by Peak, Renna
She nodded and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "And the other guy?"
"Brandon," I added.
"Yeah, him. What does he want?"
"He followed me to Hawaii and that was after my dad forbade me from seeing either of them. I don't know what he wants."
"Other than you."
I shrugged. "I suppose he wouldn't have followed me to Hawaii if he didn't."
She stared at the wall behind me like she was processing the. She finally slapped her legs and looked up at me. "Well, you want to know what I think?"
I lifted an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah. That's kind of why I told you everything."
She nodded. "I think we should get the hell out of San Fran. Do you think your dad will let me help on his campaign? We could have some serious fun working in Florida. That's a swing state, right?"
I grinned despite myself. "Yes, it's a swing state. And it's not a terrible idea."
"It's a fucking awesome idea, Jenna. Tell him tonight."
I nodded. "I will. Right now you need to get dressed, though. You need to help me out with something."
"I am not breaking into your boyfriend's apartment to find clues."
My face twisted from confusion. "What? Do you think this is a Scooby-Doo mystery or something?"
She laughed. "I was kidding. You know I'd do anything for you. Even break into what's-his-name's apartment if that's what you want. Those guys outside will probably help me, you know."
"Yeah." I shook my head and laughed. Mel always knew exactly what I needed and in this case it was a good laugh. "Anyway, I really do need you to help me out with something this morning."
"You got it, sister. I'd do anything for you." She stood up from the couch. "What is it?"
I forced a smile. "I need you to come with me to meet with my mother."
Melissa groaned. "I guess I should have said anything but that…"
17
"You're late." The woman looked almost regal, sitting at the table covered with a white linen cloth. She took a sip from a crystal flute of a drink that looked like orange juice.
"Mother, it's 10:59. I'm a minute early." I took a seat across the table from her and Mel sat down at the seat on my right. I pressed my lips into a small smile. "How are you?"
She gave a huge, heaving sigh. "Well, about as well as anyone could expect, given what's been going on." She raised her empty glass at a nearby waiter and motioned at the flute with her finger. "Not that you would care, of course."
I let out a metered breath through my nose. "And what's been going on, Mother?" I kept the small smile plastered on my face.
"Well, things have been moving much more quickly than I was prepared for. Not that you care." She lifted her glass again at the waiter and made a face at him.
I glanced over at the waiter who rushed to the back of the restaurant then looked back at my mom. "Of course I care, Mother. What has been moving quickly?"
She gave another heavy sigh. The waiter rushed back with another flute filled with her drink, which I now suspected was not just orange juice. "Well, first of all, Jenna, I've been very busy. I don't appreciate you making me wait this morning."
Mel and I were early for the brunch appointment, but even early had never been good enough for her. Nothing I did was good enough for her. "I'm sorry, Mother."
She rolled her eyes. "You're always sorry, Jenna."
I nodded and kept my demure smile on my face. I knew from plenty of previous experience that any other expression would result in disaster.
She gave me a once over. "What have you done to your hair? You look like you just came from the farm."
I smoothed down my straight hair. "I'm not sure what you mean, Mother."
She waved her hand in front of her. "It's no bother. I'll have it taken care of this afternoon."
"This afternoon?" I took the glass of water that was in front of me into my hand. "What's this afternoon?"
She sighed again. "I'm going to fix this mess." She motioned up and down toward me. "I don't know why you let yourself go like this."
I took a sip from my water and returned the phony smile to my face. "Great." I glanced over at Melissa, who was sitting on her hands, staring at the wall.
My mother finally looked over at Mel, as though she just noticed her. "Hello, Melissa."
Mel's forced a smile to her face, similar to my own. "Hello, Mrs. Davis."
My mother's glance returned to me. "We'll do something about the wardrobe problem also."
My eyes fluttered and I struggled to maintain the look on my face—the I-have-no-emotions look that seemed to be the only acceptable look in the Davis household. "And what problem is that, Mother?"
She rolled her eyes and waved her hand again. "I can't have you out representing your father in anything like that."
I looked down at my dress. It was a simple black wraparound dress that was almost flattering to my body and wasn't too revealing. I knew better than to ask what was wrong with it, though. The answer was never what I expected and was almost always something insulting. I just looked at her with my demure smile, the same as I always did.
"We'll start with the hair and then we'll do the clothing. You'll need an entirely new wardrobe, I'm sure." She gulped down what was left of the second glass of her cocktail.
"Okay." I took a sip from my water. There was never much more to say. It wasn't as though I had a choice in the matter.
"I swear to God, Jenna. Someone should have taught you some table manners." She rolled her eyes and gave Melissa a knowing look.
I looked down at my hands and set my glass back down. I had no idea what I had done wrong. Melissa glanced over at me and gave me a barely noticeable arch of her eyebrow. I fought with my face to maintain the tiny smile.
"Speaking of which, did you hear Nanny Faye died?" She arched an eyebrow at me and her mouth turned up into a smile.
