Silver Mayor: The Silver Foxes of Blue Ridge

by L. B. Dunbar

  I release the fencing and circle around the opening to him. He hasn’t moved; his forehead still presses to the metal. My arms wrap around his back, and my forehead leans into his spine. His hand covers my forearm, but he doesn’t move.

  “You went to him,” he mutters.

  “It was plan A, but I was quickly reminded it was a mistake. I’m going with plan B instead.”

  Charlie spins in my arms, loosely slipping his arms up my back as mine fall to his warm chest. “What happened?”

  “Vega and I went to see Richard as asked, but when the game ended and we entered the field, a woman got to him first, making a scene about our presence. Poor Ruthie. As much as she tried to have the woman removed, it was obvious she was there for him. He brought her there, and it was another reminder of why I can’t even pretend with him.”

  “But you still went to him.”

  “I can’t be with a man who doesn’t believe in me.” My hands smooth down Charlie’s chest, and I expect him to release me, but he tightens his hold.

  “I believe in you. I just doubt myself.”

  “What do you doubt, Charlie?”

  “My decision-making.” He snorts. “How you might feel about me.”

  “All you have to do is ask me,” I say, toying with the fabric stretched over his firm chest.

  “How do you feel?” He jiggles me in his arms.

  “You make me feel alive in a way I don’t think I ever have. I crave you, and it scares me. I don’t want to feel I need you to survive.”

  “What if I need you? What if I feel like I can’t go on without you?”

  “Charlie,” I whisper, the honesty too much. “What about your reputation or mine?”

  “I owe this town so much, but at the same time, it owes me. I don’t know why I feel the need to defend myself, but I’m more worried about you.”

  “Let me worry about me,” I say, patting his chest.

  “That’s just it. You’re all I think about.” He lifts a hand and swipes it over the baseball cap on his head, taking it off and then placing it back on again.

  “I think about you all the time, too.”

  “Then what do we do?” Charlie asks, and his voice is so earnest and uncertain.

  “I guess, I remain your dirty little secret,” I tease.

  “Don’t say that. Don’t think that.” He tightens his hold on me.

  “Well, we can’t be public, right? Not while I work for you, and I want this project.”

  Will he ask me to quit? Will he tell me to give up the city walk?

  Charlie’s head falls to mine. “What’s plan B?”

  “For us?”

  “For the park and such?”

  “Forgive me, but I can’t tell you.” I want to tell him. I want to share all the wonderful things Cora came up with, and the support we have in place. He’s the first person I thought to tell when things came together, but at the same time, he can’t know our strategy. I don’t trust that he won’t shoot me down again.

  “You don’t trust me?” His head pops up, and his eyes meet mine. The typical gray-brown shines like whiskey with the glow of the lights.

  “I don’t want you to sabotage my plan.”

  Charlie releases me, pressing himself back into the fence, and I step away from him. The distance returns between us.

  “I need to look out for Vega and me, Charlie. I need to make a new home for us. She wants to stay here. I want to stay here.”

  Maybe it’s the wrong thing to say. Maybe I got too caught up in him, and I’m mixing up my reasons to remain in Blue Ridge.

  “I didn’t sabotage you,” he says, crossing his arms and turning his gaze away from me.

  “You didn’t support me, either.”

  Charlie’s jaw clenches, his cheek moving in frustration. I’ve upset him, but he doesn’t see the bigger picture for me. I need this job. I want this project, and I want to be here with him. Maybe I’m too late for the last one.

  Charlie doesn’t look back at me, and I sense I’ve been dismissed. A pit in my stomach grows.

  “Good night, Charlie.” I reach out for his chest again and caress my hand down his shirt before releasing him and turning for the exit. I’m almost to the opening in the fence when his arms circle my waist.

  “Why can’t I let you walk away?” he breathes into my hair. “I’m so pissed off, yet I want to take you up against this fence.”

  My body comes to life, everything racing—my heart, my blood, my sex.

