Page 102 of Fierce-Colson

“I told you I was stopped by Councilman Gray.”

Her mother rolled her eyes. “You did.”

“Yesterday Mayor Donaldson came in.”

Her mother inhaled, then let out a massive breath. “Let me guess. Derek went to see him.”

“Ding, ding, ding.”

“I hope you’re not going to tell me he said more of what Derek did?”

“In his way. He says we can make a great team,” she said, smirking.

“You can and you will with lots of mayors while you’re in this position.”

“If I get to keep it after my first term.”

“Don’t think that way,” her mother said. “You do your job. You do your best. The rest will follow. There is a reason I stayed in office as long as I had.”

“Because you’re good.”

“I am,” her mother said. “But I know how to talk my way into and out of things. I know how to ride that fence without getting a cut on my inner thighs.”

“Not even a scratch,” she said.

“Don’t kid yourself. I got a lot of scratches and went through a ton of Band-Aids. Nothing is easy. Nothing is simple. Someone is always going to find fault with what you’re doing, even if it’s the right thing.”

She knew that. She’d felt it already.

“You taught me that. But you were married when you were the DA.”

“And you’re dating someone.”

“Sean. The mayor told me to call him Sean. He pointed out that I could tell him who I was seeing, or he’d find out himself.”

“You would have told him rather than be difficult, even if it pissed you off to have to do that.”

She nodded firmly. “That’s it.”

“And then what happened?”

“Nothing. I texted Colson to let him know. I knew he wasn’t happy, but we aren’t hiding our relationship.”

“If you aren’t hiding it, then why haven’t you been more open with me?”

She held her hands up as if she’d just gotten burned. “I’ve been very open with you about this. How can you say that?”

“I mean that I’d like to have him over for dinner.”

She stretched her neck as if the words pained her physically. “You don’t think that’s a little soon?”

“Marly,” her mother said, pulling out the same tone as when she was a teen and about to be lectured that she was being too hard on herself. “Your father isn’t going to ride Colson like he has other men.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do know it. He knows Colson. Not just from when you were kids, but from the force. I told you he liked him.”

“That was different.”