by Alina Jacobs
Weston snickered. “I can’t believe Hunter gave them money.”
Garret scowled in the dark. “Just one of his many questionable choices.”
My phone went off before I could snap back at him.
Karen Holland: Hey, Hunter. I saw your name on the local news for New York local elections. I’m going to be in town on business in a few days. Want to catch up?
Karen. Now there was a name I hadn’t heard in years. When I worked as a lawyer in Manhattan, Karen was the opposing counsels on a divorce case. She represented Walter Holbrook, the man who had stolen Greg’s and my company out from under us, and I had represented his ex-wife, Danielle, in the divorce. I despised Walter for robbing me, and he hated me because on Christmas, his ex-wife had more than likely set her house on fire, killing their three children. Karen had been Meg’s supervisor and had been instrumental in having her fired.
Meg hated Karen. Now Karen was coming to Harrogate. I grinned.
“Evil plan incoming,” Weston quipped.
“It’s a brilliant plan!” I crowed, laughing. “If Meg thinks Karen has a chance of getting me, she’ll basically kidnap me and make us get married.”
“Why can’t you just tell Meg how you feel?” Arlo asked me. “And take her some flowers and out for a picnic?”
Garrett snorted. “Hunter’s made far too many mistakes for his situation to be solved with flowers and a picnic, Arlo.”
The house was lit up when we emerged from the forest. My mind was already spinning with my latest plan, mapping the chess moves out in my head.
I give it two, maybe three weeks, then Meg is mine, and we live happily ever after. How many kids would we have? I definitely wanted girls.
“Emergency! Emergency!” Calvin, still in his white-and-red-striped fast-food uniform, reeking of french fries, yelled, running out onto the terrace.
We turned to him. Nightmare scenarios played in my head. Car crash? Had our father returned to town? Was it our sisters?
He bent over, sucking in air, then stood back up.
“The Holbrooks are here. In Harrogate!”
13
Meghan
I took a huge bite of my burger once we were back in my apartment. I relaxed on the corner of my bed and moaned slightly.
“This is exactly what I needed.”
“And you need wine,” Kate said, grabbing a glass out of the tiny cabinet over the counter.
I ate a handful of french fries then took a long sip of my shake.
“Dang,” Kate said. “It’s worse than I thought.”
“My life is falling apart. Hunter is trying to ruin me,” I said around another bite of cheeseburger.
“Sounds like he hasn’t changed at all since you dumped his sorry ass years ago.”
“Nope.” I swiped a mozzarella stick in marinara sauce and took a noisy bite. “In fact, he’s just grown worse.”
“Too bad,” Kate said with a sigh. “I always thought it was so romantic how he sent you all those flowers and would have breakfast sent to our apartment. I had hoped he would do some introspection and live up to the ideal version of himself.”
“It was all lies,” I said, angrily stabbing a french fry in cheese sauce.
Kate handed me a glass of wine.
“All he knows how to do is lie and manipulate people. Now he’s doing the same thing to the townspeople of Harrogate. He has so much money,” I said miserably, taking a sip of the drink. “And now he’s going to win. I don’t know why I’m even bothering.”
“Hey, sad sack,” Kate ordered. “Stand up.”
“Ugh.”
“Power pose time!” my friend ordered, putting her fists on her hips.
I took another bite of my hamburger.
“Put that down and stand up tall and proud,” Kate said.
I hiccupped. “I think I ate too much.”
“You are a strong, independent woman. You have been running this town for years. You are going to win the mayoral election. You are going to play dirty and aggressive. You are not going to let Hunter push you around.”
“But how?” I asked.
Kate smiled toothily. “Because I am going to be your campaign manager. I’ve been working for Walter Holbrook as his assistant for several years. And guess what? He still doesn’t like Hunter and is willing to donate generously to your camping.”
I gaped at her. “I—that’s—I can’t take that money.”
“Too late!” Kate chirped. “I already bought you a campaign office. We are wiping the floor with the Svenssons!”
“When you said you bought me a campaign office, I didn’t think you meant literally,” I told Kate as the train chugging down the middle of Main Street arrived with a converted shipping-container-turned office. The freight train that mainly served Svensson PharmaTech usually ran right down Main Street a few days a week. It was one of the things that made Harrogate quirky. Now the tracks had been used to deliver my new campaign office. Someone had cut out large squares from the container and put in big glass windows and doors. The whole thing was painted in red and blue blocks with…
“Is that my logo?” I asked in amazement.
“I designed it myself,” Kate said happily. “It’s snazzy, isn’t it?”
I chewed on my lip as the crane set the shipping container down on a patch of concrete at the corner of one of the parks in Harrogate.
“Let’s face it toward the street,” Kate said, motioning to the crew. “Long end that way.”
“You can’t put your campaign headquarters here!” Hunter’s deep voice said behind me.
His campaign office was only a block away. Of course there was no way he wasn’t going to notice the arrival of the shipping container. Annoyance was plain on Hunter’s handsome face. But with Kate in my corner, I was feeling upbeat.
“Jealous?” I said sweetly to my ex.
