“Habit,” Lisa answered, taking an empty seat next to him. “They all own businesses that could use their attention, but they each have different interests and different goals for the city. If something happens that might affect their own interests, they swoop in to make sure their voice is heard. You should have seen the battle we had two years ago over finding a buyer and reopening the Mustang Supermarket.”
Ben gave her a blank stare. “I admit I don’t know much about city business, but what was it they couldn’t agree on?”
“Deputy Mayor Dale Barnal wanted the supermarket, but only if he could be the sole owner, when really, he hadn’t shown any interest in buying and reopening the place until it looked like some out-of-town investors might be stepping up. They wanted tax breaks, which Dale didn’t think they should get.
“Councilman Roland Hall wanted the Choctaw tribe to annex the property and turn it into a casino. Councilman Dalton Bunker—”
“Let me guess,” Ben broke in. “Bunky wanted the building to be turned into a dance hall. I know he loves to dance.”
“And has no sense of rhythm. Whenever he hears music, it’s like he’s possessed by some kind evil spirit of the dance, and he wants Gemma to be his partner. Bunky wanted the property to be a cabaret or nightclub, with him as the master of ceremonies.”
Ben grinned. “In this conservative town? I’ll bet that didn’t go over well.”
“No, it didn’t. They finally agreed on tax incentives for the investment group to take on the supermarket project, but the group didn’t want to repave the parking lot, which made no sense. The city council refused to dig up and repave it, though. There’s still a dip in it that fills with enough rainwater to swamp a Volkswagen Beetle.”
“Still?”
“Always. I guess they think it’s part of the charm.”
Ben nodded. “And the younger guy? I don’t know him,” he asked, nodding to the last member in the group.
“Trent Sanderson—Luke’s cousin—has been in town for only a few years. He’s new on the council, has some good ideas the others won’t listen to because they’re old and crotchety and he’s young and progressive.” Lisa smiled. “He had no idea what he was getting into, poor guy. I guess it’s unfair to say he’s pulling in the opposite direction from the others. I think he’s only trying to hang on for dear life in hopes of getting them to listen to reason.”
“Good luck to him.”
Ben watched the youngest member of the council turn away from the others with a massive eye-roll. He stalked across the room toward Lisa, who introduced him to Ben. The two men shook hands.
Trent blew out a frustrated breath and said, “Harley could be knocking on death’s door and the only thing the three of them can think of are their own interests. I’ve ridden bulls that were easier to control than they are.”
Lisa snickered, but grew solemn when Nathan strode into the room accompanied by Gemma and one of the new doctors who had moved into the area and opened a practice, Neil O’Conner. He and Neil pulled Brenda Morton and her family aside to confer in low voices. The city councilmen strained to eavesdrop and looked disappointed when the group headed down the hall. Gemma came over to Lisa.
“It was a heart attack. Harley says he’s been feeling bad for weeks but didn’t want to worry anyone. Nathan and Dr. O’Conner are sending him to a cardiac unit in Tulsa. It will be a long recovery.” Gemma took her phone from her pocket. “I’m going to call Carly. She’ll want to know what’s going on since Jay and Sheena both work for her. I’m betting she’ll ask her family in Tulsa to let the Mortons stay with them until Harley can come home.”
Before she called, she gave Lisa a puzzled look and said, “In the meantime, Harley wants to talk to you. Says he won’t leave here until he does. In fact, he wants to see you right after he sees his family.”
“Why me?”
“I don’t know, but he’s adamant.”
Lisa looked at Ben and Trent, who both shrugged. “Okay. I’ll see what he wants.”
“I’ll come with you to try to keep him calm,” Gemma offered.
With a nod, Lisa hurried from the room and down the hallway, Gemma rushing along with her. Before she even entered the examination room, Brenda came out, grabbed her arm and pulled her into an alcove.
“I need to talk to you before you see him,” Brenda said.
“Of course. What is it?”
“Harley wants you to be acting mayor until he’s well,” she said.
“What?”
“You heard me.” Brenda’s face was frantic with worry and set with purpose. “Please, Lisa, you’ve got to do this.” She turned to Gemma with a pleading look. “Tell her she’s got to do this.”
Gemma’s eyes widened as her gaze met Lisa’s.
“Me? That’s...that’s impossible. We’ve got a deputy mayor and three councilmen. Don’t we have a city charter that says one of them takes over in case the mayor can’t serve?”
“Yes, but Dale is going to be gone for months on a project to build rural schools in Guatemala. Trent’s the only one with any common sense, but he doesn’t know the town as well as you do.”
“But Roland...and Bunky—”
“Are nuts. You know that better than anybody. You’ve been involved in every big undertaking in this town for years now. You’ve been to every public meeting the council has held and been involved in most projects. Roland and Bunky are impossible. They argue about every little decision just to hear themselves argue.”
Gemma raised a hand. “Lisa can’t be getting in the middle of that.”
Still distraught, Brenda answered, “There’s no one else. Lisa, you’ve got every bit as much experience as they have, and more brains.” Brenda reached out and grabbed Lisa’s hand. “Besides, all the council members know you don’t have the same kind of political agenda they do. You only want what’s best for Reston.”
