All They Ever Wanted Read Online Free PDF Page B

the governor and the rest of the party staff; Coy was simply the mouthpiece. Still, Miles needed someone to lash out at. Coy might as well learn to take the heat early in his career.
    â€œUm, yeah, of course,” he said sheepishly. “I think everyone else wants to present it to you when they have all the kinks worked out.”
    The dog’s panting was the only sound in the room forseveral long seconds. Miles scrubbed a hand down his face. Taking out his frustrations on Coy wouldn’t solve anything. Besides, once he spoke directly with Governor Rossi, he was sure they’d assign him a new campaign manager immediately. Coy would likely be gone by morning.
    â€œMakes sense.” Miles pushed the words out even though nothing about this day made a lick of sense.
    Coy nodded and pulled his backpack onto his shoulder. “I’m just going to head back to the inn, where it’s a bit quieter, and make a few calls. I’ll meet you back here at eight?”
    â€œSounds like a plan,” Miles said and waved the younger man toward the door. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his sister exchange a worried glance with Gavin. The last thing he wanted was those two feeling sorry for him. Miles wasn’t conceding the damn race yet. Not by a long shot.
    â€œDon’t you have some tourist’s sunburn to treat?” he asked his sister.
    She wrinkled her nose up at him. “Funny. The clinic closed an hour ago. Em and I are on our way out to dinner with Alden and some friends. Would you like to join us?”
    Ah, a pity peace-offering from his sister. Just what Miles needed to end this shitty day. “No, thanks. I’ve got a lot to do here.” Which was a huge lie, but he really wanted to pace the floor in private, if possible.
    She looked as though she knew he was lying, but thankfully, she didn’t push him any further. “I spoke with Mom’s doctors,” she said as she stood up from the sofa and ran a hand over the wrinkles in her dress. “They’re going to release her tomorrow at the earliest.”
    â€œWell, that works out conveniently,” Gavin said to Miles. “You’ll likely need to appear at more events now. Mom can start to ease back into taking over the inn, giving you more time to campaign.”
    â€œMom isn’t ‘easing back’ into anything right away,” Kate interjected. “She’s still got a long way to go in the healing process. We can’t encourage her to get ahead of herself.” She pointed a finger at Miles. “But you can leave most of theday-to-day running of the inn to Lori. Stop harassing her about every little thing and let her do her job. Mom can supervise from the carriage house.”
    Miles didn’t like the idea of relinquishing control to a woman whose background he knew very little about, but his brother was right; he’d need to hit the campaign trail hard to keep Faye from creeping up in the polls. He’d have to cut Lori some slack if he wanted to make this work. But that didn’t mean he’d give her free rein of the B and B. He needed a few questions answered before he’d do that. Not that his bossy sister needed to know his intentions.
    â€œFine.”
    Kate narrowed her eyes at his acquiescence. “Just like that? Fine?” She blew out a breath. “Wow. You must be feeling the sting of Faye’s announcement. But I’m going to hold you to that. And both of you are going to help me keep Mom from overdoing it. Her emotional state is a little fragile right now, and I don’t want her to suffer a setback because of it.”
    Gavin slammed his chair back onto the floor as both he and Miles went on alert. “What do you mean, she’s ‘fragile’?” Gavin asked.
    Their mother was the toughest woman any of them knew. She’d spawned Kate, after all. Not only that, but she’d survived the sudden loss of her husband while