“Morning. I would’ve knocked if I’d known someone was here,” the man said as Brett approached. “Mack Ellsbury, I live next door.” The man pointed to the house on the left. “You must be Sean’s friend.”
Brett stopped and extended his hand. “Brett Sherbrooke. I arrived early this morning.”
“Doesn’t look like this tree caused any damage. I’ll work on getting it out of your way. My wife wanted to get rid of it last fall so she could plant a flower garden. Looks like she got her wish.”
“I’ll give you a hand,” Brett answered. If they worked together, the tree would be off his property sooner.
“Appreciate the help. How ’bout a cup of coffee before we get started?”
“You’ve got power?”
Mack shook his head. “No, a generator. I had it installed last year. We tend to lose power often in the winter.”
Perhaps having a generator installed before the winter months arrived belonged on his to-do list. “Coffee sounds good. I’ve got a quick phone call to make, and I’ll be right over.”
Brett waited for his neighbor to leave before calling his dad. The phone rang several times before Jonathan Sherbrooke answered.
“What’s wrong? Are Mom and Nana okay?” Brett asked before his dad managed to say anything more than a hello. “Did something happen to Leah?”
“Everyone is fine. Nothing is wrong,” Dad assured him.
Considering the message Dad sent him, he hadn’t expected him to sound so calm this morning. “Your text insinuated otherwise.”
“I should’ve been clearer. I apologize,” Dad said. “Have you been following the news at all?”
“Not really. I’ve been too busy with my move back here. Why? What happened?”
“Neil Brown passed away last week.”
He knew of the longtime senator. Probably everyone in the country had heard of him. Neil Brown was the longest-serving senator in United States history. Brett also knew the man’s health had been declining over the past year. However, he’d never met the man.
“You realize what it means, don’t you?” Dad asked.
Yeah, Massachusetts was now short one senator in Washington.
“The state is going to have to hold a special election to fill his seat. He had another three years in office. The governor announced the dates for the election yesterday. The primary will be held November 7 and the election will be six weeks later,” Dad said before Brett commented. “I discussed it with your uncles yesterday. Rather than wait and run for Richard’s seat next year, we all agree you should try for Brown’s now.”
Brett processed Dad’s statement. He had a well-thought-out strategy, and he’d already executed the first half of it. Entering the special election and running for Brown’s Senate seat would mean tossing the rest of it out the window and starting over.
“You’re a Massachusetts resident again and living in the state. There’s no reason to wait until next year.”
Dad was right on both accounts. He’d changed his residency status when he’d been up for Gray’s wedding. While some may not agree with it, Massachusetts didn’t require a candidate to have lived in the state for a specific amount of time before running for a seat in the United States Senate. It only required an individual be an inhabitant of the state when elected. According to his driver’s license and voter registration, he was a resident again and had been since June.
“I need to think about it,” Brett answered.
“What is there to think about? You’ve been positioning yourself for this for over a year. Getting you on the ballot for the primary should be a piece of cake. When we meet this week, we can discuss the particulars and get the ball rolling.”
Dad had been disappointed in Brett when he failed to follow the path of most Sherbrooke males. He’d never said that, but it had been very clear. When Brett told him his plan to leave active duty and enter politics, the man had all but done a victory dance. This morning Brett wasn’t surprised by Dad’s insistence he change his timetable and jump into politics sooner
rather than later.
“Give me twenty-four hours to think it over. I’ll let you know.” Regardless of what a good idea Dad and his uncles thought it was, he wasn’t going to jump headfirst into a decision without examining it from every position.
Brett finished the call and crossed the yard. As he rang his neighbors’ doorbell, visions of hot coffee filled his thoughts.
The sound of a barking dog responded moments before Mack opened the door. “Don’t worry. Socks is friendly.” Mack pointed to the dog near his feet. “C’mon in.”
Brett followed his neighbor and the dog through the living room where an enormous dollhouse stood near the fireplace, indicating Mack had at least one child.