  “One last time,” I whisper like he has said to me on a few occasions. Suddenly, I’m face-first against the fence. Charlie reaches for the light box and flips the switch, submerging us in darkness. His hands roughly lift my skirt and tug down my underwear. My fingers curl into the chain links, holding my cheek away from the cool metal. Without foreplay or warning, Charlie lines himself up with me and slams into me. I cry out, lifting on my toes for a second as we both still, adjusting to the rush. His fingers find mine clutching the metal fencing and curl over the back of them as his lips near my ear.

  “You lied to me.” He pulls his hips back and then surges forward again. I whimper in pleasure. He feels so good. I’ve missed him, but I didn’t realize how much until just now with him inside me again. He draws back and then thrusts forward, both of us catching our breaths.

  “How did I lie?” I choke on the words as he rams into me, sliding so deep and then teasing me at the edge as if he’ll leave my body.

  “When you came to my bed, naked and willing, you promised not to steal anything from me.” His voice is rough, stuttering from his fierce pace. His fingers pinch over mine. He’s using the fence as leverage to fill me. Deliciously fill me.

  “I didn’t steal anything from you, Charlie,” I remind him, my own voice stammering as I force myself backward, clenching in fear he’ll escape my body.

  He doesn’t reply but moves faster, pressing harder. I’m on the edge, and he hears it in the hitch of my breath. A hand lowers for my clit, roughly stroking until I fall apart around him, and then he stills, filling me with his release as he whispers, “You stole my heart.”

  Abruptly, he pulls out of me. My dress lowers, but I don’t release my grip on the fence, afraid my legs won’t hold me up, and then I see Charlie. He’s left the batting pen and disappears in the darkness of the yard without a glance back at me.

  27

  Plan B

  [Charlie]

  Fuck!

  I can’t believe what we did, and thinking about it, I’m hard again before I enter my shower. My hand slams against the tile while I take matters into my palm, reliving the feel of her around me. The racing of her heart. The hammering of my dick into her wet depths.

  My God, what is she doing to me?

  And what did I admit to her?

  She stole my heart.

  My forehead presses against my forearm, leaning against the steamy tile as the water pelts my bare skin. I’m losing my mind over her, and I’m spinning out of control.

  She doesn’t trust me. She didn’t have to say it for me to know, and we both know you can’t have a relationship without trust.

  Slamming my hand against the tile again, I curse repeatedly as I don’t know what to do.

  I just want her back in my house and in my bed. I want back in her good graces.

  Spent from the physical exertion of batting and then the lusty actions against the fence, I finish in the shower and then wrap a towel around my waist.

  Between Janessa’s appearance and Lucy’s earlier phone call, I’m suddenly exhausted, and I climb into my bed after tugging on boxer briefs; only my thoughts don’t rest.

  “Daddy, Mom said she’s doubling down her efforts for senator.” Without knowing what she means, Lucy’s fear matches mine. Her campaign is holding on by a thread. How will she use our daughter? Angela still possesses those boudoir images from our wedding, including a series of me in and out of that damn bathing suit. Thankfully, she didn’t release the naked ones, but
there is no telling how far she’ll go to get what she wants. She can try to destroy me, but I won’t let her use our daughter.

  I have such poor taste in women, I think, and then I turn toward the pillow next to me and realize that’s incorrect. Janessa is everything I’ve never had before, and she’s made all the difference. Over time, I might have given in to Charity Bernard had I known her feelings before Janessa’s arrival. I might have chosen a safe woman, but I’d been down that misleading path. Despite Angela’s drive to be something more, life with her was passionless. Unlike with Janessa. Janessa’s determined to get what she wants as well, but she only wants to make a mark on this community, not the entire universe.

  My hand smooths over the pillow. I miss her. I told her as much, but then I had to turn into a crazed man and take her up against the fence.

  I spin for my phone on the nightstand and scroll for her number.

  Tell her you’re sorry, Lucy said. I still hadn’t done it.

  I’m sorry it doesn’t seem like I support you. I only want the best for you. I let the phone fall to my chest, hardly feeling better.

