by Emma Douglas
But as the hall finally emptied out, leaving just the six of them and Angie and Ryan, she couldn’t quite manage to keep up the act.
“What the hell was that?” she demanded as Angie walked over to join them, looking smug. Idiot woman. Did she really think Mina was going to take this lying down?
“What?” Angie said, her voice sounding genuinely puzzled. She’d missed her calling. She could have won an Oscar for her little innocent act. Though politicians must need to be good actors too. So maybe she’d found the right job after all. After all, this way she could act and connive. “I thought you’d want to share your good news with the town?”
“If I’d wanted to share my good news, I would have shared it already,” Mina said. “A fact you must understand, given that if you know about the show, you know I’m using my mom’s name, not Harper. How the hell did you find out anyway?” Her voice was loud in her ears and she was vaguely aware that Will had moved to stand beside her.
“You Harpers aren’t the only one with friends in L.A.,” Angie said.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Mina said. “Is that what this is about?”
“What do you mean?” Angie said.
“Yes, Mina, what do you mean?” Faith asked, moving to her other side. Her sister’s voice was low but it held a note that Mina recognized. She’d never realized just how much Faith sounded like Grey when she was pissed, but the resemblance was plain. And from Angie’s expression, it was clear that Angie had never had the experience of dealing with Grey in a rage.
“Maybe Angie should explain,” Mina said sweetly. “Angie, do you want to tell Faith what you told me the other day?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Angie said. Her expression was turning slightly nervous.
Mina wasn’t sure whether Angie had finally noticed Seth standing with Lou or whether she’d worked out that she was about to deal with two pissed off Harpers … not to mention Lou. Angie had gone to school in Cloud Bay. And no student of Lou’s—past or present—should be dumb enough to risk getting into her bad books. Students called Lou “the Terminator” when she was on a tear, because she didn’t let anyone get away with shit in her classroom or anywhere else. But apparently Angie hadn’t learned that lesson. Maybe it was time she did.
“Yes, you do,” Mina said. “You remember. You explained to me so nicely how you thought we Harpers were no good for Lansing and how we didn’t give a crap about the island and that we were all going to just leave one day and leave the economy in ruins. You do remember that, don’t you?”
“She said what?” Faith said at the same time as Seth Rigger said, “Oh, honey. No.”
“You heard me,” Mina said, turning to Faith. She smiled at her sister. “Looks like Angie’s found out our diabolical plan.”
Faith’s eyes were fastened on Angie. “Angie, I always thought you were kind of mean but I never knew you were stupid too.”
“Faith,” Lou started.
Faith held up a hand. “No, Mom. Sorry, but this is between Angie and Mina and me. So Angie, is Mina right? Is that why you thought you could just spill my sister’s business, because she’s a Harper and we’re all just heartless monsters?”
“I—” Angie said. “I was doing what’s best for Cloud Bay.”
“I fail to see how my sister’s exhibition has anything to do with Cloud Bay,” Faith said. “But I can tell you what does. And that’s the financial contribution my father and his friends have made and continue to make to this community. We’ve been here for nearly thirty years, so I really fail to see how that counts as lack of commitment on our part. Do you want me to remind you how much money CloudFest brings to the island?”
“That doesn’t mean you get to do whatever the hell you like,” Angie said, anger twisting her face.
“I would like you to tell me how we’re doing that?” Faith asked. “Harper Inc. pays taxes here on Lansing. We pay all your permit fees. We’ve complied with all the red tape and regulations we’ve been asked to comply with. And you’ve made sure that’s been plenty over the last few years. So tell me, Ms. Mayor, what exactly I or my family or my dead father who’s buried in the same cemetery as your mom, have done to piss you off?”
“I—” Angie said.
“Nothing,” Mina interrupted. “We’ve done nothing wrong. Other than Lou dating Seth. And Angie’s a grown-ass woman, so I’m really hoping this doesn’t all boil down to her sulking about her dad being happy.”
