Misconception

by Christy Hayes

  “No.” Her voice sounded stronger than it had since she’d said hello. “I don’t want you to leave your meeting. There’s nothing to do here anyway.”

  “Pace…” He glanced back toward the restaurant and looked through the window where Mark and Steve seemed to be enjoying their newly delivered drinks and conversation. “Things here are going well. I don’t think it would be a problem to bug out if I claim a family emergency.” All his talk about putting her before anything would go up in smoke if he stayed in New York and wasn’t there when she needed him.

  “Take care of things there, Jason. We’ll be all right until you get back.”

  He hung up with a promise to call her later and slumped back against the icy window. Damn. He didn’t want to look like a flake in front of his clients, and he certainly didn’t want to own up to his relation to the Whitfields, but he knew in his gut that no matter what Pace said on the phone, she wouldn’t be all right. He had to hand it to DeAngelo; he’d timed the leak perfectly. Absolutely nothing was going on in Washington the few days before Christmas and the media was salivating for any kind of story. The fall of mighty Senator Colin Whitfield provided a very tasty morsel.

  Chapter 29

  “Mom?” Pace looked over Tori’s shoulder to the street where a Mercedes sat gleaming by the curb. Pace, still in her pajamas, was waiting for the coffee to finish brewing when she’d heard the doorbell. The kids hadn’t even gotten up yet. She had Cooper by the collar and it took all her strength to hold him back. “What’s happened?”

  “Is that any way to welcome me?” She pushed past her as Pace wrestled the dog inside. Tori unsheathed her coat to reveal perfectly pressed slacks and a black turtleneck. She tossed her coat onto the staircase newel and marched into the den. When she turned around, Pace could tell her mother hadn’t gotten any sleep.

  “Let me get him outside.” She shut the front door and dragged Cooper to the backyard where he thankfully took off after a bird. When she returned to face her mother, she just stared. Tori stood still as a statue in the middle of the den, hugging her arms around her waist. After their conversations the day before, Pace had a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach about the reason for her visit. “Why are you here at the crack of dawn? What’s going on?”

  “Your father is coming home today and the house is already a zoo. I had to get out of there before I could be spotted.”

  Pace ushered her mother into the kitchen and poured them both a steaming cup of coffee. “Whose car are you driving?”

  “Caroline Prenzy’s. The news trucks blocked the driveway and she’s out of town. Bethany had her third. A girl this time.”

  Pace thought back to the last time she’d seen Bethany Prenzy-Collier. She’d flown in from Denver for her parent’s anniversary last summer, the same pixie blonde she’d always been sporting an adorable baby bump. Pace remembered the envy she’d felt looking at her in her trendy maternity wear. Bethany was one of those evil women who made pregnancy look like a snap.

  “If she’s out-of-town, how’d you get the car?” Pace tried to envision her mother hoofing it through the backyard in her designer boots, around the hedge of cypress trees, and over the small creek to get to the Prenzy’s house.

  “Mylia gave me a ride in her car. I had to lie down in the back seat so the press wouldn’t see.” Pace laughed despite the reason for her tactics and then immediately regretted it when her mother’s face contorted in pain. “I’m glad you find this funny.”

  “I’m sorry.” She quickly took a seat and wrapped her hands around the warm mug. “So you’ve talked to Dad?” She spit out his name, hoping her mother would understand how mad she was at him. Tori either ignored her tone or didn’t notice.

  “Yes. His flight lands at one and he’s scheduled a press conference for three.”

  “A press conference?” Pace’s imported coffee, one of her few indulgences, turned to vinegar in her mouth. “Does he plan to dispute the pictures?”

  “No, he plans to apologize.”

  “Has he apologized to you?”

  She looked as if Pace had hit her, or rather she’d hit on a very sore subject. “This isn’t about me.”

