Page 11 of The Dreidl Disaster

And there it was. The smile on her face, the brightness in her eyes; he could sit in that moment of pure unadulterated joy with her forever. He was, in fact, a sucker for people who were ridiculously proud of things they’d done.

But he wasn’t there to enjoy moments; he was there to work. “Is there anything else you want?”

“Before I leave office, you mean?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“I want an event that goes off without a hitch. Can you do that for me?”

“I’ll make sure it happens,” he said. “I promise.”

He only hoped that he could manage it…without causing more damage than had already been done.

*

Not everybody wasJerry McManus, Liv reminded herself.

But as she told her sister, her life was different because of Jerry. And not just for her, for the people of Briarwood as well. Because Jerry McManus’s behavior had turned her life into a fishbowl.

Even as she did something as notable as stand on the sidewalk in front of town hall with Artur, so many people stopped what they were doing in order to…look at her; there was at least one collision at the center of Main Street. There were also at least three ‘sorrys’ and…at least two people who had to be dragged away from the scene.

But there was one underlying truth: she was cold. She could chalk it up to poor planning, where her fall sweater was not exactly warm enough for the time when fall fought winter’s arrival. She could also chalk it up to the fact that she hadn’t expected to be out here this long with him. Which meant she had to do something.

“Okay,” she said as she shoved her hands into the pockets of the sweater, wishing she’d at least brought her gloves with her. “Let’s take a walk.”

He nodded, following her onto the street, letting her lead the way but standing on the outside.

Like a gentleman.

And if she hadn’t seen the stares or the sorrys as they were in front of town hall, the stares they got as they were walking through Briarwood would have made her angrier than she was.

But she was with him, in the middle of town. And the residents of Briarwood weren’t sure what to make of that. Of course, if she really thought about it, she wasn’t either.

But all the same, whether out of political obligation or duty, she had to say something. “They’re harmless.”

Artur stopped walking, and she wondered what he was thinking. “You’re the mayor,” he finally said. “Walking with me through a town that didn’t want to acknowledge my existence yesterday.”

Which was only partly true.

But as they continued their walk through town, she felt an energy in the air. She felt it most as they walked through the town public gardens. “These are maintained by a bunch of different gardening clubs and other organizations,” she said, once again electing to be professional in the face of unprofessional things.

“I can see they put a lot of work into this.”

The rhododendrons and pines, evergreens and maples, the leaves that decorated the temple sukkah and the boughs that went to at least three churches for wreath making.

She smiled. “They did,” she said. “I wasn’t here at the original planting, but I see the maintenance schedule.”

If she could put a finger on it, she’d say that the energy of the town felt brand new when she was with him. Not just because she was seeing it through his eyes. Being with him reminded her of the town’s history because he might ask questions in his quest to understand.

“Do you know where the sculpture is going to go?”

Shifting gears was easy. Liv had a master’s in it, and so she nodded. Despite everything that had happened, the one central thing that started the conversation between Briarwood and the Empires had stayed the same: the large custom sculpture that was being made of the sticks the Empires were supplying. But that wasn’t all; the sticks had been used by the players through their recent championship run, including the stick used by Briarwood High School Alumnus Tyler Cohen, to score the decisive goal in the final game.

The sculpture, and the sticks, were the reason why Artur Rabinovitch was standing there, right in front of her.

She stopped thinking about trails and ties and all of the things and took his hand. Liv reminded herself she was taking this hand for business purposes, knowing it was easier to make sure he was following her, and more efficient than saying ‘come this way.’

But all the same, she had to brace herself for the impact of his expression. The half confusion, half surprise as his fingers slowly intertwined in hers.

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