Luring Levi (Tarnished Saints Series Book 2) (14 page)

“What?” he said. “You can’t decide that ahead of time. That’s not fair.”

“Mr. Taylor, I have been running this
fair for the last ten years and I don’t need a mayor who shows up drunk and can never be on time telling me what the council can or cannot do.”

“
I may have been late, but I assure you I’m not drunk. And what you’re doing - that’s cheating.” He looked at Candace. “Isn’t it?”

“Don’t ruffle her feathers any more than you already have,” she whispered. “Just do what she says, what does it matter?”

“It matters,” he whispered back, “because her pickles are vile. And unless you’re forgetting, the two best of shows get to compete for the fifty grand in the
Sliced
competition.”

“She jus
t wants the opportunity to win,” whispered Candace. “And if her pickles are as bad as you say, then they don’t have a chance of winning ‘best of show’. So just go along with it for now.”

“But what if none of the pickles are deserving of ‘best of show’?
”

“
It doesn’t matter who wins,” she told him. The real competition on
Sliced
is between you and I. The other competitors are throw-aways,” she reminded him. “They are just there for good TV and have no chance of winning so it doesn’t matter.”

“If you say so,” he
said, walking over to the display of jarred pickles.

“Now, this year, since you are mayor,” said Mrs. Durnsby, “the board has decided that it will be your decision alone which pickles get the ribbons.”

“Oh, but we have a celebrity guest judge here,” he said, holding out an arm. “Don’t forget about Candace.”

“We didn’t,” she said. “Ms. Kane will decide the other
‘best of show’ from the remaining food, but you will decide for the pickles. Isn’t that right, Joe?” She looked over at the man with the clipboard.

“That’s right,” he agreed without even looking up. Levi had the feeling he wanted this to be over too.

“Wonderful,” he said, already feeling doomed. It wasn’t unlike the feeling of being sentenced to prison.

“Go ahead Mr. Mayor,” sai
d the mousey man who he now knew as Joe. “You can start tasting the pickles now.”

“I can’t wait
.” He did his best not to lose everything in his stomach as he went from jar to jar tasting the pickles. The rules were that he couldn’t know whose entry he was tasting until he’d finished. That way he wouldn’t be partial. But that didn’t matter. When he got to the last jar of pickles and put one into his mouth that same familiar feeling of kerosene burning the back of his throat let him know that this jar of pickles was indeed Mrs. Durnsby’s.

“Well, what do you think?” she asked.
“Which ones get the ribbons?”

Levi
pointed out the third, second and first place winners, and also a few honorable mentions. Every food entry in the competition would get some kind of ribbon whether the food was good or not. They had some ribbons that just said ‘wonderful’ printed on them for the rest of the entries.

“And which out of these,”
she splayed out her hand, basically pointing to her jar of pickles, “is the best of show and a finalist in the
Sliced
competition?”

“Well, I would say . . .” Thoughts flitted through his mind what the old woman would do if her pickles
were not chosen. He didn’t like the idea of her possibly gossiping to the whole town that he was the mayor and showed up to the fair late again, and with a hang over – which wasn’t even true. Still, he couldn’t be partial in his judging. He had to judge fairly. That’s what this whole thing was about.

“These were pretty good,” he said, pointing to a jar at the opposite end of the table.

Mrs. Durnsby’s face clouded over and her mouth turned down into a frown. Damn, he needed to get into her favors if he was going to make it as the town’s new mayor. If not, he should just kiss his position goodbye right now.

“So is that your choice for
‘best of show’?” asked Joe scribbling something down on the clipboard.

He looked at Mrs. Durnsby and
felt like he was back in fourth grade with Ms. Betty standing over him with the times-table punishment book in her hand. Then he looked over to Candace and she still seemed angry with him too, reminding him of his mother when he’d brought frogs home as a child and dumped them all in the bathtub scaring her out of her wits.

Time ticked and every second seemed like an hour.
His whole life seemed to flash before his eyes. This was ridiculous. He was a grown man, yet he felt as if what others thought of him was more important than what he thought of himself. So should he choose the pickles that were really the best and have Mrs. Durnsby tripping him up every time he made a move? Or should he choose her kerosene poison and get on her good side and therefore secure his position of mayor of Sweet Water? At least that way she’d help him run the town instead of trying to throw him under a bus.

He looked back to Candace for help, but she was not givin
g him any answers.

“Choose,” she told him. “You know what to do.”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Durnsby. “You know what to do.”

With an angel on one side of him and a devil on the other, he took a deep breath and did the only thing he possibly could. “I choose these as
‘best of show’.” He held out his hand and brought it down atop the jar of kerosene poison.

“Oh, those are mine!” Mrs. Durnsby smiled and ran over and kissed him, wrapping her arms around him. “How wonderful. Now I’ll be able to compete against you for the prize money when
Sliced
comes to the fair.”

She slapped the
‘best of show’ ribbon atop her own jar of pickles and walked away rambling to Joe about what she would wear to look thinner on TV.

“You knew those were her pickles all along, didn’t you?” asked Candace, shaking her head,
obviously not understanding his decision at all. “You told me how horrible they were, yet you went ahead and chose it as the winner.”

“Let’s just put it this way,” he said. “I did what I had to in order to help Sweet Water. And don’t forget,” he told her. “After all, it’s only a throw-away.”

He took another sip of his boiled water and hoped to hell he wasn’t the one who would be thrown away before this was all over.

