That Man of Mine Page 6

  It was probably natural people would assume there was some big motivating factor behind their separation. And Mimi and Zeke are having a time out because he’s having an affair sounded a whole lot juicier than Mimi and Zeke are having a time out because…well, because we don’t know why.

  It had been over three months since she and Zeke had, according to Betty Jean, done the horizontal mamba. They’d always had a healthy sex life, but in the past year the number of times they’d made love had dwindled down to almost never. Their problems outside the bedroom had created problems inside the bedroom as well.

  But Zeke would never cheat on her. Not while they were together. It would be like a lion passing up a steak dinner. It wasn’t in his nature. Although, technically, they weren’t together anymore. Legally, yes, but physically, no.

  Now that he was living on his own, could he have taken that as freedom to do whatever he wanted? The idea of Zeke stuffin’ Cindy’s muffin (ack! Thanks a lot for that image, Betty Jean!) made Mimi queasy.

  She grabbed a bottled water from her tote and took a long deep sip. There. That was better.

  She tried to sound nonchalant. “Momma, I know it’s hard for you to accept this, but whatever’s going on between Zeke and me is private. The sooner you and the rest of this town get with the program, the easier it will be for everyone. You don’t want Cameron and Claire getting wind of these ridiculous rumors, do you? By calling me every five minutes after some busybody like Denise Holbert whispers in your ear you’re just giving credence to all these crazy rumors.”

  Ann Powers sat in the chair across from the desk with a defeated look on her face. Her blue eyes looked watery. “I just…I just want you to be happy.”

  “I know you do, Momma.”

  “So what happened? I admit, I never thought it would last between you two, but I thought it would fall apart in the beginning, not after eighteen years of marriage. Mary, what’s going on here?”

  It had never occurred to Mimi how news of her separation would affect her mother. Momma was hurting. Just like Mimi would be hurt if the situation was fast forwarded twenty years and this was Claire on the other side of the desk. A part of her wanted to tell her mother the truth. But if she did, it would be a betrayal to Zeke. And even though he was currently the most infuriating man in the world, she couldn’t do that.

  “Like I said before, Momma, it’s private. Please trust me to do the right thing here. We’ll either work out our problems, or we won’t.”

  Her mother looked ready to put up a fight.

  “Please,” Mimi said gently.

  Momma sighed. “All right. I suppose I’ll have to be satisfied with that. But I don’t understand.”

  “You don’t have to. Just cut me some slack, okay? This is my first real day on the job and I have a lot of work to get through.”

  She eyed Mimi’s cluttered desk. “What’s all that? Mayor work?”

  “These,” Mimi said, picking up the stack of memos, “are all my messages. And this”—she pointed to a thick manila folder—“is all the stuff I need to catch up on for this year’s Spring Into Summer festival.”

  The mayor’s primary responsibility, besides sitting on the city council, cutting ribbons, and kissing babies on the head (did people still do that?) was to oversee the town’s largest and oldest festival.

  Momma sniffed. “I certainly hope we don’t have a repeat of last year’s Harry Tuba fiasco.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Did someone say Harry Tuba?” Doug strolled in through the open door, but stopped short when he noticed Mimi wasn’t alone. “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?” He smiled at Momma.

  “Momma, this is Doug Wentworth, the new city manager,” Mimi said by way of introduction. “My mom, Ann Powers.”

  Doug shook Momma’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you, too,” Momma said in a chilly, but still polite voice. She gave Doug a thorough look over. “So, you’re Paul’s replacement? I heard the city had hired an outsider to clean things up.”

  “Doug came to us from Old Explorer’s Bay,” Mimi said.

  “Yes, but that’s not where you’re from originally, is it?” Momma asked him. Momma was always suspicious of anyone who came from more than a fifty mile radius of the place they ended up. It was all right to go off to school but then afterward she believed in settling down near your roots. The fact that Mimi’s brother Luke lived in Atlanta was a sore spot for her.

  Doug kept his smile firmly in place. “You’re right, it’s not. I was born and raised in Kansas.”

  “Kansas? Lovely country, I’m sure.” Momma said it like she expected Doug to take off in a hot air balloon and never come back.

