Chasing Tail

by Roxanne St Claire

  Sadie nodded. “I agree, Nellie. We may be, you know…engaged.” The word still felt strange on her lips. “But I doubt we’ll approach the mayor’s race the same way. I don’t think Connor and I will have similar platforms or styles at all.”

  “You shouldn’t. He’s running on the whole dog thing, which, believe me, did benefit a lot of store owners and built tourism. But that brought new issues, and no one wants to address them because it sounds like they’re anti-dog or anti-Bitter Bark or anti-something.”

  “What kind of issues?”

  “Could you come to the library this afternoon?” Nellie asked. “I can fill you in on everything you need to know before you talk to the media tomorrow. We have traffic issues, a little crime, and rents have gone sky-high because now we’ve got so many tourists. It’s not always a good thing for a small town.”

  Sadie absently rubbed her fingers over the diamond engagement ring that belonged to…the director of Bitter Bark tourism. “Okay,” she said, sneaking a peek at Connor just in time to catch his eye and see him lift his brows in question as he tugged Frank to a stand. “I can meet you this afternoon.”

  “Good, because we need a fresh perspective and some of your amazing experience.”

  “Thank you,” Sadie said, reaching out to touch the woman’s arm. “That means the world to me.” She glanced at Connor, who was talking to another man, but caught his eye once again. “I better go,” she said with one more quick squeeze of solidarity. “I’ll come by the library later.”

  Nellie nodded and said goodbye, freeing Sadie to join Connor, who held her gaze and damn near flattened her with a smile as she approached. “Have you met my cousin Shane Kilcannon?” Connor asked, reaching for her hand in the most natural way, pulling her close as if, well, as if she really were his fiancée.

  She instantly saw the resemblance between the cousins, with similar-colored hair and the strong jawlines. Shane’s eyes were much more green and practically dancing with humor that seemed to hum through him.

  “Hello, Shane.” She shook his strong hand and held her other one up to show the diamond ring. “I don’t know if we knew each other in the past, but I, uh, am wearing something I assume you paid for.”

  “Connor just told me. Defeating Easterbrook is a worthy cause, and I know my wife will get it back.”

  “Right now,” she said, tugging at the gorgeous solitaire that already felt oddly comfortable on her finger.

  “You’ll just need it tomorrow for the media,” Shane said. “Guard it well, and I’ll get it from Connor after that.”

  “Really?”

  Shane shrugged and took a step away. “It’s all in the family.”

  “And mine is amazing that way,” Connor added.

  “Speaking of amazing, I’m off to see my wife.” Shane nodded his goodbye and headed to the elevator, leaving Sadie standing with her…fiancé.

  “Wow,” she whispered. “What a morning.”

  He scanned her face, looking hard at her. “One question before you take off?”

  “Of course.”

  “What is your history with Easterbrook?”

  She just stared at him, speechless.

  “Sadie. You’re the one obsessed with honesty. Now would be a good time to tell me the truth, don’t you think?”

  On a sigh, she nodded. “Do you want to have lunch?”

  “I’m free until a twelve-hour shift starts at five. Come on.” He put his arm around her and tugged Frank’s leash. “He’s not the best restaurant dog, though. Let’s grab some pizza at Slice of Heaven and eat in the square.”

  She followed him to the door, dreading the confession, but knowing she had to make it.

  Chapter Ten

  Connor didn’t press the subject. They had enough to talk about without demanding her Easterbrook explanation right out of the gate. At the pizza place, he chatted with the owner’s niece, Beck, making Sadie laugh when he explained she was yet another wife of yet another Kilcannon cousin.

  Once they had their pizza, they took Frank to the square and found a secluded table. They were two slices in before he leaned in and finally got back to what had been bothering him since the moment he saw Sadie look at Mitch Easterbrook.

  “So…you do know our opposition, I take it.”

