2. Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Grady
I laid on the king size mattress in the middle of the living room. I purchased the run-down colonial style house on a whim a few weeks ago. The ceiling above me was cracked and more gray than white. I wasn’t sure yet what had lured me back to Little Falls. Something had called me home. Maybe Mom getting older or that Trent rarely talked to me anymore, or maybe I was done with drifting.
Not that the reason mattered. The trip was already worth every penny I poured into returning. After running into Kareena in Utica, she’d taken advantage of our former high school friendship to get me to play a set at the open mic night.
As soon as the curtains had drawn back on the stage and I saw Maggie Sullivan sitting with a stick up her ass a few rows back, her auburn hair illuminated by the edge of the stage lights, a fire lit inside. On instinct, my fingers strummed the opening chords to the song I wrote about Trent and Maggie. Very few people understood the song, all the things said, the even greater number of things left unsaid. For years, I pictured Maggie’s face while I played it. Last night, I’d gotten my wish, and for a brief moment, before she’d closed herself off, I’d seen what I wanted.
Guilt.
How did my town elect Maggie Sullivan as mayor? Made no sense. She was as fake as a person could be and still be somewhat human. A liar. A skilled one for sure, but were so many people in town fooled by her pretty face?
Beside me, my phone buzzed. Blindly, I reached for it and squinted at the name. Kelvin Brown, one of my best friends from high school, was calling. I silenced it and set it on my chest. Hite and Zeus, my two large, mixed-breed dogs stirred beside me. As I returned my focus to the ceiling, I gave them their morning scratch. Animals were preferable to people. They didn’t pretend. They didn’t complain. Hite and Zeus had traveled the world with me and never questioned any of my choices or decisions. The perfect companions.
My fingers dug into the thick fur at Hite’s neck. Maggie’s comment last night about chasing fame and fortune instead of looking after my family stung. When I’d scored an audition for Center Stage , taking the chance was a no-brainer. At twelve, my father had died without life insurance, and I’d stepped into his shoes. The odd jobs I picked up when I finished high school had barely kept all of us afloat. Who wouldn’t have gone after money and fame when the other options kept my family in poverty forever?
Sitting up, I stretched and sighed. Maggie probably had no idea what I’d done after winning Center Stage . Most people didn’t. I didn’t intend to explain my choices to someone like her. No matter how wary and surprised her brown eyes had been when they’d looked up into mine last night, the truth remained.
At one time she’d been a mystery I puzzled over, but that was solved the minute Trent was arrested. Maggie showed her true character in the days, weeks, and months afterward. Pretty, glossy surface. No substance. Not worth a second thought or even one sleepless night.
Something banged against my front door—likely a fist. The dogs stirred around me but didn’t bark. I grabbed the worn jeans off the floor next to my mattress and yanked them on. The pounding continued, and I held in another sigh. Could only be one person. That level of annoying persistence was special.
Opening my door, I leaned my bare shoulder into the edge and waved Kelvin into the house. Stepping past me, Kelvin glanced around the run-down entrance while Hite and Zeus circled him.
“I called you.”
“I know.”
“You should have answered.” Kelvin sounded pissed, but when he half turned to look at me, his white teeth flashed in his brown face, taking the edge off his words.
I should have answered, but I couldn’t get my head wrapped around seeing Maggie again. I’d known we’d run into each other eventually. Inevitable, given how small the town was. Last night had been unexpected, but I couldn’t decide if it was unwelcome. “I was getting my head on straight.”
“It’s always a little crooked. Why should today be any different?” Kelvin turned around in the foyer taking in all the decay. “You dozing this place to the ground or what? You’re probably getting a lung disease sleeping in here.”
I chuckled and shrugged. “I’ve slept in worse places. Why are you here so early?” I squinted into the bright sunlight before closing the door.
“You called me last night and said you were running for mayor and needed a wingman.”
A deeper, stronger laugh escaped. “I did what?”
