CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Reynolds
A few days after the best sex of my entire life, I sat on the stage in the television studio and waited for the interview to start.
I had liked Jasper Hill just fine before he’d lambasted me on TV.
I wasn’t looking forward to having to defend myself.
That was because there was a lot of truth to what he’d said.
There were a lot of differences between the two of us.
Differences that might appeal to a certain population of West Bay.
I just had to hope that my fans and supporters would stay loyal.
We were both white guys who’d grown up in West Bay, but that’s about where our similarities ended.
I’d been a star on the lacrosse field. Jasper had gone to West Bay University on a football scholarship.
I went to Harvard on no scholarships. I was rich, unmarried, and my attempt to dispel the rumors I was a playboy by dating Whitney wasn’t working well.
Jasper married his high school sweetheart while he was still in college, and they had three children.
I made a fortune by investing in emerging technologies, but most people thought I’d inherited all of my wealth.
Of course, I did inherit a bunch of it, so it was difficult to counterattack the ‘born with a silver spoon in his mouth’ agenda Jasper’s campaign was pushing.
Jasper worked in the tech field, writing code for video games designed by billionaire game geek Jack Lancaster.
Jasper wasn’t a millionaire by any stretch, but people tended to think he’d earned his way while I’d been born lucky.
They weren’t wrong.
Still, there was no one who loved West Bay more than I did, and I wanted to live my life making it an even better place to live than it already was.
That was the main thing I had going for me.
I just had to make the people believe what I did—that there was no one better for the job of mayor than I was.
I looked out into the audience. The studio was packed.
I recognized most of the people in attendance.
It seemed that the signs in support of either Jasper or me were equally divided.
Since I was the incumbent, that made me nervous.
I should have more signs on my side after the sky-high approval ratings that I’d enjoyed through my tenure as mayor.
Lately, though, they’d taken a sharp nosedive.
The last poll came out a couple of days after Jasper’s appearance on West Bay Today.
They’d plummeted from where they’d been just a couple of weeks ago.
His attacks on me about the city’s crime rate combined with my playboy reputation had caused it.
I would have to work hard to get it turned back around before the vote in November.
Yes, it was only August, but I still had a lot of ground to cover to regain the public’s support.
It hadn’t helped matters that I’d been seen standing next to Nico Salazar at a few public events.
He’d gotten saddled with the not altogether unfair moniker of ‘Naughty Nico’ in the press.
Being close friends with him wasn’t helping as I tried to make my name synonymous with family-friendly policies instead of strip clubs and dating a different gorgeous woman each evening.
But I wasn’t going to turn my back on one of my best friends.
Plus, Nico and his family were my staunchest supporters.
I liked to think the Salazars supported me because they thought I was the best candidate for West Bay. I didn’t want to think they could have ulterior motives for having a close ally in a position of power. Sometimes I did wonder, though.
I sighed. I’d also wanted to think the playboy reputation of mine was dying down a bit.
Even though I’d been seen with no one other than Whitney Masters since early April, it hadn’t mattered.
It was like the public could see through that ruse for what it was.
Fake. Could they tell I wasn’t into her?
I wasn’t sure I had the best acting skills.
I saw Thaddeus Clammett out in the audience. I wanted to flip him a bird, but I didn’t think that would scream ‘family friendly,’ so I held myself in check. I gave him a terse nod instead.
“Give ‘em hell, Reynolds,” my dad leaned forward and whispered from the audience.
I smiled even though I didn’t really want to. He and Mom, as well as Whitney, were sitting in the front row and were visible from the stage. I knew the cameras would be on them several times during the broadcast.
“Alright, Mr. Mayor, we’re ready to get started,” said a woman wearing a headset and holding a clipboard. “We need Jacie,” the woman said into the microphone attached to her headset.
Soon, Jacie walked out to raucous applause and welcomed the crowd.
“Good morning, y’all! Welcome to West Bay Today!
” There was plenty of clapping and cheering before Jacie did her normal antics with her cohosts before walking over to my side of the stage.