“Honey?” Seth said. He didn’t sound happy at this very moment. “Do you want to tell me what this is all about? I don’t understand. Mina says her show was a secret, so why did you tell everybody? That wasn’t the way I raised you.”
“Not to mention,” Will said suddenly as Angie stayed silent, “that if you were really worried about the Harpers pulling out of Cloud Bay, the smart thing to do as mayor would be to do your best to keep them here, not piss them off.”
Mina grinned at him. “An excellent point,” she agreed. “But I think that maybe Angie and Seth need to have a little chat. So perhaps the rest of us should leave them alone.”
Will shook his head. “Not before she apologizes to you. She can’t fix what she’s done, but she can do that much.”
Angie looked like she wanted to punch him.
Seth cleared his throat. “I agree. We need to fix this.” He turned back to his daughter. “Angie?”
“What?” Angie said. “Don’t tell me you’re taking their side now. Just because you’re sleeping with—”
“Angela Victoria Rigger, you will apologize to Mina right now,” Seth roared. For a moment, Mina thought Angie was going to cry as she stared at her father. But she didn’t, even though she looked like she’d wanted a hole to open up beneath her and swallow her. Or maybe a teleport to appear so she could get the hell out of there. “And then, Mina’s right. You and I need to have a talk.” He turned to Faith. “Faith, do you mind taking your mom home for me please?”
“Not at all,” Faith said sweetly. “Right after Angie says sorry.”
“Angela,” Seth said, returning his attention to Angie. “I’m waiting.”
Angie stuck out her chin. She faced Mina. “I’m sorry,” she said.
It wasn’t exactly the most sincere apology Mina had ever heard. But for now it would do. She didn’t want to deal with Angie any more tonight. She’d leave that to Seth. She nodded in Angie’s direction.
“Mina,” Lou said. “Tell Angie you accept her apology.”
“I’m thinking about it,” Mina said.
“Mina, it’s Christmas.”
“Something Angie seems to have forgotten,” Mina said. “So, sorry, Lou, but it’s going to take me a little while to find my Christmas spirit. I said I’m thinking about it. And that’s going to have to do for now.”
* * *
“Well, that wasn’t exactly how I imagined tonight going,” Will said when they reached Lulu. Mina had marched out of the town hall and through the parking lot like a woman on mission. Will just wished he knew what that mission was. She was pissed, that much was clear. He couldn’t blame her. The stunt the mayor had pulled had been bullshit. “Are you okay?”
The lights in the parking lot were yellowish, but he thought she looked kind of pale.
“I have no idea,” Mina said.
She was looking past Lulu. The town hall was up on one of the high parts of the town, where the land sloped up from the harbor. The parking lot looked down to the marina. All the boats were decked out in lights for Christmas, a sea of winking colors, swaying on the water. Pretty. Soothing in a weird way, as long as Will didn’t think too hard about the fact they were all boats.
Mina turned back to him, wrapping her arms around herself. “That was…”
“Bullshit,” he offered, and she managed a smile. He didn’t know how to make it better. He didn’t know if anyone could make it better. Mina had wanted to do this on her own, and Angie had just taken that away. Seth had mentioned fixing the situ
ation, but how was that possible? There’d be people already looking up the DeVitt Gallery website. Presumably her name would be there. Or the name she was using. Someone was going to blab that Mina Logan was really Mina Harper.
“It really was bullshit,” he said again. “Angie shouldn’t have done it. And all this is about Seth dating Lou?”
Mina nodded. “That’s my best guess. She’s never really been friendly to us. I mean, she’s a year older than Faith and a year younger than Zach. She was done with high school before I got there but from what Faith told me, Angie was a pain even then. She’s always been a bit of a queen bee.”
“And Faith’s not?” Will said, teasing.