“Yes, but—”
“You and I have talked about you running for mayor. This is your chance.”
“I wouldn’t be running. I’d be—”
“Acting mayor. There is actually a provision in the charter that the mayor and city council can appoint a citizen to take over running the city in an emergency. It was put in place back during the Depression when so many people had to leave town to find work and the whole place nearly shut down. That provision was never changed, so it can be used in this case. Please, Lisa. It’ll...it’ll be like a trial run to see if you would even want to be mayor.”
“She doesn’t want to,” Gemma said, but Brenda ignored her while Lisa gave her a trapped look.
“There’s got to be someone else, Brenda,” Lisa said.
“No one with your reputation for honesty and your concern for the town. Some people might object, but it’ll only be temporary. If I can tell Harley you’ve agreed, he won’t worry and he can settle down and focus on healing. It’ll only be for a few weeks, and by then maybe I can convince him to retire. The stress is obviously killing him.”
“So you want it to kill me instead?” Lisa’s hands slid down to cover her belly as she thought about her baby. An unexpected wave of nausea rose in her throat but she swallowed hard and forced it down. Gemma saw the gesture and shook her head emphatically no.
Brenda knew nothing about Lisa’s pregnancy and Lisa couldn’t tell her now. Her mind was spinning at this new development.
Brenda said, “Of course I don’t want it to kill you, but you know how to delegate, get help, won’t try to handle every detail yourself. Harley doesn’t know how to do that, and he never will. Believe me. I’ve been married to the man for thirty years. The only times he’s been able to give up control of anything is when he’s been forced to by circumstances. This is one of those times.”
Lisa looked helplessly at her then at Gemma, whose expression had chan
ged to one of worried resignation.
“Please, Lisa, so Harley can relax a little. He’ll be impossible otherwise. I’m so relieved he’ll be at a cardiac center in Tulsa. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to let go at all.”
Lisa thought it over, attempting to weigh the pros and cons at warp speed while Brenda all but danced from one foot to the other. Gemma pressed her lips together in distress while shaking her head. The only positives were that the job would be short-term and might keep Harley from fretting so much.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “I’ll act as mayor until Harley is better. Don’t worry about a thing.”
Relief flooded Brenda’s face and she began to cry. She pulled Lisa into a fierce hug as she choked out, “Thank...thank you. You’ll never regret this.” Turning, she rushed back into the examination room.
“Good grief,” Lisa whispered in horror. “What have I done?”
“Lost your mind,” Gemma suggested drily, then smiled and gave her a hug. “I’m warning you, though, if I see even a hint that you’re doing too much or getting overtired, I’ll put a stop to this.”
Lisa gave her a steady look. “Oh, really? And how do you plan to do that?”
“Remember I worked in some rough neighborhoods in Okie City. I know people. Tough people.”
“To stop me?”
“No. To stop Bunky and Roland from hassling you. Trent will have your back. Dale will be gone, but those other two will be a pain in your behind.”
Lisa laughed. “Well, I said I wanted to run for mayor. Maybe this will be a way to see if I can actually do it.”
“Oh, you can do it. The question is should you do it. For now, I’ll keep my opinions to myself—”
“That’ll be the day.”
“I’ll go find some paper bags.”
“Whatever for?”
“For the city council members to breathe into. When you tell them what’s going on, they’ll probably hyperventilate.”
* * *
“NO.” APPALLED AT her news, Ben stared at Lisa. “You can’t do this and no one has any right to expect you to.” He glanced down and made a vague gesture. “Especially since you’re—”
“I didn’t tell them I’m pregnant,” she broke in crisply. “And you’re not going to, either.”
“You should have. It would put a stop to this nonsense.”
Lisa stared right back at him. He watched her face flush with anger as she said, “You have no right to tell me not to do it. You’ve made it very clear that you want little to do with this baby beyond the financial.”
Ben frowned. He couldn’t deny that. “I do have good reasons.”
“They’re your reasons and they don’t affect what I’ve got to do. Now, please drive me back to my office so I can get my car.”
“Okay, but you’re going straight home, right? Put your feet up, do...what do pregnant women do?”
She rolled her eyes. “You mean carry on with their regular lives? That’s exactly what I plan to do. So far today, I’ve created cost projections of how much it’s going to cost to raise a child. I’ve had a man go into cardiac arrest in front of me, agreed to be acting mayor of this town for the foreseeable future and fought two members of the city council to a standstill.
“Tomorrow, I’m doing the final walk-through on a property I just sold, which means I’ve got to deal with two people who I know are going to have buyer’s remorse over the fixer-upper they insisted they wanted, and I’ve got a budget meeting at city hall, which means I have to read the budget and see what the heck it’s all about. I’m tired, I’m hungry and I’m cranky, so don’t mess with me.”
Furiously she stomped across the hospital parking lot and stood, arms folded, eyes defiant and foot tapping, as she waited for him to unlock his truck door for her.
Flabbergasted at her tone and demeanor, Ben strode after her. He knew if he hit the automatic unlock, she’d vault inside and sit there fuming. Maybe she had a right to do that, but he wanted to have some control over this fiasco. He waited until he reached her before he hit the unlock key and swept the door open for her, taking her arm to help her into the seat.
