And he needed someone between him and the planning boards, which were made up of city council and county commission members. A little conflict of interest didn’t make his job any easier, especially with an out-of-date plan that they overrode readily because it was so old.
When he heard they’d hired Diane Finch, he’d read over her résumé and given a huge sigh of relief. She looked competent and had great recommendations from her previous job in Des Moines. Better, she sounded more than capable of standing up with him to the so-called planning boards that had started looking more to their personal interests than what was best for the county and city.
Well, maybe she wouldn’t stand up with him at first, not with her job so new, and not until she learned the lay of the land. But a professional planner? She probably wouldn’t be keen to play along with ideas that could make her look bad or adversely affect her career.
What’s more, she had to be aware that the county and city couldn’t get useful grants without an updated plan and a planner to write the proposals and oversee performance.
He’d probably have to wait awhile for the ally to emerge regardless. That was all right with him. He’d been poking his finger into the dike to stop the rash of self-serving plans for over five years now.
More than once he’d considered looking for another job, but his Irish blood wouldn’t let him run from a fight. Besides, he’d grown fond of Conard County, different in so many ways from Galway, where he’d grown up. Life had brought him here, and while he’d always be homesick for the beauties of Galway, he found different beauty here in the mountains and rolling prairie. He’d also found a place he was willing to defend and maybe sink some permanent roots.
With that random assortment of thoughts rolling around in his head, he strolled through the basement hallways in the courthouse, heading to the rooms that belonged to the planner. Diane Finch, according to the grapevine, had arrived early this morning, and for some reason the court clerks and the many city and county employees who filled the offices down here had been looking rather amused and whispering quite a bit.
He wanted to know what was going on. Was she a golden-scaled dragon or something?
Painting a smile on his face, he knocked briefly on the closed door and entered, ready to meet the woman he hoped would work with him. The sound that came through the door should have warned him, but since it shouldn’t be there, he’d assumed it was drifting down from the floor above.
He froze in astonishment as he stepped in. The unlikeliest of sights greeted him.
A lovely young woman with golden-blond hair, wearing what appeared to be a gray slacks suit, stood at a bare desk with a baby on it. She appeared to be busy trying to put a fresh diaper on the squalling, struggling bundle of pink bottom and pulled-up yellow cloth. The golden eyes that rose in surprise to look at him also appeared almost frantic.
Questions could come later, he decided in an instant. Swiftly closing the door behind him, he asked, “Need a little help there?” His brogue, so carefully erased, somehow pushed its way through.
“You’ve got kids?” she asked almost plaintively.
“I helped raise me five brothers and sisters. You’re new at this?”
“Very,” she admitted.
Without any hesitation, he rounded her desk and nudged her aside a bit. “I’m used to cloth diapers,” he remarked, holding the baby safely with a big hand placed gently on her tummy. The little bottom didn’t look irritated, so he just went about grabbing a wipe from an open container beside a disposable diaper at the corner of the desk. He cleaned the tot quickly before opening the fresh diaper with one hand and placing it on the little girl. Despite the child’s wildly waving arms and legs, it only took a few seconds, then he had her diapered and dry. Pulling down her onesie, he fastened the snaps easily.
Instead of quieting, the baby continued to cry.
“She been fed?” he asked.
“Just.”
“Ah.” Without another word he picked the child up and placed her on his shoulder, not caring he was probably going to need a fresh shirt after this. “Hush, little treasure,” he murmured, gently patting and rubbing her back with practiced ease while pacing the small office. After he took about a dozen steps back and forth, the babe’s fist found its way to her mouth and she quieted. Moments after that a small burp escaped her.
“There we go,” Blaine said, “but it’s probably not the last. You mind?”
She sank into the chair behind the desk and gave him a crooked smile. “Not at all. I’m so totally new to this I’m learning everything the hard way.”
“No prior practice, then?”
She shook her head. “Daphne is my cousin’s child. She’s in the hospital and I’m fostering. I thought it would be easy.”
Blaine allowed a quiet chuckle to escape him. “It’s not hard. You probably need to worry a whole lot less. Unless the tot is sick, what it most needs is love, food and a clean nappy. Simple. And it will all go a lot easier when you relax.”
She looked askance.
“She feels your nervousness, so she gets uneasy. By the way, I take it you’re Diane Finch?”
She nodded. “And you’re...?”
“County engineer. Blaine Harrigan. Do the bosses know you’ve got company?”
“You mean Daphne? No. I was hoping I could find decent day care when I arrived in town. That certainly isn’t as easy as I thought. I’m also learning I have a lot of qualms about leaving her with someone I don’t know.” She sighed and drummed her fingers briefly on the arms of her chair. “This is going to cost me my job, isn’t it?”
“Bringing the baby to work? I suppose it could. I also suppose I could help you batter the bosses down. It’s only temporary, after all.”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “That’s a nice offer, Mr. Harrigan, but I’m very much afraid this isn’t going to be temporary. At least not the part where I foster Daphne. I should get some kind of day care sorted out, though.”
“Then we’ll start with that,” he said. Now he had a sleeping child on his shoulder and he was reluctant to put her down in the car seat in the corner. He also wanted to know what had happened to bring Diane Finch to the point of taking care of her cousin’s baby indefinitely when she was obviously so unprepared for the task.
She was a beautiful woman, all right. He couldn’t help but notice the way that satiny blouse caressed her breasts when she moved and her jacket fell open. Nice shape, adorable face and what appeared to be natural blond hair. Attractive like a flower to a bee. Not the time to be thinking such things, boyo, he told himself.
But now he was also seriously intrigued. “So, how did you come to be a foster mother?”
Her face closed a bit. “My cousin is seriously ill. She can’t care for Daphne and probably won’t be able to for a long time. That left me or putting her in the foster care system. Maybe for adoption, although my cousin...” She broke off. “Anyway, it’s me and Daphne for as long as she needs me.”
That raised more questions than it answered, but he let it go. She didn’t know him from Adam, and this was very personal ground. There were few secrets in Conard County because most people knew each other, but Diane was new and she was probably going to face a lot of prying. He well remembered how he’d been questioned. A new face always drew attention. He didn’t need to add to it.
But he had to admit to feeling some admiration for a woman who’d foster her cousin’s baby while starting a new job. Not many would want the combination, he was certain. And Diane, by all appearances, was very new to this baby thing. He wondered if she’d find it presumptuous if he offered to help. Probably. Talk about sticking his nose in the tent.
* * *
Bemused,