Page 63 of Faking I Do
“But you held on tight, right?” Samantha asked.
“No.” I shrugged. “She caught me off guard. Grabbed it right out of my hand as I went down on one knee. It fell on the floor and Lacey got down on her hands and knees to find it. You should have seen her crawling around in that miniskirt she had on. I think one of the busboys got some video of it.”
“I’m assuming you captured the moment as well.”
“Of course,” I said.
At the same time Lacey blurted, “Sadly, no.”
“So which is it?” Samantha asked.
Lacey glanced to me, her hand to her temple, a question in her eyes.
What was the big deal? “I’m pretty sure we got at least one good one.”
“I’d love to include it in the article. I’m thinking this could be bigger. Maybe we’ll do a small piece in the issue ahead of the big one. Can you get that to me by the end of the month?” Samantha reached into her bag.
While she rummaged in her purse, Lacey elbowed me in the gut. So maybe I’d taken it a tad far in my effort to one-up her. I’d find someone at the station to fudge a pic of us together. No big deal.
“I’d love to. I can probably even send one or two of our early dates if you’d like.” I glanced at Lacey. Her eyes just about bugged out of her head. This was fun.
“The two of you are so right together. I’m sure our readers would love that.”
“So right.” I wanted to belly laugh at that remark. If Lacey and I were so right together then how come everything had gone down so wrong?
“Tell me what it’s like working so closely together?” Samantha changed the subject. “Have you ever had any conflictof interest seeing as how Lacey’s the mayor and you’re the sheriff?”
“Sheriff’s deputy,” Lacey corrected. “Although rumor has it my main squeeze has some pretty big career aspirations.” The glint in her eye could have sparked a fire.
“It’s good to have dreams,” I said.
“Have you clashed over city issues? Where’s the conflict?”
“We have plenty of sparks, if you get my drift.” I lifted a brow, trying to make light of the gray area we were wading through.
“Yes, we’ve had conflicts,” Lacey answered. “His family closed down their business recently, causing half the town to lose their jobs. As mayor, that put a giant wrench in my plans to keep our economy going.”
“Bodie, how’s that possible? How involved are you in the family business?”
“My dad and grandfather handle everything. They don’t run their decisions past me. It’s unfortunate but you’d have to ask them for their reasons.”
“You said you wanted to talk about how the wedding plans are going,” Lacey said, changing the subject.
Grateful for a bit of a reprieve, I kept quiet while she and Samantha talked about all the upcoming decisions we’d have to make. What kind of flowers did we want? Were we going with a theme? How about a groom’s cake? Would there be a bachelor and bachelorette party? Hell no to that. I’d seen the kind of damage Lacey could do when let loose with the girls for an evening.
I finished my brisket and went back for another helping. Lacey might be a hot mess when it came to some things, but the woman sure could cook.
“So Bodie, you’ll get that photo to me? And one with the ring?” Samantha asked as she slid her notebook into her bag.
“Sure. I’ll get right on that.” And by “get right on that” I meant I’d try to figure out a way to manipulate something that would pass.
“It would be great if you could include the name of the restaurant. Couples are always looking for places to pop the question.”
“It was the Cattleman,” I offered.
“Oooh, I’ve heard that place is nice.” Samantha turned to Lacey. “You’re a lucky woman.”
“Don’t I know it.” Lacey blew me a kiss then stuck out her tongue as Samantha reached back to put on her jacket.
