The Christmas Campaign by Patricia Bradley

Author:Patricia Bradley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

NICOLE PULLED HER bedspread back and folded it, placing it on the hope chest her dad had given her two days after his birthday. Not really a hope chest—just a cedar chest. However, she didn’t know when she’d ever been as flattered as she had been lately with two men paying attention to her.

Not that she took either of them seriously, and as long as she remembered that, she wouldn’t get hurt. Being a numbers person made it easier for her to analyze the situation and keep everything in perspective.

And in this situation Jake and Peter were competing for a prize, and neither of them liked losing. They were interested in her only because she was tied into the prize—both men wanted her to vote for their project.

Keep that in mind, Nicole, and you’ll be okay. You know you can’t trust either one of them with your heart.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to daydream about what it’d be like to have someone like Jake or Peter really interested in her. What if both of them wanted to date her? Not to get her vote, but because they thought she was pretty...or interesting. Which one would she choose?

She banged her toe against the bed, shooting pain up her leg. Hopping on the other foot, she grabbed her throbbing toe. That’s what she got for even thinking someone like Jake or Peter would be interested in her. She wasn’t curvaceous like the women she saw Jake with, and she was not the kind of woman Peter would be interested in, either.

Why not? Because she was nothing like the petite woman he’d dated previously, that’s why not. Allie was cute and the kind of woman men wanted to protect. Nicole was too independent for the likes of Peter Elliott.

She shook her head, dispelling her fantasies. Right now her primary objective was getting elected mayor. She had to remember that she was trying to win this race over Peter. All the more reason he wouldn’t be interested in her.

She’d better be planning her strategy for how she was going to beat him. She did have one advantage over Peter. His attention was divided between the youth project and his run for mayor, while hers was focused 100 percent on the campaign. Like tomorrow afternoon. If he’d been thinking straight, he wouldn’t have horned in on her meeting with Millie and her senior citizens group. There was no way he could come out ahead. Jake was right. Those older folks would eat Peter alive.

Still rubbing her toe, Nicole climbed into bed with a notebook. She had to craft a better response to keep the same thing from happening to her if that article appeared in the paper tomorrow. She’d all but endorsed Peter’s plan for the youth center.

* * *

THE NEXT AFTERNOON, Nicole climbed the city hall steps, feeling the flutter of hundreds of butterflies in her stomach. She hoped she would be able to come up with a fair answer when she was asked if she intended to vote for the senior center.

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