Sultry Sunset Read Free Page A

A week later, I offered him my guesthouse until he found a place to live, and after a year, he was still there.
    “Seriously? Are you listening at all?”
    Returning sharply to the present, I looked into the mahogany-brown eyes that had just recently started to sparkle and shine. I loved watching women, the same ones who had been looking at the man for the past year without really seeing him, suddenly swivel around and stare. The trudging walk had become a fluid, rolling stride; there were dimples under the beard that had been shaved off; and his smile was simply traffic-stopping. His laugh was infectious, a deep, rumbling thing, and more than anything, he spread warmth from one end of the store to the other. Every person adored him and I was thrilled, because that meant I had more time to work on my new project to supervise the renovations on the community center. It was my baby, my gift to Mangrove, and now that the store had Mike, I could really focus my energy on that gift.
    “Yes,” I teased as he petted Benny. “I am absolutely paying attention.”
    He shook his head.
    “What?”
    “Your builder,” he said with so much annoyance that I had to work really hard not to laugh, “had the mayor’s car towed this morning.”
    I scoffed. “I’m sorry?”
    His sigh was long and pained. “You know how he insists on parking that boat he drives in front of the gate where the construction crew goes in and out?”
    It was also where all the deliveries of building supplies were made. “I do, yes.”
    “Well, this morning Leya had enough and she had the car towed.”
    “Wait. The tow-truck operator—”
    “Alicia Davis,” he interrupted me.
    “—yeah, Alicia, she moved his car?”
    “Yep.”
    “But she works for him.”
    “No, she—”
    “I mean, for the city, so technically, she works for the mayor.”
    “Not anymore,” he informed me. “Now she works under Farley.”
    Farley Porter, our chief of police. “But he also reports to the mayor.”
    “No,” he corrected me. “By the new town charter, Farley reports to the town council now. The chief of police and the new fire chief, who just got hired, both report to the city council.”
    “When was this decided?”
    “Last night at the town meeting,” he answered, yawning. “We were going to walk over there together after dinner, but you got that call you didn’t want to tell me about.”
    “Yeah, I know.” I grimaced.
    “Oh, now you have to tell me.”
    Leaning forward, I dropped my voice to a whisper. “The new lawyer, Britton Lassiter, he invited me out for a drink.”
    Mike squinted at me. “Wait. I thought I saw him with a woman.”
    “You did.”
    “But he’s gay.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Wasn’t he married before, too?”
    I nodded.
    “So he got a divorce… why?”
    “Because he’s gay.”
    “Wait—”
    “Just forget it,” I directed, raking my fingers through my hair, pulling it out of my face. I needed a haircut fairly soon. “It’ll give you a headache.”
    “No, let me get this straight.” Mike reached out and took hold of my wrist so I couldn’t sit back. “He divorced his wife because he was gay and then got a new girlfriend who he just broke up with because—still gay.”
    “She was his beard with his parents.”
    “And did she know she was a beard or did she think it was real?”
    “Real.”
    “Okay.” Mike grinned, his thumb sliding back and forth over the underside of my wrist. “So what now? Does he plan to date more women here or is he going to come clean with his folks and be out and proud?”
    “I think since he’s so far away from them now that he can be what he wants.”
    “Good,” he murmured, letting go of my hand only to slide his chair over close. “So what were you two doing that you couldn’t make it to the town-hall meeting?”
    I wasn’t sure I understood the insinuation until I saw his lifted brows.
    “What?”
    “Were you sleeping with him?”
    “How is that your business?”
    “Because