O
nce upon a time
there was a seventeen-year-old girl named Mary, who found herself in the family way. (No, not
that
Mary.) But, there was a similarity in their stories that women of all ages were all too familiar with. Both Marys had gotten inconveniently pregnant. One, by Divine Intervention, and the otherâ¦well, let's just say it was the sex that had been divine.

Mary, more formally known as Mary Margaret, and better yet by her nickname, Mimi, had just turned in her senior English project when she was hit by an uncontrollable wave of nausea. She barely made the girls' bathroom in time for what would be the first of many mornings spent worshipping a porcelain throne. It was mid-December and her period was a week late, but the stomach flu was going around, so she wasn't too worried (and denial wasn't just a river in Egypt).

But then when another month went by, and still no period, it was time to face facts. Despite that she'd been infinitely careful, there was definitely every possibility in the world that she just
might
be pregnant. So on her way home from school she stopped by the local CVS with plans to buy a home pregnancy test. As luck would have it, her mother's best friend, and Whispering Bay's biggest busy body, Denise Holbert, was there, too. So instead, Mimi bought a pack of gum and a copy of
Seventeen
magazine (Leonardo DiCaprio was on the cover!) and slunk out the door.

Mimi knew she should go back and buy that test. But within a few weeks the nausea had subsided, and school was so
busy
. There were college applications to fill out and essays to write and she didn't
look
pregnant (she studied herself nightly in the mirror behind her bedroom door). Yes, her boobs were gloriously perky, but her stomach was as flat as ever. And her periods had never been regular. So it was easy to pretend that everything was okay. At least, for a while it was.

But when April came around and her mother insisted on taking her shopping to buy a new dress for her upcoming high school graduation, the kaka hit the fan. The look on Ann Powers' face when she spotted her only daughter in nothing but her bra and panties was a moment Mimi would never forget.

“How
could
you?” her mother wailed, as if Mimi had gotten pregnant just to spite her.

“Iâ¦” There was nothing she could say to keep her mother from going into full blown hysteria in the Dillard's department store dressing room.

“Who's the father?” Momma demanded once the shouting stopped.

Mimi gulped. “Zeke Grant.”

“Zeke Grant!” In all fairness, Mimi could have probably said Prince William and gotten the same reaction. But most likely not. “He drives around town on that motorcycle of his, smoking pot and hanging out at the beach all day!”

“How would you know?” Mimi shot back in a rare show of defiance. Not that Mimi was particularly timid. She always spoke out whenever an injustice was being perpetrated, but only if it involved someone else. It wasn't that she lacked self-esteem; it was that she rarely did anything to catch anyone's attention, good or bad, so she'd never been put in this type of situation before.

“Because you're not the only girl in Whispering Bay who's beenâ¦
despoiled
by that juvenile delinquent!”

Zeke Grant, Despoiler of Virgins
. It nearly made Mimi giggle, exceptâ¦Momma was right about the hanging around the beach all day. She was right about the pot smoking, too. Whispering Bay might be small, but Zeke and Momma didn't exactly run in the same circles, so Mimi had no clue how Momma got her information. Zeke had graduated high school with Mimi's older brother, Luke, but the two of them hadn't been good friends. Plus, Luke was away at college, so he couldn't possibly be Momma's source.

In Zeke's defense, he
did
have a job. When he wasn't at the beach, he worked as a mechanic at Bert's Garage. Not hoity-toity enough for Ann Powers, but Zeke was only nineteen. And he was
smart
. Not just book smart, but street smart. Working at the garage was temporary.

“What do you mean I'm not the only girl?” And then, because she was on a roll and couldn't seem to help herself, Mimi added, “And how do know I was a virgin?”

Ann Powers looked ready to faint.

Mimi instantly felt contrite. She hadn't wanted to shock her mother, or pick a fight, either. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. Iâ¦I haven't been with anyone else,” she confided.

This seemed to quell Momma's anger. “You'll have to postpone your first semester at Duke. Unlessâ¦when is the baby due?”

“I don't know.”

“When was your last period?”

“November.”

Â Momma studied Mimi's tummy with a keen eye. “You're still thin enough that no one can tell if you have on the right clothes. We'll have to go away for the summer, of course. Maybe we can stay at your uncle's cabin in North Carolina. It's not far from Asheville. I'm sure there are plenty of good hospitals in the area. Once we're up there we can look into adoption agencies.”

