Page 171 of Story of My Life
“Can’t wait to give whatever you’re working on here a listen. If you need me to voice my own character, I’m happy to step up to the microphone.”
I immediately imagined a fictional grizzled Gator sauntering toward my unwitting heroine, wiping grease on his coveralls.“Need me to lube up your jalopy?”
“I’ll keep you in mind,” I said, trying to dislodge the image from my brain.
Fortunately, the arrival of Campbell Bishop provided just the right kind of distraction. He was in jeans and an open button-down layered over a tight T-shirt. The black eye gave him a rakish, bad-boy look that I found unsettlingly attractive. The moody set of his jaw under the ever-present stubble said he’d rather be anywhere but here.
Until he spotted me.
Even my self-deprecating lack of confidence couldn’t ignore the gleam in his eyes.
I turned my back on him. My body might have been ready to let Cam get his hands on me again, but my brain was thankfully holding out. “So, Gator, I’ve always wondered how you can tow a car when it’s in park,” I said, focusing all my attention on his detailed and long-winded explanation.
I felt the weight of Cam’s gaze on me, but he didn’t approach. When I made it to the front of the moonshine line, I hazarded a glance over my shoulder and saw he’d been cornered by amateur journalist Garland.
“Hey! There’s my favorite novelist,” Darius greeted. “Ready for the meeting?”
I leaned over the makeshift bar. “How are you so chipper? You’re about to tell an entire town that we might be months away from shit-strewn streets and bankruptcy.”
“With a creative person like you on the council, I believe we’ll find a solution. If there’s one thing Story Lake knows how to do, it’s survive,” he said with enviable confidence.
I was not so confident. “Yeah. About that. Has anyone ever been booed out of a council meeting before?” I asked as I traded him money for moonshine.
“Oh, sure. But it only happens a couple times a year,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said dryly.
“I do have some good news,” he said. “I sold a house today and leased one of the empty storefronts on Main Street, and I have you to thank for it.”
Uh-oh. What had I done now? “Really? How?”
“It’s a couple from Connecticut who own a coffee shop. They got pushed out of the strip mall they were in with rent and tax hikes. The wife is a reader of yours. She’s been following your newsletter and social media. She and her husband drove down, fell in love with Story Lake, and made a cash offer on the spot.”
Great. Now I was luring readers to a town that was on the brink of ruin.
“That’s…great,” I said, feigning excitement. I was digging through my wallet for more moonshine money when Zoey arrived out of breath and flushed.
She grabbed the moonshine out of my hand and downed it. “Okay. Lacresha has the slide deck all cued up. You’re going to kill this.”
“In a good way or a bad way?” I felt vomity again.
“Time to get started,” Darius said, closing the cashbox. He ushered me toward the stage as I looked longingly over my shoulder at the moonshine.
By the time I got to the stage, the only spot left was the one between Emilie and Cam. I wasn’t sure which one I was less excited about. I slunk into the chair like it was the middle seat on a plane. Cam’s knee brushed mine under the table. The electric jolt of physical contact startled me, and I flailed away from him, catching Emilie’s forty-ounce cup of Sports Aide with my elbow.
I watched in slow-motion horror as the cup toppled, sending a lime-green tsunami gushing toward the front row occupied by Emilie’s little band of acolytes.
There was a collective gasp as the liquid made contact, taking out threeVote for Rumpshirts. The irate squeals from the victims were quickly drowned out by laughter.
Cam snickered next to me. His knee stalwartly reasserted its dominance against my own.
“I’m so, so sorry,” I called after them as the women sloshed and squelched their way toward the restroom.
“You’ll pay for that,” Emilie hissed at me into her microphone.
“I have no doubt.”
“Let’s keep the threats to a minimum. We’ve got a lot of big things on the agenda tonight,” Darius said to the room. He pointed at the Story Lake Warblers, who were gathered off to the side. The group harmonized a long hum. The room slowly quieted, until I was certain everyone present could hear the thud of my heart as it tried to escape my chest.
