Page 4 of The Single Dad's Guide to Recreation

“It’s spelledT-R-E-D-E,” I say, like that’s going to help.

“Trede is sourced from try,” Eli explains. “To experiment, to strive. To have or gain knowledge of or by experience.”

Leia rolls her eyes. “Of course you’d name your business a made-up word.”

Without picking up on her scathing sarcasm, he nods. “We still haven’t been able to get it into the dictionary, but we’re working on it.”

She waves a hand in his face like she’s trying to erase him. “Whatever. My question is, why do you have to changethisplace? Why can’t you just build a fancy gym or whatever for your employees?”

“Our campus has a world-class fitness center,” he says. “Studies have shown that midday exercise increases productivity by three hundred percent.”

“Great. I’ll just see you and your flunkies to the door, and you can leave us alone.”

“However,” Eli continues, ignoring her shooing gesture. “In exchange for tax concessions, I have a mandate to give back to the town of Climax. So it seems obvious to begin with what I understand is its primary interface.”

“Maybe we like ourinterfacejust fine the way things are.”

“I’m afraid surveys say otherwise,” I say, hoping to draw her ire away from Eli.

She narrows her eyes at me, and I get the distinct impression she hadn’t really noticed me earlier. “Who are you and who gave you access to our survey results?”

“Josh Harmon, and the mayor’s office,” I answer as quickly as possible, hoping that a terse reply will counterpoint Eli’s tendencies to overexplain.

“As Vice President of Community Engagement for Trede, it’s Josh's job to dev-op,” Eli says. “Run minification and caching, basically set up your sandbox for optimal flow.”

“He just means that I’ll be the point of contact as we digest consumer research and plug it into various models in order to create the best—oof.” The office door whacks me in the back, and I’m shoved right into Avery. When her eyes go wide, I throw my hands in the air. “I am so?—”

“Whoops.” A deep, mellow voice drowns out my apology, and the head and shoulders of a tall white man with a square jaw, deep-set brown eyes, and close-cut dark brown hair appear. “Sorry to interrupt, boss, but we’ve got a clog in the sink in the women’s locker room again.”

“I’d recognize that voice anywhere,” Eli whispers, his head ticking back and forth between the Princess and the Hunk. “Blake. Leia Blake. As in Travis Blake. The handsome-but-brainless star football player at Climax High.”

Still only halfway through the door, the man just shrugs. “That’s me.”

Thankfully, Leia leaves her office to deal with the plumbing issue, and I somehow get Eli and the rest of the Trede team out of the building and back to headquarters before anyone can do anything else to make my job harder. Back at the office, Eli gets sucked into meetings and I spend the rest of the afternoon giving myself a stern talking to regarding my priorities.

Namely, what’s left of my family.

My two kids are at the top of the list. After everything they’ve been through, they need stability. My parents follow. When I got the Trede job offer—for a position I’m pretty sure Eli made up out of thin air because he felt sorry for me—my parents put their travel-the-world retirement plans on hold and moved to Climax to help me out.

So I really need to stop drooling over a woman I need to interface with. Not suck face with.

Two days later, ramping up my energy as I approach CPR—the somewhat confusing way the locals refer to Climax Parks and Recreation—I turn on the charm that served me well in my career as a Wall Street fixer, even though I’m pretty sure that man doesn’t exist anymore. The highs I used to get from being the guy who could always solve a problem just don’t do it for me anymore.

Still, if I could put together a real estate LBO model at three in the morning when I really have no expertise in the field, I should be able to convince Princess Leia that her rec center is ripe for change. So I knock briskly on her door, and when she waves me in, I step inside with the smile I’ve been told is charming but confident. “Thanks for making time for me in your schedule, Ms. Blake.”

“I didn’t think I had a choice.”

Arms crossed over her chest, chin lifted, she’s already on the defensive. Obviously, I have lost ground to make up. “Listen, I truly am sorry about the ambush the other day. I had no idea that you were in the dark on the proposed changes.”

“Elijah, orEli, I guess”—her nose wrinkles like she can barely stand to say his name—“is to blame for it, I’m sure.”

No skin off my nose to take the rap. “This was totally on me. It is my job to interfa—uh, liaise—between you, Trede, and the city government.”

“Isn’t Eli your boss?”

I shrug, keeping things easy. “He is. And I’m sure you know how that goes.”

Her eyes narrow. “What do you mean?”

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