  “This is absolutely about you and, from your non-answer, I take it he hasn’t apologized.” She shot up from the table and went into the pantry to look for something to serve her mother. Why couldn’t she have had coffee cake fresh from the oven or had made muffins earlier in the week? Why did she have to be a complete failure as a hostess at a time when her mother might actually have been soothed by some sort of baked good? She didn’t think her mom would appreciate or accept a Pop Tart, of which they had plenty. “Can I make you some breakfast?”

  “No.” She sighed and, for the first time, seemed ready to let down her stoic wall. “I couldn’t eat right now. Coffee is fine.”

  “Mom.” Pace flung herself into a chair and reached for her hand. “What did he say?”

  “He’s mad, of course, that the pictures were taken in the first place. I’m afraid your husband is the current target of his wrath. And apparently Trey is on the warpath.”

  “Mom.” Pace squeezed her cold fingers. “What has he said to you? Has he even asked how you’re doing?”

  “Of course he has, darling. I’ve told him about the circus at the house, how the phones are ringing off the hook, how I’ve even had a few emails from reporters seeking an exclusive on my side of the woman-scorned story.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m dealing with it. I almost wish for some sort of natural disaster or…terrorist plot so the vultures will move on.”

  “Mother, do you hear yourself? You’re not dealing with anything but the logistics.”

  “That’s what we need to focus on right now.” She sat up and pulled her hand from Pace’s grasp. “Your father wants you and the boys at the press conference.”

  She almost choked on her sip of coffee. “Is he delusional?”

  “Now is not the time for theatrics,” Tori scolded.

  “Then let me be clear. I’m not going. Please tell me you’re not going either.”

  “How can I not?” Tori stood up and stepped to the sink, grabbed the edge of the counter, and turned around dramatically. “He’s having it on the front lawn. He asked me to be by his side. It was an apology of sorts,” she said when Pace just shook her head. She couldn’t believe her father’s nerve. “It’s the most he can offer right now. The campaign…”

  Pace stood up and approached her mother, made sure she had her attention. “The campaign is a job, an elected position that will go on whether or not he’s the one to fill it.”

  “His job means everything to him.”

  Pace studied her beautiful mother. She was so strong and worthy of love. She was hurting right now. She’d been hurting for years. “I feel sorry for him then, because that’s very sad.”

  “I can’t deal with my emotions about this until the press stops staking out the house and sticking microphones in my face every time I turn around. Your father swears once the press conference is over, our lives will return to normal and then we’ll deal with it.”

  “Nothing is going to return to normal! Nothing is normal!”

  “Pace…” She masked her pain with dignity. “This is normal for me. The only thing different is that everyone knows.”

  “You’re going to have to deal with it, Mom. Dad is going to have to face what he’s done to you.” Pace reached out and gripped her shoulders. “Please, tell me you’re not going to stand by him as if he got caught running a red light.”

  Her mother looked as raw and defeated as Pace had ever seen her. “I don’t know what else to do.”

  Pace didn’t relent, she couldn’t. No matter how she felt about her father’s behavior—angry, disgusted, hurt, and humiliated—she wouldn’t agree to parade herself and the boys around some trumped up press conference. The nerve of him, asking Pace to come and put her sons on display as if they condoned his behavior, asking his wife to act as if he hadn’t do
ne anything wrong, as he apologized to his constituents for his affair. How about apologizing to his wife? His daughter? His grandchildren? She’d always thought they meant more to him than his career, but now she could see she’d been blinded in all matters concerning her father.

  Her mother drank a few sips of coffee and tried in vain to convince Pace to join her and the throngs of so-called journalists for his televised confession. When she realized her attempt fell on deaf ears, she put her arms in her coat as if the effort took every ounce of her energy. Pace opened the door and strolled arm in arm with her outside where the rising sun blinded them as it bounced off the frosted tips of their lawn. They were just pulling apart from a hug when Pace glanced up to see Jason’s car pull into the drive.

