Not to mention, she would always be grateful to Lucas.He'd thrown her a lifeline when she was drowning.Everything she'd rebuilt since—a life, the routine, her composure, the woman the town saw as capable and dependable—had started when he gave her this job.
The mayor straggled in around nine-thirty.He looked gray under his perpetual ruddy tan, obtained in the tanning booth in his basement.He moved as if he was in pain.That, and the slightest exertion made him out of breath.
To her critical eye, he seemed to be getting weaker instead of stronger.
He was worse in other ways too.He was increasingly cussed, even more short-tempered than usual.He’d even snapped at several loyal campaign donors who’d stopped by last week to check on his health.
One thing she knew about Lucas for sure: he was a politician to the core of his being.He never, ever intentionally antagonized anyone who gave him campaign money.At least, not until now.
Had he decided not to run for re-election this fall?Was that why he'd been so out of sorts?
Except that explanation didn't ring true to her.He was carrying something dark inside him.She could see it lurking behind his eyes.The only word she could think of to describe it was haunted.
“Morning, Bonnie,” Lucas growled.
“Good morning.Your ten o’clock canceled.”
He grunted.Which was his version of thank you lately.He stalked into his office and closed the door harder than necessary.She flinched at the loud bang.
At ten o'clock, the hallway door opened.She looked up, startled.The group from the Rotary Club hadn’t show up after all, had they?
Her heart stuttered at the tall, athletic silhouette in the doorway.Not too many men in these parts were built like that.
Gray walked in carrying a manila folder.He was wearing a white shirt starched within an inch of its life, a pair of pressed jeans that had creases down the legs, and nice cowboy boots.
A sterling silver belt buckle winked at his waist, and she thought it looked like some sort of championship buckle.She peered at the oval, trying to make out the image carved on it, maybe a cowboy riding a bucking horse?—
It dawned on her abruptly that she was staring rather fixedly at his bellybutton.She jerked her gaze up to his face.
He looked different from the diner.Less an adorably rumpled nerd.More a purposeful and focused cowboy, today.Hoo baby, that was one good-looking man.
“Good morning,” she managed to get out in a nearly normal voice.
“Morning.I have a proposal for Mayor Shoemacher, if he's got a few minutes.”
“Actually, he’s had a cancellation this morning.May I tell him what it's about?”
“I worked up a plan to reopen the fire station.”
Reopen—
A chill chattered down her spine and shivered its way out to her fingertips.Every cell in her body rebelled at the idea, shouting warnings at her that it was dangerous.Someone would die.Bad idea.Bad idea.Bad idea ...
She picked up the phone, buzzed the mayor, and relayed the request.She got back a grunt from the other end that she interpreted as assent.If she was wrong, the mayor could learn to use actual words with her.
She met Gray’s striking silver gaze and registered abrupt butterflies in her stomach.“Go on in.”
She shamelessly watched him walk into the mayor's office.His shoulders were muscular under that crisp shirt, and his jeans clung to his athletic physique in all the right places.Hubba hubba.She estimated he was six foot two.Tall enough for her to wear heels and still look up at him while they danced?—
Stop it.You haven't been on a date, let alone danced with a man, since Noah was born.
She turned on the intercom to listen in on the meeting.
Under normal circumstances, she would let the mayor tell her about it later.But Lucas was being such a grouch that she didn't trust him to share anything with her nor, frankly, to pay enough attention to get the details right later.
Gray’s presentation was clear, organized, and wasted no words.Until the town could approve a budget to hire more firefighters, he would drive the ambulance for his brother Tucker's paramedic service already operating out of the fire station.In the meantime, he would clean out the station and restore the fire engine.
Grayson laid out a timeline, cost estimates, and a plan for doing his own training with the Apple Pie Creek fire department, and later, taking over training new firefighters for a reconstituted Cobbler Cove fire department.He even laid out an argument Lucas could use with the county commission to get it to help fund a full-time fire department on this side of the lake.