  Mimi began to cough.

  “Are you all right?” Momma asked. “Maybe you shouldn’t have chugged all that water earlier.” She glanced between Mimi and Doug. “I take it the two of you have work to do?”

  “I can come by later,” Doug said.

  “No, no…I have to be going anyway.” Momma stood and gave Mimi a long look. “We’ll talk soon.”

  Hopefully, soon didn’t mean in the next couple of hours. Knowing Momma, though, it probably did. If Mimi wanted to avoid another call this afternoon, then she needed to take care of some family business. “I’ll stop by the house on my way home.”

  “You will?” Momma’s gaze sharpened. “Good. Your father and I will expect you no later than six.” She left, not bothering to close the door on her way out.

  “She seems like a nice lady,” Doug said.

  “Are you sure I’m the only politician in the room?” He smiled and Mimi motioned for him to take a chair. “So, what’s up?”

  “I was wondering if you’d had a chance to look through the festival papers.”

  “Not yet,” Mimi admitted.

  “Then let me save you the trouble. The festival’s broke,” Doug said.

  “Broke? As in, there’s something that needs to be fixed? Or broke as in there’s no money?”

  “Broke as in, no money. According to what I could piece together, Bruce overspent on advertising last year. And for some reason, a lot of people left the festival early. Based on the previous years’ revenues, it’s the late evening crowd that spends the most money on food and drinks.”

  “I’ll tell you why people left early,” Mimi said. “Bruce promised us that Billy Brenton was coming to put on a concert. He did everything but put up a billboard along the highway.”

  “Billy Brenton? Isn’t he some big country music star?”

  “Yep. At the time, we all thought it was too good to be true. Which, of course, it was because Billy never showed. The festival organizers had to substitute Harry Polka and his tuba band at the last minute.”

  “Harry Polka?”

  “Yeah. The name pretty well sums it up.”

  “I wish I could help you with this festival,” Doug said, “But I have my hands full with getting out the new budget.”

  “Oh, no worries. This is what I signed up for when I ran for mayor.”

  He looked as if he was about to leave, when he said, “I was thinking, maybe we could get that cup of coffee today after work?”

  “I’d like that, but I’m pretty sure I just promised my mother I’d chain myself to her rack.”

  He laughed. Mimi had to admit, she liked the way the skin around his eyes crinkled up at the edges. It had been a long time since she’d noticed another man in that way. For an instant, she felt a little guilty. But it wasn’t as if she was going to do anything about that attraction. It was just nice to know that she wasn’t completely dead when it came to noticing the opposite sex.

  He stood and placed his hands on her desk, leaning in just enough to claim some of her personal space. “This is the second time I’ve asked you for coffee and you’ve turned me down. One more time and I just might get my feelings hurt.” His voice carried an unmistakable hint of flirtation. Or maybe he was just a naturally friendly guy. It had been so long sin
ce Mimi had found herself in this type of situation it was difficult to tell which was which.

  “I didn’t turn you down. I just had something else to do. But I promise, next time you ask me for coffee I’ll make time.”

  He grinned. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  Yikes. That was definitely flirty. But as long as she didn’t reciprocate, then everything should be okay.

  She waited till he left her office to study the mound of paperwork on her desk. She should probably just toss all the personal messages. There was really no need to find out who was on “Team Mimi.” But if she threw out all the messages, then she might miss something important.

  She quickly read through the slips of paper, dumping most of them into her trash. There was an “urgent” message from the manager of The Harbor House, a local upscale seafood restaurant, demanding to know how long the construction on the lot next door to them would continue, and another one from the principal of Whispering Bay Elementary, asking her to come speak at their next teacher’s meeting. Other than that, there was nothing else that required a response.

  She finished prioritizing the messages, made some phone calls, then reluctantly opened up the Spring Into Summer festival folder. It didn’t take an MBA to figure out Doug hadn’t been yanking her chain. Bruce had left her with the mother of all messes. He was probably at this very moment sitting at his office at the bank, gleefully chortling how he’d dumped all his mistakes right into her willing lap.

