The Christmas Pundit (Laurel Holidays #2) - V.L. Locey Page 0,25

jade eyes before. Usually, that look would be followed with a shove, a swirly, a wedgie, or a mouthful of dirt or sand from the sandbox.

I shook off the images of bygone days. I was a man grown now, mayor of this city, and just as big as Gideon. Nearly as big. Sort of. I knew how to box. And orate. It was time to put those silly grudges and childhood grievances behind us. As soon as I could pull him aside, I would ask him to borrow a book. Dad had great faith in that plan. Mom was on the fence she had said. Which was where she would stay until she was needed to swoop down and protect her only chick if need be. Just like an irate swallow defending its nest.

“Are we ready?” Pastor Nichols enquired. I nodded and gave the table the six of us, three city controllers, Mara taking notes, our smiling man of God, and myself were seated at. As mayor, I got to bang the gavel and call the meeting to order. I gave a sharp couple of raps, gavel to wooden base, and the townspeople quieted.

“Good evening, everyone, we’ll open this monthly town hall meeting with a prayer, and then we’ll get into strategic plans for the town then follow that up with a presentation of initiatives linked to our basic strategy. After the presentation, we’ll open the floor for thoughts, comments, and questions from you to your elected officials. Pastor Nichols, if you’d please?”

Our bearded, hipster pastor did his thing, and we got right into business. We zipped through the minutes of the last meeting, sailed through the strategic plans, and zoomed through the PowerPoint presentation that Aubrey and I had set up earlier today. Okay, fine, Aubrey had done most of the work, muttering under his breath about my love for PowerPoint when there was much better presentation software out there. Maybe, but I like PowerPoint. I’d grown up using it, and we were old buddies. I pretended not to notice how I sounded more like my father the closer I crept toward forty.

Then it was time to listen to the people. I shot my aide a look as he lingered along the sidelines, ready to hand me papers or toss me info if someone asked something that I needed numbers for. So far everything had been smooth as silk. That probably should have been my first clue that something evil this way was coming. The three city controllers, Larry Barnes, Evelyn Craig, and Leon Zimmerman, had been incredibly subdued. Usually, they fired up as soon as the word “budget” fell out of my mouth, but tonight they’d nodded along in silence.

The evil thing stood up and walked to the podium that faced our table. Gideon smiled that charming smile of his, and then his sight bored into me.

“Thank you for allowing us this time to voice our concerns, Mayor Griffiths and our esteemed city controllers. And thank you, Pastor Nichols, for reminding us that this is a God-fearing country we live in.”

“Oh my,” Pastor Nichols whispered at my left. I concurred.

“Did you have a question, Mr. Pierce?” I asked politely.

“I do, yes. Several actually, so I hope I can be afforded time to touch on my queries and get the answers that I, and I think the whole town, seek.” He looked over both shoulders then his gaze flew back to me.

“Each person has three to five minutes at the microphone so that everyone has a chance to speak. So, if you could narrow your questions down to the most important one on your list?”

I smiled. He smiled back. Such a sinful smile. Full of smoky sensual promises, sweaty flesh, grunts and groans and—

“Of course. I’ll whittle it down to one then. Mr. Mayor, is it true that your aide was contacting various banks in the area to secure a loan for the upcoming Christmas Carnival expansion when our county is already teetering on the edge of fiscal ruination?”

Mother humping flea-ridden monkey balls.

A rumble of unrest rolled through the gathering. “Yes, Mr. Mayor, we’d all like to hear about this loan you’re planning to secure. Will our taxes go up in the spring?!” Larry Barnes asked, finally opening his mouth. And it was right then that I knew, or strongly suspected, that Gideon and Larry had arranged this little attack.

I threw Aubrey a look. He was too incensed to do anything but toss up his hands.

I rapped the gavel