by Lexi Blake
“You told her?” Long-Haired Roger asked. “Maybe we should rethink this. Rafe is not as sneaky as Zane said he was.”
Rafe was a little offended. He could be sneaky when he wanted to be. He shut his mouth. It actually worked on his behalf if no one thought he was sneaky. “I don’t lie to my wife.”
Of course he hadn’t told her about the Miami offer either.
“Stella, how could you?” Laura looked at the café owner. “Hiram was one of your best friends.”
Stella stared her down. “And I’m trying to save his legacy.”
Marie stepped up. “Will you think about this for two seconds, Laura? What happens if Hiram dies without a deputy mayor in place?”
“We do what every other town in this country does. We have a special election.” Laura crossed her arms over her chest, a sure sign that she was irritated.
“Yep,” Zane said as he sat back down on the couch. “We have a special election. How’s Nell going to handle that?”
Laura sighed. “Well, she would probably run. She would think of it as her civic duty.” Nell was one of Laura’s closest friends, but even Rafe could see she was disturbed by the idea. “Obviously she wouldn’t win.”
No one in their right mind wanted Nell with real political power. She would force the citizenry to switch to eco-friendly cars. She would turn city hall into an animal refuge. Rafe tried to imagine Zane Hollister stuffing his massive body into a Prius.
“You would think that,” Stella said. “But I’m not so sure. We’ve run several scenarios and you would be surprised at what happens. I had the Farley brothers make a computer simulation of the most likely outcome. You see, I happen to know that Stef is planning on bringing in his own candidate.”
“See, Stef will pick someone good. He loves this town. He’ll find the right candidate and then Nell won’t stand a chance,” Laura pointed out.
“Oh, but you’re not thinking about the fact that Bliss has two kings now and they are battling it out.” Polly shook her head with a rueful sigh. “Ever since Seth Stark came home, he’s been trying to prove he’s every bit as generous as Stef. Poor Gene. Stef gave him a loan to upgrade his projectors at the drive-in and then Seth turned right around and paid for new screens. And then Stef brought in new popcorn poppers and a brand-new audio system and then Seth had to pay for someone to teach Gene how to use all that stuff. He was crying, I tell you. Caught between two billionaires. It’s horrible.”
There were a lot of women Rafe knew who wouldn’t think it was horrible, but he was starting to see the issue. “You’re afraid they’ll compete to put in their own mayors.”
Marie shook her head. “I’m not afraid. I know it will happen. I offered to shoot them both, but Stella had a problem with it.”
“I’m not going to let you shoot my son.” Stella had taken to calling Stef her son ever since she’d married Sebastian Talbot. She would shrug and say she only meant that he was her stepson, but Rafe knew the truth. Stella had raised Stef.
There were odd families all over Bliss.
“I wasn’t going to kill him,” Marie shot back. “But I was going to make sure he was laid up. He and Seth could share a recovery room and maybe they would learn to play nice.”
“No one is shooting Stef and Seth.” It was time someone laid down the law. If he allowed them to go on, they would argue in circles for hours. “And Seth is spending most of his time in New York right now. Stef has a baby on the way. They don’t have time to dabble in small-town politics.”
Stella coughed and mumbled under her breath.
“What did you say?” Polly asked, her eyes narrowing.
Stella cleared her throat. “I said Stef already has a plan.”
Marie pointed an accusatory finger Stella’s way. “I knew it. And if Stef is involved, Seth won’t be far behind.”
“What kind of plan does Stef have? Hey, you don’t think he sent Bambi to Hi, do you?” Long-Haired Roger asked.
“He certainly did not.” Stella sent the mechanic a stern look. “Stef loved Hiram, but he’s been waiting for him to step down and he definitely planned on installing someone who would be friendly to Stef’s machinations. He hired a political consultant and he’s got it between two candidates, neither of whom actually lives in Bliss right now. He’s planning on moving them in.”
