—Capital Confessions blog
Will
“Thanks for calling.”
I looked up from my phone to see Blair in front of me, a smile on her face. I stood, enfolding her in a hug, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
“Thanks for coming.”
Blair sank down in the seat opposite mine. “Trust me, anytime I can get out of the house is a total win.” She gestured toward the huge black sunglasses obscuring a good part of her face. “Although, thanks to the media, these have become a necessity.”
I winced. “We could have gone somewhere else—somewhere more private.”
She shook her head. “Nope, I was in the mood for one of their pizzas. And I’m sick of hiding out at home. My mother’s been on a rampage lately.”
“The wedding?”
She nodded. “Apparently my decision to not go through with the wedding was the biggest mistake of my life.”
“Your fiancé turned out to be gay. How were you supposed to do anything about it?”
“Fuck if I know.”
My jaw dropped. I’d known Blair for a few years and I’d never heard her say “fuck.”
Blair set down her menu. “Where’s the waiter? I seriously need a drink.”
I closed my mouth, my eyes narrowing as my gaze ran over her appearance. When she’d first come over to the table, she’d seemed like her normal self—elegant, poised. But now that I looked at her, really looked at her, I saw the cracks. Her hands shook slightly. Her nail polish was chipped, the absence of the enormous ring that had sat there for as long as I’d known her even more glaring. There was a thread hanging from her sleeve, and it looked like she wasn’t wearing makeup. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, but it wasn’t Blair. Not the Blair I knew.
I waited while she ordered a Bloody Mary—I could practically feel Mrs. Reynolds disapproving from their home in McLean—and then reached out and squeezed her hand as soon as the waiter left. I’d called her here to try to handle the situation with Jackie, but maybe Blair needed me, too.
“Are you okay?”
She buried her head in her hands and horror flooded me. I’d never been good around crying women.
She pulled her sunglasses off, tossing them on the table. Her eyes were red-rimmed. “Don’t be nice to me, Will. I can’t handle it.”
The waiter delivered our drinks while Blair looked down at the table.
When he left, I took her hand in mine again. “Talk to me.”
Blair was one of those girls who I loved like a sister. I’d met her through my own sisters years ago, and had instantly liked her. She’d been engaged to Thomas Wyatt—Thom, to his friends—for as long as I’d known her. It had ended a few weeks ago.
I’d been at the wedding the weekend before I’d met Jackie, sat in the church waiting for a bride who never came. Her father’s campaign manager had announced that there was an illness and the wedding would be postponed. A few days later, Blair’s face was plastered all over the tabloids as details began leaking out. I’d only heard the rumors, but now, looking at how upset she was, I wondered if the rumors were fairly close to the truth.
“I walked in on him having sex with his best man in the changing room of the church.” She delivered the news as calmly as if she were discussing the weather.
I choked on my drink as she took another sip of her Bloody Mary.
“I think I’m going to want another one,” she announced.
“Me, too,” I sputtered. “God, I’m so sorry. That’s just—”
“If it wasn’t so horrible, I’d laugh. I was in my dress—”
“Jesus.”
“And there they were going at it.” Her voice cracked a bit. “I just thought—we’d been together since we were fifteen—I thought we loved each other. Apparently, I was wrong.”
I squeezed her hand again. “It sounds like you dodged a bullet, if you ask me. You don’t need that shit. He was wrong to treat you like that, wrong to cheat.”
She sighed, and suddenly she looked so much older than twenty-three. “Tell that to my parents. My father’s freaking out because this happened during his reelection campaign. I think he purposefully planned the wedding to be during campaign season and now it’s a total wash. Missed photo op.” Bitterness seeped into her tone. “My mother keeps telling me I’ve ruined my life by not going through with the wedding. It’s a fucking mess.”
“And Kate?” I asked, wondering how Blair’s—and Jackie’s—younger sister was taking all of this.
