The Lying Season (Seasons #1) - K.A. Linde Page 0,66
most we’ve ever had for the Kensington campaign. We’ve done some amazing work today. And I don’t want to keep you all too long since the fireworks should be going off soon, but we have a special guest tonight—Mayor Kensington.”
There was a short pause, and then Leslie joined him. Sam and I shot surprised glances at each other. We’d had a lot of conference calls, but the mayor was so busy that she rarely was able to get on.
“Yes, thank you, Shawn. It’s a pleasure to be with you all tonight. And to be the one to announce that not only did we meet our voter registration goal, but we exceeded it by over five hundred registrations. That’s all thanks to you. Each of you being out there, working on your holiday to try to make the final push for the campaign. The primary is only a month away, and I’ve never been more confident with the team that we have in place.”
I grinned. She was such a natural. Shawn took over the rest of the call from the mayor. She was probably off to some party for the evening, but he stayed on to congratulate each of the boroughs on how many registrations they’d gotten and how good we’d all looked.
By the end of the call, the sky had darkened. Sam turned to face me in the last rays of the setting sun as yellow turned to blue and then to black. He tipped my chin up with his finger. He didn’t have to say a word. It was all conveyed in his eyes.
As his lips fell on mine, the first firework exploded off of the Brooklyn Bridge. And I knew I was falling head over heels for this man all over again.
26
Sam
“You drive a Tesla?” I asked with a shake of my head.
“Yeah, I own a fucking Tesla!” Gavin cried.
“You work for Dorset & King.”
“And?”
“It’s an oil company,” I reminded him, running a hand down the slick navy body of the car.
“Yeah. Just because my family owns an oil company doesn’t mean that I don’t care about the environment.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “That literally makes zero sense.”
Gavin just shrugged and popped open the driver’s side of the car. “Do you want a ride to the Hamptons or not, dude?”
“I’d like to drive to the Hamptons. This thing is beautiful.”
“Yeah. No can do,” he said with a laugh. He held his arm out wide. “Ladies, after you.”
Lark and Whitley left their suitcases by the trunk and then slipped into the backseat, giggling like schoolgirls. Gavin and I added their two suitcases and our two duffel bags to the trunk. I still had no clue why they needed that much stuff for just a few days at the beach. But I was smart enough not to ask.
Soon enough, we were zipping down the highway out of Manhattan and off to the Hamptons. The weather was perfect on Friday morning, and luckily, we were beating most of the traffic out of the city. It seemed most tourists were staying through the holiday weekend, which made sense. I was just glad to escape it for a weekend even if my parents had been disappointed that I wasn’t coming home. Especially since Jake’s birthday was Saturday. Not that I particularly wanted to see my brother.
“So, I’m surprised your girlfriend isn’t here with you,” I told Gavin.
He sputtered. “What?”
Whitley cackled from the back. “Don’t you know? Gavin King doesn’t have girlfriends.”
Gavin shot her a look in the rearview mirror. “Whatever. Charlie and I just aren’t serious.”
“Have you ever been serious with anyone?” she asked.
“I like to play the field. You should know all about that. Didn’t you and Keri just break up?”
Whitley shrugged. “We made it, like, six weeks. That’s pretty good.”
“I didn’t know that you and Keri broke up,” Lark said. “Admittedly, I have been a little invested in my own relationship.”
“Hey, get all that D while you can,” Whitley said.
Lark just shook her head. “Sure.”
“And yeah, Keri was nice, but I think she wanted us to put a label on it. Make it official. And she wasn’t the one. If I already know that, then what’s the point of wasting my time? When the person is the one, then I’ll know.”
“Will you?” Lark asked. Her eyes flittered up to mine, and she smiled.
“Yeah. Of course I will.”
Gavin shrugged. “I’ll have no fucking clue. If you’re supposed to know, then I think I’m fucked.”