“Yeah, man. You said stick-up-her-ass-Maggie couldn’t get a second term without having to work for it.”
I shook my head. I shouldn’t have done those shots with Sabrina, my ex-girlfriend from high school. At least I hadn’t brought her home. Not that she didn’t try. Not that I didn’t consider it.
For a moment, my mind rewound to Sabrina’s hand sliding up my leg, massaging my inner thigh. I’d looked at her and thought, Should I ? Then, she gave a high-pitched drunken giggle, and I decided I should not. Sober Grady was very happy drunk Grady led with the right head. I didn’t come to Little Falls to slip into old habits. None of those habits had brought me any happiness the first time around. Anger. Depression. The one lick of happiness was forever tainted.
“Let me grab a shirt, and we can get breakfast.” A pack of gum sat on the landing of the chipped wooden stairs that divided the house, and I grabbed it, tossing a piece into my mouth. “Want one?”
“You’re going to brush your teeth, right? I’m a fucking dentist. You’re not going to do this to me, are you?”
I grinned and chewed a little louder, rolling the piece of gum around my mouth, pretending to coat my teeth with it. “No running water at the moment. I need to buy more bottled water today. Used the last bottle for the dog dish.” True, but it was also fun to fuck with Kelvin a little—he’d become too uptight for his own good.
“You need to bulldoze this place.”
“The house was a good deal.” Crossing into the living room, I threw my shirt over my head and called back to Kelvin. “Breakfast?”
“Man, I’m on my lunch hour. It’s lunch.”
“Whatever.” Sometimes I forgot other people worried about keeping track of their day. In all the years I’d traveled, I’d worked on whatever schedule suited me. From the minute I left Little Falls after winning Center Stage , I’d drifted. Buying this house was the first time I dropped anchor. “Is that a yes?”
“Only if we walk past the office and I can grab you a toothbrush and toothpaste. I cannot sit across from you knowing you’ve got all that bacteria and shit coating your teeth.”
“You and Maggie could make little stick children with all your rules. I imagine you don’t have much competition for her.”
“I’m gay, Grady. Remember?”
I squinted at Kelvin in mock surprise and then grinned. “I’m just fucking with you. I was the first person you told. Always considered that an honor.” I slapped him on the back. We’d been drunk during our last year of high school when Kelvin had burst out with his sexual orientation. I’d suspected long before Kelvin told me, which was why I’d never given him a hard time about dating girls, or who he’d slept with, or any of the other shit most of the guys in our circle had been preoccupied with at the time. With my index finger, I banished the dogs back to the mattress and walked out the door in front of Kelvin. “Lead the way Mr. OCD. The toothbrush awaits no man.”
“You can be a real prick sometimes.” Kelvin slipped out the door behind me. “You locking this?”
“No. That mattress is heavy. If some robber can get it out the door, they earned it. Besides, I’ve heard from a few people Hite and Zeus are intimidating when I’m not around.”
“They are big mutts—got some husky or German shepherd in there somewhere,” Kelvin agreed.
The two of us walked in silence for a minute before I said, “Maggie’s little friend called me that last night.”
“She called you a mutt?”
“No, a prick.” My mind ticked through the night before. “What is her name? I kept looking at her, and it was driving me nuts. I don’t remember a cute Asian girl hanging around Maggie in high school.”
“That’s Lila. Local architect. Been here since she was a little kid. Speaks Mandarin and a couple other languages—Spanish? French? I can’t remember. Sits on a few committees with Maggie.” He gave me the side-eye. “Sometimes I wonder how you lived in this town for twenty-five years before you left and can’t remember anyone.”
I shrugged. “It’s a gift.” I’d moved around to so many places that everyone I ran into in town felt both familiar and foreign, like I couldn’t place where I’d met them. Embarrassing, sometimes, especially when so many remembered me. Shoving my hands in my pockets, I added, “When you’ve moved as much as I have in the last few years, everyone looks like someone you should know and like a complete stranger. Too many places. Too many faces.”
