That Man of Mine (6 page)

Zeke sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. Mimi knew that stance. It was the universal impossible male gesture he had probably perfected by the age of three. Translation: It was his way or the highway. In this case, however, Mimi had to agree with him.

“Zeke and I put aside some of the money your grandmother left us specifically for this occasion,” Mimi explained.

“But that money should go to Claire or Cameron's education fund,” Allie protested.

“Already taken care of,” Zeke said.

“How? No offense, but you're a small town cop and Mimi is a stay-at-home mom. Well, she used to be, but as the editor of the Whispering Bay Gazette I happen to know the mayor's salary is more of an honorarium. It will barely keep Mimi in pantyhose.”

“How, is none of your business, squirt,” Zeke said playfully.

Mimi felt a pang of nostalgia. Zeke hadn't called Allie squirt since she was in high school. She knew from experience that their back and forth sibling banter, while somewhat charming, was going nowhere. But Mimi couldn't deny how much Zeke loved his sister.

“Allie, Zeke and I would be honored to pay for your wedding. I know you're my sister-in-law and I'm only four years older, but in a lot of ways I feel like a second mom to you.
Please
, let us do this. It will make us happy. I promise.”

Zeke briefly caught Mimi's eye before adding, “The money you and Tom were going to use for the wedding could be put into a down payment for a house.” Tom currently rented a house near the gulf. It was cute, but Mimi knew Zeke put a lot of stock into owning over renting.

Allie blew out a frustrated breath. “All right. Let me talk to Tom. I'm sure we can work something out.” Her voice suddenly turned pensive. “There's just one more detail I need to get set today.” She smiled at Mimi. “Will you be my maid of honor? Or rather, matron of honor?”

Mimi leaned across the table to give Allie a tight hug. “Of course! I thought you'd never ask.”

Frida brought them their lunch. Zeke took his in a takeout bag and stood to leave. “Now that we've settled that, I need to get back to work.” His gaze rested on Mimi. “Cameron messaged me that you're going to the shelter to pick out a dog this Saturday.”

Allie perked up. “You're getting a dog? What kind?”

“A little one,” Mimi said. “One that doesn't shed and is already house-broken.”

“We'll see,” Zeke said. “The important thing is that he make a good watch dog.”

He?
“Sure, right. A good watch dog.” Mimi expected him to take off, but he lingered, as if anticipating something more. Then she realized he was waiting for her to formally ask him to join them. “Want to come along? I thought Saturday would be a good day. You're off work and…the kids are home from school so we can dedicate the entire day to easing
her
into our routine at home. I mean, if you want to go, that is.”

“The shelter opens up at nine. I'll meet you at a quarter till in the parking lot.”

How weird was it that she was making a “date” to meet her husband?

Zeke's police radio went off, causing several heads to turn their way. He looked at the radio, then clicked a few buttons. “Got to go. Cindy needs me back at the station.”

At the mention of Cindy's name, the occupants at the next table blatantly turned to stare. It was Louise Brinkley and her daughter-in-law, Caitlin. Louise was a member of the Gray Flamingos and Caitlin's daughter Becky went to school with Cameron.

Great
. Two of Whispering Bay's biggest nosey bodies. This would certainly add fuel to the Cindy rumors. But there was nothing she could do about that. Eventually, the whole
Mimi and Zeke are separated
story would run its course and Whispering Bay would find something else to gossip about. She just had to ride it out till then. Mimi smiled sweetly and waved at them. Both women looked taken aback, but waved in return.

Zeke picked up his bagged lunch and was about to leave when something at the table caught his attention. Mimi followed his gaze all the way to her left hand.

“You're wearing your ring,” he blurted.

“And?”

“And you weren't wearing it yesterday.”

“Because I was washing dishes and I took it off and forgot to put it back on. I've been known to do that on occasion.”

He blinked. “You
forgot
to put on your wedding ring?”

She could practically see the cogs in his head turning now. From Zeke's point of view it did seem awfully…unlike her. Had she subconsciously not worn her ring on purpose in the hope that Zeke would find out? She'd wanted Zeke to get upset. To fight for their marriage. Well, she'd gotten her wish. About the upset part, that is. Last night, she'd blamed Zeke for letting their separation out of the bag, but it looked as if Mimi might have to share some of the blame for that after all.

T
he mayor of Whispering
Bay's office was inside the town's small (but charmingly quaint) municipal building. Located on the gulf, it was painted light yellow and had a terra cotta tile roof, allowing it to blend in with the rest of the seaside community.

Mimi had been inside this building more times than she could count. But she'd never been here in an
official
capacity. Technically (or very loosely, depending on how you viewed it), this building was now her ship. And she was its captain.

She walked around the spacious corner room with the shiny oak floors and the large bay window overlooking the beach. It was still hard to believe that this was
her
desk in
her
office. Especially since it still reeked of Bruce Bailey's stinky cigars.

She opened a window and made a mental note on how to spruce up the place. Make it more “her.” A few pictures of the kids, maybe some plants. The walls were currently a drab beige color. Maybe a nice green or a sky blue would perk it up, too.