  She sighed and set down her slice, wiping her hands on a paper napkin. “We go way back, I’m afraid.” She bit her lip and looked down, staring at Frank, who snoozed under the table, his chin firmly resting on Connor’s foot to be sure he didn’t move. “And it’s not that complicated a story, especially if you know the kind of guy Mitch is.”

  “I know he sits on the hairy edge of sleaze, gouges grieving people for money, and…” He lifted a shoulder. “Treats his wife like crap and tries to appease her with money.”

  She cringed. “Yeah, it’s kind of the ‘treats his wife like crap’ part I know.” She finally looked up at him, almost taking his breath away with the pain in her eyes. “This is really hard to say,” she whispered.

  He reached over the pizza box and put his hand on hers. “You can trust me.”

  Her expression was nothing but doubt, but she nodded. “Okay. I’ll just say it. He had an affair with my mother. I don’t know a lot of the details, but it was a dark time. My parents divorced because of it, and my mother moved across the country. My dad and, oddly, my mother’s parents, Nana and Boomie, raised me from then on.”

  “Oh God.” He huffed out a breath. “Now I hate him even more.”

  “Get in line,” she said with a wry smile. “He’s mine to hate, and I think I’ve proven that I’ll do just about anything to keep him from being mayor of this town.”

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that.” He didn’t know what else to say, so he just added some pressure to her hand. “How old were you?”

  “Fourteen. Just old enough to understand that my mother was horrible, but not really why.”

  “Do you understand why now?” he asked.

  “She’s never told me outright what happened, and my dad rarely talks about it. But she was a social climber and wanted more than a professor of political science at Vestal Valley College. Mitch had money and power and a family name that meant status in Bitter Bark. And I guess…” She curled her lip. “He was considered quite handsome. My mother got swept away and seduced, plain and simple, not that she was innocent in the whole thing. She bears half the blame, without a doubt.”

  “But I can still understand why you’d hate Mitch.”

  She nodded. “Mitch, no surprise, wouldn’t leave his wife. But I get the impression he led my mother on for quite some time, making her believe he would divorce for her. Of course, he didn’t.”

  “God, Sadie. That’s awful.”

  “No one knows but my family, so at least my mother didn’t become gossip fodder. My dad stayed in Bitter Bark for me, really, because I grew up here, and I’ve always been really close to Nana and Boomie. But the minute I graduated from high school, my dad took a job at UT in Austin, and he’s there still, happily remarried. My mom’s living with a painter in Oregon.”

  “Do you talk to her?” he asked.

  “Three times a year, on her birthday, my birthday, and Christmas.” She tried for a casual shrug, but he suspected there was nothing casual about her feelings.

  “You’re left to extract vengeance on the villain who caused it all.”

  She considered that for a long time. “My mother was equally responsible. It takes two to cheat.” Her voice went flat and dead. “You’ll never find me blaming only the man in that case. So I wouldn’t call this vengeance as much as a determination to stop him from having that much power.”

  “Well, it does explain a lot, and thanks for sharing with me. Not that I needed reasons to loathe the man any more than I already do. If it’s any consolation—though I’m not sure it will be—your mother wasn’t the only one.”

  “I figured that.”

  He studied her for a moment, filing away all she’d j
ust shared, always wanting to know more about her, and wanting to ease the conversation into something that would erase the hurt in her eyes.

  “So, does the poli-sci-professor father get credit for your career choice?”

  “Along with Mr. DeFord.”

  He frowned, thinking. “Mr.…the civics teacher at Bitter Bark High?”

  “Junior year, third period?”

  “What?” He blinked at her. “We had a class together? How could I not know this?”

  “Because you were in the back with the cool kids and jocks.”

  “Nah. It was third period, you say? Then I was starved for lunch.”

  “You were starved for someone named Erin McFarland, who sat next to you, if I recall correctly.”

  He hissed in a soft breath. “Oh yeah. Maybe a little.”

  She had to laugh at his honesty. “It’s fine. I loved the class, though. That teacher and my dad were huge influences, making me love politics and government and the system that works for the people. There have been other people along the way…” She looked off for a moment, smiling, thinking of someone. “You never know who’s going to inspire you.”

