Page 3 of Shotgun Spouse
"You don't get it, Bird Brain."
To anyone who didn't know the Chou sisters, that would've been an insult. But Birdy Chou had graduated at the top of her high school, undergrad, and law school classes. Hers was the biggest brain in the family.
"I'll be a divorcee at twenty-two," Kitty went on. "Marriage is supposed to be sacred, forever."
"Christmas is supposed to be sacred. People start celebrating it the day after Halloween and then on December 26th, they forget baby Jesus and start worshiping Cupid. Nothing is sacred or forever."
Kitty let out a pained sigh on the phone. It rubbed Bunny's hair the wrong way. She couldn't stand when her sisters were in pain. Both were suffering for different reasons.
"I don't want to get a divorce."
"It's not like you had a real marriage to begin with. You married for money, which was a great business decision. Your business is art, which I will forever find questionable."
"What's questionable is any man ever wanting to marry you, Bird Brain."
"The answer to that is that I'm never getting married."
"Hey, you two, cut it out." Bunny's voice came out smooth thanks to her lack of running her mouth during this conversation but also because the lemon had soothed her throat.
Both her sisters settled down. They knew better than to argue with that tone. As the eldest, Bunny was excellent at the Mom Tone. She'd been blessed with having two moms in her life, though she'd been cursed to lose them both.
"Kitten, honey, you need to file the separation paperwork, at least."
"But Bunny?—"
"Just give him the paperwork and let him make his decision."
"Fine."
"Birdy, will you draw it up for her?"
"I'll get to it this afternoon and give her the family discount."
"You're not charging your baby sister for this, Birdy."
"Fine, but I need your help with my business license renewal before I'm late."
"How is it that you can keep all this legalese and red tape straight, but you choke when it comes to business documents?"
Bunny could hear her sister shrug through the phone. The middle Chou sister was excellent at taking care of other people's business. It was when it came to her own affairs that she got forgetful, and sometimes down right negligent.
"My next client is here," Birdy chirped. "I gotta go."
"Me, too," said Kitty. "Paint won’t mix itself.”
The line went dead. Bunny stuffed her phone back into her pocket and reached for her tea. It was lukewarm now.
She'd just solved her sisters' problems. If everyone in town let her manage their lives, there would be no issues. She turned back to the blank spot on the wall. Yeah, she could picture herself there, framed in polished wood, her expression calm and confident. Under her leadership, things wouldn’t just happen—they’d get done. The town would thrive. Everyone would be better off if they just listened to her.
Control freak. That phrase was practically engraved on Bunny’s forehead by now. As if trying to keep her family from self-destructing was somehow a flaw. The chaos in her family was enough to send anyone into a tailspin, but pairing it with the daily circus of the mayor’s office? That was a recipe for disaster.
From Frank's resistance to change, to Preston's preppy condescension, to Grant's constant come-ons. Grant had been another Deidre Caldwell hire. He was pretty in the face, but not impressive where it counted, just like the former mayor liked them. With his constant flattery and flirting, it was clear to see he was headed down the same path as his former boss.
But Bunny’s biggest problem wasn’t Grant, or Preston, or even Frank. It was Teddy. Mayor Theodore James Carter, with his boyish grin, his disarming charm, and his absolute refusal to stick to a script.
Bunny knew the power of words. Words could move mountains—or, in this case, secure funding, rally support, and solve every problem the town had. If Teddy would just listen to her for once, stick to the carefully crafted speeches she wrote for him, everything would fall into place.
But no. Teddy liked to “wing it,” to “speak from the heart,” and the town ate it up every time. Meanwhile, he always missed key points that she'd highlighted in his carefully constructed policy speeches, which left her scrambling at the phones when constituents called in with questions about the parts of the policy that Teddy had neglected to mention.