He won half a smile. “Faith will take charge if she needs to. She’s had to. Zach pretty much bailed on her and I was still too young to help much when Grey got his diagnosis. And she’ll get the job done. She’s always been good with people, but until Grey got sick, she wanted to be a musician, not a CEO. She does a good job at it because it turned out she likes it, but she doesn’t spend her time trying to get more power. And she doesn’t have that ‘my way or the highway’ thing going on like Angie does.” Mina bit her lip, glancing back at the hall.
For a moment Will thought she might just march back inside and deck Angie. “What can I do?” he said. “What do you need?”
“Right now, I don’t want to think about it,” Mina said. She looked up at him, moving a little closer. “You think you can help me not think for awhile?”
“Absolutely,” he said and bent to kiss her.
chapter eighteen
This week really needed to end, Mina thought as she looked at her bleary-eyed reflection and winced. Will was picking her up in thirty minutes for yet another Christmas Festival event, and she looked like she’d been hit by a truck. A big truck. With lots of spiky bits.
Though, really, who could blame her? It had been a crappy week. Tuesday morning she’d rung the gallery and told them who she really was. Seth had made Angie agree to contact everyone in the town to ask them to keep Mina’s secret, but Mina figured the cat was out of the bag. Better to confess and let the gallery be prepared. They’d been delighted to hear she was Grey Harper’s daughter. Had started babbling about publicity and platform. They’d been less delighted when she said she still wanted to exhibit as Mina Logan. The compromise position was that Grey would be mentioned in her bio but that the gallery wouldn’t make that public until the show opened. Which might give her a tiny shot at seeing whether she could sell on her own.
She stepped into the shower, turned the water on hard. As it pounded on her head, the knots in her shoulders started to ease. She had nine days left before she had to get everything to her framer. She’d sent off a batch of finished work earlier today, but she was still six paintings short. Finishing six more by her deadline was doable, but she would have to be on her game all next week to get there.
Not necessarily easy when there were still a few more festival events to attend. Faith had told her to skip them, but she wasn’t going to give Angie the satisfaction of staying away. That would let the mayor avoid having to face what she’d done. It might be Christmas but Mina wasn’t letting her off that lightly.
Nope. Angie was definitely on the naughty list.
Besides, she had to admit, she was starting to enjoy herself, doing crazy Christmas events with Will. Will was definitely on the nice list. He’d been doing everything he could to make her life easier this week. He’d brought her food so she didn’t have to interrupt her painting time to cook. He’d sent her flowers on Wednesday and even brought her a batch of Stefan’s cookies yesterday. And he’d been there after he closed the bar each night, perfectly happy to distract her with as many glorious orgasms as she’d wanted.
She knew she shouldn’t be letting herself get used to him, but it was getting harder to resist. But resist she would. Soon. Nine more days and it would be Christmas Eve. Then Christmas Day. And then, their project would be over and she could go back to being safe, sane Mina. Focused on her show. Focused on what came after her show. Not that she had any idea what that might be just now.
And she didn’t have time to figure it out right now. She shook herself out of her fog with a blast of cold water then jumped out of the shower, shivering and cursing the impulse. It had worked though. She was now wide awake and managed to dress and throw on a little makeup in record time. By the time Will knocked on the door, she’d been ready and waiting for five minutes.
“Do you wanna go on a sleigh ride?” Will said when she opened the door. He handed her a peppermint candy cane that looked big enough to club an elf to death with.
“Why, Mr. Fraser. Are you trying to lure me into your sleigh with candy?” she said as she took the cane.
“Of course.” He grinned at her, waggling his eyebrows theatrically. “Is it working? Or do I need to add more incentive?”
“Such as?”
“Telling you all the things I’m going to do to you after the sleigh ride?”
She laughed at that. “Sold. Though I’m not sure Santa approves of talking dirty during sleigh rides.”
“Only because he’s stuck in a sleigh alone with a bunch of reindeer for company,” Will said. “Talking dirty to reindeer would just be weird. But I’m sure he’d sing a different tune if he had Mrs. Claus along for the ride.” He held out a hand to her. “C’mon, we’re going to be late.”