“Thank you,” she said primly, buckling her seat belt, placing her handbag in her lap and crossing her ankles.
Ben slid in behind the wheel but before he started the engine, he said, “I can’t do anything about you being tired and cranky, but can I buy you some dinner?”
“No, thank you, I’m—”
“Going to need your strength to read over that budget. Besides, we never finished talking about financial arrangements for the baby. How about it? Quick run over to Toncaville, find a good place for dinner? I’ll bring you right back. You can go home, put your feet up and read the budget until numbers start swimming in your head.”
He tried to sound upbeat and convincing even as his mind scrambled for some way to persuade her not to go through with this harebrained idea of being the acting mayor. She was right. It wasn’t his business, but that wouldn’t stop him.
She looked at him for a second. “I’ll need to stop at city hall and pick up the budget from the mayor’s office, but then... Fins,” she said.
“What?”
“Fins is a restaurant in Toncaville. The chef makes the best grilled fish in the county and she buys her vegetables from Carly, so you know she’s focused on quality. I’ve been trying to convince her to open a restaurant in Reston.”
He started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. “So you’ve already got a head start on this acting mayor gig, then?”
“In a manner of speaking. A good restaurant in town would draw people from all over, and once they’re here, they would shop at other stores, too.” She pointed to a shop. The sign over the door was fastened to an old bicycle frame painted bright red. It had the word Upcycle printed on it. “That’s Carly’s place. She restores and refurbishes all kinds of furniture and goods. Tourists eat that kind of thing up.”
“Along with a meal at a good restaurant,” he added, and she smiled.
After a stop at city hall, where she picked up a paper copy of the budget, they made the twenty-minute drive to the restaurant. Ben didn’t even try to make conversation, just showed Lisa where to turn on a reading light so she could get a start on examining the budget. She pulled a pen from her purse and began making notes in the margins.
Ben glanced at her, amazed at how quickly she could immerse herself in something new, like the city budget, even when she was tired and hungry.
She was smart. He’d always known that. He liked the fact that she was ambitious, but her ambition was focused on making things better for other people when she should focus on herself.
Dusk was falling by the time they arrived, but the service was fast and, as promised, the food was outstanding. Three different people came up to their table and requested a selfie with him. Ben happily complied each time.
When he sat after the last one, Lisa asked, “Does that get old after a while? I mean, it seems that you can’t go out, even in your own hometown, without people wanting something from you.”
“Nah. These were the same people who were cheering for me when I was playing ball in high school, then college and then in the pros. This is payback. And besides, maybe when they’re feeling generous, they’ll give to one of the charities I support.”
She smiled. “Ah, your real motive is revealed.”
Ben smiled back and then spent the rest of dinner subtly trying to point out flaws in Lisa’s plan to be mayor in Harley’s absence.
“Ben, why do you care?” she finally asked. “You’ve made it clear that neither I nor this baby will interfere in your life. Why are you interfering in mine?”
Maybe he wasn’t so subtle, after all. And that was an excellent question—to which he didn’t have a good answer.
“Back to my office so I can pick up my car,” she answered. “I’ve got a budget to finish reading.”
Ben didn’t argue, but kept quiet on the ride to Reston so she could concentrate.
“I’m going to have to request previous budgets,” she murmured.
“So, more work for you?” he ventured.
“If I’m going to do this job, even temporarily, I’m going to do it right.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
She gave him a curious look but didn’t answer. When he dropped her off at her car, she didn’t wait for him to open the door for her but thanked him for dinner, jumped from the truck and hurried away.
Ben watched until she was safely on her way home before he turned his truck toward Riverbend Ranch. They still didn’t have anything settled about financial arrangements for the baby, and they might still have to get attorneys involved. But this afternoon had been a revelation. Lisa was deeply involved with the life of their hometown. While he, and many of the kids they’d grown up with, had made lives elsewhere, she had stayed here. He’d always assumed it was because her grandparents had been here and after they’d died she’d simply chosen to stay. He wasn’t so sure about that now.
He pulled up memories of her grandparents... The way his dad had described Wesley Thomas as a hoarder and “just plain crazy” and Lily Thomas as someone who always had her head in the clouds, reading a book or simply wandering around her property.
If anyone had had a good reason for leaving town as quickly as possible, it would have been Lisa. She hadn’t done that, though. In fact, she still lived in the family place, cleaned up and upgraded, from what he’d heard from Sandy Borden. She was involved in many town projects and it seemed that her goal was to make Reston a better town. But mayor? Even temporarily, it would be a big job.
Ben still didn’t understand why she would take it on when she was pregnant. Couldn’t stress like this jeopardize her health or that of the baby? He understood wanting to help, but most of the help he gave was monetary, or related to a subject he knew a great deal about, like football. Even taking on the mustangs was a worthy cause, but not likely to improve the lives of a whole town. It made him a little uncomfortable to see how willing she was to put her own convenience second to what was best for the most people in Reston. Unlike him.
His Twin Baby Surprise Page 8
