Kelvin took a beer out of the cooler in what should have been Grady's kitchen. "How do you expect people to vote for you when you don't even have a house that works? Who doesn't have a fridge?"

"To recap, I don't expect people to vote for me. Or not many people." Grady took a swig of his beer and hauled out one of the lawn chairs he'd bought that day for Kelvin to sit in. Flicking his wrist, the chair opened up and Grady pushed down in the middle so it wouldn't collapse when Kelvin sat down.

"And lawn chairs in your house? This is the first and last planning meeting here if this is where I have to sit." He took a sip of his beer and then held it away from his face so he could read the label. "And what is with this beer?"

"It's Korean. Like my dog, Hite. I like it."

"Hite is Korean?"

"Yep. Zeus is Greek."

"Right. Yeah. I forgot you collected them along your travels." He glanced at the two behemoths lying at my feet. "Seriously, though, when are you starting work on this place?" Kelvin picked at the label on his bottle as he took in the cracked walls and stained carpet in the living room. "You should have moved in with your mom."

Grady shook his head and took a long drink of his beer. "I'm thirty-four. Who the fuck moves back in with their mother at thirty-four?"

"Someone who can only afford a house that'll cause headaches, asthma, and who knows what other respiratory illnesses."

"You googled this last night, didn't you?"

"Of course. Google Doctor is good for some things. We're very close."

"Like developing a hypochondriac disorder?" Grady took another swig from his beer and squinted at Kelvin. One of the things they'd had in common was a thirst for knowledge. Kelvin had excelled in high school in every subject. School hadn't been as big of a deal to Grady, but he'd loved to read, anything and everything. "What about Google Dentist?"

"Utter bullshit." Kelvin laughed. "Half of the crap on there is just plain wrong."

Not surprising, and Grady grinned. The thing was, Grady could have afforded a better house. But there'd been something about this place, like the town itself, that had drawn him in. He'd come home for the anniversary of his dad's death, and this house had been for sale. He'd toured through it with the real estate agent, and a feeling of rightness had crept into his bones. Maybe the sensation that it was time he stayed, the desire to lay down roots, was simply nostalgia. This place, old man Whittaker's house, had been the last handyman job he'd done before going to his audition nine years ago.

Everything after that had been a whirlwind, sweeping Grady up and carrying him off. He'd felt hopeful his last day here, like maybe there was more to life than this town and shitty paying jobs. Grady chuckled to himself. Now, he was running for mayor. What was wrong with him? Did the town even pay a salary?

"You're thinking about it, aren't you? About how dumb all this is? Are we quitting? Maybe we should quit. Did you see Maggie already has signs up everywhere?" Kelvin heaved himself out of the lawn chair and went over to the curtain-less windows to point across the road to the signs dotting his neighbors' lawns. "Did you pick one of those slogans I sent you? We're already behind schedule."

"Take some deep breaths, Kelvin or else I'm going to start hyperventilating for you. We're fine. It's been a week. The election isn't until November. I don't want to win. I want to make it harder for Maggie."

"So far, your plan for making it harder seems to be doing nothing but walking your dogs and registering as an independent."

"I like walking my dogs. It helps me think."

"About what? You haven't picked a slogan. You have no plan. No platform. Probably most of the town doesn't even know you're running."

"I can't put all my good ideas out there at once. Who would do that?" Grady gave Kelvin an amused look. Kelvin scowled. "Besides, I still have my real-life job that needs to get done. And you said I needed money for this campaign, so I took on some work I wouldn't normally consider much less complete." He looked up at the ceiling. "Thinking is half the paycheck."

"I wouldn't want to stunt your intellectual process," Kelvin's voice dripped with skepticism. "But you made a promise to me I wouldn't be embarrassed by being associated with your campaign."

"I don't care about the slogan or the platform or any of that stuff. Put down whatever sounds good to you. I can talk bullshit all day long. I've been doing it for years. The platform and slogan aren't going to matter because I'm not going to win." Grady stood and walked back to the cooler in the not-quite-a-kitchen and grabbed another beer. Hite and Zeus were close at his heels.

"Every day I wake up and remember I agreed to this, I want to stop being your friend." Kelvin's voice echoed around the empty house.

"That's fine." Grady walked back into the living room and passed Kelvin another beer. Kelvin didn't mean it. They'd pulled all sorts of pranks in high school, and when Grady had gone to visit Kelvin in college before Center Stage, they'd spent many wild nights making choices worse than this. "But you'll still be my campaign manager. That contract was binding."

"At least tell me you're going to show up at the Fourth of July parade and fireworks. We can announce your run for mayor there."

Grady nodded. "Sounds like a plan." The cap of his bottle was being stubborn, and Grady put it on the edge of the window and leveraged it open. "That must make you happy. I used the word 'plan' in a sentence."

"As long as our plans are the same."

"Doubtful." Grady tipped the beer back and sighed. "Fourth of July must be some sort of big PR deal for Maggie, right?"

