Chapter Fifty-Six Lorenzo
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Lorenzo
A fter two years of meticulous planning, it is hard to believe that election day is finally here. The November date on my calendar has always been a deadline I was looking forward to, but now that it is finally here, I’m dreading the day from the moment my alarm clock goes off.
The last couple of weeks have been a blur of campaign events, strategy meetings, therapy sessions, and dates with Lily, so time passed by quickly.
Today everything seems to be moving at a snail’s pace.
Besides the high school where voting will occur, the town is pretty much shut down for the day since people either need to cast their vote for mayor, watch their kids since school is canceled, or volunteer to man the voting booths.
I plan on dropping by Wisteria High later to vote, but this morning I keep to my routine by meeting with Doctor Martin at ten a.m. Therapy still sucks, but at least it is starting to suck a little less now that we’ve moved on from discussing my deceased parents and narcissistic, emotionally abusive uncle.
My compulsions are still a problem, but I’m working harder to combat the obsessive thoughts with Doctor Martin’s help. Lily and I even attended another cooking class, and I managed a few bites of my food this time, although I still struggled mentally.
But progress, however small, is still progress, so I’ll take it.
After this morning’s therapy session, I head to the gym before stopping by Rose & Thorn with a lunch I prepared for Lily, which is a habit I picked up two months ago.
Providing for her in the smallest ways scratches an itch I didn’t know I had, and it hardly costs me anything at all to bring a smile to her face each day.
Once we eat, Lily and I walk over to the high school, where we both vote. She jokes about having no choice in the matter, and all the volunteers working the booths laugh, accusing me of voter intimidation after I kiss Lily hard on the mouth.
She slides behind the curtain with the goofiest smile on her face and blocks everyone, including me, from seeing her while she fills out her ballot.
Thanks to the computer systems Lake Wisteria had invested in during the last presidential election, results could come in as early as tonight, but Willow told me not to expect any updates until tomorrow morning.
The wait will be torture, but Lily is committed to distracting me in the best ways possible until tomorrow. We hole up in my house for the next few hours, only leaving my bedroom for food, water, and to take Daisy outside.
If I had it my way, Lily wouldn’t have to leave at all, but she is still committed to following her mom’s rule.
“You can’t leave,” I say when she starts collecting her clothes from the floor.
“I can’t sleep over.”
I lean against the headboard and stretch, temporarily distracting her with my toned stomach. “But we’re engaged.”
“You know my mom’s rule—no living with a man until you’re married.” She mimics her mom’s voice, and it’s surprisingly accurate.
“We can easily fix that problem.”
“Sure, in a year and a half. Maybe two.”
My mouth falls open. “What?”
“Why are you so surprised?”
“Two. Years?”
“It’s not like we’ve been together for very long.”
“So?” I ask, still shocked by her timeline. “My dad married my mom within two months of knowing her.”
She pauses in the middle of fixing her dress. “What? I didn’t know that.”
“It was quite the scandal back then. No prenup either, not that it mattered since they walked away from the business.”
I know Lily is far too interested in hearing more stories about my parents, so she pauses her plan to leave and climbs back onto the bed. She fits perfectly in my arms, and I enjoy the feel of her body pressed to mine.
She looks up at me with a grin. “Tell me more.”
I share my parents’ story, or more so, the tame version they told me since I was a kid. Back then I thought it was crazy, but now I see that my father’s idea had some merit.
He loved my mother, so of course he wanted to marry her so they would always be together.
“Cute,” she says after I describe their quick wedding.
“Want to keep up the family tradition?”
She giggles. “Nice try, but nope. I’ve been dreaming of my wedding for a while, and nothing you say or do will convince me otherwise.”
I maneuver my body so I’m on top and have her trapped beneath me. “Nothing at all?”
She raises a brow. “No.”
I kiss the corner of her mouth. “Don’t make me wait two years.”
“You’ll be so busy with your new job as mayor, time will fly by.”
“Being your fiancé sounds like a better job anyway.”
Her lips curl with a tease of a smile. “Be serious.”
“I am. I’ll always make time for you, no matter what.”
Her eyes glimmer like two round jewels. “Promise?”
“You have my word. You come first. Always .” I seal the vow with a kiss, and she returns it with vigor.
All thoughts of her leaving disappear, and we spend the rest of the night tangled in my sheets, right where Lily belongs.
