Paul actually laughed. “Fair enough.” His tone turned serious again. “Are you concerned about any blowback you may receive from engaging in what appeared to be a heated argument with a fellow member of the Democratic Party?”
“Not concerned at all,” Caroline said breezily. “I call it like I see it. And you know that, Paul. Don’t go searching for something that isn’t there.”
“How’s the gubernatorial campaign going?”
“I can’t say too much.” An outright lie; she could say whatever the hell she wanted. Always had, always would. But what she wanted and what was best for the campaign were often different things. “The poll numbers look pretty good from where I’m standing.”
“Is it easier to be the spouse than the candidate?”
A half-truth wouldn’t hurt. Maybe if Paul spent more time in Washington he’d start to recognize them. “Infinitely easier,” she said. “Although hearing the criticism is sometimes hard. Jack has the experience necessary for the role and would make a very competent governor. And I’m sure the voters of Pennsylvania will make the right decision in November.”
Paul made some notes. “One final question, Representative Gerard. Any comment on how the Cubs are faring this season?”
She avoided all sports websites just so she wouldn’t be tempted to read about her beloveds at the bottom of the division. “You’re treacherously close to crossing the line,” Caroline said. Kathleen waved at her and pointed at her watch. Finally. The perfect out that she’d neglected to think of earlier. “If you’ll excuse me, I do have to get going.”
“Thank you for answering my questions,” Paul said.
Caroline made a mental note to put him on her list of acceptable press people. He was young and a bit too pushy sometimes, but was cordial and polite. She liked that. “No problem,” she said. “Have a good one.”
Kathleen smiled as she walked over to her. “Nice job, boss.”
“What the hell were you doing all the way over there?” Caroline asked, trying not to lose her temper. “You’re supposed to come bail me out when shit like that happens. These small time recent J school grads are like fucking vultures sometimes.”
“You know how to handle yourself. Calm down,” Kathleen said.
Easy for her to say. She’d been playing on her phone for the last couple of hours. “I could have used that watch trick about ten minutes ago.”
“You were fine. You’ve convinced the entire press corps that you went to charm school. I’ve been busy responding to some of your Twitter followers who, curiously enough, made the same observations as those reporters just did.”
The room was almost empty. Caroline could vent. “There usually aren’t that many members of the press at these routine hearings.”
Kathleen squeezed Caroline’s shoulder. “Most of them filtered in after the first time you criticized Murdock. Word gets out fast when there’s a juicy bit of gossip or personal conflict for them to write about.”
She didn’t need that. Bad press for her translated to bad press for Jack. She’d been butting heads with Greg Keller for the past few weeks and didn’t want to poke the bear. “Was it that obvious?”
Kathleen stepped closer to her. “Depends on who you’re talking to. It looked personal to me. You have to be careful, boss. Although you did a pretty good job regardless. I was live tweeting the entire thing. From your official account, of course.”
“I hope you made it clear that I wasn’t the one doing the tweeting. What’s the verdict?”
“It’s pretty evenly split between people who think you’re a giant bitch and people who think you’re the Second Coming. Oh, and there’s also a large contingent of people who think you’re now a DINO.”
A Democrat In Name Only. Putting a demeaning label on her because she did her damn job. How clever and original of them. “Good, just the reaction I was hoping for.” She lowered her voice as the other members and staffers filtered out of the room. “You don’t think I went too far, do you?”
“Hell no,” Kathleen said quietly. “That was fantastic. You made Murdock look like a total idiot and caught him off guard. I’d bet dollars to donuts there’s a giant teddy bear at your desk by the time we get back to your office.”
“Jack knows better. I’m wagering on chocolate or flowers.” Her breath caught in her throat as Jeffrey Murdock made his way to the door, followed by a very harried young female staffer. Caroline told herself not to smile but failed miserably, and she could tell Kathleen was holding back a laugh as Murdock pushed past them.