Rafe felt a frown cover his face. He actually didn’t like the sound of that plan. “Why on earth would Stef bring someone from the outside in?”
“Because he doesn’t think anyone in town could do the job except himself, and he doesn’t have time for that,” Stella explained.
Really? Stef didn’t think a man who had been educated at an Ivy League school could handle small-town politics? “If I decide to be the mayor, I assure you I can handle the job.”
Laura looked back, obviously startled. “You?”
Did anyone think he could do it? “Probably not, but it’s been discussed, though apparently not by Stef and Seth. So Stef intends to bring in a candidate and you believe Seth would follow by bringing in his own candidate.”
Zane groaned. “Oh, he will absolutely follow. Do you honestly believe he won’t? They would go all out. They would try to beat each other. We would be in for weeks and weeks of those political calls. You think you like the local radio station that plays classic rock? Well, forget about it because all we’ll hear are ads for the two parties, and you know what happens at the end of all of it?”
Laura gasped at the implications. “Oh my god. Everyone gets sick of the city folks and votes for Nell. Nell will be the mayor of Bliss.”
Zane gave her a thumbs-up. “Like we said—it’s the apocalypse.”
Laura turned to him. “Rafe, you have to save us. Please tell me you have a plan.”
Yes, he had a plan. Moving was looking better and better.
How to Play Two Billionaires Off Each Other Via Email…
Rachel Harper
Re: upcoming winter festival
To: Georgia Stark-Warner; Jennifer Talbot
Hey, ladies. It’s that time of year again. You know when it gets cold as shit and we all wish we were in Florida. The winter festival is coming up and I really don’t want to do another bake sale because Nell is pregnant and she’ll probably get hurt when I don’t want to eat her vegan version of brownies. Save me.
Georgia Stark-Warner
Re: upcoming winter festival
To: Rachel Harper; Jennifer Talbot
Oh, Nell is so sweet and I’m excited she’s having a little one. Jen and I just talked. Worry no more!
Georgia Stark-Warner
Re: Winter Festival
To: Seth Stark
Hey, baby. I just talked to Rachel and she’s so excited about the Winter Festival! You promised you would take me and I can’t wait to spend the holiday season with you and Logan. It’s going to be such fun. It’s sad though that the carnival rides are so out of date, but I’m sure it will be fun. Rachel said something about Stef changing things up this year. Can’t wait to see what he does. It’s so nice to have someone looking out for the town. See you tonight!
Jennifer Talbot
Re: He’s at it again!
To: Stef Talbot
I just talked to Rachel and Seth is pushing to upgrade the carnival rides. Isn’t that fun? I know you love the old ones, but sometimes we can’t stop the march of progress. I guess little Logan will have a whole new experience.
Seth Stark
Re: don’t change a thing
To: Rachel Harper
Stef wants to change the carnival rides? We’ve had those carnival rides since we were kids. If they’re worn down, we need to fix them or find viable alternatives. I’m writing you a check for ten thousand. Let me know if you need more. Do not let Stef “fix” something that doesn’t need to be fixed.
Stefan Talbot
RE: winter fest
To: Rachel Harper
I understand that it’s tempting to walk into a town and change things. E
specially when you’re from New York City where everything changes all the time. But this is Bliss and we have traditions. If the carnival rides need fixing, I will handle it, but we’re not letting Seth freaking Stark come in and force some monstrosity of a ride on us. If you let him we’ll be overtaken by neon lights and the whole festival will be sponsored by a corporation. No. Over my dead body. I’m transferring ten k into the festival fund. Tell me if you need more.
Rachel Harper
Re: budget surplus
To: Callie Hollister-Wright; Hope Glen-Bennett; Beth McNamara-O’Malley
Ladies, let’s have some fun….
Chapter Nine
Stef and Jen
Jen stepped out onto the balcony and looked down at the gorgeously decorated party space below. The morning had flown by and now the afternoon was here and the party had begun. She’d done pretty well if she did say so herself. The backyard was elegantly decorated. The manicured lawn was filled with beautifully dressed people eating the best food and drinking the best wine she could afford. The mountains in the distance lent the scene a gauzy, soft feel, like the world was one big well-painted landscape.
