A Member of the Council Read Online Free Page B

visited Grans.”
    He swung the car onto a busy city street. Slowing to a speed where Parris didn’t feel like she was on a dirt track. He smiled over at her, “Sorry. I’ll be gentle.”
    “Thanks.” Parris kept her gaze on the road in front of them. She hadn’t told him where her grandmother lived yet Ty, so far, drove like he’d been there many times.
    “Tell me about the crazy customers you get at the bar.”
    Parris frowned at the wording. “I don’t have crazy customers. I said people tend to choose the same song, over and over. One person will select a song early in the day, later someone else will pick the same song. The pattern repeats all night.”
    “Wouldn’t seem to be uncommon considering radio stations only play the current hits, over and over?” Ty pulled the car onto the freeway entrance. “Your grandmother lives in Troy, right?”
    “How did you know?” Parris shot Ty a glance.
    “You told me last night.” Ty mumbled, focusing on merging traffic.
    Parris faltered, she’d never said where Grans lived. Parris ran through the conversation, when she got to the kiss, her face heated and she knew she’d turned beet red. “I didn’t think I did.”
    “Then how would I know,” Ty answered, sounding oh, so, reasonable.
    And that’s the question. Parris watched the world pass the window, wondering what she’d done by asking Ty’s for help. She’d believed she’d have the upper hand. Especially after the impromptu kiss. Controlling men was easy. They wanted one thing. Dangle the possibility and men did her bidding. Parris got the feeling Ty was different. The difference made Parris unsure of her power.
    “You’re quiet.” Ty’s voice broke her thoughts.
    “Just watching the fields fly by. I love the city. Driving to Grans, something resonates inside with the natural repetition of the fields, the cycle of life. I’m in awe of the work of farmers. Something I never think of while eating my dinner salad.”
    “Or the ribeye?” Ty nodded, turning the music down. “When you think of where your food comes from, it gives you a whole new perspective of the agricultural life.”
    Not an opinion she would have expected. This guy kept surprising her. The exit was fast approaching. “Take this exit, then it’s an immediate right. Grans’s subdivision is three streets down.”
    “She takes living at the edge of town seriously.” Ty looked around the farms still bordering the freeway. “How big is this subdivision?”
    “Ten houses. Once a developer planned an extension, the new home market tanked right after he started. The cornfield behind her house stayed undeveloped.” Parris hated the slimy guy who came to notify the neighborhood about the new development.
    Grans had seen her anger and after serving the man tea and cookies, she’d pulled Parris aside. “You have to learn to pick your battles.”
    “All he wants is to make money. I can feel the greed roll off him. He doesn’t want to build beautiful homes like he said.” Parris explained her feeling to her grandmother.
    “Don’t worry, dear. Karma has a way of catching up with everyone.” Humming a tune, her grandmother cleared the tea set from the coffee table. Two weeks later, Parris was reading the newspaper for her civics class when she saw the man’s picture. His construction company filed bankruptcy. The ownership of the cornfield behind the houses stayed undetermined.
    Ten years later, still no one had developed the field.
    Ty turned the Mercedes onto Hunt Road, stopping the car in front of Grans’s house. He frowned slightly at the house, painted a deep purple with yellow trim. “I take it we’re here?”
    Parris almost asked him how he knew, but she saw the name on the yellow mailbox. MCCALL printed in purple matching the house. Duh.
    “Welcome to Casa McCall.” Parris put her hand on his arm. “Just promise me you’ll be nice. Grans can be a tad overbearing at times.”
    “I’ll be on my best behavior.”