“This park is public property,” he insisted. “By law, you cannot just put your office here.”
“I have a permit for an art installation,” I told him, waving the paperwork in place.
He drew back. “But… this is an office.”
“No, it’s an art installation! You heard her!”
“Allie!” Kate said happily, greeting her sister-in-law. Allie had married Carter Holbrook, Grant’s cousin.
I could practically see flames shooting out of Hunter’s nose when he realized that Carter Holbrook was standing a few feet in front of him.
“Get out of my city,” Hunter snarled to Carter. “We don’t want any Holbrooks here.”
“Excuse me, Hunter,” I admonished, wagging my finger at him. “Harrogate is welcoming to all who visit.” I greeted Carter with a handshake. Dark-haired and blue-eyed, he was opposite in coloring to Hunter.
“Welcome to our little town, Carter.”
“Hardly little,” Carter declared, “if you have a train just randomly running down the street.”
“You can’t be serious,” Hunter hissed at me.
I smiled brightly at him. “Is there a problem?”
He scowled at me then slid on his sunglasses. “If you want to play dirty, we’ll play dirty.”
I reached up and straightened his tie. “Bring it. I like it when you get a little naughty.” I winked at him.
The tendon in his neck jumped, and he turned on his heel and stalked down the street.
Allie applauded slowly.
“That’s how you deal with men like that. Grind his ball sack into the dirt.”
She reached out to shake my hand. “I’m here to help for a little bit. Kate wants me to help kick-start your campaign.”
“Plus,” Carter added cheerfully, “if it’s dirty politics you’re after, Allie’s the one you want. She used to regularly break up bar fights.”
Allie tossed her hair. “Oh, that’s just me going through life!”
14
Hunter
“I am calling this emergency meeting,” I said, pacing around the campaign office later that
morning, “because Holbrooks have infiltrated our community right under our noses.”
“I told you last night,” Calvin said. I had allowed several of the kids to skip school if they were working on my campaigning. It was a real-life civics lesson. Also, people in the town liked my cute little brothers, and since the triplets had just been expelled from the third day care in the city, I needed someone to watch them while I was working.
“Am I getting paid to be here?” Isaac complained.
“Everyone else is,” I retorted, “but you aren’t. You’re still on punishment.”
He sighed dramatically.
I stared him down. “You have anything else smart you want to add?”
“No,” he grumbled.
“Too bad, because I need ideas. Meg has teamed up with the Holbrooks, our sworn enemies.” I resumed my pacing around the campaign office. “We are going to crush them; this has become personal.”
“Really?” Garrett drawled. “Because the amount of money you’re spending on this campaign has become personal for me. Honestly. Fifty thousand dollars to the Harrogate Girls Club?”
“It was the Harrogate Health and Wellness committee,” I countered.
“And yet an organization called The Intimate Pickle cashed the check. I’m trying to teach the children fiscal responsibility, and you are ruining my efforts,” Garrett said coldly.
“I’m buying votes,” I snapped.
“Ah yes. Votes. Let’s check the Intimate Pickle Facebook page, shall we?”
Isaac pulled it up on the screen. We turned to look.
“How about that,” Garrett said nastily. “They have a pinned post that states, ‘Under no circumstances vote for Hunter if you care about health in Harrogate.’”
“And look!” Parker added. “They found a really unattractive picture of you.”
I seethed.
“As your campaign manager,” Weston said, not looking up from his phone, “you need to keep your spend-per-vote way, way down. At this rate, you’ve spent almost a hundred thousand dollars and have exactly no votes to show for it.”
“You are not my campaign manager,” I warned Weston.
“Dude, I run a consulting firm. Who else is going to manage your campaign?” Weston retorted, looking up at me.
“Someone who does more than thirty minutes of work a day.”
“Here’s a thought,” Garrett interjected, “you could manage your own campaign since you’re the only one here who is not employed.”
“And to think you and Greg can’t stand each other, considering how much you two are alike,” I retorted.
“Fine.” Garrett stood up and buttoned his suit jacket. “Enjoy swirling around in mediocrity. I’m not helping you on your campaign anymore. I have more important things to do with my time.”
I sat at my desk, rubbing my temple. It felt like I was losing, and I hated losing. Meg was slipping through my fingers. The only consolation was that all the Holbrooks were safely married off or in committed relationships. If Meg started dating one of them, I would completely lose it. As it was, having her just a block away in that derpy little container office was, for some reason, driving me insane.
Fortunately, I had one more card in my back pocket, and as soon as my secret weapon arrived, Meg was going to throw herself at me, and I’d have her back.
15
Meghan
“I wish I had taken a picture of Hunter’s face!” I cackled later that afternoon. Periodically, one of the Svensson brothers would slowly walk past my campaign office. When it had happened the first few times, I had just thought that they were going for a snack or lunch or to stretch their legs. Then the fifth brother walked by.
“How many of them does he have?” Allie marveled.
“Hunter has about a hundred half and full brothers,” I explained. “But most of the adult brothers are off in Boston, Rhode Island, Manhattan, or Seattle. His father sends the little boys here from Wyoming, and Hunter takes care of all of them.”