Mimi instinctively placed her hand over the firm lump in her tummy. In response, she felt a small kick. It was time she faced the music. It wasn't gas bubbles she'd been feeling the last two weeks. It was her baby moving.
Her
baby. And Zeke's.

“I'm not giving my baby up for adoption,” she whispered fiercely.

“Don't be so selfish, Mary Margaret. What kind of life can you give this baby? You're not even eighteen yet. You've no job. No skills. Your father and I aren't going to help you with this. You won't be able to manage Duke on your own. You'll end up a single mother on welfare. Is that what you want?” When Mimi didn't answer, she persisted. “What does your Romeo think of this baby?”

Mimi raised her chin. “He doesn't know.”

“Then he's as much a fool as you are.” Her mother stilled. “What do you mean he doesn't know? One look at you andâ¦ When was the last time you saw this boy?”

Mimi realized her mistake too late. “Notâ¦so long ago.”

“He's moved on to someone else, hasn't he?” Momma's blue eyes softened. “Darling, please let me help you. Don't let one mistake ruin your life.”

But no matter how much Momma pleaded, it was no use. Mimi had already made up her mind. It wasn't that she particularly wanted to have a baby when she was practically a baby herself. Or that she didn't want to go to college. But from the moment she laid eyes on Zeke Grant, standing by the bowling alley, a beer in one hand, his dark eyes raking her from top to bottom, she'd known what women had known for generations before her.

There was something about a bad boy that made a good girl go stupid.

M
imi Grant was up
to her eyeballs in trouble. It had barely been a week since she'd been inaugurated as Whispering Bay's newest mayor and the city was already falling apart.

It was her first official city council meeting and she'd been looking forward to it the way a kid looks forward to the first day of school (a nerdy kid, that is). After eighteen years as a stay-at-home mom, she was ready to begin a new phase of her life. She just hadn't expected the bullies to declare themselves so early.

Bruce Baileyâex-mayor and six term incumbent whom Mimi had soundly beaten for the job last Novemberâsat across from her at the other end of the freshly waxed oak table with a smirk on his face.
You wanted this, you got this
, his expression said. Mimi might be thirty-five and the mother of two, but she wasn't above sticking her tongue out at Bruce. At least, not in her fantasies, she wasn't.

There were four members on the Whispering Bay City Council, and as the most current former mayor, Bruce was automatically given a spot. The idea behind that had been to foster continuity. Bruce, however, was a sore loser. He'd love nothing more than to see Mary Margaret Grant, a PTA housewife with no previous political experience, fall flat on her ass.

Mimi imagined Bruce wasn't the only good citizen of Whispering Bay who'd love to see her fail. Not that she didn't have lots of supporters. Over half the town had voted for her. It was the biggest election turnout in Whispering Bay's history and she was proud to be the inspiration behind it. But she was also the town's first female mayor and the pressure was on to make her gender proud.

Besides Bruce, the other council members consisted of Gus Pappas, a local plumber and a member of Whispering Bay's senior citizen activist group, the Gray Flamingos. Gus was a sweetheart and just like Mimi, newly elected. Larry Jefferson (a long time member of the council and a crony of Bruce's) and Denise Holbert made up the other two spots.

Mimi shifted around in her chair to tug on her black linen skirt. For most of her adult life she'd worn the typical mom uniformâjeans, T-shirts, and an occasional sweatshirt when the north Florida weather got cold enough. Skirts and heels were saved for special occasions. Although the mayoral position was only part-time, as the new “face” of Whispering Bay she was expected to be on twenty-four/seven. Skirts, heels (and Spanx) were now her daily look and she needed to get used to it.

She nervously jiggled one high heeled foot in the air as she listened to Larry Jefferson read the minutes from the last meeting. The city budget was in shambles. Which wasn't her fault. Technically, it wasn't Bruce's fault, either. The mayor wasn't directly involved in fiscal matters. That job belonged to the city manager. But it was the mayor's responsibility to work alongside the city manager and the rest of the council to keep the budget in check. Paul Amos, Whispering Bay's city manager for the past twelve years had resigned before the previous council had been forced to fire him. His replacement, a hot shot from the St. Augustine area had been hired to clean things up.