  I don’t want to be in your way either.

  You could never be in the way. I’m the one who cockblocked myself, yet she still gave in to me along the fence line. One last time, she said, but it can’t end. Don’t say we’re over.

  My phone rings in my hand, and I answer it, breathless with the anticipation of hearing her voice.

  “Charlie, you’re the one who walked away tonight.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry I can’t keep my hands off you, and I want you so much. I’m sorry I thought I was protecting your reputation and got in the way of something I didn’t know you wanted so badly. I’m sorry I—”

  “Please stop,” she says, her voice quiet as she interjects. “You don’t need to apologize for doing your job.”

  “But am I doing my job? Am I doing it well?”

  “Can I ask you something? Do you want to be in Congress?”

  “Would you go with me if I did?”

  “That isn’t a part of the question.” Her voice remains quiet and soft, and I want her in this bed next to me. I want to see her face when we talk.

  “Say it was. Say I do run. Would you come with me?”

  “Charlie, take me out of the equation.”

  I consider Angela and how upset Lucy is that her mother is running for re-election. Could she handle two parents working on a grander scale for the government?

  “I don’t want to run,” I whisper.

  “Ever or now?”

  “Ever.” I’m happy where I am. Some people strive for more in politics, but I’m good right where I’m planted.

  “Was that so difficult, Charlie? You’re good at being mayor, and you like it. That’s a bonus.”

  “Sometimes, I need to make tough decisions.”

  “We all do, Charlie. Even the little people.” She laughs, and I want to see her smile.

  “I wish you were here,” I say, opening myself up even more to her.

  “Me too. The twin bed and Vega’s snoring are getting old.”

  “You could still move in as I said the other day. I’ll give you a guest room.” And then I’ll sneak in every night and have my way with her.

  She chuckles. “And how would that look to the town?”

  She’s right, but I’m starting not to care what the community thinks of me.

  “Tell me plan B.”

  “Charlie,” she groans.

  “I want you to trust me.”

  “I do, but not with this. You’ll find out in due time.” She pauses. “It’s not bad, Charlie.”

  “I’m tired of being good,” I whisper.

  She purrs, and instantly, I’m hard again. I scrub a hand down my face. I’m like a teenager and just as giddy.

  “Where are you?” I ask if she isn’t in the bed across from her daughter yet.

  “I’m outside. There’s a dock back here.”

  “You’re still on my property,” I tease, wanting to jump out of bed and rush to the dock jutting into the river on the edge of my land.

  “In many ways, I’m already living with you.” Because she lives in the coach house with her mother, brother, and daughter.

  “It’s not close enough.”

  + + +

  When I see Janessa the next morning, she smiles shyly at me as she says good morning and climbs the stairs for her office. I watch the sway of her hips and the flex of her legs as she climbs upward, disappearing at the landing.

  A throat clears next to me. “Enjoying the view?” my law partner asks.

  “I’m in love with her,” I admit to Jordan, and he slowly smiles, lifting his coffee mug in salute.

  “Here’s to risk-taking.” With that, he turns on his heels and heads to his office like it’s any other ordinary day.

  Only the days turn into a week, and I don’t even have a hint to the Walk the Ridge committee and its plan. Our next council meeting is a week after Lucy returns, and the days have been long. Janessa has refused my dinner invitations, stating it’s best not to be seen in public together, but she’s come to the house in the late evenings, and we’ve been together everywhere. The kitchen counter. The floor in front of the television. Even on the back staircase.

  We rush one another when we’re alone in the dark and keep our distance during the daylight hours, but I want more. I want to give her small moments like lunchtime at the diner and shared coffee breaks. I want dinner dates with a movie or even bowling. I want the town to know how I feel about her, but for now, she’s my little secret, and I don’t like it.

  All hell breaks loose right before Lucy is scheduled to come home.

  “Mom wants me to stay. Please say I don’t have to stay,” Lucy’s whine breaks my heart when she calls me. While she’s perfected her pouty face and working on her future-teenage angst, she’s not a complainer.