“You know Kate. She wants nothing to do with his campaign or any of it. She graduates soon and I think she just can’t wait to get the hell out. Not that I blame her.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. It’s not like I have a lot of skills. Trained to be a wife looks pretty shitty on a resume. My father wants me to go to law school. I don’t know what I want anymore.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too.” She grimaced. “Honestly, I didn’t come here to bitch. I just haven’t really talked about it and”—a wobbly smile spread across her face—“I’ve always been able to talk to you.” She waved her hand in the air, fixing a very Blair smile on her face. “Enough about me, though. You definitely didn’t call this emergency brunch to talk about my aborted engagement. What’s up with you? What do you need?”
I hesitated. When I’d originally called Blair, I’d planned on asking her to help me get a meeting with her father. I needed to talk to him about Jackie, needed to try to fix everything he’d broken.
I wanted to know if he would stand by her and help do damage control if news about her paternity leaked. He was possibly the only person who had enough power to keep her career intact if the news did come out.
But seeing Blair like this, talking to her . . . the media was hounding her. She was in the middle of one of the biggest shitstorms of her life. She needed to know another one might be just around the corner. And as much as Jackie said she was fine, she needed someone. I wanted her to have a family, to have someone besides me who would stand with her. Blair was one of the best people I knew.
“We need to talk.”
Worry filled Blair’s eyes. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m trying to get a meeting with your father. I called his office, but his secretary gave me the runaround about how busy he is right now, and said she couldn’t fit me in for a couple of weeks. I need to talk to him sooner rather than later.”
“Sure. Consider yourself invited to dinner. You can talk to him then. I’m not sure when he’ll be home, but I’ll make sure you know when he is.”
“Thanks. I’m sorry to bring all of this up with everything going on right now.”
“Don’t worry about it. But somehow I don’t think that’s everything.” Her gaze narrowed speculatively. “What’s up?”
God, this was tough. On one hand, Jackie never said anything about not talking to her father or her sisters, but on the other hand I knew this was going to piss her off. But she was so stubborn on this topic, and loving her meant it was nearly impossible to resist the urge to help.
What the hell.
“I met someone.”
A slow smile spread across Blair’s face. “Okay, I need details. Now.”
I laughed. “She’s funny, and smart, and gives me a hard time. She’s beautiful, and challenging, and nothing I ever expected. You’d like her.”
As soon as I said it, I realized how much I wanted Jackie to meet her sisters. Kate was younger, and I didn’t know her as well, but in the past few years since I’d gotten to know Blair, I could easily see her and Jackie hanging out together. In a lot of ways they were different, but I could also see the similarities between them. They were both loyal, and intelligent, and funny.
Looking at Blair now, I could even see some resemblance between them—Blair’s hair was dark where Jackie’s was blonde, Blair’s eyes brown where Jackie’s were blue, Blair’s skin pale where Jackie’s was tanned—but they had
the same height, the same slim build. There was something about their faces, their bone structure, maybe, that seemed similar. I never would have pegged them as sisters if I didn’t know to look for it, but now that I did, I saw it.
“You didn’t just meet a girl, you met a girl.”
I laughed. “Excuse me? I’m a guy. Sorry if I don’t know the difference.”
“You’re serious about this girl.”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Is she the one?” Blair’s voice rose with excitement before she seemed to remember we were in public. She snapped her mouth closed, glancing around us. Luckily, we had one of the more private tables.
“I’ve only known her for a few weeks, and things are moving really fast, but honestly . . . I figure eventually, yeah.”
“I can’t believe this. I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks.”
Her gaze narrowed. “Okay, so if you’re in love and possibly, one day, getting married, why do you look like that?”
“Like what?”
“Worried.”
I sighed. “Because things are complicated with her.”
“Complicated how?”
I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to tell Blair, wanted to give her a heads-up so she didn’t end up finding out about Jackie when reporters shoved a microphone in her face and caught her reaction on camera. I didn’t trust Senator Reynolds to do it, and there was no way her mother would—that woman couldn’t stand even the mention of impropriety, much less talk about it. I wanted to give Jackie a sister, someone who would be there for her if this shit broke. I weighed the wisdom of what I was about to do, listened to my gut, and said a little prayer that this wasn’t the worst mistake of my life.
“It involves your father.”
“How? Is that why you wanted to speak with him?”
I nodded.
“What did he do?”
