink construction paper, crayons and a big shiny button.

Arayna's heart melted a little as she accepted the card. Decorating the front was a giant red flower with the big shiny button in the center. After gently tracing the petals with her fingers she opened the card and her heart turned to a gooey mess. Jesse's name, very carefully lettered filled the entire bottom of the card. Above that were a series of crayon squiggles and waves. Graham cleared his throat.

"It says thank you for being my friend and for helping my dad and being such a good office lady."

"It does?"

"According to the author, yes." Graham winked. "It's his version of cursive. It makes him feel grown-up."

"Like writing his own name so nicely and drawing such a beautiful flower?"

"Exactly." Graham smiled.

"Well, I love it and such a beautiful card deserves a place of prominence." Stepping over to the corkboard, using a heart-shaped pushpin and all the flourish she could muster, pinned the card dead center.

---

Last year, August 30

Aryana was busy from day one and before she knew it, the fundraising festival arrived—a month gone by. Flown more like. In her capacity as personal assistant, she'd discovered that her job duties went way beyond clerical. She made doctor appointments, took the car to the garage, picked up dry cleaning, and just about anything else he needed.

As she dropped Graham's updated calendar on his desk her breath came out in a snort. She laughed all the way back to her desk. Her job description in four words: general-all-round-gopher, as in go for this and go for that. The irony was not lost on her. As a new intern in D.C. she was everyone's errand-boy, running everywhere to fetch everything. Being Graham's gopher did have at least one good point.

Arayna whistled a happy tune as she packed up.

She was in love.

Head over heels.

Utterly smitten.

Never had a chance.

From that very first flash of his bright smile he had her eating out the palm of his hand.

There was something magical about Jesse. With a wave of his hand, or in this case with the flash of his smile, Jesse obliterated all of her cares leaving only the happiest of feelings to linger whenever she was around him. Still whistling, Arayna locked HQ behind her and headed for Billy. The last to leave, she was alone with her happy thoughts.

"Ray!"

"Bill." Arayna jumped, a little upset she hadn't noticed the only other car parked in the lot.