Page 108 of All Your Fault

Reese snorted with laughter, quickly covering her mouth.

“You really did that,” I said to Will, flushing.

Charles laughed heartily. “This is mine,” he said, introducing the super-cool older woman as Sal.

“Hi,” she said, winking at me. Somehow I felt starstruck.

“Those two are couple goals,” Reese whispered as she lay our menus on the table.

“Seriously,” I said as she slipped away.

“So,” Charles said as we sat down. I angled myself sideways for a moment so as not to have my back to them. “Are the rumors true?”

His eyes were on Will.

“Which ones,” Will asked, hedging.

Charles leaned in. “Fred’s retirement. I heard it wasn’t voluntary.”

Will put his hands up. “No comment.”

“Well you know, I’ve always said I’d never back any candidate in a mayoral race—I like to keep business and politics separate, though of course, Sal says that’s impossible.

Behind him, Sal murmured “mm-hmm” and took a sip of wine.

“But say if a real community-oriented player decided to run whenever the election’s called well, I might just change my tune.”

Charles was a big player across Jewel Lakes, I knew. Will had even told me he’d tried buying the Rolling Hills resort up in Vermont, though he hadn’t been able to secure the sale. His endorsement would be huge.

Not that Will had made any decisions around that—he was still working as town manager, holding the whole city together while Council floundered on making decisions about legal action. He’d told me they were still reeling, two months later, from the news of Fred’s underhanded dealings.

“Isn’t Will supposed to remain a neutral party, as an employee of the town?” I said.

“Right you are,” Charles said. “Let’s just say I’m telling you, for future reference. In case you know anyone.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You need to let these two get to their romantic meal,” Sal said.

Charles grinned. “Right, I’ll leave you to it.” He was about to turn when he perked up and said, “Oh, Will, you were right about this place.”

“Oh yeah?” he said, with a quick glance at me.

Charles lowered his voice. “This place looks good on the outside, but it’s falling apart. The books are a mess. I put in an inquiry with the owner’s wife, and it looks like they’d be willing to sell—quick, too.”

“Would you be looking at redevelopment?” Will asked.

“I quite like this place as a restaurant, don’t you?”

“Yes,” I said, though he wasn’t talking to me. “It’s the property’s best use, and the community needs a higher-end place for those special occasions, and to snag the New York tourist crowd. If it were better managed.”

“You know about restaurants, do you?”

A twinge of embarrassment hit me for speaking up, but I nodded. “I worked in them for years.”

“She’s also the person behind Bella Eats,” Will piped up.

Sal, who’d been sipping at her wine, lowered it to the table. “I adore that blog! I’ve been following it for years. I was so sad to see you were ending it.”

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