All the men were on the mountain at their party. She wondered if Stef was smiling and having a good time.
“Everything is beautiful,” Shelley McNamara soon-to-be Meyer said as she looked around the balcony. The bride-to-be was wearing a pretty summer dress that set off her dark hair. She had been out on the lawn talking to the guests who had come to her small Bliss pre-wedding reception. She looked even prettier up close.
Jen felt like a watermelon around the radiant bride. Shelley McNamara had a lovely sense of style. With her raven black hair and stylish dress, she was rapidly making Jen feel like a big old cow.
“Thanks. I love throwing parties,” Jen murmured. She wished she could have a sip of wine, of tequila, of anything.
“Well, this is one I’ll remember for a long time. I wanted to say thank you.” Shelley waved to someone on the lawn. “I’m going to go downstairs. I see my friends. Thank you again.”
She hurried along, her heels clacking against the floor. Jen couldn’t wear heels right now. She couldn’t fit into that svelte, sleek dress Shelley was wearing.
“I know that look. I’ve had that look on my face many times.” Rachel shook her head as she glanced over the crowd. “I hate her.”
Jen had to smile. Rachel was always ready to lend a hand. There was no one in the world more loyal than her friend Rachel. It had been a blessing to find her. “No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do. I hate whoever you hate.”
Callie walked up, a margarita in her hand. “Who do we hate?”
They were her girls. Callie and Rach always had her back. Her dour mood began to lift and she couldn’t help but tease her friend. “Honey, we hate you because you’re the only one of us who can booze it up. I hired two bartenders for this pre-wedding reception and all I can ask for is a Shirley Temple.”
Callie put her drink down. “Well, I’m the only one who’s not pregnant. And I’m not going to be for a while. I’m taking a break from gestating. There are four men living in my house. Can you imagine the mess when my babies get to be teenagers? My whole cabin is going to smell like feet. I totally need the tequila.”
Rachel was pregnant again, but she was barely showing. And she had to beat her husbands off her even when she was round as a beach ball. A few weeks before, Rachel and Max had gotten locked in a closet at the art gallery where they were sneaking away for some fun in the afternoon.
Stef wouldn’t touch her now. How did she talk to her friends about it when they seemed to never have problems tempting their husbands? Max and Rye were all over Rachel, and Nate and Zane liked to bring the babies over to the estate so they could spend some time in the guesthouse. Callie liked to talk about how sore she was.
Jen was perfectly unsore except for her back and her feet, and that was the baby’s fault. She wanted some aches and pains that went along with remembered pleasure.
Stef rubbed her feet and her lower back and then he would turn out the lights because “she needed her rest.” She needed her husband, but it seemed like her husband didn’t need her.
“What’s going on, hon?” Rachel asked. “You look sad.”
Suddenly she knew she couldn’t share this. It was stupid. She should be able to share anything with her friends. They loved her and she loved them, and she couldn’t tell them that her husband didn’t want her anymore. She still had some small amount of pride. What the hell was she going to do?
“I’m just tired,” Jen said, staring out over the lawn. Everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time. They were all relaxing. She was a ball of anxiety when she wasn’t perfectly content. She swung from excitement about her son’s impending arrival to a deep worry that Stef wasn’t happy.
“Well, you should be.” Callie patted her back. “You’re breathing for two, eating for two, living for two.”
“Don’t be hard on yourself,” Rachel said. “It’s your first baby. You need to eat like there’s no tomorrow and sleep like you never will sleep again, because you won’t. I don’t care if Stef stays up with the baby, you’ll still get up because he’s your boy.”
Her baby might be her only boy now. She’d gone through a thousand scenarios—from Stef telling her he’d been joking all along, to their inevitable divorce where she ended up raising a baby over Stella’s in that tiny one-bedroom apartment she’d first lived in when she’d come to Bliss.
