Love Arranged (Lakefront Billionaires, #3)(122)

“I did my best,” I say, more for myself.

“You did, regardless of what Willow says.”

With one last exhale, I reach for my phone. “Okay.”

“Do you want me to stay or go?”

I answer her question by wrapping my arm around her and calling Willow back on speakerphone.

“Well, well. Nice to finally hear back from you. I’ve been trying to get in contact with you for the last ten minutes, Mayor Vittori.”

Lily slaps a hand over her mouth, but not fast enough to muffle her excited squeak.

I laugh.

Fucking laugh at her round eyes and arched brows.

Right before the humor fades and the truth settles in.

Mayor Vittori.

“You did it. You pulled it off…” Willow rambles on about my plans for the day, but I’m still in shock.

I’m the mayor, and it feels…unfair to be happy when the people I first ran for aren’t here to celebrate.

Tears pool in my eyes, and I blink them away. I won’t cry in front of Lily. I refuse to.

Yet no matter how hard I try, one escapes out of the corner of my eye and slides down my cheek.

“Willow, Lorenzo will call you back.” Lily hangs up the phone and throws her arms around me.

“Baby,” she says.

I tuck my head against her shoulder to hide my face.

She slides her hands through my hair, comforting me with her touch and soft words. “I can’t imagine how you feel right now.”

Happiness is the first emotion I can pin down for obvious reasons, followed by overwhelming sadness, knowing that the main reason I ran for this position was because of Trevor. Guilt is there too, along with its constant companion, grief.

“Do you want to go visit your parents and share the news?” she offers.

I nod, still not lifting my head from the crook of her neck.

“No rush.” She exudes a calm energy that I desperately need to emulate. “Whenever you’re ready, we can go.”




Lily and I are on our way to the cemetery when my phone rings. The area code is one I recognize, but the number isn’t one I have saved.

I let it go to voicemail, only for them to call again.

“Are you going to answer?” Lily asks.

“If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.”

The ringing ends abruptly, and the song Lily and I were listening to starts up again, only to be interrupted a minute later by a voicemail notification.

I pass her my phone and ask her to play it since I’m driving.

“Hey, Lorenzo.” Trevor’s voice fills the car, and suddenly the large truck I’m driving feels way too small.

Lily pauses it. “You good?”

I loosen my grip on the wheel. “Yeah.” As good as I can be, given the circumstance.

You won. He lost.

But I lost more, and that will always be the case.

“We can listen tomorrow—”

I shake my head. “I’d rather get it over with.”

“Okay.” She taps on my phone screen.

“Congratulations,” Trevor says, his voice surprisingly earnest. “You put up a hell of a fight for the position. Way more than we anticipated, and we weren’t as prepared as we should’ve been.”

Lily pauses the recording with a scoff. “They had almost two years.”

My shrug might appear casual, but my shoulders are tense and ready for an invisible threat. “They wasted a lot of it by underestimating me.”

She reaches for my hand tapping against my pocket and laces our fingers together. “Are you sure you want to keep listening?”

“How much more could he possibly have to say?”

She checks the app. “A minute.”

“Fine.” I refocus my attention on the road.

Her gaze remains pinned on me before she returns to my phone.

“I can make an educated guess as to why you chose to run for mayor, and in a weird way, I respect it. My father doesn’t share the same views as me—he told me as much—and neither does my brother, but that’s a whole other issue.”

Lily spares me a look, but I say nothing because I don’t want to pause again.

“They’re both unhappy with my loss, but I’m not. We both know I don’t deserve it… You do. Nothing I say can make up for anything that has happened in the past, and that’s fine. It’s my mistake to live with.” I say can make up for anything that has happened in the past, and that’s fine. It’s my mistake to live with.”

My molars grind at hearing that word again.

Trevor laughs to himself. “I’ll quit my rambling because I doubt you want to hear it anyway.”

Lily holds my hand tightly, lending me some of her strength.

He carries on, and God, I hope we’re nearing the end of this conversation.

“All this to say, I’m going to get out of your hair for a while. I’ve always wanted to travel, and now that my wife is embarrassed to show her face around town, this seems like the best time.”

“Thank God,” Lily mutters.

“Here’s to hoping they find somewhere else to live,” I joke half-heartedly.

“With the mayor and his wife being forced to move out of their home, who knows,” she replies.