Page 35 of 40 and (Tired of) Faking It
She took the stack without responding. As she flipped through them, she wondered how so many blue-haired old ladies had managed to hear the news that she was having sex. Or why they cared. They should actually be happy for her, she figured.
One particularly lengthy message had her stopping. After reading a couple of sentences, her frown actually gave way to a chuckle.
“I guess Maria felt like you might need some encouragement this morning,” Evan said. “Guess she knew you wouldn’t make it by the coffee shop.”
And she wasn’t wrong.“At least one person is happy for me.”
“A lot of us are happy for you,” Evan pointed out. “We’re just not the vocal minority.”
Wasn’t that the truth.
“I’m almost afraid to check my emails.”
“I already did,” Evan sing-songed. “I moved anything similar to those”—he gestured to the messages in her hand—“to a folder so you didn’t have to see them if you didn’t want to.”
Relief hit her hard. “Thank you.” Maybe she could delete the folder without looking inside. She definitely felt like a wet blanket had landed on her head.
She knew she couldn’t respond to these. Or she could, but since her response would not be positive, she was better off not doing so. But a big part of her wanted to climb into the bell tower of the courthouse with a megaphone and shout her frustration for all to hear. These were the same people who had turned a blind eye to anything Mason said about her, in public or private. The same people who refused to say a word when a prominent male in their community slept around or had an affair. No, they saved that vitriol for women who tried to make a difference in their town.
The hypocrisy was enough to make her scream.
The only silver lining was that she need not worry about losing her job. Unless she ran naked through the town square, not a single person in Black Wolf’s Bluff wanted to take on the things she handled, for the money she made.
It was all too discouraging for words.
She thanked Evan sincerely and walked through to her desk, shoving the messages into a drawer where she couldn’t see them. Her assistant needed a bonus just for running interference for her this morning.
Thank goodness Fridays didn’t require much concentration. She sat down with the tentative agenda for the planning commission meeting on Monday, making notes for herself, pulling up research. The big item was JD’s proposal, obviously, but she didn’t need notes on that. Of course, there would probably be questions about Lily’s relationship with JD now too. Which made her want to skip the meeting altogether, but she wouldn’t. She’d promised JD she would consider backing him, and as much as, like Iris had said, change didn’t always happen the way we wanted, it happened either way. This resort would give Black Wolf’s Bluff a chance, and she’d make the most of it come hell or high water.
It was almost lunchtime when Evan buzzed her phone.
“What’s up?”
“Patty’s here with our food. She wanted a word with you.”
Wondering what the deli owner would say that a dozen other people hadn’t already said, she told Evan to send the woman through.
Patty was a tall, heavyset woman in her midthirties who’d opened Patty’s Deli several years ago just off the square. She’d always been friendly, but Lily couldn’t help bracing herself as the door opened.
“Hey, Mayor Easton,” Patty said, a wide smile on her broad face. Lily found herself relaxing a bit at the lack of ire she saw.
“Afternoon, Patty.” She gestured the other woman to have a seat. “What can I do for you?”
“I can’t stay.” Patty handed over the salad Lily had ordered. “I just… I couldn’t help noticin’ there were quite a few people…um…”
“Gossiping?” Lily asked.
Patty’s cheeks darkened. “Well, yeah.” She tucked a lock of red hair behind her ear. “Anyway…” She shrugged. “I just wanted to say, I couldn’t help hearin’ everybody talkin’. And, well, I know how that feels.”
The woman’s gaze hit the floor, her words reminding Lily that the woman’s husband had been the subject of gossip last year, too. He’d run off with a woman from Pigeon Forge, leaving Patty and her kids high and dry. Lily remembered how salacious the rumors had been. A few people had even implied that Patty must have left the man wanting for him to run off with another woman.
A sinking feeling hit her stomach even as she reached out to squeeze Patty’s hand.
“You know, people are always wantin’ to stick their nose in other people’s business.”
“They are,” Lily murmured. And it hurt, no matter what business they stuck their nose into. Still, she had far less to hurt about than Patty had.
Patty squared her shoulders and gave Lily an awkward smile. “We like you, Mayor.” She returned Lily’s squeeze. “Don’t let all those people get you down, okay?”