  Mimi rubbed her aching temples. No one forced her to run for mayor. She’d asked for this. And somehow she’d find a way to fix it.

  Normally, Thursday night Bunco was the highlight of Mimi’s week. It was a chance to unwind and forget about the demands of everyday life. This week’s hostess was Shea Masterson, creator of the famous super-secret margarita.

  Shea, along with Pilar and Kitty Pappas were the group’s founders. There were twelve women total and no one missed Bunco unless absolutely necessary. Mimi, however, had been dreading tonight ever since word of The Separation hit town. She thought about faking a cold. Or a rash. Or possibly even a fever. But if by some slim chance she were to get away with it, it would only postpose the inevitable until next week. She couldn’t avoid her friends forever. Nor did she really want to.

  She expected the Babes to pounce on her the second she walked through Shea’s door, demanding to know what was going on with her marriage. Strangely enough, though, no one brought it up. Maybe, for once, the Babes were going to respect her privacy and let Mimi talk about it when she was ready.

  It had been hard enough to face her parents the other evening. Despite his obvious confusion over the separation, Daddy had been a sport about it. Momma, on the other hand, was the one who was acting strangely. All these years she’d done nothing but harp on Zeke. But now? She acted like Zeke was the son-in-law she’d always dreamed of. That was Momma for you. Just when Mimi thought she’d figured her out, she realized she didn’t have her figured out at all.

  After a while, Mimi began to relax and enjoy the night. The women talked about their kids and their jobs. Everyone was excited about Lauren’s latest addition to Baby Got Bump—a new line of retro-toddler wear. Frida announced she and her husband Ed were taking a month long vacation in Europe, and everyone squealed as Kitty passed around pictures of her ten-month-old baby daughter Amanda.

  They were about to begin round two of play. Mimi was on her second margarita when Shea rang the Bunco bell (the signal that another game was about to start). But instead of announcing the game, Shea smoothed down her long red hair and squared back her shoulders, like she was ready to do battle. “Okay, now that we’ve all had a chance to warm up, let’s hear what’s new with Mimi.”

  Eleven pairs of eyes turned to look at her.

  Mimi stifled a moan. She should have known the first part of the evening had just been an appetizer before tonight’s main course—Mimi ala Flambé.

  “Um, well, let’s see,” Mimi said. “I had my first city council meeting, that’s what new.”

  “And she was a champ, all right,” Pilar told the rest of the group. “Bruce Bailey was a dick, as usual, but Mimi put him right in his place.”

  An appreciative murmur rumbled through the room.

  “Is that when Zeke announced to the city council that the two of you are separated?” Shea asked mildly.

  Mimi glanced at Pilar, who shrugged her shoulders as if to apologize. Not that Pilar had anything to be sorry about. The Babes were right. They should have heard about Mimi’s upcoming divorce through Mimi herself. Not Pilar. And certainly not through the Whispering Bay grapevine.

  “Before anyone says anything, I’m sorry I didn’t tell everyone here first. But we hadn’t even told the kids or any family yet, so…” Her voice trailed off, cracking slightly. She’d only cried once since she’d asked Zeke to leave. But only because she’d had to hold it together. But she didn’t have to hold it together now. No one here was going to judge her.

  They swarmed her with murmurs of sympathy and hugs and lots of “I’m sorry’s.” And although it didn’t fix the overall situation, it did help. Plus, a couple more margaritas didn’t hurt, either.

  “What happened?” Kitty asked. “I always thought you and Zeke were the perfect couple.”

  “There’s no such thing as perfect,” Mimi said, swiping away a tear. Hopefully, that cryptic statement would satisfy them.

  “But, there’s got to be a reason,” Kitty said.

  “Can I just say it’s private, and leave it at that?”

  Of course, she couldn’t. The questions kept coming. So she decided to play the Diversion Card. They were all on their third (or was it fourth?) round of margaritas. Maybe it would work. “The Spring Into Summer festival is practically in bankruptcy,” she blurted.

  “What?” Pilar’s voice carried the loudest over a chorus of shocked exclamations.

