Page 59 of Make Me Love You

“Well, sure.” He sent her a surprised look. “He seemed almost relieved it was over, to be honest. Not that I think he wanted to go to jail, either. He said he had planned to get out, as soon as he made enough money. But then your mom died, and certain people weren’t so keen on letting him leave. And then I caught on to everything before he could figure out what to do about that.”

Only Eli hadn’t caught on. His own daughter had. Guilt gnawed at her insides with sharp pointy teeth. Eli hadn’t told her dad that part. His betrayal only went so far as necessary to keep her safe. He truly was a good man. And like he had said, it was a completely different thing from being merely nice.

“Thank you,” she said quietly. And then hoped he wouldn’t ask what she was thanking him for.

He didn’t. He just nodded and put the car in drive.

“So where are we going?” she asked. “Do you have a place you’re supposed to be, or...?”

“I start with patrolling 19E for speeders, then do a few check-ins in town. Things never really stick to that plan. I get calls, so most of it is played by ear.”

“Oh. That’s pretty brave of you, don’t you think? Writing speeding tickets before an election? That won’t exactly endear you to your voters.”

“That...hadn’t occurred to me.”

He was watching the road, so she took the opportunity to study his profile. “It hadn’t occurred to you, that people might not be so keen on voting for the man who wrote them a ticket? You do want to be mayor, don’t you?”

“I want Hart’s Ridge to have the mayor it deserves.”

Her eyes narrowed. That wasn’t exactly an answer. “I’m the mayor Hart’s Ridge deserves.”

He pulled his eyes away from the road long enough to flash her a grin. “Then I can’t be too upset about it when you win, can I?”

“If, not when, and it’s a pretty big if now with those posters all over town reminding people that I’m a felon’s daughter.”

“Once again, I had nothing to do with those posters. That being said, I don’t think they had the intended effect.” He rubbed his shoulder as they pulled into a trailhead parking lot to set up a speed trap. “Anyway, you also make damn good burritos, or so I hear, so there is that.”

“This election is not going to come down to my cooking skills, Eli. Why aren’t you taking this seriously?”

“You have to understand, when I threw my hat in the ring, there wasn’t anybody else. Hell, the Whittakers couldn’t find anyone even to act on a temporary basis. No one wanted it. Would you have been so eager for the position if I hadn’t stepped up first?”

“Maybe,” she said, even though she knew one hundred percent that she had only wanted this so he couldn’t have it. That was how it started, anyway. Now things were different. She could be good at this. Really and truly good at this, and she could do good for other people.

It was funny to think how much had changed in the last six weeks. Had she really thought she couldn’t live in Hart’s Ridge if he were mayor? She felt so differently now. She wanted to win, absolutely, but she wasn’t going to move if she lost.

“Don’t lie to me, Ms. Andrews.”

“Fine. Probably not,” she admitted. “I didn’t want you to win, okay? But what are you going to do if you do win? Mayor isn’t a paid position, and you can’t do it while serving as a police officer.”

“If I win. I imagine the citizens of Hart’s Ridge will take that issue into account when they cast their votes. A vote for me means losing their only full-time police officer, and possibly updating the law to make mayor a paid position. Unless they want their mayor to be homeless.”

Realization dawned. “You jerk! You never had any intention of winning. You just wanted to trick me into it. You manipulated me. What an awful thing to do.”

“Yeah. You should probably drop out of the race,” he said wryly.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not going to drop out. I want to be mayor. No, don’t look all pleased with yourself. You tricked me. What you should have done was tell me straight out that I should be mayor, because I would do an awesome job.”

“Right. And you would have immediately hustled your cute ass over to Town Hall to sign up, because you valued my opinion so highly.”

He had a point there. Her ass was cute.

And she wouldn’t have taken his interference kindly, which was the more important point. But it wasn’t like he had lied to her. She had made her own decision.

“It was a pretty risky move on your part,” she said. “They might actually vote for you. You might be the next mayor of Hart’s Ridge.”

“Then I guess you better make sure that this Fourth of July is one hell of a success.”

A white pickup truck zoomed past at seventy-five miles per hour, twenty over the posted limit. Eli flipped his lights on and exited the parking lot. The truck pulled over almost immediately, and Eli stopped behind him. He ran the plates, leaving the lights still flashing.

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