Mimi glanced to her left to find Doug Wentworth (said hot shot), staring at her. Or rather, staring at her legs. At least, she
thought
that was what he was doing. The last person to study her legs this intently was Doc Morrison. She and the kids had been hiking in the St. Joseph National Park a few months ago and she'd come away with a bad case of poison ivy, the worst part below her knees. So of course Doc had checked her out. But what excuse did Doug have?

Did she have a run in her hose?

Then she remembered, she wasn't wearing hose. It was early February, but north Florida was having a not-unheard-of warmer-than-warm spell. It had reached seventy-five degrees today and half the town was in shorts. Maybe Doug found her foot jiggling a distraction.

She immediately stopped her fidgeting.

Doug caught her gaze and smiled in a way that made Mimi's cheeks go warm. He was probably her age, mid-thirties, above average height with short brown hair and hazel eyes. Nice eyes, if Mimi were being honest. She didn't know much about him except that he was originally from Kansas and had been wooed by the council after Paul's resignation. Supposedly, he'd cleaned up a similar fiscal mess in Old Explorer's Bay, a city south of St. Augustine on Florida's east coast.

Doug passed around copies of a thin bound notebook to the table's occupants. Besides Bruce and the other three members of the council, Pilar Diaz-Rothman, Whispering Bay's attorney (and Mimi's good friend and fellow Bunco Babe) was also present.

Bruce picked up his notebook and frowned. “What is this?”

Mimi began flipping through the pages. “It appears to be a city budget.”

“Well, I can see
that.
” Bruce scanned the notebook then carelessly flung it back onto the table. “You've been here all of a week,” he said to Doug, “How on earth could you have put together a budget in that amount of time? You don't even know what our priorities are yet.”

In his non-mayorly life, Bruce served as vice-President of the Whispering Bay Community Bank, as well as current president of the Rotary Club. He was in his late forties and married to Bettina Bailey, PTA mother extraordinaire. Over the years, Mimi had had several run-ins with Bettina, mostly over how to spend the proceeds from the annual elementary school bake sale. The fact that Mimi was now in a position to spar with Bruce over a multi-million dollar budget made her palms go damp.

You've come a long way, baby
.

Boy, had she ever.

“I realize I haven't been here long,” Doug said smoothly, “but if you look at those numbers a little closer, you'll see I've done my homework.” He paused to take a drink of water, which was cue for everyone at the table to open their notebooks again and begin perusing.

Mimi had to hand it to Doug, he didn't seem intimidated by Bruce, which scored him some major brownie points in her book.

“As I said before, I haven't been in Whispering Bay long, but I come from a situation very similar to the one you have here. Five years ago, I was hired as the city manager for Old Explorers' Bay, a town almost identical to your demographics. A population of about ten thousand with a heavy residential tax base. No real industry to speak of, except some minor tourism. But I was able to turn things around within two years.
And
leave them with a substantial bank account.” He eyed each member of the table. “I plan to do exactly the same thing here.”

Pilar leaned over to whisper in Mimi's ear. “I like this guy's confidence.”

“We'll see,” she whispered back. She liked Doug's confidence, too. But actions spoke louder than words. And results spoke the loudest of all.

The other members of the city council began talking at once. Doug sat down and caught her gaze again, holding it even longer this time.
What?
She'd had a spinach salad for lunch.
Oh, God
. Did she have spinach between her teeth? That must be it.

“Maybe this is a good time to take a break,” Mimi suggested.

Pilar immediately stood. “Good idea. Let's take a break.”

The rest of the table reluctantly murmured in agreement.

Mimi hit the bathroom with Pilar on her heels. She checked herself out in the bathroom mirror. No spinach in her teeth. Nothing else out of the ordinary, either.

“Do you think my skirt is too short?” she asked Pilar. “Or maybe there's something wrong with my legs? I should have worn panty-hose, right? I'm thirty-five years old. I need to wear panty-hose.”

Pilar smoothed back her chin length dark hair, touched up her lipstick, then turned to give Mimi a thorough inspection. “You look great. What makes you think you need to wear panty hose?”

“Nothing.”

“By
nothing
, do you mean have I noticed that Doug keeps checking you out? He's about as subtle as a kid in the third grade. Next, he'll try to pull your hair. Speaking of whichâ¦your hair looks different. What did you do to it?”

“I colored out the gray.”

Pilar rolled her eyes. “What gray? You and Claire could be sisters,” she said, referring to Mimi's seventeen-year-old daughter.

