Page 24 of The Mayor and the Mystery Man

“If I go off course, give me a sign,” I whispered back.

“I’ll tap on your foot.”

“And I’ll squeeze your thigh.”

He leaned in close and pressed his nose to my head, obviously for Maria’s sake, but his warmth and fresh scent sent a fuzzy spark through me.

“You’re not using a shampoo that was in the bathroom.” He growled into my ear. He was clean-shaven with that million-dollar smile, and not a piece of him was out of place.

“I brought my own. It’s an organic coconut shampoo from this shop on Venice Beach.”

I listened to Leo inhale the scent into his lungs, watched his chest puff up with air.

“You smell like the beach.” His whispered growl was doing something funny to my stomach.

“Is that a good thing?”

“Oh, yeah.”

I placed my hand back on his heavenly thigh. We were ready to roll. How could anyone think we weren’t a real couple? Even I was getting a little confused.

Maria tapped the recording app on her phone. The red record light glowed on screen. Every word I said was going to be recorded or written in her notepad. No pressure.

“Dusty, how does it feel to be thrust into a campaign?”

The word thrust made me think of Leo (don’t ask me why!), and I lost my answer. “Uh, I’m game. Yeah, I want to support Leo. He’s an incredible mayor. He cares so deeply about every aspect of Stillwater, from the people to the parks.”

“Stillwater?” Maria quirked an eyebrow.

“What?”

Leo tapped my foot. His grin tightened.

“Babe, you mean Sourwood.”

“I do!” Two seconds into the interview, and I was one of those rockets that imploded on the launching pad. “I was thinking that I still need to water my plants, and my brain got...confused.”

Maria jotted a note in her pad. What commentary did she need to write down that her phone wasn’t capturing? The blood rushed from my face. Leo was probably at Defcon Five.

“What have you planted?” she asked.

I smiled weakly. “Y’know…plants.”

“I’m surprised your plants are thriving since it’s October.” Maria leaned forward.

Her phone stared me down. My brain was spiraling.

“We planted a little basil,” Leo said, completely at ease. “A little pot of it in the kitchen. We use it to season our foods. Dusty’s from California, and you know how crazed they are about natural foods.” Leo threw his head back and laughed, but I recognized that laugh. It was fake and filled with terror. “I picked up seeds from the free seed library at the Sourwood Library.”

“The library has seeds?” Maria asked, taking the words out of my mouth.

“They do. The library has lots of great resources for Sourwood residents.” Leo slipped into his infomercial, campaign trail voice. I squeezed his leg, hoping to steer him away from talking points. All that did was make him jump and hit the table.

“Are you okay?” Maria asked.

“Fine,” he squeezed out. “I remember when Lucy tried to grow cantaloupe in our backyard. Sadly, the animals got to it before we did.”

The three of us enjoyed a laugh, though my laugh was more of my throat forcing out air in a ha sound as if I was an alien mimicking human behavior.

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