Kelvin's nod was slow to come.

"We'll announce my candidacy and use the celebration to launch our first political move."

"And what'll that be?"

"No idea." Grady shrugged. "But I'm sure I'll figure it out on my next walk." He reached down and scratched both dogs idly.

"One last thing," Kelvin said. "Once we announce, you're going to need people to help organize things—distribution of signs, word of mouth PR, maybe run a few ads."

Grady frowned. "I've been gone for nine years." Kelvin was the only person he'd stayed friends with. Any time Grady had come back to Little Falls, which hadn't been very often, he'd slipped into town for a day or a weekend with his mom, a quick beer with Kelvin, and then he'd disappeared again. Being here had filled him with complicated feelings, ones he didn't want to examine too closely.

"There must be some people," Kelvin said but Grady could tell by the look on his face both of them knew that wasn't true. "Maybe play your famous card?"

"I'll find some." He made a circling motion with his beer. "I'll round them up."

"Okay, good. Look, I gotta get going." Kelvin passed his second unopened beer to Grady. "I've got a date in Utica tonight."

"A date?"

"Yeah, this guy I met on a dating app. We've been chatting for a while, so I'm hoping dinner goes well."

At the mention of Utica, Grady thought of at least one person he could convince to help him with his campaign. 'Campaign' sent a chill across Grady's heart. Why was he doing this? Why he couldn't let it go as Kelvin had suggested? Maggie hadn't paid any price for what had happened to Trent. Being inconvenienced a few times during a local election was minuscule in comparison. He could do this.

"Alright, man. Good luck. I'm rooting for you. I'll catch you later."

As soon as Kelvin was out the door, Grady hooked his two dogs to their leashes and decided to take a long walk. Eight o'clock at night was prime thinking time. A brisk wind ruffled his hair and stirred up the fur on the backs of the dogs as he wandered down his tree-lined street. He'd covered almost every neighborhood in town at some point in the last couple of weeks. Kelvin was right—he did a lot of walking. 

So many areas of the town had become run down. Shockingly so. Little Falls needed something to jump start it back to its former glory. In his mind, this town had always been small but full of life. Now, it was tired and beat up. Perhaps if he'd stayed, that's how he'd feel, too. Was it possible to make a life here? He'd never been able to settle anywhere for more than a year since he'd left. Something in him kept pushing him forward, away, on to the next thing.

Without realizing it, he'd ended up in Maggie's parents' neighborhood. He'd avoided this area of town. Her parents were small town royalty, her mother a lawyer and her father a doctor. There were few families who could compare. This was the most expensive part of town with bigger lots, bigger houses, and bigger opportunities.

Out on the front lawn, Maggie and her father, Jim were talking and laughing. At the corner of the street, he hovered with Hite and Zeus, and they whined, eager to continue. Grady couldn't tear his gaze away from the scene playing out in front of him. Behind the pair was a massive wooden sign emblazoned with, Margaret Sullivan for Mayor – Building our Future, Together. It looked a little weathered. Jim reached out a hand and patted the corner and Maggie laughed again, shaking her head. They hugged, and Maggie's sigh was almost audible from where Grady stood.

Watching them together was a muscle memory. If he closed his eyes, he could remember what a hug from a dad felt like. Every day since his father had died, he'd missed him. His feelings toward Maggie were questionable, but a part of him had loved Jim Sullivan for years.

As their family doctor, Jim had been in Grady's life for as long as he could remember. When Grady's father died in a drunk driving accident, Jim had been the doctor at the hospital to give them the news that his father wasn't going to wake up. While his brother and mother had been saying goodbye to their comatose father, Jim had sat in the waiting room with Grady. Even now, years later, the words Jim said to him that day felt as fresh, as new as when they first hovered between them.

"Losing a parent is awful," he'd said. "It'll be awful for a long time, maybe forever. We never get over the loss. But someday, maybe when you're a parent, it'll make you love your kids a little harder. Or at least it did with me. Sometimes out of the darkness, there's a bright spot, even if we can't see it yet. If you ever need to talk, I've been there. I know what it's like. And I'm always happy to listen."

They had talked a lot over the years, in the office, on the street, while Grady was cleaning Jim's gutters, but never about Grady's dad. The topic had been too big, too impossible to broach even with someone as warm and approachable as Jim. Watching him with Maggie made Grady's chest ache for that bond, the closeness, lost in an instant.

Back when Trent and Maggie had been dating, if that was even what had been going on, Grady had been jealous of the time Trent got to spend time with Maggie's family. Jealousy evaporated the night his brother was arrested. Before they'd gotten the phone call, Maggie had declared to Grady 'it's not what you think' about their relationship. In his mind, if they hadn't been dating, Maggie had been mixed up in his brother's dirty deals. Truthfully, her as the mastermind made more sense than them dating. Trent as the muscle. Maggie as the brains.

