“Thank you!” she said, pressing a kiss to his mouth.
“Look at Hunter making an effort,” Mace teased his older brother.
“You’re going to be late for work,” Hunter told him in annoyance.
Mace grabbed a breakfast sandwich and left as Judge Edna and the rest of the members of the Harrogate Foundation filed in.
“We’ve never had such a nice spread before,” one of the older women exclaimed.
“And I don’t think we’ve had such good-looking men here either!” another cooed over Hunter. He basked in their praise.
“It’s the least I can do after the hard work you all have put into making Harrogate a better place to live,” he said smoothly.
They ate it up. And just like that, Hunter had control of the meeting.
“I hear there’s a festival coming up,” Hunter said. He was both relaxed and focused, making notes in neat handwriting on the notepad in the leather-bound book he carried.
“Yes, for fundraising,” Josie said. “We have the initial endowment from Svensson PharmaTech but thought it might be fun to throw a big fundraising festival and educate people on the volunteer opportunities and initiatives we’ve organized for the community.”
I took another bite of my breakfast sandwich and zoned out. Those types of festivals were what Barry usually did. If Hunter was now going to be in the mode of just showing up and shaking hands, he could stand there in the sun all day and do it.
“Since you are both mayoral hopefuls,” Josie added, “we thought it would be fun if you participated in some of the activities.”
“Of course! We’d be happy to.”
“We?” I asked, standing up to select another breakfast sandwich because my week had just started, and it was already terrible.
“It will be a fun bonding experience,” Hunter insisted.
“I’ve spent more time with you in the last month than I particularly care to,” I told him.
“Please! You can’t stop obsessing over me—that’s why you showed up at my house yesterday to surprise me.” Hunter smirked.
There were giggles and exclamations of surprise from several of the Harrogate Foundation members. Josie clapped a hand over her mouth, and even Judge Edna seemed shocked.
“I think Art owes me quite a lot of money,” she said finally.
“I didn’t come like that,” I protested.
Hunter caught his bottom lip in his teeth. “No comment.”
“You. I—” I sputtered. “I was only over there because he didn’t show up to a meeting yesterday morning!”
“It must have been an honest mistake,” Edna said, flipping to the next page in the festival planning document. “Hunter is always so put together.”
* * *
“He’s just doingit to get under your skin,” Kate told me later that day in the campaign office after I finished ranting about Hunter. “He’s just trying to put you off-balance so he can win the mayoral election.”
“Right,” I said, feeling slightly dejected.
“What wrong?” Kate cried, giving me a hug. “Don’t let Hunter get you down.”
“It’s not that. It just…” I ran my fingers through my tangled hair. Gosh, I was a mess.
“A part of me was always hopeful that Hunter was acting like a jerk because he secretly, I don’t know, cared, or liked me. But he always has an ulterior motive. I just need to remind myself not to let my guard down.”
Kate gave me a conspiratorial look.