The cameras followed her. I knew I was the first guest, unlike Jasper Hill, who had been her last segment.
I wasn’t sure why they’d made the change, but they did.
“Mayor Taylor,” she beamed and crossed the stage to me. I stood up and shook her hand. We both smiled into the camera. “Everyone, join me in welcoming our dashing mayor to our program.”
Once the applause died down, she sat down and addressed me. “Mayor Taylor, it is always so nice to have you on our show. Thank you for being here today.”
I nodded and gave her my best smile. “Thank you, Jacie, and thanks to all of you for coming out to support me today. Programs like this one help ensure that the best candidate is elected to lead our great city into the next several years of growth as West Bay continues to flourish.”
“I’d love to think our program can help West Bay decide who to vote for in the upcoming election.
You know, Reynolds,” she said, turning to face me, “you’ve been on our show several times over the past four years.
We’ve enjoyed having you each time. I hope you won’t hold it against me or the show that I have to ask you some tough follow-up questions to some of Jasper Hill’s rather contentious claims.”
“Of course not. I understand how politics work, Jacie. I’d hold none of this against anyone, even Jasper to be honest.”
Her eyes widened. “His claims didn’t upset you?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I chuckled, and the audience laughed. “But I do understand that he must highlight our differences. If every candidate was the same, why would there ever be elections?”
Jacie smiled. “Good point, Mr. Mayor. Well, I guess we’ll just jump right into some of Mr. Hill’s claims. You describe West Bay as flourishing while Mr. Hill seems to be against the massive growth our city has undergone over the decades. Can you speak to that?”
“Of course. You can’t stop growth when you have a city as beautiful as West Bay.
I can’t think of another town that embraces both the history of the city and the modern, vibrant future of it as well as we do here.
People want to move here. Companies want to relocate here.
Tourists want to spend their hard-earned vacation dollars here.
All of that is good for West Bay, good for our tax base, good for our job outlook, and good for the prosperity of our people,” I said, pleased to get a large round of applause and cheers from the studio audience.
I knew many of them were my supporters, but it was still a vote of confidence that helped me relax.
“Good points,” Jacie said diplomatically.
“But I’m going to read a quote from one of Mr. Hill’s ad campaigns.
He says: ‘I see a very different future for the people of West Bay than Mayor Taylor does. Instead of the entire city flourishing, I believe only a select class of people are in a position to benefit from his brand of politics. Those people, like Taylor’s own family, have been part of the elite wealthy class of West Bay for decades—centuries, even—and there’s no sign of change coming under the current mayor’s tenure.
People like the Salazar family will continue to control both the growth of this community and the mayor’s purse strings.
We all know Mayor Taylor and Nico Salazar go way back, and Taylor has a history of helping his friends out.
’” She looked up at me. “How do you respond?”
There was a stunned silence as the crowd sat awkwardly awaiting my answer.
It was rare that anyone called out the Salazar family, and Hill had done it twice now without blinking an eye.
The silence was briefly broken by a smattering of applause, but the fact that the entire Salazar family was here to support my campaign kept people from being too enthusiastic about what Hill had been quoted as saying.
The look on Carlos and Gloria Salazar’s faces said it all.
They remained impassive and acted as if Hill’s words didn’t matter, even though I knew they were pissed on the inside.
They were the unofficial king and queen of West Bay and everyone knew it.
Salazar Enterprises, the parent company that owned all the real estate holdings, the clubs, the restaurants, and who knew what else, was the city’s second largest employer behind the hospital system.
Even the board of education, which is often the largest employer in a city or town, came in behind Salazar Enterprises.
So, the quote Jacie just read of Jasper Hill’s attacked the jobs of approximately half of West Bay by cutting down the Salazar family. It wasn’t a smart move.
“I know, I know,” Jacie said, holding up her hands. “Don’t shoot the messenger. Mr. Hill says that in his ads. What do you think of that, Mayor Taylor?”