It felt like today was her first real day as mayor and she wanted to do a good job. Which meant she needed to acclimate herself to the paperwork and the computer, as well as go over a list of her expected duties. One of those duties included open office hours in which she would make herself available to the good people of Whispering Bay. Bruce had conducted business Monday through Friday from noon till two p.m., but Mimi wanted a more flexible schedule. With the kids in school, she could pretty much be here most of the day. She'd taken the morning to do some personal errands but she was now ready to hit the ground running.

She poked her head out the office door. Doreen, the receptionist, manned the lobby desk. Her job was to answer phones, make appointments, and steer people in the right direction. On Bruce's advice, Mimi had entered the building through the back door. “It's the professional way to do things,” he'd told her.

“Any calls for me?” Mimi asked Doreen.

Doreen pushed her reading glasses on top of her head. “Let's see, there's
this
stack,” she said, pointing to a large pile of paper slips. “Those are the people who want you to know that they're on your side.” She pointed to another, even larger stack. “This pile is the people who aren't taking sides, but if push comes to shove, they're on ‘Team Mimi.'” She made finger air quotes here.

Mimi laughed nervously.

Doreen just stared back.

“Sorry about that,” Mimi said quickly. “Um, is there any actual city business?”

Doreen's gaze settled on a disturbingly large pile off to the side. “These are the people who need something from the mayor.”

It took Mimi a few seconds to realize that she was referring to her. “Wow. Already, huh?”

Doreen pulled her reading glasses back in place and opened up her laptop.

Okay. So she wasn't a big talker. Mimi got that. She scooped all three piles off Doreen's desk. “Thanks again for everything.”

Doreen grunted in reply.

Mimi carried the piles of paper into her office, then dumped them onto her desk. She picked up a random slip of paper. It was a request from Dale Simmons from the Rotary Club to join them for their monthly lunch next week. She checked her calendar and wrote down the place and time. Now that she was mayor, she should probably look into joining a few civic organizations. Bruce belonged to nearly every club in and around town, including some in nearby Panama City. It was probably expected that she should do the same thing, too.

The next paper was a message from Mrs. Tomlinski, her old retired piano teacher and a member of the Gray Flamingos. It read:
Hang in there! Divorce isn't the end of the world. I should know, I've been through it four times! PS Have you tried Internet dating? That's how I met husbands number three and four!

Good grief. No wonder Doreen hadn't cracked a smile. If Mimi had been subjected to taking down all these personal messages she'd be in a bad mood, too.

She was about to delve into another message when her cell phone went off. She glanced at the caller ID.
Seriously
? This was call number seven from her mother. If she didn't take it, though, Momma would just keep calling back.

“Hi, Momma.” She turned her chair to face the water.
Take a deep breath. Stay calm
.

“Is it true?” her mother demanded. “Did you and Zeke have lunch at The Bistro today?”

“That was less than thirty minutes ago. How on earth—”

“I heard he left when his lover called him back to police headquarters.”

“Momma, I have to go. I have…someone in the office.”

“No you don't.”

“What do you mean? Doug Wentworth the new city manager is looking at me right now.”

“Really? Because I don't see anyone in your office except me.”

Mimi swirled in her chair to find her mother standing in the doorway.
Busted
. She laid down her phone and tried for a confused look. “I could have sworn he was here just a second ago.”

Momma did not look amused. “Is it true? Is Zeke having an affair with that Cindy creature with all the hair?”

“What do you mean with all the hair?”

“She's got those terrible looking extensions!”

Cindy had extensions? Mimi had never noticed. Of course, it had probably been months since she'd last seen Cindy. She used to go by police headquarters all the time to drop off cookies or a pie or to have lunch with Zeke, but she hadn't done that in ages.

“Extensions
and
a fake tan,” Momma added. “Plus, she's lost weight! You know what
that
means.”

“She's eating better?”

“It
means
she's seeing someone. Your husband, to be exact.”

Mimi resisted the urge to laugh. The idea of Cindy and Zeke…it was beyond ludicrous! But Betty Jean had just told her the exact same thing less than an hour ago.

It was probably natural people would
assume
there was some big motivating factor behind their separation. And
Mimi and Zeke are having a time out because he's having an affair
sounded a whole lot juicier than
Mimi and Zeke are having a time out because…well, because we don't know why
.

It had been over three months since she and Zeke had, according to Betty Jean, done the horizontal mamba. They'd always had a healthy sex life, but in the past year the number of times they'd made love had dwindled down to almost never. Their problems outside the bedroom had created problems inside the bedroom as well.

But Zeke would never cheat on her. Not while they were together. It would be like a lion passing up a steak dinner. It wasn't in his nature. Although, technically, they weren't together anymore. Legally, yes, but physically, no.

Now that he was living on his own, could he have taken that as freedom to do whatever he wanted? The idea of Zeke stuffin' Cindy's muffin (
ack! Thanks a lot for that image, Betty Jean!
) made Mimi queasy.