“It’s all going to be better in a few months,” Callie offered. “The first couple are hard, but you’ll see it gets back to normal. Or you find a new normal. Stef will settle down.”
They all looked out over the lawn. In the distance, a single Jeep was flying down the drive.
“Oh, no. I think I see Cassidy coming up the drive.” Rachel’s eyes narrowed as she looked out over the estate’s long road. “I thought she was going into the bunker. She put it out over the radio earlier today.”
Callie took a long swallow of her margarita. “I heard she and Shelley are struggling about the whole alien queen thing. Shelley won’t eat beets. Something about the color of them apparently sets her off.”
“Or it could be that beets taste like ass,” Rachel murmured.
Jen wrinkled her nose. “I can’t blame her for that. Do you know how they can stain your teeth? Nell gave me a beet smoothie and I had purple teeth for days.”
It was supposed to lower blood pressure, but hers had only risen at the idea of purple teeth.
Rachel crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t think Cassidy is going to care that Shelley doesn’t like the taste. She genuinely believes that beets stave off the alien invasion. It looks like she’s pushing her point home. We should go and head that off.”
Rachel and Callie practically ran back down the stairs.
And Jen was left alone again. Why hadn’t she talked to them? They would talk to her. Callie reached out when she was struggling. And Rachel yelled for a while. Either one of them would listen to her and help her find a solution. So why did she feel so damn alone?
“Can I get you anything?” a masculine voice asked.
She turned and tried to place a name with the startlingly handsome face. She’d never met him but she’d seen those emerald-green eyes on another face. “You’re Jack’s brother.”
The man smiled. “Lucas O’Malley. Jack and I are half brothers. If I hadn’t married Lexi and Aidan, I would have changed my name to Barnes. I’m afraid I’m not close to my father. Especially since he went to prison.”
“I’m sorry,” Jen said.
A satisfied smile crossed Lucas’s face. “I’m not. It was the best gift he could have given me. I framed his mug shot. So, is there anything I can help with? I came with my wife, but she’s taking a phone call. I was going to kiss her good-bye and go and wait for my partner, but she’s busy.”
That was said with a hint of bitterness. Not all was right in the O�
��Malley household, but, then, everyone had their problems. Lucas looked out over the lawn where a black-haired woman was pacing as she spoke into her phone. Jen hadn’t met the woman. She hadn’t come to any of the gatherings before now. “Is everything all right?”
Lucas didn’t take his eyes off his wife. “Oh, I’ve been told everything is nearly perfect, at least as far as my wife’s career goes.”
Lexi O’Malley was a writer. From what Jen had heard, she was becoming very popular. A couple of women in Bliss read her works religiously—including Jen. Lexi was very prolific. She wrote books that combined BDSM and romance in a way Jen completely understood. “She works a lot, huh? I’m married to an artist. I know how they can get. It’s hard to get them to notice you’re alive when they’re focused on the work.”
Jen was an artist, too, but somehow she never got lost the way Stef did. She could always pull herself away. It might have been different if she hadn’t married another artist, but she had and she needed to be the grounded one. It never bothered her when Stef was focusing on his work. She’d always known he would return to her, but now she wondered.
Lucas stared out at the woman pacing on Jen’s lawn, a hollow look on his face. “Yes, I suppose so.” He turned around and his face cleared. He was right back to being charming and handsome, without a hint of worry in the world. “I’m a big fan of your husband’s work.”
Jen gave him a smile. “And I have to admit, I’ve read all your wife’s books. So we’re both married to successful artists. Why do I have the feeling neither of us is very happy with them right now?”
Somehow what she couldn’t admit to her friends was easy to say to Lucas.
“I’m not good at hiding it anymore.” Lucas sighed. “I used to be quite good at hiding my dissatisfaction. Maybe because it didn’t mean as much.”