He whirled around and headed toward Caroline. “Nicely done, Gerard,” he said. “Your husband must be proud.”
“I’m sure he is, generally speaking,” she said. “I was just doing my job.”
“Going head to head with a fellow party member is part of your job?”
“No. Calling you out on your bullshit is, though. Next time make sure you bring accurate information to your committee hearings. Unless you were being purposely deceptive.” She smiled at him. “And I would never want to accuse you of that.”
“You’ve had an eventful couple of months,” Murdock said. “I saw that footage of you and Jack at the Fairmont. I bet you get around. Any chance we get to see you sucking some random guy’s cock in the elevator at the Dulles Airport Hilton? I’d hate to see you limit your skills to just one man.”
Kathleen stepped forward. “Hey, now.”
Murdock gave her a patronizing look. “Stay out of it, Ms. Thalberg. It’s not like you know much about male anatomy anyway.”
“Don’t speak that way to her,” Caroline snapped.
He scowled. “Oh, are you going to defend everyone’s honor today? Too bad you forgot about the ranking member on the committee.”
Fuck it. Her professionalism could afford to take a short holiday. Especially after his disturbingly perceptive insinuation about her conduct in Pittsburgh. “You don’t deserve shit,” Caroline hissed. “You got exactly what you had coming to you, and you know it. I don’t like when people try to deceive the public. About anything. But especially national security.”
Murdock sniffed the air. “You and your quixotic quests for truth, justice, and the American Way. Damn, but you’re naïve sometimes. I’m surprised you didn’t bake us all a fucking apple pie. It’s not my fault you can’t handle the big time, Gerard.”
Caroline knew not to get in the mud with pigs but sometimes she couldn’t resist. “Jack is going to wipe the floor with you. And I can’t wait to see it.”
“I hope you keep making ads for the McIntyre campaign,” Murdock said. “Your tits looked really nice in the last one.”
She was about two seconds away from throwing down and rolling up her sleeves, and her chief of staff knew it. Kathleen grabbed Caroline by the arm and started yanking her out of the committee room. “This conversation, if that’s what you want to call it, is over,” she said, pushing Caroline out the door in front of her.
Caroline shook Kathleen off once they were in the hallway. “You could have at least let me kick him in the balls,” she muttered.
Kathleen straightened her jacket. “Believe me, that would have definitely come across as too personal.”
“Jeffrey Murdock is a colossal turd.”
“Can I stitch that on a sampler and put it on Etsy?”
“Sure.”
Kathleen glanced down the hall at Murdock’s retreating figure, the young aide slinking along behind him. “I think he might have issues with women.”
Caroline choked back a sardonic laugh. “You think?”
“I feel very bad for his female employees.”
Caroline thought of the glum look on the aide’s face as she lagged behind Murdock in the committee room. She couldn’t imagine the type of work environment that existed in his office, especially for those who weren’t male. A culture of silence pervaded his employment practices and he had a huge amount of turnover, so there had to be a slimy fire hiding somewhere in the smoke. “So
do I.”
Kathleen patted her shoulder. “You okay?”
As if she were the only one who’d caught one of his barbs. “I’m fine. I’ve heard worse. He didn’t offend you, did he? Fucking ass.”
“Nope, I’m fine.” Kathleen grinned. “He’s yet another reminder of why I most often prefer the company of women.”
“If he’d used stronger language with you, I might have kicked him in the balls then.”
Kathleen pressed the button for the elevator. Murdock and his aide were long gone. “You know he wanted to. He might be a homophobe as well as a misogynist.”
“No doubt.” Caroline’s expression turned serious. “Don’t tell Jack, or anyone else, what just transpired here. Okay?”
Kathleen frowned at her. “Caroline, people deserve to know what an asshole that guy is.”
Jack was hyperprotective enough. If Kathleen told him about the confrontation with Murdock, he was liable to send Caroline to committee hearings with a bodyguard, a pit bull, or both. “I think they’re starting to figure it out. He’s letting them know all by himself.”
