Page 28 of Hotshot Mogul

He waved me off. “No ticket required. Cashing in a favor.”

Mom smiled. “Monterrey?”

“Yep,” Dad laughed.

“Thanks,” I said. We stepped toward each other. Tension cracked through the air like the thunder outside. Dad leaned toward me and put his hand on my back, a loose guy-hug. It was the closest I’d been to him in eight years. So, I did the same until a nurse bustled in and we sprang apart.

Mom was crying again, but smiling, too. It was a start.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Anneliese

Chilly air gusted past my neck as we waited for the mayor to begin the Oakdale City Commission meeting. Humans filled the chamber. Seven humans sat on a raised table in the front of the room with the mayor. Mayor Conway sat in the middle. Callie and Rufus sat next to me in a row of seats facing them. The three of us had signed up to speak during the public hearing on the project in the glade. I didn’t see Bruce, however. He hadn’t called or texted since he’d left.

It was for the best. I knew that. I wasn’t here for him.

Still, was he okay? Was his mother in peril? I thought he would come back to help present the project for the people he worked for—perhaps they didn’t need him.

“The meeting of the Oakdale City Commission will come to order. The first item is rezoning of Parcel Ten Fifty-Four. Is the presenter here?”

“Madame Mayor.”

Bruce. The hollowness that had been inside me filled up with energy, like I could run all the way to the glade from there without stopping. Bruce carried in cases and a large stand up the aisle. The whiskers that usually shadowed his jaw by this time of evening weren’t there. He’d combed his straight, dark hair off his forehead. He wore a crisp, white shirt and long red necktie with a gray suit.

He saw me and smiled. My irritation and restraint dissolved like sugar in Callie’s lemonade. “Anneliese.” He mouthed my name silently in greeting. Only his lips moved. I wanted to touch him and take him in my arms, turn my face into his neck and inhale his scent.

“Ahem,” the mayor said. “I see several people have signed up to speak. Please adhere to the four-minute limit. The light will show yellow when you have less than a minute, and red when your time is up. Mr. Clynes, how long will it take you to set up?” the mayor asked.

He smiled at her. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. Jealousy—I hated it. “No more than five minutes, Madame Mayor.”

“We’ll adjourn for ten minutes.” She smiled at him, then slammed her hammer down.

When we’d walked this earth together before, many braves had more than one wife. Nigan, my beloved, was strong, handsome, and smart. Native women and French ones alike, who lived at the trading post, had boldly asked him to bed them. Jealousy had clawed at my heart back then, although he assured me repeatedly that I was all he had wanted.

Bruce put a large photo on the stand of what looked like a small city. All the humans in the room seemed to press too close to me. I needed fresh air and to feel the sun on my skin. This was the longest day of the year in this place, held sacred by all that made their life in the glade. “Excuse me,” I said, as I stood and brushed past the humans to get out the door.

The soft breeze outdoors tickled my skin. I shut my eyes and lifted my face into the sunshine, taking long, slow breaths, until I caught a scent of pine—and something else I knew to be Bruce. I opened my eyes. Somehow, I was in his arms.

“Are you all right?” His deep blue eyes were so close. “You ran out.” I nodded and touched his smooth, square jaw. “I missed you so much, Anneliese. Did you miss me?”

I lifted my face in answer. His lips crashed down on mine. I answered in kind, thrust for thrust, desperate for him, only stopping when I had to breathe.

He grinned, all cocky. “I take that as a yes.” He turned serious. “Anneliese, I have to tell you…”

“Bruce.” The mayor was beside us. She pointed to a device she wore on her wrist. “We’ve got to get this going.” She looked at me and shrugged. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. My spine tingled, as if the air crackled with lightning.

“Right,” he said.

As I followed Bruce back inside, I caught a flash of purple at the end of an aisle. The fairy. As Bruce drew close, she dropped a small ball where he would have stepped. But he saw it, saw her, and picked it up. “You,” he hissed.

“Everything okay?” the mayor asked.

As he nodded, I pulled the small horseshoe out of my bag. “Bruce, wait, take this.” I pressed it into his hand.

“What the…?” The mayor looked at me as if I were spoiled meat.

“Um, for luck,” I said.

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