“Now I have a mental image of Santa making out with Mrs. Claus,” Mina said as she climbed into Lulu. “And that’s just wrong.”
“Hey, old people like sex too,” Will said.
“Is Santa old?” Mina asked. “I mean he looks old but he doesn’t get any older. And he’s magic. So he might be young.”
“Old, young, does it really matter? He works hard, let him enjoy a little nookie with his wife.”
“This conversation has gone to a very weird place,” Mina said, trying not to dissolve into laughter.
“Well, I can change the subject. Start talking dirty to you right now,” Will said, sounding hopeful. “Stefan gave me the night off, so I don’t want to waste it.”
Mina peered out at the darkness. There were more than the usual number of cars on the road for this time of day, most of them heading into Cloud Bay. Angie might be a bitch on wheels at times but she’d obviously struck a chord with the Christmas Festival. “I think you’d better focus on just getting us to the sleigh ride to start with,” she said. “Wait until someone else is driving for you to get back to working your evil wiles on me.”
“My wiles are awesome, not evil.”
Yeah, they kind of were. Not that she was going to tell him that. She just rolled her eyes at him and pointed at the road.
Will laughed at her but set his eyes on the road ahead. He took her hand as they stood in line for the sleigh rides. Mina had to admit that the sleighs—which were really horse-drawn carts that had been altered to look like sleighs with some niftily painted plywood attached to their sides and a generous helping of fairy lights and bells—looked pretty in the darkness. Maybe she could be Team Sleigh after all.
And when Will pulled her close and closed his teeth gently over her ear after they’d settled into place in the back of their allotted sleigh, it warmed her right down to her toes. Definitely Team Sleigh, if she got to ride in one with Will. But she pushed him away.
“Not right here in front of everybody,” she whispered as the driver clucked to the horse and the sleigh lurched into motion.
“I think everyone knows that we’re seeing each other by now,” Will said.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we have to prove Angie right by scarring the kids for life by making out in the middle of Main Street.”
Will grinned at her. “It’s educational.”
“Someone else can educate them. You can just wait until we get out of town.” If she’d understood the route correctly, the sleigh rides headed out of Cloud Bay and went up around the back of the town. They came back along the coast b
efore returning to the town square. It was the same route that the carts took tourists for scenic rides in summer. But then the horses weren’t decked out in bells and Christmas baubles, and the drivers wore caps and sunglasses not Santa hats. Still, given Lansing didn’t have the snow for real sleighs, it was a clever idea. And the proceeds were all going to the clinic, to search and rescue, and to a few of the other local volunteer operations.
She leaned into Will, letting the rhythm of the cart soothe her as they made their way down Main Street. It didn’t escape her that she and Will were receiving approving nods and smiles from some of the locals they passed.
Which made her feel guilty all over again. Everyone was so happy to see her dating again, and so many people had sent her e-mails or messages offering congratulations on her show and promising to keep her secret that it seemed mean to disappoint them.
But she couldn’t keep dating Will because the town liked him and wanted her to be happy. That was hardly a sensible basis for a relationship.
As the cart turned onto the road that would take them around the edge of town, Will leaned over and whispered, “How about now?”
He pressed a kiss into her neck while he waited for her answer. And, hell, it felt so good, that what else could she possible say but “Yes”?
* * *
By the time the sleigh ride had ended, Will’s skills at dirty talk had her ready to jump him. She didn’t really care who was watching. Will had some serious game. Maybe they could just go back home and she could see if he could actually do half the things he’d been promising her?
Her knees actually wobbled when he took her hand to help her out of the cart. That was kind of embarrassing. A family of three were waiting in line to take their place in the sleigh and the woman was eyeing Will with a very appreciative look on her face. Rude. Not to mention greedy when she was standing right there with her husband.