  She felt like the cavalry had arrived when the driver door opened and he stepped out looking ready to drop. The suit he’d left in the day before was wrinkled and his tie was so loose he could have slipped it right over his head. He stopped when their eyes met. Without a second thought, Pace barreled toward him, her bare feet slipping on the wet grass. He dropped his case as she lunged for him and he grabbed her in a bone crushing embrace. Here was the balm she needed, Pace thought as she inhaled the familiar scent of his skin, the elixir to all that ailed her.

  “Jason,” she muttered into his neck. She didn’t realize she’d started crying until he put her down and she felt the pads of his thumbs wiping away tears on her cheeks. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  “I would have been here sooner, but I had to go standby and the airport was a zoo because of the snowstorm. I couldn’t let you deal with this alone.”

  The click-clock of heels on concrete reminded her that her mother stood behind them. Tori was the one left to deal with the ordeal alone and, now that Jason had arrived, Pace’s heart broke for her all over again.

  “I’m glad you’re home where you should be,” Tori said to Jason with very little conviction in her voice. “Watching my daughter’s face bloom when she saw you…” she shrugged and tapped him on the arm. “You’re a good man.”

  “I’m sorry, Tori.” He reached out a hand and laid it on her shoulder. He’d embrace her, Pace felt sure, if she could bring herself to let him go. She didn’t know if she could stand alone now that he’d come back to support her; her relief at having him home was more than she could express. “I’m sorry for everything.”

  “It’s a mess. An absolute mess.” She slid her Chanel glasses onto her nose and tried to smile. “Think about what I said.”

  Pace nodded and watched as her mother approached the sleek German car. No one would ever have known she was embroiled in a crisis judging by her long, confident strides and the quick flick of her hair as she sank behind the wheel. They both watched her pull away from the curb and round the corner. Pace nestled into Jason again.

  “How is she?”

  “I don’t know. She won’t deal with anything but how this affects his career. It’s not healthy.”

  “How are you? Other than freezing.” He scooped Pace off her feet.

  “I can walk.” She giggled and patted his chest. It felt so good to be in his arms.

  “Not when I’m carrying you, you can’t. You should know better than to come outside without shoes.”

  He carried her inside, pushed the door closed with his foot, and continued on to their bedroom. They fell onto the bed with a thud.

  “I could sleep for a week.” He rolled over onto his back and rubbed his eyes before sitting up and staring down at Pace. “You didn’t answer me. How are you?”

  She sighed and tried to think of what to say. “Numb. I didn’t really believe it until I saw the pictures. A part of me still can’t.”

  “This is my fault, Pace. All of it. I’m so sorry.”

  She sat up to face him. “It’s his fault, Jason. My dad did this, not you.”

  “No one would know if I hadn’t hired that private detective.”

  “Would that be better?” She ran her hands through her knotted hair and pulled in frustration. “Really, Jason, would it be better not to know?”

  “Better for your mom.”

  She fell back against the pillows and groaned. “Nothing is what I thought it was. I feel like someone has pulled the rug out from under me. And it’s a thousand times worse for my mother and she won’t admit it.”

  “If she’d told you she was dying inside, that she’s humiliated beyond belief, would that have helped?”

  “At least it would be honest.” Pace stared at him, the tired eyes, the tousled hair, the shadow of a beard on his chin. He was there with her, when he should have been asleep in his hotel room preparing for another round of meetings. “He’s called a press conference for this afternoon. She wants us to go.”

  “You don’t want to.”

  “Not for him, no. But I don’t know that I can stay away and leave her there to deal with it alone. She’s alone in this, Jason. He’s done this to her for years, since I was a baby.”

  “Then we’ll go, for Tori.”

  Pace shook her head no even though she knew what he said was the right thing to do. “She said my dad blames you. I don’t want a confrontation.”

  Jason leaned down and pulled her chin toward his face. “I’ve owned up to my part in this. I went to him first. I’ll apologize again, but beyond that, there’s nothing more to do. And I won’t stay away when you need me.” He kissed the tip of her nose like he sometimes did with the kids. “We’ll both be there for your mom.”

