“Look at you.” I joke with him now, chuckling a little bit. “Being all in a relationship.”
“I know.” He lets out a deep breath. “Never thought I would see the day, but when you meet the one.”
“Shit, are you telling me that you are hanging up the bachelor title?” I ask.
“There is no one else that I want to be with,” he says. “So I’m trying to do what I can to make her fall in love with this place and never want to leave.” Olivia is all city girl whereas Casey is as country as you get. But the two of them together just fit. I’m happy for him. He’s gone through a lot.
“Well, count me in,” I say, pulling up to the mayor’s house.
“You can check with Savannah and see if she wants to come. Jacob and Kallie will be bringing Ethan, who are feeling okay now.”
“Yeah, I’ll tell her. Now that the bar is closed, she has the time.”
“I heard about that.” He blows out. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Will do.” I get out of the car. “See you tonight.” I hang up at the exact moment that I open the door, and I’m greeted by a huge smile from Bonnie. Here I go, I think to myself.
“Morning,” she says, walking around her desk and handing me a coffee cup. I grab it from her. “You have your schedule on your desk,” she tells me as she follows me into the office. “Your first meeting starts in ten.”
“Thank you.” I toss my keys on the desk and look over the schedule. “Busy day with meetings.”
“It sure is. It’s a good time for everyone to meet you and for you to fill them in on how you’ll be running things.”
I nod at her and sit down. “Thank you, Bonnie.” She nods and walks out, closing the door behind her. The only thing I do before I start the meeting is text Savannah about the plans tonight.
The day flies by the time I get up and walk out of the third meeting of the day with everyone else who attended the meeting. When I shake the head guy’s hand, I have to think about his name, and when I can’t come up with it, I just smile. “Let me know if you need me for anything.” He nods, and I turn to walk to Bonnie. “Any messages?”
She smiles at me. “No, but your mom did call and told you that she expects you for dinner tonight.”
“Yeah,” I say, shaking my head. “That’s not going to happen,” I mumble while I walk into my new office. I sit behind the desk, leaving the door open. Taking out the budget folder that I was looking at in the meeting, I see a couple of things that I didn’t understand. The logical thing would be to ask my father, but I’d rather eat nails. I’m looking at the numbers when I hear a knock and look up, seeing Jacob.
“You’re back?” I lean back in the chair, and he nods, coming in and closing the door behind him. He sits in one of the chairs in front of the desk and leans his head back and groans.
“I didn’t think I would make it,” he mumbles. “By the time we got to the house, they were both puking out the windows.”
“Yuck,” I say, shaking my head. “Where are they now?”
“I dropped Kallie and Ethan at her parents’ house,” he says, and I nod my head. I don’t acknowledge the way my stomach flipped at the thought of them in my house. I grab my phone and send Savannah a text, asking her if she wants me to bring her lunch instead of meeting me. “Grady told me about your car.” I toss my phone down and nod. “You think it’s the same person as Savannah?”
“Doubt it,” I admit finally. “My guess is it’s my brother.” He just looks at me. “Do you think my brother also did that shit to Savannah?” I ask, my stomach sinking. “You really think he’s that much of a prick?” I ask, and his face says it all. “Fuck.”
“Anyway,” he says. I watch him, and I know he’s nervous about something, but I can’t imagine what it is. “The reason I wanted to meet with you is to go over the mayor’s role.” I cross my arms over my chest and listen to him. “It’s no surprise that you are not your father,” he starts. “And he had his own way of doing things.” He looks me in the eye when he says the next part. “Not ethical either.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask, not sure I want the answers.
“It means he did things his way, and you either were with him or you weren’t. And if you weren’t, it sucked for you because you wouldn’t get anything.” He comes right out and says what I was thinking. “He was always the one cashing in on favors.”
“I called Tony while I was at the bar,” I say. “He said my father made it clear that she was off-limits. He thought it would lose the contract.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he tells me, and I just look at him. “Let’s just say it’s good to have a good guy sitting behind that desk.”
“What else am I missing?” I ask, and he takes a deep inhale.
“Your father was not a liked man,” he says. “He did things shady as fuck, but he made sure he covered his tracks.”
I shake my head and hang my head. “This is the man I wanted to look up to and be like,” I say.
“You surpassed him a long time ago,” he tells me. “That said, we are on the same page, and we both want what is best for the town.”
“I agree,” I say, and he gets up. “Now if you will excuse me, I’m going home to shower and then get my girl.” He stops halfway to the door. “You going to keep Savannah with you?”
“Yeah,” I say.
“You going to tell her that you love her anytime this decade?” he asks, and I shake my head.
“I don’t want to ruin what we have,” I say. He puts his hands on his hips, and I raise my hands. “I know, I know, but …” I shake my head. “I will take her any way I can, and if it’s only through friendship, then that is what I’m going to do.”
“She might need you more than just a friend,” he says as he walks out of the office, slamming the door behind him.
I rub my hand on my face, and I’m about to call her when there is another knock on the door. This time, it opens just a bit, and my mother sticks her head in. “Knock, knock, knock,” she says with a smile as she enters. I get up to greet her. Of course she is dressed perfectly in a skirt and a matching top with a sweater tied at the neck. Her pearls hang perfectly around her neck. Her blond hair curled to perfect and even her makeup is perfect. That is my mother, perfect all the time. “There he is. My son, the mayor.”
She comes over and hugs me. “So nice of you to come out,” I say, and she nods at me. “Come sit down.” I point at the couch. “Bonnie, can you get us something to drink, please?” I ask. Bonnie gets up, smiling.
“You look tired,” my mother says when I walk back to the couch. “I heard about Savannah.”
“Yeah,” I say, sitting down.
“It’s terrible,” she says, putting her hand crossed in front of her while she folds her legs to the side. “Your father told me this morning when he got back home.”
“Back home?” I ask her. “Where did he go?”