Page 26 of The Dreidl Disaster

“You’re the mayor,” Judith said. “He’s the fixer who been sent to clean up the very public mess made by the people who are employing him. Who apparently made waves in town the day before you took your very public walk.”

Now it was time for the reality check. “Have you decided to become a town gossip in your spare time?”

“No,” Judith replied, as nonchalantly as possible, except for the fact that something in her cousin’s tone told Liv she wasn’t done speaking. “I’m marrying him.”

Which made sense. Ash, her fiancé, was personable; everybody loved him, and he had chosen to spend his post-hockey-playing life in Briarwood, including basing his foundation and mentorship program in the town’s business improvement district. Of course, some of the town gossip had started to flow his way.

Just to be sure, she needed to know what her cousin’s future husband had been told. “So he put you up to this?”

“Not so much put me up,” Judith said, “but more specifically, asked me to ask you a few questions when I spoke to you.”

She shook her head. “Why didn’t he just call me?”

“Who knows,” Judith sighed. “But I think he didn’t want anything to be considered formal or directly coming from him until, you know, some kind of formal conversation.”

She blinked, but then again people were sometimes weird that way with her. Talking with her about town projects was either a conversation that was exciting or fearful, where people didn’t want to get signed up to help with something or couldn’t wait to tell her how they wanted to get involved.

It was a balancing act for sure. Which is why Ash was using Judith as a messenger or go-between. All the same she wanted to know what was going on. “What did he say?”

“He wanted to know three things.”

“Three?”

She was ridiculously proud of not making the Passover joke she wanted to.

“Four questions are now our little hockey playing niece Ramona’s responsibility now, because I could hear the hesitation.”

Liv snickered; the four questions were always the responsibility of the youngest person at the Passover seder and that had been the perfect joke. Which is why Judith didn’t let the opportunity slip to make it even if Liv had. But time was precious, and she knew that questions were coming even if she didn’t want them to. “Come on already; ask because I need to leave.”

“Fine,” Judith said, “Ash wanted to know what kind of guy he was and whether you wanted him involved in the situation on the immediate level or the Hanukkah event in general.”

Which was something she and Artur had spoken about, but Judith didn’t need to know that. “About the latter, I’ll let him know when I need him; about the former, he’s a good guy I think. But I take it someone approached him?”

“No,” Judith said. “You can come over and ask him yourself about the gossip at the Cupcake Stop tonight. Come for dinner.”

And that’s what Judith really wanted. And because it made sense, Liv said, “Sure.”

*

Artur was exhaustedon meeting day. He’d blame his tiredness on the fact that he hadn’t wanted to leave Liv the night before. Not to mention, the main character in the hybrid dream/nightmare he was having was the jacket that sat on the couch. Usually he’d throw it on without a thought as he headed out.

But now?

He wanted to treat it like a pickle.

Sweet, beloved. Preserved just as it was.

Nope.

It was absolutely ridiculous to treat a warm, comfortable jacket he’d had for millennia like a cucumber.

Forcing himself to put on the jacket and NOT focus on how much like Liv it smelled, he took another visit to the library’s media center. He found an empty station and cued up the footage of special sessions taken from the local cable stations, notebook and coffee in hand. After he’d watched hours of footage, he had copious notes and a game plan.

Next, in search of lunch and conversation, he took Paul Levitan’s advice and called Briarwood Tales to see if Carol, the owner, was there.

Luckily, she was in the store, and over more coffee and a sandwich, she informed him that he had her support. “Just so you know,” she’d said, “this is a great place to strategize for things if you need the space. And, some of my best people know how to throw a really good Hanukkah party.”

Which was the reminder that he had to ask Batya for Sarah’s information. If he was going to go and fix a Hanukkah event, it behooved him to have the number of the person who made them a part of life in the Hudson Valley. And that was Batya’s friend Sarah.

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