Chapter 11

Levi spent the day at the fair doing his mayoral duties such as the official ribbon cutting that signified the start of the fair, and making sure all the permits were in order. Since he was mayor he had a few perks such as free rides and free food as well. He treated Candace to one of his famous Panini sandwiches and an elephant ear with extra cinnamon and powdered sugar. They’d also spent time looking at the livestock as she was a city girl and that sort of thing fascinated her.

They walked out of the
pole barn housing the rabbits as he had wanted to make sure there were rabbits for sale as he promised one to Zeke. Now he just had to figure out how he was gong to buy one for him, that’s all.

“Levi, Levi, over here!” Margery was flagging
him down from the diner’s concession stand. She had a long line of people waiting for her food - his creations actually, and both Enrique and Bernito the dishwasher were busy selling finger food and cold sodas left and right.

“Margery, it looks like sales are going well,” he told her, walking up as she ran from the booth to join him and Candace.

“They are,” she said, looking happier than he’d seen her in days. “We even ran out of Panini and I had to send Enrique back to make more.”

“How is he doing as your new chef?” asked Candace.

“Oh, he’s not my new chef, Levi is,” said the woman.

“Well
now, you know that’s just temporary,” Levi told her.

“But thanks to Levi’s wonderful tutoring,
” the woman continued, “Enrique has grabbed the bull by the horns so to speak. He is actually quite a good chef, but we never knew because no one before now had ever given him the opportunity to prove it. Thanks to Levi, the man has a newfound confidence about him as well as some wonderful new skills.”

“Well, that’s mighty nice of you to say that,” said Levi, “but I do think that you had a lot to do with the equation.”

“Oh, Enrique’s flagging me down for help,” she said, “I have to go.” She dug into her pocket and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and shoved it into Levi’s hand. “It’s not much, but I want to do something to show you my appreciation.”

“No, I can’t
take this,” he told her shaking his head and trying to hand it back to her.

“I could never thank you enough for what you’ve don
e to help me,” she told Levi. “You are a good man!”

“Well, I don’t know about th
at,” he said, trying to give back the money.

“No, I refuse to take it,” she said. “If you don’t want it, then spend it on all those nephews of yours as I am sure they would appreciate it. Now I’ve got to go.” She ran off to help Enrique, leaving him standing there with his arm outstretched.

“What are you going to do?” asked Candace.

“Well, I’m not keeping it for myself,” he said.

“Why not?” she asked. “You worked hard to help her, you deserve it.”

Levi didn’t feel like he deserved it. Besides, he wouldn’t have gossip starting around the town that he, being mayor, was accepting money. He just knew that would end up looking like some kind of damned bribe.

“I think I just found my answer of how I’m going to buy a rabbit for Zeke,” he answered, shoving the money into the front pocket of his jeans.

“That’s a great idea,” she said. “And very thoughtful of you.”

“Candy, will you go on the Ferris wheel with me?” he asked.

“What?” She looked at him and laughed.

“I know it sounds strange, but I used to love riding the Ferris wheel when I was a kid. It brings back good memories. I haven’t been on one since I was about ten years old.”

“Then what
are we waiting for?” she asked, taking his hand in hers. “To the Ferris wheel we’ll go. But don’t you dare rock the seat when we’re at the top or I’m going to kill you.”

“Me rock the seat?” he asked with a devilish grin. “Now why would you think I’d be the kind of guy to do something like that?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “Something just tells me that all you Taylor boys are nothing but trouble.”

* * *

Candace sat gripping the bar in front of her so hard that her knuckles were turning white. Levi was rocking the seat on the Ferris wheel back and forth as they went up high into the sky and then came back down and went around, once more heading up to heights that scared her.

“You are like a little kid,” she told him, watching him carelessly stretching his arms above his head like a little boy riding his bike without using his hands for the first time. “I to
ld you not to rock the seat, now stop it.”

“Oh, Candy, don’t tell me you’re scared with me sitting next to you to protect you.”

“Protect me?” she asked. “Hah! You are going to be the one responsible for my death yet.”

“Never.” He put his arm around her and pulled her closer to his chest. “How’s that?” he asked. “Feel safer now?”

“Now that you stopped rocking, yes,” she said. “But my nerves are still shaking.”

“You don’t need to be frightened of me, honey, I’m harmless.”

The Ferris wheel stopped just then to let people get off, their car directly at the top.

“Oh, I hate this,” she said.

“Hate this?” he asked. “This is the part I always liked the best. “Look around, Candy. You can see for miles up here. I’ve never felt so free.”

“It is pretty,” she admitted. “But I can’t help it. I am afraid of heights.
I guess that’s where my daughter gets it from.”

“Then why did you come up here with me to begin with?”

“Well,” she said. “I didn’t want to hurt you by turning you down.”

“
Hurt me?” he asked. “Candy you could never hurt me.”

She knew this was far from the truth, and especi
ally since she had yet to tell him her secret.

The F
erris wheel moved slightly, stopping for the next car of people below to exit.

“Let me
help you get your mind off of being scared.” He reached over and kissed her, making her forget all about the fact they were sitting high in the air ready to fall to their deaths at any second. He pulled her into his arms protectively and melded his lips to hers once again. It felt so wonderful that she almost forgot anyone else was even around.

“Have you ever th
ought about making love atop a Ferris wheel?” he asked in a low, seductive voice, his breath tickling her ear as he spoke.

“Don’t even say that,” she told him, glancing to the ground. “Now kiss me again before I start thinking about falling.”