Page 105 of Hottie on Her Shelf
She’d flipped open the flaps of her box to run for mayor, but when it really counted, when she had this fabulous, funny, charming, kind, hot man to fight for, she’d hunkered down.
Hallie had been scared. Ana was so very right, like always. And she’d put off figuring out how to fight for him until after the election. That’d be fear, yet again. Ohhh, Hallie was so disappointed in herself, and yet so grateful to Ana for helping her figure it all out.
“You’re like a really good masseuse. You dig your elbow into that emotional knot until I’m writhing in pain, but as soon as you’re done, I feel a thousand times better.” Hallie bent and flourished her arm in a half bow. “You’re right and wise and I’m so lucky to have you as a friend.”
“Damn straight you are.”
The revelation had lifted her spirits for about thirty-seven seconds. Just as quickly, though, they plummeted again. Because realizing she’d essentially chickened out meant brainstorming post-election wouldn’t make a difference. Breaking it off with Fitz wasn’t reversible. “But I’m too late.”
“For what?”
“To fix this. I must’ve hurt Fitz terribly when I didn’t bother to fight for him. How could he ever trust me again with his heart?”
Ana rolled her eyes. “Dramatic, much? Just because we’re in an opera house doesn’t mean you have to soliloquize like a dying soprano.”
Of course, she couldn’t understand. Ana had never teetered on the brink of a great love, like Jane and Rochester, or Claire and Jamie Fraser.
Or Fitz and Hallie…
She wanted the chance to at least see if that could be their future. She wanted the chance to be the mayor, be a good girlfriend to Fitz, and not have his family and/or the town hate her. It in no way seemed akin to asking for the sun, the moon, and the stars to be handed to her.
On the other hand…Hallie had zero idea how to make it happen.
Just like she had zero idea if there was a real chance of her winning the election. That was the other thing—okay, maybe the only thing at this point—that Ana got wrong. “Also? I’m not about to crush him. The Montgomerys have been de facto owners, parents, and rulers of this town for generations. They are as uncrushable as marble.”
“That’s only one way to look at it. You could also point to their long history as making people feel ripe for a change. Some people vote for a candidate. Others just want to vote against someone. I think if we get a cluster of people doing both of those things, you’ve got a solid chance.”
Hallie’s stomach had knotted when they first began talking about Fitz. It knotted in such a way that even the sailors on the whaling ship Pequod would be impressed by their tightness. Thinking about the election, however, gave her a whole new set of knots.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted in a near-whisper.
“You can be thirteen percent nervous,” Randall said, suddenly joining the conversation from the row behind them. He slung an arm around their shoulders. “Just enough to give you an edge and not be cocky. The rest of you, however, has got to be confident.”
The sight of the layers of red, white, and blue bandannas around his neck—that she absolutely recognized as the ones they used on the big dog breeds at his grooming business—should’ve made Hallie smile. Randall adored all things election/democracy related. He claimed that voting for politicians had all the fun of voting for a couple on Dancing with the Stars—just amped up times ten.
“I’m confident that I know the difference between the three Brontë sisters. Even more confident I can name the distinguishing characteristics of each Hogwarts house.” Hallie tidied the ends of his red bandanna. “I have no confidence about what will be revealed on this stage in, oh, fifteen scant minutes.”
“Uh, were you having an out-of-body experience at your last two campaign events?” Ana tapped the top of Hallie’s head as if checking for an echo. “How did you not notice the tide turning in your direction?”
“That’s a tad hard to gauge with my opponent sitting next to me.” Not to mention all the blood rushing away from her head and ears to keep her heart pumping in triple time. Felicia had given her the hint. Opened the door, as it were. Hallie had done all the work to verify and then determine how and when she could reactivate the city manager job.
And if the budget allowed for it.
“I’m not suggesting you missed people chucking roses at you, but as soon as you proposed bringing back the city manager position—well, it looked like a flock of prairie dogs…wait, is it a flock?”
Randall gave her the long-suffering look that Hallie gave readers who didn’t know if it was John Grisham or Stephen King who wrote legal thrillers. “A group of prairie dogs is called a coterie.”
Megan plopped into the seat next to Hallie. “Oh, that’s fun! Kind of sounds like they’re attending a nineteenth-century salon with tea and macarons.”
Ana set her jaw. “Fine. It looked like a coterie of prairie dogs popping up their heads and taking notice. There’s a buzz all across town that you want to make big moves. At least with everyone younger than Preston Montgomery’s cronies. You’ve got a real shot. People love a fresh idea.”
Hallie couldn’t wrap her brain around it. “The thing is, I started this to prove a point.”
“I started it,” Megan refuted. “As the best birthday present ever. Well, mostly to get you to shut up about what could be done better.”
“That’s the thing.” She patted Megan’s thigh in their white capris. “A few weeks ago, I would’ve said this campaign was all your fault, but now it truly has turned into the best gift ever.”
“I know.” Smugness rolled off her like the smelly waves of smoke from the sage she’d burned when Hallie moved into her apartment.
