The civic center was bathed in stringed lights. Zane found a nice, quiet corner of the ballroom, trying to occupy himself by jamming his hands in his pockets and nodding hello to passersby.
“You’re Zane, right?” an attractive woman with black hair and a short black dress said, whisking two drinks off the nearby refreshmenttable. “My parents told me to look for the firefighter.” She laughed and handed him one of the drinks.
“And you must be Carolina. Am I that obvious?” Zane thanked her for the drink.
She shrugged. “Sort of. And then there’s the look that says you really don’t want to be here.”
Before he could respond, she tossed a glance behind her and then covered her mouth with her hand. “Honestly, I don’t really want to be here either.”
A smile twisted around her lips, and she took a sip of her drink.
He blew out a breath. “You figured me out pretty quickly, didn’t you?” Zane ventured, catching a glimpse of the brilliant green of her eyes.
She laid a hand on his upper arm. “Okay, since we both would rather be anywhere but here,”—she paused as a couple walked past them—“we should come up with a code word to start the evening off, okay? This is serious.”
“Code word?” Zane felt a brief whiff of panic with his amusement.
“Yeah, because these events can get a little boring, and I need to be able to say something to you so that you can respond with something like, ‘Carolina, let’s go to the craft services table and get an hors d’oeuvres.’ Or, ‘Carolina, it’s getting late, and we promised Angie we’d go find her.’ Or, ‘Carolina, let’s blow this popsicle stand and go make out somewhere!’” She gave a wicked cackle. “I was totally kidding about that last one.”
“Who’s Angie?’
Carolina scoffed. “No one. I just made her up.” She leaned toward him. “But no one else has to know that. All I’m saying is, we need a plan to help each other ditch early.”
“So should our code word be ‘I likethat wall’?” Zane asked.
“Subtle, but not very interesting.”
“Well, we can’t say something like ‘I bless the rains down in Africa.’”
Carolina put her hand to her chest and laughed. “That wouldn’t be subtle at all.”
“Well, let’s just stick with mine, then.”
She caught his gaze. “Okay. Glad we got that decided.” She looked out over the crowd of people and waved back at someone. “So, tell me about yourself, Zane the Firefighter.”
“Well, when I’m not responding to medical or fire emergencies, I’m doing such things as accidentally breaking an illegal dam and causing sediment spillage.”
“Wait, I might have heard about that.”
Zane pursed his lips, a slick of shame zipping through his head. How had she heard about that? It might have been put on the town's Facebook page. “Last night. I feel terrible about it.”
“I mean, you actually did everyone a favor. Those illegal dams are the worst.”
They began mingling, and Carolina introduced him to several people. He had to admit it wasn’t terrible, and Carolina was pretty okay. Easy to talk to and pretty in a goth sort of way.
It wasn’t until they’d meandered back toward the entrance that he noticed the big butcher paper sign draped across the front. He’d seen theCongratulationspart when he walked in but hadn’t zeroed in on the rest.Congratulations, Liza Jorgenson, Bartlett Water Commission Chair. Citizen of the Year.
It was that middle part that had Zane’s stomach plunging. Lizathewater commission chair? The one who had been heckling Mack and Silver Plum for water rights for years?
He tried to play it cool, but Carolina noticed his discomfort, and she threw him a questioning glance.
What was the code word they’d decided on? Something about walls.
Just as he was opening his mouth to joke about walls as a way to start the process of being able to leave without being rude, they were greeted by a man holding a small laptop.
“Good evening. I hope you are enjoying yourselves tonight.” The guy was smooth, very formal. He reminded Zane of a concierge. Could he order up one Mabel, please?
Carolina seemed like a decent, down-to-earth person. But she wasn’t Mabel, and Zane missed her.
