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“Here comes tall, dark and handsome,” Pilar whispered so that only Mimi could hear.
Mimi steeled herself as Whispering Bay’s Chief of Police, Zeke Grant, strolled into the room. It had been four days since Mimi had last seen Zeke. Somehow, the times he’d been at the house to see the kids, or pack up more clothes, they’d managed to avoid one another.
He hadn’t changed a bit, of course. No one changed in four days, did they? He was still the same man she’d known over half her life. Pilar wasn’t exaggerating when she called him tall, dark and handsome. Add sexy, confident and arrogant as hell into the mixture as well. It irritated her that after all these years he could still make her heart race and her thighs feel like jelly.
He locked eyes with her and for one crazy moment she went back in time eighteen years. To that moment she’d first spied him at the Whispering Bay Bowling Alley. She’d never been invisible to Zeke Grant. He looked at her now the same way he had then, as if she were the only person in the room and he could see everything about her. As if nothing she thought or felt would ever be private again. Not from him, anyway.
Mimi was in trouble all right, and it had nothing do with Whispering Bay’s budget.
Everyone turned to stare at her. Bruce looked like he was six years-old and it was Christmas morning. They all knew she was married to Zeke. Bruce would be expecting her to back up her husband. Then he’d find a way to use their relationship against her. It was just the way he was.
“Have a seat,” Bruce urged Zeke, as if he was the one in charge of the meeting.
“Yes, please, take a seat,” Mimi chimed in. She tried to gauge Zeke’s mood, but his expression was unreadable.
“I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced yet,” Zeke said to Doug.
The two men shook hands. “Doug Wentworth. Nice to meet you, Chief. I hope you don’t mind taking time out of your busy schedule but I wanted to include your input when we discussed the upcoming budget.”
“Don’t mind at all.” Zeke took the chair next to Bruce, the farthest seat he could from Mimi. Which, in all fairness, was the only empty spot at the table, but she found herself wondering if he would have taken a seat next to her if one had been available
Doug handed him a copy of the budget. Zeke flipped the book open and began reading. His face remained inscrutable, the same way it did when they’d been at one of their many marital counseling sessions.
Just once, Mimi wanted him to lose it. Not because she wanted him upset. No, scratch that. She did want him upset. She wanted him to be angry that their marriage was in trouble. She wanted him to fight for her. To fight for them. But instead he’d sat back at all those sessions with the look of some bored martyr.
Even now, after two children and almost eighteen years of marriage he seemed like a stranger. A stranger she was in love with. Or maybe it was just lust. Maybe it had been lust all along. Because how could you be in love with someone who didn’t trust you enough with their biggest secret?
“You know everyone at the table, I assume?” Doug said to Zeke.
Bruce snickered and Denise gasped.
“I believe so,” Zeke drawled.
Doug frowned. Poor guy. He was completely of the loop. Which meant she was going to have to fill him in before things got even more awkward.
Mimi inhaled, then exhaled slowly. The way she learned to do in her beginning yoga class. But Downward Dog had nothing over small town politics. “You’re new to town, Doug, so I’m not sure if you’re aware that Zeke and I are married.”
“We’re separated,” Zeke said, looking at her directly for the first time. Or rather, looking at her hands. Her left hand to be exact. He kept staring as if he expected it to explode at any second. Mimi yanked her hands off the table and clasped them in her lap.
Talk about letting the cat out of the bag!
Denise’s eyes bulged. Damn it. Momma was probably on Denise’s speed dial. No need to keep their time out a secret any longer. After today’s meeting, half the town would know by dinner time. She imagined her mother would do some sort of victory dance. Or call her with a long belated ‘I told you so!’
“I’m sorry, Grant seemed like a pretty common name,” Doug said. “I didn’t make the connection.”
Zeke shrugged one broad shoulder. Mimi had been so rattled when he’d walked in the door that she hadn’t noticed his uniform. His long sleeved khaki shirt looked as if it was ironed to perfection. Was he taking his uniforms to the dry cleaners? For years, she’d been the one to iron those shirts. Not that she’d minded. It had been a source of pride to her, keeping her family and her home in tip top shape. If that made her hopelessly old-fashioned, then so be it.
“The separation won’t be a problem. Mimi and I are perfectly capable of conducting a professional relationship.”
She only just realized that he’d used the word separation. It sounded so…permanent.
“Good. Because we don’t have time to play Dr. Phil here.” Bruce tapped the folder. “Now, let’s get down to it. Chief, we’ve all had time to glance at your proposed budget for the coming year. You really expect the city to put up the money for two new cruisers?”
A muscle on the side of Zeke’s cheek twitched. Mimi was overly familiar with that twitch. There was no love lost between Zeke and Bruce Bailey.
Should she say something? She’d known when she decided to run for mayor that her marriage to the chief of police would put her in a precarious position. She needed to maintain a professional distance. Fair and impartial. It was a thin line. It was also her first official meeting as mayor and she was in the learning phase. No one expected her to come out guns blasting. Zeke was a big boy. She’d let him handle this one on his own.
“If you read the maintenance reports that I included in my budget outline, then you’re aware that repairs to some of our older cruisers are making them cost ineffective,” Zeke said. “We actually need four new cars. But I thought that might be too much. We’ll take two cars this year and two next year.”