My hand shakes as the phone vibrates against the bathroom counter. Willow already called once, right as I was rinsing off my toothbrush, but I didn’t answer. I couldn’t .
Just like I can’t now.
My heart beats wildly in my chest, and a sick feeling has spread through my stomach, sending acid climbing up my throat.
Lily enters the bathroom wearing one of the new dresses I bought her. “Is that Willow?”
“Yes.” I tear my eyes away from her reflection and look down at the phone.
“Do you plan on answering her?”
I nod, yet I don’t move to do so.
Lily reaches for my hand and spins me around so my butt is leaning against the counter.
“What’s up?” she asks.
“What if I lost?”
She nods. “If you did, it’s okay.”
“How can you say that with your entire business on the line?”
“Because you gave it your everything , and that’s all that matters.
I couldn’t be prouder of how hard you worked, and I’m sure everyone who knows you would agree.
” She presses her hand to the side of my face, lending me some of her strength.
“You should be proud of yourself, and I know if your parents were here, they’d be saying so with me. ”
My vision blurs, and I shut my eyes until I’m able to formulate a response.
“I did my best,” I say, more for myself.
“You did, regardless of what Willow says.”
With one last exhale, I reach for my phone. “Okay.”
“Do you want me to stay or go?”
I answer her question by wrapping my arm around her and calling Willow back on speakerphone.
“Well, well. Nice to finally hear back from you. I’ve been trying to get in contact with you for the last ten minutes, Mayor Vittori.”
Lily slaps a hand over her mouth, but not fast enough to muffle her excited squeak.
I laugh.
Fucking laugh at her round eyes and arched brows.
Right before the humor fades and the truth settles in.
Mayor Vittori.
“You did it. You pulled it off…” Willow rambles on about my plans for the day, but I’m still in shock.
I’m the mayor, and it feels…unfair to be happy when the people I first ran for aren’t here to celebrate.
Tears pool in my eyes, and I blink them away. I won’t cry in front of Lily. I refuse to.
Yet no matter how hard I try, one escapes out of the corner of my eye and slides down my cheek.
“Willow, Lorenzo will call you back.” Lily hangs up the phone and throws her arms around me.
“Baby,” she says.
I tuck my head against her shoulder to hide my face.
She slides her hands through my hair, comforting me with her touch and soft words. “I can’t imagine how you feel right now.”
Happiness is the first emotion I can pin down for obvious reasons, followed by overwhelming sadness, knowing that the main reason I ran for this position was because of Trevor. Guilt is there too, along with its constant companion, grief.
“Do you want to go visit your parents and share the news?” she offers.
I nod, still not lifting my head from the crook of her neck.
“No rush.” She exudes a calm energy that I desperately need to emulate. “Whenever you’re ready, we can go.”
Lily and I are on our way to the cemetery when my phone rings. The area code is one I recognize, but the number isn’t one I have saved.
I let it go to voicemail, only for them to call again.
“Are you going to answer?” Lily asks.
“If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.”
The ringing ends abruptly, and the song Lily and I were listening to starts up again, only to be interrupted a minute later by a voicemail notification.
I pass her my phone and ask her to play it since I’m driving.
“Hey, Lorenzo.” Trevor’s voice fills the car, and suddenly the large truck I’m driving feels way too small.
Lily pauses it. “You good?”
I loosen my grip on the wheel. “Yeah.” As good as I can be, given the circumstance.
You won. He lost.
But I lost more, and that will always be the case.
“We can listen tomorrow—”
I shake my head. “I’d rather get it over with.”
“Okay.” She taps on my phone screen.
“Congratulations,” Trevor says, his voice surprisingly earnest. “You put up a hell of a fight for the position. Way more than we anticipated, and we weren’t as prepared as we should’ve been.”
Lily pauses the recording with a scoff. “They had almost two years.”
My shrug might appear casual, but my shoulders are tense and ready for an invisible threat. “They wasted a lot of it by underestimating me.”
She reaches for my hand tapping against my pocket and laces our fingers together. “Are you sure you want to keep listening?”
“How much more could he possibly have to say?”
She checks the app. “A minute.”
“Fine.” I refocus my attention on the road.
Her gaze remains pinned on me before she returns to my phone.
“I can make an educated guess as to why you chose to run for mayor, and in a weird way, I respect it. My father doesn’t share the same views as me—he told me as much—and neither does my brother, but that’s a whole other issue.”
Lily spares me a look, but I say nothing because I don’t want to pause again.