  He fisted his hands and rested his chin on them, staring at her. “I’m so impressed by you.”

  “Well, you sure weren’t in Mr. DeFord’s class.”

  “I was an idiot.”

  “Kind of,” she agreed, making him drop his head back and grunt. He had been an idiot in those days. Burning with anger at what the world had taken from him, full of pent-up resentment, trying to prove something even though the only person he wanted to amaze was…gone.

  He shook off the thought. “Well, I’m impressed now,” he said. “And I still can’t figure out how you didn’t get snagged and bagged by now, but—”

  “Snagged and bagged?” She choked. “Are you kidding?”

  “Hey, I’m the un-PC guy who named my dog Frankendog. How did you manage to stay single all this time, Sadie?”

  She shifted a little uncomfortably. “I told you I had a boyfriend in DC, but we broke up.”

  “Is the breakup the reason you left DC?”

  She looked down at the pizza, silent.

  “Whoops. Sorry.” He plucked a pepperoni from one of the remaining slices. “That bad, huh? Don’t want to talk about it?”

  She closed her eyes. “You’d think that one sob story about a cheater would be enough for an afternoon.”

  He dropped the pepperoni before it went into his open mouth. “No.”

  “Yes.”

  “He cheated on you?”

  “With my boss,” she whispered.

  “What the…holy shit, that sucks.”

  She laughed lightly. “Yep. It does. It’s totally…mortifying.”

  “Nothing to be mortified about. Your boss and boyfriend are the ones who should be ashamed.” He picked up the pepperoni again, but this time he lowered his hand and let Frank get a whiff. Immediately, it was snatched from his fingers. “You’re being good, Frank.”

  “Frankendog,” she reminded him with an eye roll. “Oh, I named him after Mayor Frank,” she said, imitating him in a low voice that cracked him up.

  “What else could I call him?” he asked. “Look at that monster.”

  “Frankenstein wasn’t the monster. He was the scientist.”

  “Trust me, I know. My younger brother, Braden, is a bookaholic and made sure I knew that. Anyway, he’s just Frank now.” He shot her a look. “Smooth change of subject, DC. But don’t I get any details? I mean, your boss is kind of a big deal. Did their affair go public?”

  “Not as far as I know, but I quit the day after I found out. I couldn’t stay in that town, which, in some ways, is smaller than this one. No one on the staff has texted to say they’ve heard about it, so I guess they’re keeping it on the DL.”

  “How’d you find out? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “I don’t,” she said, taking a sip of her soda. “I kind of suspected something weird between them for a few months before I confirmed it, but their jobs intersected, too. He’s a lobbyist, and she’s a congresswoman, and she had control over some bills that really affected his clients. We all had to be at some events together, and I just…got a vibe, you know? Then…” She looked away, her brows drawn in thought and what he suspected was one crappy memory. “I smelled her perfume in his car, if you can even believe something that cliché.” She tried to laugh, but her voice caught.

  “Oh, Sadie.” He took her hand again, cursing the fact that he not only didn’t get rid of that hurt, he brought on more. “I’m sorry to make you talk about it.”

  She shook her head and fought the tears, trying to smile. “I practically threw myself out of his car in the pouring rain. Then I had to walk to find a signal so I could call an Uber, and that’s when I heard my little darling Demi crying for a new life. We both got one that night.”

  He squeezed her hand again. “Good for you for walking.”

  “Of course I walked. I walked right into my boss’s office the next day and resigned.”

  “Man, your job and your boyfriend, both gone in one fell swoop. How long ago was this?”

  “About a month. I packed up the next day, ignored his calls, and ran away to Bitter Bark to lick my wounds and figure out my next move.”

  “Oh. You are on the rebound.”

  “This is fake, remember?”

  “Shhh. We sit in the shadow of Thad Bushrod himself.” He nodded toward the founder’s statue. “I have a confession, too,” he said softly. “I did Google your boss after I saw your résumé.”

