Page 54 of Hottie on Her Shelf
It flat out felt wrong. Hallie covered the microphone in front of her. “Fitz.”
“Yes? You ready to attempt to kick my ass?”
Hmm. That had come out more than a tad condescending. Her sense of wrongness scaled back by 5 percent. “Right now, we’re only the candidates up here.”
“Yup.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder to the sign swaying next to them. “We’re the only two names on there.”
“No, I mean, we’re not Hallie and Fitz who really like laughing and kissing together.”
“Correct. We’ve got our game faces on. Candidate Scott and Mayor Montgomery. Gloves are off.” Fitz covered his microphone, leaned closer, while keeping a fixed smile on his face and his eyes on the crowd. “But in two hours, we’ll take off our politician masks and go back to being ourselves.”
After licking her swiftly chapping lips, she asked cautiously, “And you won’t be mad at me, no matter what I do?”
“Is that a threat or a promise?” He threw her a devastating wink. “Of course not. I’m rooting for you, remember? I want this to be a strong campaign that shows the electorate the strengths and weaknesses of both candidates. Do your best. I can take it.”
Then at least her conscience was clear.
Twenty minutes later, Hallie was as much of a mess as her hair. And she no longer gave a rat’s ass about her conscience.
The crowd was chatty. Closer to boisterous, really. The outdoor setting and the food turned several of them into hecklers. Rather, they heckled Hallie. For the most part, Fitz was left in peace. The only people who had yelled anything at him had been praising his sailing skills and long-ago lacrosse skills. Neither of which, Hallie was damned certain, in any way translated to the administration of a city.
It was different from the reserved, stodgy club atmosphere of the first event. Hallie felt like she was in the front seat of a roller coaster without any safety bar. She hadn’t practiced being shouted at, interrupted.
It was tempting to consider not going ahead with her plan under these less orthodox conditions. Except…scrapping this plan, postponing it, left Hallie with exactly no plan to survive the event.
“You’re not even from here.” The man with a solid line of salt-and-pepper eyebrows had a razor-sharp edge to his tone. “What do you know about Swan Cove?”
And there it was. The “outsider” accusation. Expected, since the Gazette had run full bios on both candidates this week. On the front page. Fitz’s bio had led off with the descriptor of “favorite son of the town and next scion of the Montgomery dynasty.”
Hallie’s? “Raised in Crow Harbor.”
Fitz leaned forward, mouth right up against the mic. “That’s an unfair question. A low blow. There’s no requirement to live here your whole lifetime to be the mayor.”
Wow.
He’d leaped to her defense, while running against her. It might not be a great move as a candidate, but it sure made Fitz a truly excellent person. Hallie’s toes tingled with the warmth of that gesture, but she still needed to handle the heckler herself.
Channeling the patience of Gandhi, she said, in a remarkably calm tone, “I’ve lived in Swan Cove for six years. What specific depth of knowledge do you feel Mayor Montgomery has over me? And in what way does it enhance his job performance?”
“He knows us!”
Now, there was an opening. Finally.
Peripheral vision showed Fitz to still be wearing his flat, professional politician smile. Interesting. She twisted to really look at him. Zero warmth or recognition crinkled around his eyes. That smile appeared to be frozen in place.
So she took a shot. Leaning into his mic for effect, Hallie asked as pleasantly as if offering ketchup with fries, “Mayor, what’s that man’s name?”
Oh, that unfroze him all right! Heat burned into her like a laser from his glare. The muscle in his thigh twitched.
And she waited.
When he didn’t answer, she lifted the mic from its table stand to right in front of his lips. Those talented, firm lips that, huh, still weren’t moving at all.
“Sir, would you like to introduce yourself? To, well, both candidates, apparently?”
“I’m Fergus Nutley.” His eyebrows were still a single pelt. Evidently, he didn’t care for Hallie showing the weakness in his candidate. Then he’d better buckle in, because she was just getting started.
“It’s a pleasure, Fergus.”