“Eh,” Susie said, wavering her hand. “More or less.”
“They’re a bit wild,” I admitted. “Though Hunter does try. He has to deal with a lot. I can barely keep up with Minnie and Rose and—”
Allie banged her palm on the desk in front of me. I jumped.
“Hunter is your opponent. Stop humanizing the enemy; he certainly doesn’t feel any warmth toward you. That’s why he’s sending his little brothers to spy on you.”
Another one slowly strolled by the office, whistling off-key.
I opened the door, and he scuttled back a few feet, almost tripping off the curb.
“Tell Hunter,” I told him sweetly, “that I’m wiping the floor with him in the debate.”
“Yes, Deputy Mayor,” the tween said automatically then scurried off down the street.
“First things first,” Allie said, opening her folder, “I have prepared a list of sample debate questions that I think the moderator, Judge Edna, is going to ask. The big one, and the one that is going to inspire your campaign is, what is your vision for Harrogate?”
I looked around. “I want a safe environment where people can enjoy the small-town atmosphere and rural surroundings while still knowing that we are in a controlled economic upswing.”
“Yawn!” Kate said. “That’s not exciting.”
“I’m not very exciting!” I protested. I turned to Susie for help.
She jerked awake. “Sorry, what was the question?”
I glared at her.
“Hey, I work long hours!”
“You know what Hunter’s answer is going to be?” Kate asked.
I shrugged.
“He’s going to say something like ‘if you vote for me, I’m going to throw a big party and give everyone free alcohol and a coupon to eat free at any restaurant in town.’”
I slumped over my desk with my head in my hands. “I can’t compete with that.”
“Maybe you just run as an incumbent,” Susie suggested. “Remind everyone that you’ve been de facto mayor for years. Things are running smoothly. Harrogate is a small town, not Manhattan, and we don’t need lots of flash.”
“I guess we’ll have to go with that.” Kate sighed. “You can run on your track record. But,” she added, “we have to play up the fact that you’re a woman, and you’re running for mayor for the good of the community while Hunter is a sociopathic male looking out for his own interests.”
“Yep, I like this!” Allie said. “We’ll paint you as the safe choice and the typical small-town girl just trying to do right by the people.”
“One thing you need, though,” Kate said, tapping her cheek with her pen. “A significant other.”
“Why? How? They don’t just grow on trees.”
“You have to show people that you aren’t a weird cat lady.”
“I take care of my sisters,” I protested.
“People like women who have, you know, a boyfriend at least. You need a Prince William to your Princess Catherine.”
“Where am I going to find someone like that?” I wailed. Do not think of Hunter. He’s charming, but he is no prince.
Kate smiled. “I already have a date booked for you.”
“You booked it for me?” I made a face. “Like an escort?”
“No, he’s a normal male,” Kate retorted. “He’s employed. He’s a software engineer at Svensson PharmaTech.”
“This all seems really soon,” I said nervously, digging in my purse for some snacks.
“Think of your poll numbers!” Kate said as Susie handed me a small bag of mini Oreos.
“I can’t—” I began to protest.
“You overthink things. That’s why I already organized it for you,” Kate said, checking her watch. “He should be here… oh, right now!”
Someone honked outside.
“He can’t even step out of his car and say hello? That’s a great start to the evening,” Allie said dryly.
“Meg’s lowering her standards,” Kate
said, pressing her hands together.
Allie snorted.
“It’s just for the election,” Kate assured me as she fixed my hair. “After you win, you can dump him.”
My date was waiting outside. He had a generic car and a generic face along with a generic name.
Jerry? Jim? John? I tried to remember what he had said as I climbed into his car.
“This is going to be a great date,” he told me. “Oh, I put my phone in the glove compartment. Would you mind handing it to me?”
I opened it up then screamed when a stuffed snake sprung out.
Jim, or Jones or whatever he had he said his name was, roared with laughter.
I forced out a chuckle as he slapped his thigh.
“Sorry, I’m a bit of a jokester. It’s a big part of my personality,” he said jovially, “but you’re able to take a joke and laugh at yourself, so I think we’re going to be great together!”
“Er… yeah,” I said weakly. I’m going to kill Kate.
“So, what restaurant are we going to?” I asked, trying to make conversation.
“The best in town!” he said with a wink as he turned onto a residential street.
I frowned. “It’s not Girl Meets Fig, is it? Because I think they’re still shut down.”
“Nope,” he said, “it’s Casa Mami’s.” The car pulled up in front of a single-family bungalow.
No. He couldn’t…
The front door opened, and a plump, dark-haired woman stood in the doorway. “Johnny!” she exclaimed.
What the hell? Who brings someone on a first date to meet their parents?
“Look, Marco!” the older woman called into the house as Jake—Jasper?—grabbed my hand and dragged me up to the porch.
“The whole family is here,” my date said. “They’re so excited to meet you.”
A big Italian family greeted me when I walked into the small living room, every square inch of which was covered in chintzy knickknacks. Though the Svensson family was bigger than my date’s family by a long shot, it was still a blur as my date introduced me to cousins and aunts and siblings and nephews.