That was it—the smile was gone and my face fell into a frown. Nanny Faye had lived with us until I was eight and was the closest thing to a mother that I'd ever had. "No. Why didn't you call?" My voice gave away the trembling I felt inside.
She shrugged. "You were the one that was so close to her. I would have thought her family would let you know. I guess you weren't as important to her as you thought." She plastered the same demure smile on her face that I had been wearing and tilted her head to the side.
I fought at the tears that I felt coming to my eyes. I had never been able to understand why she was so mean to me. There were moments that she was tolerable, usually when we were shopping. Most of the time, she just acted like I was a nuisance, someone sent into her life to make it miserable. Sometimes she was particularly awful. And if my mother had one rule, it was that no emotion ever be shown, no matter how terrible the situation. I hadn't even cried at Daniel's funeral.
I took in a deep breath through my nose and put the fake smile back on my lips. "Thank you for letting me know, Mother." I glanced at Melissa who had buried her attention into the silverware sitting in front of her. I watched as she fingered each piece of flatware and I was sorry I had brought her along. Having someone else at the table usually diffused my mother a little, but not this time. The pressure of my father's career choices was getting to her, it was obvious. I knew better than to ask her about it.
The waiter brought food to the table and set it in front of us. My appetite was gone and I pushed the food around my plate and listened to my mother go on about the latest charity event she was hosting and how stressful it was for her. I nodded at all the right times and tried my best to look interested. This was one time I was thankful that she always dominated the conversation. I had no need to get a word in edgewise today.
We finished our brunch with express instructions on when and where to meet with her that afternoon for my makeover. Melissa and I got up to leave the restaurant and one of my agents followed us to the waiting town car where he got into the front with the driver. Melissa and I climbed into the back seat.
>
"Your dad should run for president more often. I could get used to being driven around all the time." Melissa elbowed me in the ribs.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the top of the back seat. "I shouldn't have asked you to come."
"Yeah, she was on fire today. What was that about?"
I shrugged and kept my eyes closed. "Who knows? Who ever knows?"
Melissa took my hand and gave it a squeeze. "Hey, I'm sorry about your nanny. I know you loved her. That was a really shitty thing your mom did."
I squeezed her hand back. "Yeah. Thanks. Something else must have happened because she's not usually that big of a bitch." I turned my head from side to side as it rested on the back seat. "I don't know."
She squeezed my hand again. "You don't think she knew about…" She lowered her voice to almost a whisper. "…Daniel. Do you?"
I hadn't even thought about it before that moment. Had she? I shook my head and lifted it to meet her gaze. "I don't know, Mel. I don't know anything anymore."
18
I pulled a strand of my hair around to look at my new color up close. At least I had been able to convince the guy doing my hair to not turn it blonde the way my mom had ordered. He had a way with her, thank God. There was something about male hairdressers that my mother couldn't resist. Instead of a blonde dye job, I had new caramel highlights, that even I had to admit didn't look half bad. He had styled my hair and trimmed it, and it was good enough for my mother, at least. I guess I didn't look like I had just come from the farm anymore, because my new hair had received her stamp of approval.
I was wearing one of the new dresses she had chosen for me. It was like the one I had worn to brunch with her that day, but was an emerald green and was a bit more form fitting with a little lower cut neckline. It was still tasteful and I was told it was an appropriate cocktail dress for dinner with my father that night. She'd chosen a bunch of other outfits for me, too, enough to get me through the summer, she said. I felt many things about my mother, many of them negative, but I did have to admit that she had a gift for choosing clothing.
The town car drove me to one of the popular Japanese restaurants downtown. I groaned to myself when I saw where we had stopped. My dad's idea of a joke. Hilarious.
I was led to a small private dining area near the back of the restaurant. It was set up in traditional Japanese style, with a low table and pillows surrounding it for guests to sit on the floor. Traditional Japanese music was playing in the background. My father was seated at the head of the table and was flicking through his phone. He wore a custom tailored heather gray suit that was almost the exact color of his hair.
He looked up and smiled at me when I came in. He got up from the floor and walked over to me, giving me a hug. He placed a kiss on my cheek. "Jenna, you're beautiful."
I kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks, Dad. It's good to see you."
We both sat down on our cushions on the floor and he looked over at me with a genuine smile. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you, too. Nice choice of restaurant." I did my best to smile.
He threw his head back and laughed. "Sorry, sweetie. I actually had the place booked before all of your recent events happened."
I arched my eyebrow. "Cosmic hilarity?"
He nodded and returned my grin. "I'm glad you understand." His face fell to a more serious look. "Jenna, I asked you here tonight because I needed to speak with you about some things. I'm sorry your mother couldn't be here tonight since this affects her, too."
I nodded. "Where is dear mother tonight?" Not that I missed her after spending almost the entire day with her.
He gave me the same forced smile that everyone wore around the woman. "She had some business to attend to. We're only in town for a few days and she had some things to take care of."
I nodded and played with the condensation on my water glass. "I think I already have an idea of what you're going to tell me."