“You just don’t want Jack to retaliate.”
“You’re right, I don’t. It would look very, very bad if a Republican candidate got arrested for pummeling his Democratic opponent. Jack almost did it last year when we first started dating, after Murdock made some icky remark to him.”
“I remember. I think it’s sweet that you married a man as hot tempered as you.”
Caroline smiled at Kathleen. She and Jack got into arguments more often than she cared to admit, but never about anything critical to their relationship. They argued mostly about policy issues or with regard to Jack’s fiercely protective behavior toward her. Their heated quarrels always led to some pretty intense making up, so she wouldn’t dare complain about it. Jack had been quick to anger lately. She was starting to understand why some people thought he was a jerk, but knew it was because he was eager to defend her. The campaign had taken its toll on both of them, though she escaped it more often by correctly claiming that she had a responsibility to serve out her term. Jack was more likely to blow off his congressional duties while Caroline was still in Washington or her district on at least a weekly basis.
Jack had exchanged words with a man at a campaign rally whom he overheard making a less than appropriate remark to Caroline after footage of the elevator incident leaked, and it hadn’t ended well. She noticed recently that there were a few more aides hanging around them as they worked campaign crowds, probably to keep him in check. It didn’t seem to be affecting his appeal to the electorate; to the contrary, they seemed to embrace his new identity as the doting husband shielding his wife from harm. Caroline thought it was funny since he knew damn well she could hold her own with anyone. But it was still comforting.
“Want to grab something to eat before I head to Philadelphia?” she asked.
Kathleen raised her eyebrows. “Got a campaign stop you didn’t tell me about?”
As if Caroline didn’t know better. “It is my understanding that Candidate McIntyre has cleared his calendar for me this evening. And I really need a damn swim. I have some anger to burn off.”
“You’re gonna have some calories to burn off, too,” Kathleen said. “Let’s go to that Mexican place I like.”
She smiled and put her arm around Kathleen. “Sure.”
* * * * *
Caroline tossed her purse on the table and grabbed a small vase from the cabinet under the sink. Jack had indeed sent her roses. She filled the vase with water and arranged the flowers in it, then put it in the center of the kitchen island. It brightened the room up a bit. In hindsight, she would have preferred a box of gourmet chocolate, but she wasn’t about to complain. He must have moved lightning fast to get the florist to deliver them to her office so quickly after the hearing. She wasn’t about to take him or his many romantic overtures for granted. The campaign was wearing on him and it was starting to show. She was glad to have him to herself for the night. He needed a break.
Caroline removed her makeup and slipped into her swimsuit. Jack would be home soon but she had time to do a few laps in the pool. She and Katie had devoured three baskets of chips and two giant chicken flauta plates before sharing some fried ice cream, and she knew she had to work some of that off. She grabbed a towel and her other swim gear and headed down to the pool in the basement.
An extravagance, really. The backyard pool was plenty. Jack never really explained why he wanted a full size pool inside the house but it was a very nice perk of coming back to a place that Caroline still struggled to appreciate. She slid into the heated water, pulling on her swim cap and goggles. The exercise relaxed her and she swam about fifteen laps before stopping to take a break. She had just pulled off her goggles and swim cap and placed them by the side of the pool when she heard footsteps coming down the hall.
“Hi, baby,” Jack said, crouching down on the tile.
“Careful,” she said. “I may have splashed a little. Wouldn’t want to ruin those shiny shoes.”
He reflexively looked down at his dress shoes. Still perfectly polished, as always. “They’re fine.” He smiled at her. “You beat me home.”
“Of course I did. You were tooling around with some pollsters, weren’t you?”
Jack rolled his eyes. “I was bored out of my mind but my aides kept me up to date as to what you were doing with your morning.”
“Thank you for the flowers.”
“I was told that you might have deserved more than that, but I didn’t have time to stop at a jewelry store.”
