Then He Kissed Me (Whispering Bay Romance 2)

Boy, had she ever.

“I realize I haven’t been here long,” Doug said smoothly, “but if you look at those numbers a little closer, you’ll see I?

??ve done my homework.” He paused to take a drink of water, which was cue for everyone at the table to open their notebooks again and begin perusing.

Mimi had to hand it to Doug, he didn’t seem intimidated by Bruce, which scored him some major brownie points in her book.

“As I said before, I haven’t been in Whispering Bay long, but I come from a situation very similar to the one you have here. Five years ago, I was hired as the city manager for Old Explorers’ Bay, a town almost identical to your demographics. A population of about ten thousand with a heavy residential tax base. No real industry to speak of, except some minor tourism. But I was able to turn things around within two years. And leave them with a substantial bank account.” He eyed each member of the table. “I plan to do exactly the same thing here.”

Pilar leaned over to whisper in Mimi’s ear. “I like this guy’s confidence.”

“We’ll see,” she whispered back. She liked Doug’s confidence, too. But actions spoke louder than words. And results spoke the loudest of all.

The other members of the city council began talking at once. Doug sat down and caught her gaze again, holding it even longer this time. What? She’d had a spinach salad for lunch. Oh, God. Did she have spinach between her teeth? That must be it.

“Maybe this is a good time to take a break,” Mimi suggested.

Pilar immediately stood. “Good idea. Let’s take a break.”

The rest of the table reluctantly murmured in agreement.

Mimi hit the bathroom with Pilar on her heels. She checked herself out in the bathroom mirror. No spinach in her teeth. Nothing else out of the ordinary, either.

“Do you think my skirt is too short?” she asked Pilar. “Or maybe there’s something wrong with my legs? I should have worn panty-hose, right? I’m thirty-five years old. I need to wear panty-hose.”

Pilar smoothed back her chin length dark hair, touched up her lipstick, then turned to give Mimi a thorough inspection. “You look great. What makes you think you need to wear panty hose?”

“Nothing.”

“By nothing, do you mean have I noticed that Doug keeps checking you out? He’s about as subtle as a kid in the third grade. Next, he’ll try to pull your hair. Speaking of which…your hair looks different. What did you do to it?”

“I colored out the gray.”

Pilar rolled her eyes. “What gray? You and Claire could be sisters,” she said, referring to Mimi’s seventeen-year-old daughter.

“Ha! I wish. And the gray was there, believe me.”

“Well, your hair looks great. Just like the rest of you.” Pilar lifted Mimi’s hands and smiled in approval. “Look at that. You even got a manicure!” The smile quickly vanished. “Where’s your wedding ring?”

Mimi automatically rubbed her left thumb up against her ring finger. After nearly eighteen years of marriage it felt strange not wearing her ring. “I took it off this morning.”

Pilar’s face fell. “Oh, babe. I know you and Zeke are having problems, but please tell me you’re having it cleaned or resized or something.”

“I took it off this morning to do dishes and forgot to put it back on.” Pilar looked like she didn’t believe her. “No, really, I was just so nervous about this meeting I would have forgotten my head if it wasn’t attached.” Mimi swallowed hard. She’d never been a good liar, and Pilar was too shrewd for her own good. “It’s the truth,” Mimi said, avoiding Pilar’s beady eyed-stare. “But…you’re right about Zeke and me. We’re still having problems. We’re kind of in a time out.”

“A time out? From what?” Pilar demanded.

“From our marriage.”

“Does Zeke know that? Because I saw him at The Bistro this morning and we had an entire conversation about couples Bunco.”

Mimi and Pilar belonged to Whispering Bay’s oldest established Bunco group, affectionately known around town as the Bunco Babes. Every Thursday night the group rolled dice, drank frozen margaritas, and gossiped. It was the best girls’ night out in town. The group consisted of twelve members, all fierce and loyal friends. Once a year every April they allowed their significant others to join them. The men liked to pretend that they had to be dragged along, but it was all an act. The truth was, everyone looked forward to couples Bunco. Even Zeke, the original grumpy cat.

“Believe me, Zeke knows we’re taking a time out. He’s sleeping at the office.” At least, she assumed he was sleeping at the office. She hadn’t asked and he hadn’t offered up the information.

“But this is temporary, right? I mean, you guys are going to work it all out.”

That’s exactly what Mimi had thought when they’d first gone to counseling. But that had been a year-and-a-half ago and nothing had changed.