  “Yep. Bruce basically spent most of the discretionary budget last year advertising Billy Brenton as the main headliner for the festival, and we all know what happened there.”

  “And now he expects you to clean up his mess?” Shea said. “Does the rest of the city council know about this?”

  “Doug Wentworth does. He’s the one who brought it to my attention.”

  “He’s the new city manager, right?” Lauren asked.

  “Yep,” Pilar answered. “Nice guy. Kind of cute, too. He has a crush on Mimi.”

  Mimi felt her face go hot. “He does not!” Her voice sounded like Donald Duck. Maybe she shouldn’t have had that last margarita.

  “Does he know you’re married?” Frida demanded.

  “He knows we’re separated,” Mimi admitted carefully, trying not to slur her words. What in God’s name did Shea put in her margaritas that made them so potent?

  “He knows it because Zeke spilled the beans in front of everyone,” Pilar reminded them.

  “Speaking of which, why would he do that?” Kitty asked. “Zeke is always so…hush-hush about everything.”

  “Yep, he sure does like his secrets,” Mimi muttered.

  Lauren frowned. “What secrets?”

  “Nothing,” Mimi rushed to say. “So, what can I do to turn this year’s festival around? Because I need to do something. Otherwise, the Spring Into Summer festival is in jeopardy of being disbanded.”

  The entire room went still.

  “But…Whispering Bay has held a Spring Into Summer festival since forever,” Kitty said.

  “Almost fifty years to be exact,” Pilar added.

  Shea passed around another round of margaritas. “The festival can’t be in that much trouble, is it?”

  Mimi started to decline the drink, but what the hell. She was already going to have a monster hangover tomorrow. She might as well earn it. “Unfortunately, thanks to nearly a decade of mismanagement by Bruce, the answer to that is yes. Without a big turnaround the festival could be toast.”

  “Then you’ll just to have to do something big,�
� Kitty said. She went to take a sip of her drink, then froze as if something had just occurred to her. “Hey! Why can’t you get Billy Brenton to play at this year’s festival?”

  “Me? I wouldn’t even know how to approach him! Plus, we’re talking about four months from now. It’s impossible to get a big name act like Billy Brenton in just four months.”

  Pilar whipped out her smart phone and began typing. “According to his website, he’s going on tour this summer. And,” she added in an excited voice, “He’ll be doing a concert in Tallahassee the first Thursday in June, then he’s on to Pensacola.”

  “That’s perfect!” Frida squealed. “We’re smack dab in the middle of two of his concert venues.”

  “Oh, so he can just mosey on by and give us a little performance in between gigs?” Mimi said. She hiccupped. Then she hiccupped again. “Sure, why not? It’ll be a piece of cake.” She tried to snap her fingers, but for some reason they wouldn’t come together. Huh. That was weird.

  “Why not?” Shea demanded.

  “Number one, because I don’t think that’s how it works. And number three, can you imagine how expensive someone like Billy Brenton would be to book? The festival is broke. As in, we have no money kind of broke.”

  Kitty narrowed her eyes at Mimi. “What happened to reason number two?”

  “What reason number two?” Mimi asked, beginning to feel confused. All this talk of the festival and Billy Brenton was giving her an even bigger headache than she’d had yesterday.

  “Just imagine what a triumph it would be for you,” Pilar said to Mimi. “Bruce promises Billy Brenton, only you’re the one who delivers him!”

  The Babes all began talking at once. More margaritas were passed around and Bunco was abandoned. The last thing Mimi remembered was Pilar’s voice telling her it was up to her to save the Spring Into Summer festival.

  *~*~*

  One of the advantages of being police chief was that it had been over two years since Zeke had last pulled a night tour. He’d been a cop for nearly seventeen years so he was no stranger to shift work, but it still sucked. One of his patrolmen had called in sick and instead of looking for a replacement, he’d covered the shift himself. After all, it wasn’t like he had a family or a home or even a comfortable bed to go to. He’d turned down the offer of Rusty’s cousin’s fishing cabin, but he was beginning to think he’d been too hasty. The couch in his office had springs and his lower back was beginning to feel like he’d been kicked by a mule.