  “What’s going on?” I question over the tears in my daughter’s voice.

  “She says she needs me by her side. She’s playing up the single-mother role again.” It’s sad my daughter knows this gimmick at ten years old. It’s only a ploy as Angela wants to portray an image of a hardworking woman, single mother, and doting parent, which she isn’t. She only follows the decree of the custody agreement, just like she used to schedule sex in her planner.

  “Lucy, I will not let that happen. You will come home Saturday as we planned.”

  “She’s so…different. She’s talking more and more about running for president in the future and how she needs me to be a good girl and comply with her. How she has plans for us. Her and me. But I don’t want to stay with her, Dad. Please don’t make me.”

  “Absolutely not, Pint. I will not let you stay there.” My heart races in my chest. This is the type of bullshit I worried would happen. Angela can’t be trusted not to pull some kind of crap.

  “Dad, can I leave early? Can’t you come get me and bring me home now?”

  I don’t want to go against the decree myself, but my insides roil and my skin itches. I don’t want Lucy there another minute.

  “I know the rules, Dad, but can’t you break them just once? Please, Daddy.” Her voice cracks, and my heart rips in half.

  “I’ll be there, Pint. Just give me time to find a flight, and I’ll be there. Don’t tell Mom, okay? It’s our secret.”

  If Angela wants to ambush me, I have my own strategy of attack.

  + + +

  “Charlie, is everything okay?” It’s so great to hear Janessa’s voice as I sit in a hotel room in Philadelphia, waiting for Jordan to contact me. While I know all the regulations for divorce, I did not represent myself when Angela and I separated. Chris, Mati’s late husband, was my attorney, but he’s gone, and I need answers. Legally, Angela cannot keep Lucy, and I don’t think she wants the battle I’ll cause in court to prevent her from additional visitations. What she wants is a show of goodwill toward her as Lucy’s mo
ther, and I don’t have it in me to give it to her. There’s no reason to act as if I trust her or will allow her to use our daughter.

  Then comes the threat to expose images of me.

  Naked. Risqué. Private.

  Photographs that were taken while we were married, and I thought I loved her. I was so wrong.

  “There’s a lot going on,” I say, my voice straining as I stare at the curtained window. Angela certainly wasn’t expecting me when I showed up at the restaurant, crashing her little dinner party. Knowing Angela wouldn’t want a scene, she watched as I held out my hand for our daughter, who stood and followed me. We waited for Angela at her condo, where she took an additional hour to show, and then we gathered Lucy’s things. I would have left them all, even the new iPad I bought her at Christmas, but she couldn’t part without Mr. Bear, a ratty stuffed animal she still sleeps with when she is stressed.

  “Where are you?” Janessa asks.

  “In Philadelphia.”

  “Jordan told me, but I mean, where are you exactly?”

  Glancing over my shoulder, I check on Lucy, who’s watching something on her iPad. She’s wearing her headphones, but her eyes have begun drooping. I tell Janessa the name of my hotel and glance down at the floor beneath my feet. I explain what happened and why I’m here and how I’m waiting on Jordan’s call.

  “Okay, I won’t keep you. Just let me know if I can do anything. Exes suck.” She chuckles, and the sound travels into my chest, but I’m too tired to laugh.

  As soon as we hang up, Jordan calls.

  “We can’t block her threat. You can only call her bluff. If she releases the images, we find a way to pull them down. We can charge her with defamation of character or slander. Same with whoever shares them.”

  “Jordan, you know once something’s on the internet, it’s there forever, no matter what.”

  “Not necessarily. Plus, who wants to see your junk? You’ll be old news once the next political scandal breaks. Angela will be the next political scandal.” He chuckles, but he doesn’t find the humor in the situation any more than I do. When his guffawing subsides, and I don’t respond to it, he offers another solution. “I suggest a counterattack. If she sends out nudes of you, you need something that will be more attractive than gawking at your privates.”