  “So you saw that she’s gorgeous, looks ten years younger than her forty-two years, and she was blessed with a bone structure that’s as stunning as her brain.”

  “Brain? She screws around with her staffer’s boyfriend? Sounds pretty dumb to me.”

  “No, she is not dumb. And neither is he. Plus, he’s…” She tipped her head. “Very successful and her equal in the looks department. In all ways, they deserve each other.”

  He wasn’t buying that. “A lobbyist sleeping with a congresswoman? That can’t be legit.”

  “It’s not illegal. Neither is married, but I agree it’s not ethical.”

  “So why didn’t you blow the whistle on them? At least put a dent in their careers, if not ruin them?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to ruin anyone’s career. For one thing, I learned everything I know from having her as a mentor and I still believe that this country needs people like Jane in Congress. And the way Washington works? She’d have been the one scandalized, and Nathan would have gotten high fives and a promotion for his ‘lobbying’ prowess.” She used air quotes and then let her hands thud to the table. “The fact is, I had nothing to gain from going public, and people I care about could have been hurt or lost their jobs, and let’s face it, I’m the one who looks like the biggest fool of all.”

  “Could not disagree more,” he said vehemently. “Plus, you picked up and moved on. They’ll crash and burn eventually, if they haven’t already.”

  “Losing both of them hurt,” she admitted on a whisper. “I thought I loved Nathan, but oh my God, Jane was my idol from the moment I met her. I worked as an intern in her office in Austin when she was a first-year congresswoman, and I was in college. I had her on a pedestal higher than the one old Thad is standing on over there. And I…”

  When she didn’t finish, Connor gave her hand a squeeze to urge her on.

  “I wanted to be exactly like her.”

  He knew that admission hurt, but he was still stuck on I thought I loved Nathan. A month ago? This woman wasn’t ready for anything, but then…he wasn’t really offering anything but a fake relationship.

  She pushed back then, closing the pizza box. “Thank you for lunch and for listening, Connor. You got more out of me than I planned to share.”

  “Thanks for trusting me.”

  She gave him a rueful smile. “I’m not sure I’ll ever really trust anyone
again,” she admitted. “But it is nice to try.”

  * * *

  “See what I mean?” Nellie Shaker leaned back in her office chair and gestured toward the files and papers she’d spread on the desk and the legal pad Sadie had filled with pages of notes. “This isn’t a job for a lightweight.”

  “No one said it is,” Sadie agreed.

  “Or a dog,” Nellie added. “Cute as the idea, and the idea-haver, might be.”

  Sadie managed a smile, but nothing in her wanted to dive into a mudslinging session against Connor. “Frank isn’t going to make decisions about traffic flow,” she said. “Obviously, Connor is. But I do actually have experience with managing congestion after rapid growth. It was a problem in a small town in our congressional district, and we found solutions.”

  “But don’t you dare suggest canceling events like Paws for a Cause or Bark in the Park,” Nellie warned her. “I have to tell you I was in the room the day that Chloe Somerset—now Kilcannon—presented that idea to the Tourism Advisory Committee.”

  Sadie leaned forward, touching the diamond ring—owned by that very woman—resting heavily on her left hand. “Was it well received?”

  Nellie gave a soft hoot. “They darn near booed her out of the room, and Mitch was the loudest. But Shane Kilcannon came to that meeting instead of his father, and he liked it.” She smiled. “And he liked Chloe.”

  Sadie glanced at the ring. “The dogs have been great for this town.”

  “Great enough that if you campaign against them, you’ll alienate a lot of people. Although, how could you since you’re engaged to Frank’s owner?” She made a face Sadie couldn’t quite interpret. Doubt? Amusement? Curiosity?

  Sadie returned her attention to the notes before Nellie could start asking personal questions. “How about parking? Is it a problem like the traffic congestion?”

  Nellie snorted. “Try to get a space. But we do have several Uber drivers now, so there is that.”

  “Traffic might be a matter of turning some of the streets around the square into one-way or adding a light where there’s only a stop sign now.”