Page 23 of Rival Hearts

“And some of those voters probably think I had something to do with what happened. Just because people don’t say anything to my face doesn’t mean they haven’t thought it or talked about it.”

“Anyone who knows you doesn’t think anything of the sort, but everyone believes Grady is the town savior. We need to humanize him.”

“I can’t use Trent like that.”

“So, you’re saying you think Trent and Grady becoming closer is a bad thing?”

“Emily.”

“I’m only asking.” Emily held up her hands. “Strategy, Maggie. Do you want to win? ’Cause right now, you’re losing.”

“Elections favor the long game. Even if I was okay with using Trent, which I’m not, but if I was, it’s too early to use him.” My jaw felt tight with annoyance.

Calling in Trent was good strategy, but it made me a shitty friend. Trent and I had never been what people believed—even my family didn’t know all the details of what happened between me, Trent, and Grady—but what had come out of our situation had made Trent and me loyal to each other in a way I had with few people. “If I ask Trent to come here, I tell him the truth about why I need him.”

Emily looked at me for a long moment before bracing her hands on the arms of the chair. “What if he tells Grady? Wouldn’t his loyalty lie with Grady?”

I eased into my chair. “I doubt it.” I met Emily’s eyes. “They’ve hardly spoken since Trent got out of jail.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure Trent knows.”

“What do you think?”

“The only thing that makes sense to me is Grady’s ashamed of his brother.”

Emily seemed to mull over my answer and pursed her lips. “Being honest with Trent is risky. But the two of you have always had a relationship none of us understood. So, as your campaign manager, I’ll defer to you. But you need to come up withsomething to sway people back in your direction. Donate some money. Push through an initiative people have been begging to get. Start a GoFundMe for all the businesses and houses suffering from water damage and don’t have enough insurance. Something. And yell it from the rooftops, okay?”

I didn’t look at Emily but gave her a half-hearted thumbs-up. “Got it.” With a sigh, I said, “I know the drill. We change the narrative.”

“You bet.” Emily held up her hands. “When people are focused over here”—she waggled her left hand—“you say, ‘oh, look, shiny thing’ andbam. New narrative.”

“Sometimes I think you should be the one sitting here.”

“No way.” Emily rose and headed for the door. “I hate getting my hair wet. You look like a drowned rat in those photos.”

I followed Emily to the door. “Gee, thanks.”

“Hey, if your sister can’t be honest with you, who can?” Emily grabbed the door handle and then turned back. “On that note.” She took a deep breath. “You need to mute that sexual chemistry with Grady.”

“What?” I reared back.

“It jumps off the page. Jumps out everywhere. People are talking.” She pushed the door tight. “It’s the sad truth of politics, of any job, and I know you know. Men can look at women like he looked at you in those photos and they’re better off. Doesn’t work that way for us.”

Although I wasn’t admitting it to Emily, I’d said something similar to Lila already.

“Shut it down.”

“I know.” And I did. But I also knew if Trent was Grady’s kryptonite, then Grady was mine. Try as I might, the connection I felt to him was magnetic. I’d hoped time and distance would have weakened it. As we’d passed sandbags back and forth the other day, I’d been faced with the hard truth.

I might not like Grady, but the idea of sleeping with him wasn’t nearly as repulsive as it should be. “I won’t let anything get out of control.”

Chapter Ten

Grady

My dogs wrestled in the middle of the train station, their leashes tangling and then releasing when I took a step in their direction. Joseph Goldtooth, the contractor I’d hired, was busy measuring the rooms. The station had been built up and torn down several times, depending on who bought it. Like many of the run-down buildings in Little Falls, I bought this for a song—or rather, the price of one, quite literally.

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