She grabbed a bottled water from her tote and took a long deep sip.
There.
That was better.

She tried to sound nonchalant. “Momma, I know it's hard for you to accept this, but whatever's going on between Zeke and me is private. The sooner you and the rest of this town get with the program, the easier it will be for everyone. You don't want Cameron and Claire getting wind of these ridiculous rumors, do you? By calling me every five minutes after some busybody like Denise Holbert whispers in your ear you're just giving credence to all these crazy rumors.”

Ann Powers sat in the chair across from the desk with a defeated look on her face. Her blue eyes looked watery. “I just…I just want you to be happy.”

“I know you do, Momma.”

“So what happened? I admit, I never thought it would last between you two, but I thought it would fall apart in the beginning, not after eighteen years of marriage. Mary, what's going on here?”

It had never occurred to Mimi how news of her separation would affect her mother. Momma was hurting. Just like Mimi would be hurt if the situation was fast forwarded twenty years and this was Claire on the other side of the desk. A part of her wanted to tell her mother the truth. But if she did, it would be a betrayal to Zeke. And even though he was currently the most infuriating man in the world, she couldn't do that.

“Like I said before, Momma, it's private. Please trust me to do the right thing here. We'll either work out our problems, or we won't.”

Her mother looked ready to put up a fight.

“Please,” Mimi said gently.

 Momma sighed. “All right. I suppose I'll have to be satisfied with that. But I don't understand.”

“You don't have to. Just cut me some slack, okay? This is my first real day on the job and I have a lot of work to get through.”

She eyed Mimi's cluttered desk. “What's all that? Mayor work?”

“These,” Mimi said, picking up the stack of memos, “are all my messages. And this”—she pointed to a thick manila folder—“is all the stuff I need to catch up on for this year's
Spring Into Summer
festival.”

The mayor's primary responsibility, besides sitting on the city council, cutting ribbons, and kissing babies on the head (did people still do that?) was to oversee the town's largest and oldest festival.

Momma sniffed. “I certainly hope we don't have a repeat of last year's Harry Tuba fiasco.”

“Agreed.”

“Did someone say Harry Tuba?” Doug strolled in through the open door, but stopped short when he noticed Mimi wasn't alone. “I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?” He smiled at Momma.

“Momma, this is Doug Wentworth, the new city manager,” Mimi said by way of introduction. “My mom, Ann Powers.”

Doug shook Momma's hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” Momma said in a chilly, but still polite voice. She gave Doug a thorough look over. “So, you're Paul's replacement? I heard the city had hired an outsider to clean things up.”

“Doug came to us from Old Explorer's Bay,” Mimi said.

“Yes, but that's not where you're from originally, is it?” Momma asked him. Momma was always suspicious of anyone who came from more than a fifty mile radius of the place they ended up. It was all right to go off to school but then afterward she believed in settling down near your roots. The fact that Mimi's brother Luke lived in Atlanta was a sore spot for her.

Doug kept his smile firmly in place. “You're right, it's not. I was born and raised in Kansas.”

“
Kansas
? Lovely country, I'm sure.” Momma said it like she expected Doug to take off in a hot air balloon and never come back.

Mimi began to cough.

“Are you all right?” Momma asked. “Maybe you shouldn't have chugged all that water earlier.” She glanced between Mimi and Doug. “I take it the two of you have work to do?”

“I can come by later,” Doug said.

“No, no…I have to be going anyway.” Momma stood and gave Mimi a long look. “We'll talk soon.”

Hopefully, soon didn't mean in the next couple of hours. Knowing Momma, though, it probably did. If Mimi wanted to avoid another call this afternoon, then she needed to take care of some family business. “I'll stop by the house on my way home.”

“You will?” Momma's gaze sharpened. “Good. Your father and I will expect you no later than six.” She left, not bothering to close the door on her way out.

“She seems like a nice lady,” Doug said.

“Are you sure I'm the only politician in the room?” He smiled and Mimi motioned for him to take a chair. “So, what's up?”

“I was wondering if you'd had a chance to look through the festival papers.”

“Not yet,” Mimi admitted.

“Then let me save you the trouble. The festival's broke,” Doug said.

“Broke? As in, there's something that needs to be fixed? Or broke as in there's no money?”

“Broke as in, no money. According to what I could piece together, Bruce overspent on advertising last year. And for some reason, a lot of people left the festival early. Based on the previous years' revenues, it's the late evening crowd that spends the most money on food and drinks.”

“I'll tell you why people left early,” Mimi said. “Bruce promised us that Billy Brenton was coming to put on a concert. He did everything but put up a billboard along the highway.”

“Billy Brenton? Isn't he some big country music star?”

“Yep. At the time, we all thought it was too good to be true. Which, of course, it was because Billy never showed. The festival organizers had to substitute Harry Polka and his tuba band at the last minute.”

“
Harry Polka
?”

“Yeah. The name pretty well sums it up.”

“I wish I could help you with this festival,” Doug said, “But I have my hands full with getting out the new budget.”