“Ha! I wish. And the gray was there, believe me.”

“Well, your hair looks great. Just like the rest of you.” Pilar lifted Mimi's hands and smiled in approval. “Look at that. You even got a manicure!” The smile quickly vanished. “Where's your wedding ring?”

Mimi automatically rubbed her left thumb up against her ring finger. After nearly eighteen years of marriage it felt strange not wearing her ring. “I took it off this morning.”

Pilar's face fell. “Oh, babe. I know you and Zeke are having problems, but please tell me you're having it cleaned or resized or something.”

“I took it off this morning to do dishes and forgot to put it back on.” Pilar looked like she didn't believe her. “No, really, I was just so nervous about this meeting I would have forgotten my head if it wasn't attached.” Mimi swallowed hard. She'd never been a good liar, and Pilar was too shrewd for her own good. “It's the truth,” Mimi said, avoiding Pilar's beady eyed-stare. “Butâ¦you're right about Zeke and me. We're still having problems. We're kind of in a time out.”

“A time out? From what?” Pilar demanded.

“From our marriage.”

“Does Zeke know that? Because I saw him at The Bistro this morning and we had an entire conversation about couples Bunco.”

Mimi and Pilar belonged to Whispering Bay's oldest established Bunco group, affectionately known around town as the Bunco Babes. Every Thursday night the group rolled dice, drank frozen margaritas, and gossiped. It was the best girls' night out in town. The group consisted of twelve members, all fierce and loyal friends. Once a year every April they allowed their significant others to join them. The men liked to pretend that they had to be dragged along, but it was all an act. The truth was, everyone looked forward to couples Bunco. Even Zeke, the original grumpy cat.

“Believe me, Zeke knows we're taking a time out. He's sleeping at the office.” At least, she assumed he was sleeping at the office. She hadn't asked and he hadn't offered up the information.

“But this is temporary, right? I mean, you guys are going to work it all out.”

That's exactly what Mimi had thought when they'd first gone to counseling. But that had been a year-and-a-half ago and nothing had changed.

Mimi gave her friend a shaky smile. “It's hard to work out your problems when one of you doesn't think any exist.”

“Who else knows?” Pilar asked softly.

“No one yet. Zeke asked me to wait. But I can't hold off forever. I mean, people are going to notice he's not living at the house. We're telling the kids first, of course, then our families, and thenâ¦everyone else.”

Â “So Allie doesn't know either?”

Allie was Zeke's younger sister. Although Mimi was only four years older than Allie, she felt more like a mother to her than a sister-in-law. Allie would take the news hard. She was engaged to marry her high school sweetheart Tom Donalan this summer and Mimi had promised she would help with the wedding, a promise Mimi would naturally keep. Just because she and Zeke were having problems didn't mean her relationship with her sister-in-law would change.

“I'm having lunch with Allie tomorrow. I plan to tell her then.
After
I have a couple of stiff drinks.”

Â “You don't think Zeke has already told her?”

“This is Zeke we're talking about. Remember?”

Pilar smiled sympathetically. Like the rest of Mimi's close friends, Pilar knew Zeke well enough to know that when it came to discussing his feelings (or anything else remotely personal), Zeke was the poster boy for the strong and silent type. Allie might be his sister, but like the rest of the people in Zeke's life she was on a need-to-know basis. And there was precious little Zeke Grant thought people needed to know. Plus, there was the fact that Zeke was still hoping this whole time out thing would blow over and they could pretend it never happened.

“Please let me know if there's anything I can do.” Pilar drew her into a tight hug. “And
pretty please,
and I'm speaking as both a friend and a lawyer here, don't do anything rash.”

“I promise,” Mimi said, swiping away a tear. “Oh, God. Do mayors cry? Because I'm pretty sure they don't.”

“Mayors do whatever the hell they want. It's part of the benefit package.”

*~*~*

T
he meeting resumed with
more talk about the city budget. Bruce went into what sounded like a rehearsed speech, talking banker talk that, frankly, Mimi didn't really understand all too well. A year ago, when she'd announced to her family that she was running for mayor, Zeke had pointed out her lack of fiscal experience. She'd brushed it off at the time, but he had a point. If she was going to do a good job as mayor she was going to have to understand all the numbers in this budget.

BOOK: That Man of Mine

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