I shrugged, slugged back some more wine, and thought about it. “Drop out, Iguess.”
“No. Nope. Newwwwp. Petition to move the elections back. But don’t give up. You’re too big a voice now. You’ve got too many people counting on you. You get that, right? All this work, all those people working for your campaign, they need you. I needyou.”
I blinked. Was O’Neal Jones, my driven, tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners bestie actuallycrying?
“O’Neal, areyou—”
“No! No, I’m not. Because who do you think wrote that piece, huh?” She sniffed. “You think I don’t feel responsible for this? What the hell happens to this?” She waved her hand between us. “Between us, if you pull out now? How do you think that’ll work for me, if I made the mistake that changed the entire path of not only this town and its residents, but my best friend’s entirelife?”
I hadn’t thought ofthat.
“You think I could file a request to postpone theelection?”
“I don’t know. But you could check. Right?” She hid her face behind her hands and made a half-laughing sound. “Don’t look at me when I tear up. I’m really bad atemotion.”
Tears rushed to my eyes. I pushed them back and nodded. “No. You’rereallygood atit.”
“Being emotional?” She giggled. “I’m the ice queen,remember?”
“Only according to the guys you date. The guys you sleep with.” O’Neal Jones was allergic tocommitment.
“Sleep?”
“Havesexwith.”
“Whatever. I don’t remember the last time Icried.”
“I cry all thetime.”
“Seriously, V? You’re sotogether.”
“Me?” That she’d see me that way truly surprised me, gave me a little bolster of something. “No. I’m amess.”
“Again, I call bullshit on your ass. You’re the strongest, most together person I know. You’re little and driven and you take no nonsense from anyone. You run your world like you run yourclassroom.”
“With a hug and a boardbook?”
She snuffled and grinned at me from behind her hands. “Exactly. With compassion, love, and kindness. You’re the strongest person I know, V. And you’re the best person for the job.” She grabbed her glass and sat back onto the sofa, leaning into me, shoulder to shoulder. “I sure hope you don’t let us all down.” She gave me a wink. “Nopressure.”
11
Veronica
City Council agreedto postpone the election for three months, which gave the opposing party time to locate a new candidate. It also drew an enormous positive response from the city’s residents, who came out on Election Day to support me in droves. I beat the opposition with a very respectablemargin.
Fair andsquare.
But I still felt like crap. Through the celebrations, the swearing in ceremony, and the first city council meeting, I had to work to muster asmile.
I missed Zach. So much. I didn’t see him, but he was with me all the time—a ball in my throat, an ache in my chest, a cramp in my belly. Then of course, I spent way too much time googling him in my downtime, which was almost never, thank goodness. But the things I discovered made me miss him evenmore.
Horde, it turned out, was legendary in a Robin Hood way. He’d taken down numerous corrupt politicians, had outed corporate bigwigs who’d cheated their employees and shareholders out of billions of dollars, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. Horde—Zach—was ahero.
I’d picked up my phone to call him more times than I could count. But what would say? I forgive you? Keep being you and I’ll pretend it doesn’texist?
It was a Wednesday, halfway through the school’s summer preschool camp and I was out on the playground with the kids. We were wrapping up afternoon recess when O’Neal turned up on the playground, wearing a visitor’s badge. She called me over with a lift of herchin.
“What are you doinghere?”
