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"Got it," she said, and made a note on her ever-present notepad. "Think you'll be here next year?"
"Huh?" I glanced up from the mountain of crap on my desk, which appeared to have grown since yesterday.
"Balthazar is determined, and it isn't like you wanted to be the mayor. "
"Who said I didn't?"
"Your dad. "
Guilt and sorrow flooded me. I missed him. I should have stayed and taken over the job as he'd wanted me to. If I had, I never would have met Josh and -
Straightening my spine, I lifted my chin. "I don't plan on leaving anytime soon. "
"Even if Balthazar wins?"
"I don't plan on letting Balthazar win. "
Joyce grinned. "He'd be so proud. "
I let myself bask in the notion of my dad at last being proud of me.
He'd always hoped I would take over for him, been very disappointed that I would rather eat dirt, and while I'd been too caught up in my own plans to worry about his feelings at the time, now that he was gone, I wished I'd been a better daughter. I'd try to make amends by keeping the town he'd adored safe from idiots like Balthazar Monahan.
"I hear you made the council vote last night," Joyce said.
"So?"
"I don't think they've actually voted in years. "
"Is that bad?"
"No. Your dad was a good guy, but sometimes he slacked off on things. "
"He did?"
I'd never heard that before.
"Everyone does if they can get away with it. Jeremiah was good with people. He listened to them. They liked him and trusted him. "
"Unlike me. "
"Where'd you get that?" Joyce asked. "Everyone likes you fine. "
"They don't trust me. No one talks to me like they talked to him. "
"They will. The people know you can do this job, or they wouldn't have asked you to take over. "
"How can they know?"
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Claire. No matter how hard you might have wanted it to. "
I suddenly felt lighter, happier, than I had in months, maybe years. In Atlanta I'd always been seen as less than I could be; here I was seen as more than I was.
I glanced at the clock. Not quite noon. No one had come through the door for fifteen whole minutes. "I'm going to try and get a little work done," I said.
"Hold your calls?"
"Unless it's an emergency, yes. "