“You’d be a shitty mayor. That’s one of the most important things—connecting with people.”
A slow grin broke out onto my face. “So, you don’t think I should run?”
“If the only reason you’re running,” Kelvin said unlocking and opening the glass door to his office, “is to fuck with Maggie Sullivan, then you should keep your dick in your pants. She’s more man than you are.”
“It wouldn’t be the only reason.” I took the toothbrush and toothpaste from Kelvin’s outstretched hand and disappeared into the bathroom. Was it the only reason? I hadn’t even remembered our conversation this morning when I’d woken up, and I’d never thought about being the mayor of Little Falls before. For a minute, I stared at myself in the mirror. Did I have the fortitude to do the job? As I brushed my teeth, I tried to talk myself out of this bright idea.
When I finished, I shoved the toothbrush and toothpaste back into the bag, and I stuffed the parcel into my back pocket.
“So, what’s the other reason?” Kelvin asked as soon as I emerged from the all-white bathroom into the all-white office.
The temptation to run a finger along the ridges of the textured white wallpaper was tempting. We’d never leave the office if Kelvin thought I dirtied his walls. Wasn’t worth the risk.
“Maybe there isn’t one. Does it matter if I run to fuck with her?” I opened the office door.
“Maggie is the darling of Little Falls. She’ll kill you. You’ll get destroyed.” Kelvin relocked the door.
“Darling Maggie could do with being taken down a peg or two. After what she did to Trent—” I shoved my hands in my front pockets, shoulders hunched.
“Your brother never pointed so much as his baby finger at her, man. Maybe you should let it go. Do you even know she was involved for sure?”
In the minutes it had taken Kelvin to try to talk me out of running, the idea of challenging her for mayor had become greater than any obstacle. Whenever anyone told me something couldn’t be done, I balked. For me, a challenge made was a challenge met. I’d jump off that cliff, call that person, sleep in that place, take on that impossible job. Now, I supposed, I would run for mayor. “What if I don’t care if I win? What if I run for fun?”
“How is being such a big dick fun? Why do it?” Kelvin raised his eyebrows. “You don’t have better things to do? That house you bought is a disaster. Campaigns cost money. You need supporters, signs, debates… Not something you can do on a whim.”
“Watch me.” I turned to walk backward so I could look at Kelvin, who I figured should have been wearing scrubs but was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt instead. “Come on. What’s the harm?”
“We’ll make a mockery of democracy.”
“If I was threatening to piss all over your office, I could see you getting upset. But this? This’ll be fun. ”
“You gotta take it at least somewhat seriously, or I’m out. I run a business in this town. You might be passing through, but for some of us, this is our life.” Kelvin stopped walking and threw up his hands. “This town is my life.”
I paused in the middle of the sidewalk and stared at Kelvin, letting his words sink in. Some of his speech was valid. I’d never intentionally embarrass Kelvin, who had stuck with me through all my crazy stunts over the years. Turning to face the shops across the steady main street traffic, I nodded. “I don’t want to win. So, I’m not trying too hard, okay? But I won’t make a fool out of you or anyone else except Maggie. Deal?”
“This is a stupid idea.”
“The last idea of mine you called stupid—”
“Yeah, yeah. You won the whole damn thing on national television. You’re such a smug fucker sometimes.” Kelvin paused in front of a sandwich shop and gestured toward the door. “First we eat, then we plan for someone’s downfall.”
“Excellent.” I rubbed my hands together as I stepped into Kathy’s Café ahead of Kelvin. Anticipation made my heart beat a little faster. There were few things I loved more than rising to a challenge.
“I didn’t say whose downfall. ’Cause I’m pretty sure it’s going to end up being yours.” Kelvin’s laugh almost sounded evil to my ears as the door clicked closed behind us.