  “I love you, Jason. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you’re here.”

  He bent forward and rubbed his lips against hers. The whiskers of his beard tickled her skin. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

  * * *

  Trey must have picked Colin up from the airport because Tori could hear them both downstairs preparing for the press conference, ordering the staff around as if directing a stage play. She waited patiently in the bedroom.

  For the first time since the pictures had hit the newswire, she realized the magnitude of what had happened. It wasn’t the relentlessness of the news crews that made her face the truth, the endless phone calls, or hibernating in the house. It was the look on Colin’s face when he came upstairs, his skin pallid, his eyes haunted and sagging. Tori had wanted him to pay, yes, she’d wanted him to suffer for his weakness, but facing the suffering, seeing what it had done to him, made her feel sick inside.

  “Tori?” He called her name because she just stared at him, a familiar stranger, a shadow of the man she’d married.

  “Come in.” She sat on the settee, dressed and ready for the press conference in the same outfit she’d worn to a funeral. It seemed appropriate.

  He joined her and lifted her hand from her lap. “I really messed things up with you.”

  Was he expecting her to say he was wrong? To tell him she was okay with him having sex with a twenty-year-old? Even if he weren’t her husband, even if she didn’t know the girl and her family, she’d think it was wrong. “I’m not going to disagree with you, Colin.”

  “I need you, Tori. The press…” He glanced out the window where she knew the press had hounded him upon his arrival and had begun preparing for his statement. “They’re having a field day with this.”

  “You’ve given them a lot to work with.”

  He looked at her and in his eyes she could see shame and just a hint of anger. “Jason…” His fury at Jason seemed so misplaced. He bounded up and went into the closet. Tori could hear him shuffling through his suits. “I should make him stand up there and explain his part in all of this. Christ, to think we’ve treated him like a member of this family all these years.”

  Tori moved to the closet door and leaned against the jam. “He is a member of this family. From the pictures I’ve seen, he was nowhere around when you were fucking your little whore.”

  He stopped moving, his arms fell to his sides, and he dropped his head to his chest. He let out a big sigh before lifting his gaze t
o hers. For a moment she thought he might defend his lover. “I screwed up, Tor. I shouldn’t have done it.”

  “No, Colin, you shouldn’t have.”

  He took a step toward her and she pulled herself up straight. The movement, her show of confidence and the don’t-touch-me glare, stopped him in his tracks. He shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “I’ll spend every second of every day making this up to you. Please, don’t let my stupid mistake ruin everything we have together.”

  He sounded remorseful and certainly appeared exhausted. Was it enough, she wondered for the millionth time, to have him repent so they could move forward? She simply lifted her brows and turned around. He prevented her escape by laying a hand on her arm.

  “I was weak. I got caught up in the excitement of the campaign. She doesn’t mean anything to me, I swear.” When Tori glared at him and the hand that held her arm, he moved his hands to her shoulders and began to rub. “I need you at the conference, Tori. I need you to stand by me today so that I can move forward and start making things right by you. Please, I know I don’t even have the right to ask, but I’m begging you.”

  She eyed her husband. She’d spent nearly forty years standing by his side, smiling for the cameras, playing the roll she’d come to both love and loath. He looked so much like he had at their wedding, nervous and expectant in front of all the people, the people he would come to charm and whose attention he would eventually covet. Had she ever had a choice?

  “I’ll stand by you, Colin, but don’t expect me to defend your actions.”

  “Oh, Tor.” He grabbed her in a powerful hug. “I knew you’d come through. Thank you.” He leaned in to kiss her and changed his mind when he saw her expression. He patted his wife’s shoulder and went back into the closet to change.

  “Colin?” He’d removed his tie and was unbuttoning his shirt. “Is it over?”

  He turned to face her, his smile bright and a little too forced. “Yes.” He crumpled his shirt and tossed it into the laundry bin. “It was only once, I swear it.”