With that thought at the forefront of his mind, he headed toward Maggie and her father. They broke apart at his approach, and Jim smiled, but there was a strain at the edges Grady hadn't seen before. Around town, Grady had experienced many moments like this since he'd returned, where time had taken its toll on someone, and he could see it stamped all over their face, their body, in the color of the hair. Sometimes the change was so great he didn't recognize them. Jim had aged, but there was still something dignified in his aging, his hair still mostly dark, his face still largely unlined, as though time had decided to be gentle with him.

"Grady Castillo!" Jim came forward with his hand outstretched. "Maggie tells me you're running for mayor against her. May the best woman win."

Grady couldn't hold back his grin, even as he focused on Maggie with her arms crossed tight around her. Hite and Zeus strained on the leash, eager to get to Jim or Maggie. Once Jim shook Grady's hand, he crouched down and ruffled the dogs' fur.

"Beautiful beasts," Jim murmured as Grady scanned Maggie who was studiously avoiding his gaze.

"Nice sign, Maggie May."

"Thank you." A façade draped over her as she loosened her arms and wandered over to crouch beside her father. "I've loved all your signs around town, too. What's your slogan again, I can't quite remember? I've read your campaign platform somewhere, right? My father would love to make an informed choice if you could give him your spiel." Her fingers massaged Hite's neck before she looked up at him, a wicked gleam in her brown eyes.

Grady smothered a grin at her obvious attempt to get under his skin. "I'm not a seasoned politician like you, Mags. I'm taking my time putting together something memorable."

She pursed her lips and tried to stifle a laugh. Whatever. Her laughter was fine. She had no idea what he was doing. Needling her was his goal, not winning the election.

"Still," she hedged. "There must have been something about the town that pushed you to run? To make you feel like you'd be good for the residents of Little Falls as their leader after having been absent from everyone's lives for so long?"

Grady's jaw clenched. There she went again with that absentee nonsense. He'd come home whenever he was needed.

"Now, Margaret." Jim rose. "We're not getting into a political debate on the sidewalk. Did you want to come in? Coffee? We have a little shitpoo in there, but she's fairly well behaved, at least with other dogs."

"Dad, it's shih-poo."

"Yes, well, it shits and poos wherever it wants. If I didn't love your mother so much it would have gotten a one-way ticket to the vet years ago. How hard is it to housetrain a dog?" Jim gave Grady's two an appraising look. "Unusual looking dogs. What are they?"

"Strays I picked up on my travels." Grady smiled, and his hand ruffled their soft fur on instinct.

Jim looked him in the eyes. "Takes a lot of commitment to cart two large dogs around from country to country."

"Not cheap, either." He'd enjoyed their company, and their enthusiasm for any person, any environment. While you might have to win over people, you rarely had to win over a dog. Grady tightened his grip on the leashes when Maggie rose, and the dogs strained toward her. "Worth it, though."

"A constant captive audience," Maggie mumbled and flashed Grady a sardonic smile.

"Loyal. Trustworthy. A dog doesn't lie."

Maggie flushed, and Grady felt a surge of satisfaction.

"Coffee?" Jim asked even as his gaze shifted between Grady and Maggie. His jaw hardening for the briefest moment.

"Not tonight," Grady said. "I should get home. I've got some work to do." The words left his lips before he could reconsider.

"Oh." Maggie perked up. "You've got a job?"

A slow smile spread across Grady's face. "I'm sure you looked at my candidate information. My job was listed there."

Her cheeks rosy, Maggie didn't deny the accusation. "Musician."

"Yep."

"Another album coming out?" Jim asked, a slight frown creasing his brow. "That first one was such a hit."

And more than one song blatantly about your daughter. Had Jim never realized? Noticed the subtle references? He'd probably heard more of his songs on the radio than he realized.

"No new album for me," Grady said. "Just some odds and ends I still do for some people I know."

"Well," Jim said, "like the rest of the town, I was pretty proud of you when you won Center Stage."

Grady's heart sank at the realization screwing with Maggie's mayor race might damage his relationship with Jim. A loss he hadn't considered. He'd always been this way. Dive headfirst into something and then assess the fallout. Unfortunately, his brother Trent had also been like that. After their dad died, they'd run wild around the town for a couple years. In some ways, he was amazed the people of Little Falls had voted for him the first time. Now, in theory, he was asking them to do it again.

"The experience definitely opened a lot of doors for me. It was nice catching up with you, Jim." He stepped around them and started down the street. Not far down the sidewalk, he stopped and turned back. "Oh, and Maggie May—I'll see you at the Fourth of July Celebrations. I have a good feeling about them this year."

Maggie smirked and crossed her arms. "I have a good feeling about everything that's going to happen between now and November. Campaigns are so much fun. Let me know when you start yours."

He laughed and turned around, his brain ticking through all the ideas circling. A sense of competition had been lit in him by the smug look on her face. If these ideas starting to form were any indication, she might wish she hadn't looked at him like that. 

This story is posted on Radish Fiction along with the rest of the series.

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