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“Good grief,” Mimi said. She flopped back in her seat.
Zeke shrugged. “What can I say? People are interested in us.”
“Well, I wish they’d get interested in something else.”
“Like what?”
“Like something other than our sex life,” she said.
“Be careful what you wish for.”
“That sounds ominous.”
He looked her in the eye. “I’ve been chief long enough to know that public life has its ups and downs and, believe it or not, this is an up.”
Bettina was the first one to arrive for this week’s meeting, besides Mimi of course, because she’d been waiting at The Bistro since her lunch with Zeke. To say her nerves were shot was putting it mildly. Zeke had proclaimed her proposal brilliant, but he had no idea what she was up against in Bettina and Sherry and Wendy, or as Mimi liked to think of them—the witches of Whispering Bay.
Be nice, Mimi.
This week Bettina wore yoga pants and a fuchsia sports bra and Tofu wore a matching colored bandana around her neck. As per her usual routine, she greeted Mimi with a snarl (Tofu, not Bettina), but this time, Mimi was ready for her.
“Look what I have for you, little girl,” Mimi said, waving a dog biscuit in front of Tofu’s nose. Tofu snapped it up faster than Bettina could blink.
“What did you just give her?” Bettina demanded.
“Relax. It was only a biscuit. Toby loves them. They taste like bacon.”
“You mean that mutt you got from the animal shelter?”
“He’s not a mutt,” Mimi said. “He’s a...pug mix.”
“Exactly, he’s mixed. Which means he’s not a purebred like Tofu. Who knows how many preservatives are in that bacon biscuit?” Bettina made the word bacon sound synonymous with cyanide. “Toby’s proletarian stomach can handle that kind of poison. But Tofu is very delicate. She only eats one hundred percent organic dog food and treats that are specifically approved by both her vet and her groomer.”
“Okay, well, she doesn’t look like she’s suffering right now. How about—wait. Where did you see Toby?” They’d had the dog almost two months now, but Mimi was certain she’d never seen Bettina when she’d taken Toby for a walk. Had Bettina run into Cameron and Toby at the park?
“That mongrel was at the fishing cabin the other weekend when I brought Zeke dinner. Cameron was there, too.”
r /> Mimi must have heard wrong. “When you what?”
“I’m on the committee that brings our chief dinner every night,” she explained in a slowly insulting tone. Then her eyes widened in mock surprise. “Wait. You didn’t know? You didn’t think we were going to let Zeke go hungry? He’s an integral part of what makes this community tick. You might not care what he eats, but the citizens of Whispering Bay certainly do.”
Her heart began to pound. Of all the… Mimi itched to knock that smug expression off Bettina’s face. “Who else is on this committee?” she choked out.
“Betty Jean Collins organized it, but I’m co-chair. Let’s see, Sherry and Wendy are on it, of course, as well as the rest of the Bunco Bunnies and a few of the Gray Flamingos. Your neighbor, Mrs. Manley, and there’s Trudy who teaches over at the high school. Zeke is absolutely crazy over her pecan pie.”
Mimi grit her teeth. “Naturally.”
“We were going to put a halt to it after the 911 call, because we all assumed that had done the trick getting you back together, but you were so vehement that it wasn’t the case, and of course, Mrs. Manley just confirmed it. She sent a group text saying that you made a public service announcement just an hour ago that you and Zeke are still splitsville.”
“Lovely,” Mimi muttered.
So Zeke was crazy about Trudy’s pecan pie, huh? And to think she’d actually been worried he’d been eating too much fast food! She wished she could tell him exactly where he could stuff those pecans now.
Viola and Sherry both came through the door at the same time. A few minutes later Wendy hustled in, out of breath like she’d just been running. The meeting was about to start and Mimi needed to keep a cool head if she was going to get this proposal voted through.
Like last week, Bettina took over the meeting before Mimi could begin. “I believe the first order of business is the proposal we asked Mimi to write up.”
Doreen pulled out a pad of paper and began taking notes.
