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There were fourBay City Council, and as the iven a spot The idea behind that had been to foster continuity Bruce, however, was a sore loser He’d love nothing aret Grant, a PTA houseith no previous political experience, fall flat on her ass

Mi Bay who’d love to see her fail Not that she didn’t have lots of supporters Over half the town had voted for her It was the biggest election turnout in Whispering Bay’s history and she was proud to be the inspiration behind it But she was also the town’s first feender proud

Besides Bruce, the other council members consisted of Gus Pappas, a local plu Bay’s senior citizen activist group, the Gray Flaos Gus was a sweetheart and just like Mi time member of the council and a crony of Bruce’s) and Denise Holbert made up the other two spots

Mi on her black linen skirt For most of her adult life she’d worn the typical mom uniform—jeans, T-shirts, and an occasional sweatshirt when the north Florida weather got cold enough Skirts and heels were saved for special occasions Although the mayoral position was only part-ti Bay she was expected to be on twenty-four/seven Skirts, heels (and Spanx) were now her daily look and she needed to get used to it

She nervously jiggled one high heeled foot in the air as she listened to Larry Jefferson read the et was in shambles Which wasn’t her fault Technically, it wasn’t Bruce’s fault, either The mayor wasn’t directly involved in fiscal er But it was the er and the rest of the council to keep the budget in check Paul Aer for the past twelve years had resigned before the previous council had been forced to fire hiustine area had been hired to clean things up

Mi Wentworth (said hot shot), staring at her Or rather, staring at her legs At least, she thought that hat he was doing The last person to study her legs this intently was Doc Morrison She and the kids had been hiking in the St Joseph National Park a few o and she’d come aith a bad case of poison ivy, the worst part below her knees So of course Doc had checked her out But what excuse did Doug have?

Did she have a run in her hose?

Then she re hose It was early February, but north Florida was having a not-unheard-of warrees today and half the toas in shorts Maybe Doug found her foot jiggling a distraction

She i

Doug caught her gaze and so warht with short brown hair and hazel eyes Nice eyes, if Mi honest She didn’t know inally fronation Supposedly, he’d cleaned up a similar fiscal ustine on Florida’s east coast

Doug passed around copies of a thin bound notebook to the table’s occupants Besides Bruce and the other threeBay’s attorney (and Miood friend and fellow Bunco Babe) was also present

Bruce picked up his notebook and frowned “What is this?”

Mies “It appears to be a city budget”

“Well, I can see that” Bruce scanned the notebook then carelessly flung it back onto the table “You’ve been here all of a week,” he said to Doug, “How on earth could you have put together a budget in that amount of time? You don’t even knohat our priorities are yet”

In his non- Bay Community Bank, as well as current president of the Rotary Club He was in his late forties and married to Bettina Bailey, PTA mother extraordinaire Over the years, Mimi had had several run-ins with Bettina, mostly over how to spend the proceeds from the annual elementary school bake sale The fact that Mimi was now in a position to spar with Bruce over a o damp