That had to be a joke. His staffers were only interested in their relationship if it had an impact on Jack’s poll numbers. A meticulously monotonous bunch, as Caroline liked to say. But they knew how to run a campaign, despite their colorless personalities.
“Just doing my job,” she said.
He straightened up a little. “Not hardly. That was above and beyond.”
“I called him out on his bullshit. Nothing else. Nothing more than what I’ve always done.”
“You found another gear today, baby. It was magnificent to behold.”
Caroline smiled shyly at him. “Now you’re going to make me blush.”
“We both know it doesn’t take much.” Jack crouched down again to caress her cheek. “I know you did that for me. I appreciate your loyalty.”
“Eternally devoted, I am,” she said. “To the country, of course.”
He laughed again, a rich, booming sound that echoed over the tile. She hadn’t heard him laugh like that lately. It made her happy.
“And to you too,” she added, just to reassure him. Sometimes he needed reassurance more than she did.
“I know,” he said quietly, then smiled again. “I think my favorite part was when you told Murdock, ‘Perhaps the gentleman from Pennsylvania has forgotten that this is a congressional hearing not a political ad, and he is therefore obligated not to mislead the other committee members.’”
“Is that a direct quote?”
“I watched it several times to make sure I got it right. I also enjoyed the phrase ‘duty of candor’ and that little jab at his ethics. You exposed him as the unprepared, corrupt jackass he is.” Jack knelt down to kiss her. “You’re incredible, sweetheart.”
“You’re going to ruin your suit, darling. The tile’s all wet.”
He kept kissing her. “Ask me if I fucking care.”
A few more kisses like that and she’d forget about clothes entirely. “How are you doing?” she whispered, when they finally broke free.
He resumed his crouching position. The chlorinated water had soaked through his pants. “It’ll get better, sweetheart. I promise.”
Caroline sighed. A nice, neat sidestep. “I didn’t ask about myself, Jack. I asked about you.”
“What affects me affects you, and vice versa.”
She glared at him. He knew how much it bothered her when he avoided questions. He was a much better politician
than he gave himself credit for.
“It’s been a rough few weeks,” he finally said. “It’ll get better. And you really were phenomenal today. Even Greg was impressed.”
Wasn’t that a compliment of the highest measure. Maybe Greg would give her a nice certificate to commemorate the occasion. With a gold star and everything. “Not sure that’s what the Twittersphere thought,” she grumbled, massaging the top of her head. “I’m a DINO now, in case you wanted to know. That, or a giant bitch, or the greatest politician in the history of the world.”
“Is it an even three way split?”
“I don’t know. Ask Katie.”
Jack smiled. “I’m going to go with the greatest politician angle. But even if you’re a DINO, you’re my DINO. And those nerd glasses you were wearing made you look incredibly adorable.”
She couldn’t wait for the day when his perfect vision deteriorated and he had to get bifocals. She would never, ever let him hear the end of it. “They aren’t nerd glasses,” she said. “They’re totally stylish.”
“Couldn’t get your contacts in today?”
Caroline usually tried to avoid wearing her glasses when the cameras were on, but she’d had to do a ton of reading both before and during the hearing. They made her feel much more intellectual, and a little more threatening. Kathleen often told her that Caroline’s glasses were an indication that she meant business.
“No.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Thanks for noticing.”
Jack grinned at her again. “That condescending look you gave Murdock while you slipped them down your nose was incredibly sexy.”
“Now you’re lying through your teeth.”
“Not in the slightest. Glad to see the sexy librarian make a reappearance. I’ve missed her.”
“If my glasses slid down my nose, it was unintentional.”
He leaned down to kiss her again. “You might have to work it into your routine. I kept waiting for the porn music to start.”
“That’s a surefire way to improve C-SPAN’s ratings.”
“I’d actually prefer if the sexy librarian only makes time for me, not the men on Homeland Security.”
The Bellator Saga: The First Trilogy (Dissident, Conscience, and Sojourn) Page 45
