Page 23 of Hottie on Her Shelf
Now he was torn between anger and amusement. If Everett was here, he’d be laughing his ass off, for sure. “You hating me is your entire campaign strategy?”
She lifted her chin. “No. Obviously not. It’s a way to stimulate my adrenals to get my brain working at peak performance.”
Oh, thank God. He could lasso that sentence and yank them back to a normal conversation, because he wasn’t prepared for Hallie to go into detail about her animosity or her adrenals.
“Thanks for that segue. Your performance in the campaign is why I’m here.”
Her lips pursed. “I’m on the brink of asking if you’ve come to rub in how hugely I crashed and burned this morning. But, since I’m trying to not make any assumptions about you—well, as of two minutes ago—I’ll ask you to elucidate.”
Her librarian-speak cracked Fitz up. “That makes me feel like a younger, skinnier Hercule Poirot. Compliment taken, thank you very much.”
“Compliment unintended, but you do you.”
Man, the woman wouldn’t give him an inch! Although there had been a suspicious twinkle of humor—or sass?—in her eyes with that last comment. “I came with an olive branch. An offer to help. You’ve never done a campaign before, am I right?”
“Correct.” Hallie tilted her head to indicate the shelves surrounding them. “As you can imagine, I was always more of an in-the-corner bookworm than a class president type.”
“Your lack of experience shows.” Hurriedly, he held up a hand to stop her before she lit into him again. “I’m saying that empirically, not judging.”
Without a hint of emotion, Hallie gave a slow nod. “Noted.”
Huh. Did she accept his criticism because he’d rolled out the fancy vocab with “empirically”? That’d been his hope. Hadn’t expected it to work, though.
“I’ve done lots of campaigns. The early ones relied heavily on poster-making skills, but that won’t come into play for this election.”
This time, Fitz was certain her lips quirked into a smile. It even lasted a whole two seconds. “Maybe you just unwittingly gifted me the secret to beating you. An avenue you’ve yet to explore with the electorate.”
“Glitter pens and puffy paint? Be my guest.” And if she did make a handmade poster, just to prove her point? Well, it’d be game on.
“You shouldn’t win simply because you’ve more experience. Fresh ideas can be equally good for the town.” And, oh boy, that smile was gone and Hallie’s feistiness tank was topped off.
“Agreed. I want to make it a fair fight. Otherwise, a win won’t matter.” He extended an arm, gesturing between them over the sacred, secret legal pad. “Let me show you the ropes of campaigning. Lend a hand to get you and me on the same footing. It’s a job you haven’t trained for. This isn’t something you can pick up on the fly. Every misstep costs you.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
Yeah. Fitz had figured the offer to be damned magnanimous of him. How many candidates would offer to help their opponents?
But then…he registered the tone of Hallie’s words.
She was not catching the magnanimous vibe he was dishing out.
As verification, she shot out of her seat with all the wrath of a pissed-off sea demon coming out of the waves—minus any sexy, watery sleek sheen to her skin.
“You think I need a hand?” The librarian had evidently forgotten about keeping her voice down in the building o’ books. That was definitely asked in her outdoor voice.
“Look, it isn’t an insult. Nobody’s good at something the first time they try it. It’s no different than saying…you can’t throw a seventy-yard spiral pass for the Pats in the Superbowl. Because you haven’t had the training. It’s a genuine offer, Hallie. Evening the playing field.”
“I don’t need your handout.” Hallie spat the word at him. Her cheeks reddened. “Knowledge is power. And knowledge happens to be my stock in trade.”
“Sure,” Fitz nudged the stack of books closer to her, “but you’d have to wade through a lot of books to get what I could distill for you in a couple of nights.”
Her gaze sharpened to a suspicious squint. “Nights? That’s the real reason you’re here?”
Fitz was lost. “Well, we both have day jobs, so—”
“You think you can distract me with more flirting?” Hallie pursed her lips like an actress posing on a red carpet. “Over candlelight?”
Now he was pissed. That she’d accuse him of such low-down tactics. “You have got the wrong idea there. We’ve never flirted.”
