Page 5 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

“Whatever. Call me when you’re done.”

I waved as I headed out of the break room, trying to get my game face on for my meeting with the mayor. I could think about the Heather Dale contest later. For now, I was going to get that damn tourism campaign approved. It was like Andrew said—I might just be the most competitive person on this island. And that meant that I liked to win.

A half hour later I sat at my desk, feeling numb—though frustration was fast taking over. All of that work, all those weeks, and what had it gotten me?

A pat on the shoulder. Literally.

The phone on my desk rang, startling me, and I reached for it in a daze, barely noticing the red light next to the extension for the accounting office. “Hello?”

“Hey,” Andrew said. “What happened?”

I felt the slightest flicker of shame in my chest. Somehow, I didn’t like the idea of telling Andrew that I had failed. He’d been so sure it would work out.

“Riley?”

“He doesn’t think it’s a necessary investment at this time,” I replied, a new emotion joining the numbness and frustration and shame. Anger.

“That’s bullshit," Andrew said. “Seriously, bullshit.”

“Yeah, well. Not much I can do about it, I guess.”

“I’m so sorry. I was positive he was going to go for it. You did such great work.”

I shook my head, even though he likely couldn’t see me across the office. “I guess it’s what I should’ve expected. It’s like you said, people around here don’t like things to change.”

“So what did he say?”

I closed my eyes, remembering the exact expression on Mayor Jones’ face as he turned me down. It was that slightly bemused, slightly indulgent smile he always seemed to wear when I brought him a new idea. Like he was humoring me, like he was doing me a favor. Encouraging the kid. The anger flared again. “What do you think he said?”

“If you tell me he said, ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,’ I’m going to be seriously pissed off now.”

I laughed and it sounded about as bitter as I felt. “You know your boss well.”

Andrew swore under his breath. “Did he even look at your information? All of that research?”

“He did. He said it looked very impressive — and a little too sophisticated for Lilac Bay.” I sighed. “To be honest, I think I overwhelmed him. You know how he gets when anyone starts to talk about website traffic and maximizing return on investment. He doesn’t get it, so he dismisses it as too complicated for the island.”

“God, Riley. I’m really sorry. I know how hard you worked on all of this.”

I swallowed past a sudden lump in my throat. Ihadworked hard. And it wasn’t fair.

Before I could tell him that, Andrew spoke up again.

“So maybe this will get your mind off things,” he said, his tone more encouraging. “I’ve been doing a little research of my own.”

“Research on what?

“Oh, just a little thing called the Heather Dale show.”

I sat up straighter in my chair, the frustration and anger immediately shooting out of my system. I had completely forgotten about Heather Dale. “We’ll ignore you messing up the title of her show,” I said. “Tell me.”

“So, it looks like they're taking submissions online,” he said. “There's an application to fill out, along with instructions for making a video. Nothing too complicated or overly long. It definitely looks like something we could do.”

I grinned to myself. “Somethingwecould do?”

Andrew cleared his throat on the other end of the line, and when he spoke again he sounded defensive. “Well, it's not like I’m going to let you do it by yourself. You'd get all the credit. I mean, I know we established that you’re uber-competitive in everything you do, but—”

“Okay, okay. Enough of that now. Tell me what we need to do.”