"I figured you would. It's hard to keep those kinds of things a secret."
I looked up at him. "So, president, huh? I thought you weren't going to run this go 'round."
He smiled. "I wasn't. I was given some pretty compelling reasons to do it sooner rather than later, though."
"Dare I ask?"
"It doesn't really matter, Jenna. I wanted you to hear it from me first, but you were… out of town."
I nodded. Fuck, I didn't want to talk about this with him. Not tonight.
"I'm announcing at the capitol building in Sacramento tomorrow morning. You'll be standing next to me with your mother on my other side when I make my speech."
"Okay." What else was I going to say? No?
"Good." He looked up when the door of our dining area opened. He looked nervous—it wasn't a look that I had seen on my father's face many times before. It was just the waiter with appetizers that he set down in front of us. The waiter turned and walked out of the room without a word, closing the door behind him. My father turned back to me, the nervous look now gone. "Now, we need to talk about what happened last week."
I felt like I was a little kid about to get my scolding for getting caught sneaking cookies. I grabbed a piece of the tempura that the waiter had just set down. I bit down on the fried carrot. "Okay."
"Jenna, don't talk with your mouth full."
I stared down at my plate. Maybe I was still just a little kid to him, but this was not a conversation that I wanted to have with him. It didn't matter how many questions I had about his involvement in what had happened to Daniel.
After I didn't respond, he gave a long sigh. "There are things that you don't understand and that I'm not prepared to discuss with you tonight."
I took a sip of my water and made sure there was no food in my mouth. I enunciated this time. "Okay." I had learned long ago that agreeing with whatever my parents said just made everything go better—even if I disagreed with them with every fiber of my being.
I saw him ball his hand into a fist. "Jenna, you disobeyed me. I told you to have no contact with either of those men again."
I nodded and took another sip of water. There was no arguing—I had disobeyed. If I tried to make an excuse like 'he followed me there,' I'd get shut down. I knew it was better just to accept responsibility for what had happened than to try and make an excuse about it, even if it was a valid one.
"You cannot have contact with either of those men. Never again. Not ever. Do I make myself clear?" It wasn't even a question; it was more of a demand.
"Yes, Dad." But I didn't understand at all, and there was no way he'd tell me.
"I know seeing him was a shock to you." He couldn't even say his name.
"Yes." I stared down at my hands. I couldn't even meet his gaze.
"And that will be dealt with. Part of our agreement was that you never know."
I could only nod. It was clear that I wasn't worthy of an explanation, not to him, anyway.
"You think I'm being harsh."
I finally looked over at him. I was surprised that he looked hurt. "I think…" I stopped myself.
He reached over and took my hand. "What do you think?"
I shook my head. "I think you don't really care what I think. So I'll just stop talking."
He squeezed my hand then let it go. "I only do what I think is best for you, Jenna. I'm not trying to hurt you. You're my only child and I would never do that."
I reached again for my water, just holding it on the table in front of me. At least it gave my hands something to do.
"I know that you and he had feelings for each other. It made it a great match—you both genuinely liked each other."
All I could do was nod. I was beginning to feel like a bobble head.
"It wasn't like that for your mother and I, you know. My father and her father arranged our marriage and I couldn't stand her. I learned to respect her, though. You can learn to respect people, Jenna."
I arched an eyebrow and stared at my water glass. I had known my parents'
marriage was one of mutual convenience, but not that it was arranged. It made sense, though. They were so different from each other. I just wasn't sure what the point of this little story was, though, not right now.
"It was a dream come true when I knew that you were really in love with him, not just tolerant of him. I couldn't have wished for more for you."
I nodded again. Bobble head style. What did he want me to say? That he should bring Daniel back or let me go live with him? I wasn't even sure that was what I wanted.
"It's complicated, Jenna, and I can't go into why the two of you can't be together."
"Okay." It just popped out of my mouth. I wondered if I should dare to ask him why I couldn't be with Brandon, either, but decided against it.
The waiter came in again and set down a bowl of something in front of each of us. Sukiyaki, I think. I picked up the chopsticks and pushed the meat around the bowl.
My father mirrored my actions and I could see that this was a difficult conversation for him, too. I felt like I was being a petulant teenager in that moment. Maybe everything that was happening more difficult than I could hope to understand. Hell, I had no idea what to think.
"Jenna, I didn't ask you here tonight to lecture you about why you can't date who you want to. I know the last few years have been hard for you."
Bobbing my head up and down and pushing the food around my bowl—that was all I could do without falling apart. I was struggling not to cry and I wasn't even sure why.
"I asked you here because I need your help."
"Okay." I picked up a piece of the meat from the bowl and put it in my mouth. It was salty, but I chewed it up before taking a large swig of water.
"I would like you to go to Iowa until the straw poll at the end of the summer. You'll be my face in Iowa."
I looked over at him and lifted an eyebrow. "You want me to stump for you in Iowa? Me?"
He grinned. "Yes, you. You're the key to the youth vote. You can relate to the younger generation in a way I can't."
