Page 57 of Hearts of Fairlake

He grunted. “What, you don't want my charming personality around normal people?"

"No."

"Good."

I rolled my eyes as the chuckles rolled through the room. I don't know why everyone had to act like I didn't know what I was doing half the time. I knew these men and women like the back of my hand, which meant knowing their strengths and weaknesses. All of them were good officers, there was no denying that, but some were better served waiting to see if there was a problem rather than dealing with the public.

Anyone at ground zero would need at least to pretend to be personable, if not be genuinely a people person. That was where someone like Bennett came into play. I could slap himin a crowd, and the fool would have most of them eating out of his hand. Amazingly, the easy charisma and attention didn't go to his head, but it simply didn't seem to be a part of who Bennett was. I knew from experience that he could drop all his goofiness to ensure the safety and security of others. It also meant that if things went to hell in a handbasket, he'd know how to carry it back, forcefully if need be.

"Anything else?" I asked, gazing around to see if more hands went up, but none did. Which was good, considering I’d made sure they all knew what we were getting into long before we reached the night before the festival. Meetings had happened, emails had been sent, and I'd also talked to them. We all needed to do our part to keep things as smooth as possible, and I didn't want any confusion or miscommunications. "Good, then review the duty roster one more time tonight. And if you're on the overnight, look over it a few more times. Take pictures for later, I don't care, just follow it. And for the love of God, try not to pester me too much over the next couple of days. You're all grown-up professionals, don't come crying to me if you don't need to."

The hail of affirmation rose from the group before a scraping of chairs filled the air as they all prepared to go home or continue their shift. A glance toward the front of the building told me I couldn't slink back to my office, where I’d be drowning in more planning and paperwork.

"Great," I sighed as Fire Chief Borton approached. "Aaron, tell me this is a badly timed social call and not bringing me more shit."

He shook his head. “Keep your blood pressure down. I'm just here to say hi, not add to your woes."

"Yeah, because you coming over to bother me isn't going to add to my blood pressure," I said with a roll of my eyes. It wasn't true, mostly because, against all odds, I didn't have serious blood pressure issues. One would think having thejob I did and my handful of a partner, my ticker would be struggling, but no, I was apparently the picture of health for someone my age.

"Honestly, if I didn't already know Ethan, I'd worry for his self-esteem being with someone as charming and free with compliments as you," Aaron said with a roll of his eyes, dropping his butt down onto the desk closest to me. "Thankfully, I know he gives better than he gets, so I take comfort in that."

"Yes, yes, I know. I've grown so accustomed to having antagonistic pains in my ass that I finally went and got one to keep at home," I said with a sigh.

"And you love every minute of it."

"I'm sure you all keep telling yourselves that."

Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to have Ethan with me right now, but it was better that he was at home, where I desperately wanted to be. Having him around would distract me from reviewing everything to ensure I hadn't missed anything. For me, it was enough to know he was safe at home and that at the end of the weekend, I’d be able to spend more time with him.

"How're things going over here?" Aaron asked, watching as all but a couple of my officers filed out. Some would be out on patrol for the night, but most would go home to rest up for the comingdays. "Seems like you've got everyone in line."

"For the moment," I said with a shrug. "There's only so much I can plan for. Best thing I can do at this point is lay it all out for them and trust they're going to handle things."

"Are they?" Aaron asked, cocking his head.

"Are you questioning my ability to pick and lead my people?"

"Jesus, Trevor. Maybe you need to take another one of those two-week vacations. The kind where your man dragsyou off to some far-flung place where there aren't other people, and you get drunk and laid all the time."

Regret made me pull a face, and I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Sorry. the mayor has been up my ass constantly for the past week. I miss the days when someone had to hunt you down in person or leave a message on a landline. Having a cell means the nervous bastard can send me a flurry of texts at all hours of the day and night because he wants everything to go perfectly."

Aaron snorted, giving a little nod. "I told you to get a second phone for work. I can put that sucker on silent when I'm not on the clock, and he can wait. But I know what you mean. He's become such a prima donna as if it'sourfaulthedecided to have this big blowout festival instead of something more in line with how we've always handled town celebrations."

"At some point, I had Ethan type up premade responses because I kept getting the same goddamn questions and worries from Fred," I grumbled. "He might be a decent mayor, but right now? I'm seriously considering finding out if an emergency re-election can be held so I can get some peace and quiet. I don't even want to know what he's going to be like tomorrow."

"I already talked to Sarah. As the actual power behind the mayoral throne, she's going to keep him so busy he can't be up our asses while we're doing our jobs," Aaron said with a smirk.

I let out a sigh of relief at the news. If his part-time deputy mayor, part-time assistant was going to take care of things, that meant they would get done. Fred wasn't a bad mayor, but he didn't handle stress well. Which was why so much of his stress and worry had been dumped on Aaron and me to handle, along with others, like Adam, who’d been handling construction, as well as Grant and even Isaiah.

I grunted at the thought. “How's Isaiah handling the stress of Fred as well as his upcoming speech?"

Aaron shrugged. “I told Isaiah not to give Fred his number and let him go through me instead, so he's pretty safe unless Fred happens to see him. The kid has learned to stay out of sight when our illustrious mayor is around."

I thought about pointing out that the 'kid' was in his thirties, but it wasn't like I wasn't guilty of the same thing from time to time. Honestly, if it weren't for Ethan, I would have thought of them all as kids. But seeing as I was dating a man Isaiah's age, it made things a little too weird for my tastes to consider them kids.

"You think he knows you're taking the bullets for him?" I wondered.

Aaron shrugged. “Doesn't matter if he does or doesn't. Plus, making Fred work to get responses out of me is half the fun."

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