Page 16 of Faking I Do
A hand shot into the air—the same reporter from Houston who’d given me a hard time at the press conference earlier in the week.
“Yes?” While I waited for the reporter to check her notes, I sought out the friendly faces in the crowd. Zina smiled at me, giving a slight nod of encouragement. I had filled in my best friend on my idea over a pitcher of margaritas last night. For someone who didn’t consider herself much of a romantic, Zina was on board. If she believed in the idea, the good folks of the newly christened Ido would come around, too.
“Mayor Cherish, what kind of events do you envision the Phillips House hosting? You’re hardly a hotbed of tourist activity around here.” Soft laughter bubbled up from the crowd.
I pasted on a patient smile. “We’re already working on a plan. Of course we’ll continue to host the annual events we always do, like the Crawfish Craze and Pitty Parade. But extensive research shows that our best bet is to focus on the happily-ever-after variety of events.”
“Such as?” the reporter asked, her pen poised to capture whatever words of wisdom I shared.
“Weddings. The wedding industry is booming and we’re in a great spot to cash in on some of that billion-dollar industry. In fact, I’m proposing we even change the name of our town to Ido to cement our place in the destination-wedding market.” Half a dozen hands shot into the air. “I imagine you all have a bunch of questions. As we work out the details, we’ll be sure to keep you informed. In the meantime, any employees of Phillips Stationery and Imports are welcome to fill out an application to help with repurposing the house.”
“Mayor Cherish?—”
I didn’t stick around to face the crowd. I ducked out the back door of the hall and click-clacked across the pavement as fast as I could. I’d no sooner pulled the heavy door of my truck closedbehind me than someone knocked on the passenger window. I let out a shriek.
Bodie.
He motioned for me to roll down the window. “You’re really going through with this, huh?” he asked.
I cranked up the heat, hoping to eliminate the chill in the air, even if it seemed to be coming mostly from Bodie. “You have a better idea?”
“Maybe I can arrange a meeting with Dad and Pops. There are a couple of things they’d like to talk to you about.”
“I bet.” I shook my head. “They jumped the gun, didn’t they?”
Bodie arched a brow, making him look all brooding, reminding me of the picture of a rugged cowboy I’d stared at in that magazine the other night. “What do you mean?”
“The inventory. You can’t tell me they planned on leaving all of their inventory behind.”
Bodie tapped a finger on the doorframe. “How to handle the inventory would definitely be an item on the agenda.”
I wanted to laugh at the way he tried to play it cool. Had he forgotten I knew all of his telltale signs? From the time he and Luke taught me how to play Texas Hold’em I’d always been able to tell when he was holding something back. He was hiding something and knowing his dad and pops, it had to be something big. “I’m sure they’ve told you by now they’ve been in default on their payments for months.”
He nodded as he turned to face the western horizon. The sun had started its descent, framing Bodie’s profile in breathtaking shades of orange and red. His chin jutted out slightly, his jaw clenched tight. For a moment I wondered what it might feel like to brush my hand against his cheek, or run my fingers through that unruly head of hair. My breath caught as he turned, meeting my gaze.
“I’m in a pickle here, Lacey.” Gray eyes, the color of the sky just before a summer storm, begged for some level of understanding. But if he felt like he was in a pickle, I was squeezed into a full jar of them.
“Then I suggest you snag a sandwich and some chips and settle in for a nice, long snack.” I wasn’t ready to forgive and forget. Not yet. Maybe not ever. His family had been in control long enough. It was time the good people of Idont reclaimed their town. Although, I’d better start thinking of the town as Ido. I’d been given the green light to go ahead with the name change. The vote would just be a formality. No matter what we named the town, we were better off without the Phillips family running the show.
Bodie let out a huff, obviously not pleased with my response. “Will you at least meet with them?” He cocked his head to the left, then bent down to mumble something.
I lifted myself up to peer out the window. “What have you got down there?”
He opened the door to my truck and a dog clambered into the passenger seat. A huge wet tongue swiped across my chin.
“That’s not Shotgun, is it?” My hand smoothed down the short hair on the dog’s back. There was no way this squirming bundle of energy could be the same dog we’d dropped off at Zina’s the other day.
Bodie cracked a grin. “Sure is. She cleaned up nice, didn’t she?” He filled the open doorway of the truck as he reached over to ruffle the hair behind the dog’s ears.
“Hi there, girl. Don’t you look gorgeous?” I laughed as the dog jumped across the center console to land in my lap. “Zina said you agreed to take her for a while.”
“A few days.” Bodie leaned farther into the truck, his hand wrapped around a teal nylon leash with pink hearts on it.
“That was awfully nice of you.”
“Yeah, well, she needs a friend right now.” His gaze met mine. “And I guess I do, too.”
The shell around my heart cracked at the forlorn look in his eyes. I’d been the pesky sidekick to my brother and Bodie when we were kids. They tolerated me for the most part and often left me behind. But I’d spent enough time around Bodie to know that his family played some pretty sick mind games with him. As the only child of the empire his pops and dad had built, they’d expected him to follow in their footsteps and take the business to the next level. When he didn’t fall into line, there had been some words exchanged. From what Luke told me—and I’d had to beg for the little bit of info he’d shared—Bodie held his ground about following his dreams. But something had changed. He always had a cloud of sadness hovering around him when it came to discussing his family.