“I don’t want to add more to your plate right now. I know you’re dealing with a lot, but I’m worried things are going to get worse. Jackie’s already been alluded to in Capital Confessions a few times.”
Blair groaned. “I hate that fucking blog. They keep feeding this story between me and Thom.”
I said another silent prayer that Jackie wasn’t involved in that one. It didn’t seem like her style, but I’d given up predicting what anyone was going to do anymore.
“Well, they keep talking about me and a mysterious blonde. And I’m worried if they dig too deep, they’re going to find out more about her past.”
“What does this have to do with my father?”
“He had an affair with Jackie’s mom. Twenty-one years ago. I’m sorry, Blair.”
She didn’t speak. She just sat there, her expression blank.
She’d always been one of her father’s favorite tools in his campaign arsenal. She was stunning, she was smart, and more than anything, she was the most self-possessed person I’d ever met. I’d seen veteran politicians fold in the face of Blair’s composure; she’d win any game of conversational chicken. It was what made her reaction to her broken engagement even more shocking. It was also what gave me the confidence to tell her now.
My parents had this tree in their yard in Greenwich—when it stormed the winds would blow the branches around, wreaking havoc on its limbs, but no matter how much it bent, it would never break. That was Blair. She was one of the strongest people I knew.
She took a sip of her drink, and I wondered what she was really thinking; she had no visible reaction other than a slight tremor in her hand. It was a while before she spoke.
“She’s my half sister?”
“Yeah. She is.”
“Does she know?”
I nodded.
“Does he know?”
“He’s never acknowledged her, never spoken to her, but he knows. He had an affair with her mother; apparently it was a temporary thing, and she got pregnant. I guess it ended after that.”
“How old is she?”
“Twenty-one.”
Blair’s eyes closed. “So she’s Kate’s age.”
I nodded.
“He’s such a bastard.”
There wasn’t much I could say to that. I reached across and squeezed her hand again. “I’m so sorry to tell you like this. Jackie would probably kill me if she knew. I just didn’t want you to find out from someone else. I’m worried this is going to get ugly.”
Blair shook her head. “I appreciate you telling me. I’m glad someone did.” She drained the rest of her Bloody Mary. “This is a fucking disaster.”
“Your mother’s going to be upset.”
“If it gets out, yeah. I don’t think him cheating will come as a huge shock to her. They’ve had an ‘open marriage’ for as long as I can remember.”
“I never knew. I never would have guessed.”
“He’s very good at keeping up appearances. They both are. Up until recently we all were.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be sorry. I appreciate you telling me. Seriously.”
“Are you going to tell Kate?”
“Yeah . . .” Worry filled her eyes. “I’m not sure.”
“Is everything okay with her?”
“Things are really bad with her and our parents right now. I don’t know how she’s going to take this.” Blair looked unsure of herself. “So Jackie—does she hate us?”
“She’s angry at him. And I think she’s hurt. It’s hard to tell with Jackie, though. She doesn’t really talk about how she feels. She doesn’t let a lot of people in.”
That was another thing they had in common. Jackie used her attitude and sass to keep people at bay, and Blair used her manners.
“What has her life been like? It can’t have been easy for her.”
“I think it’s been hard. I don’t get the impression that her mom was really much of a stable presence in her life. No father figure. She works hard. She didn’t grow up like we did; she’s had to fight for everything she has.”
Shock filled Blair’s gaze. “He didn’t even help out financially?”
“From what I got it wasn’t a lot. And I think her mother ran through whatever there was.”
“What does she do?”
“She’s a senior in college. She’s interning at Price. That’s how she started working on my campaign.”
Blair’s eyebrow rose. “She’s working on your campaign?”
I took a sip of my drink. “I know. I didn’t plan it.”
Blair was quiet for a beat. She’d grown up around politics; she understood how bad this would be if word got out.
“You know you’re playing with fire, right?”
I laughed, not a trace of humor in the sound. “Figured that one out. Thanks.”
“I want to meet her.”
I winced. “That might be easier said than done. Right now she doesn’t want anything to do with your family. I’m hoping that’ll change, but she can be stubborn. I’m working on it.”
“I’m not my parents. She’s my sister. I want to meet her.”
“I know. She’s just going to need time. She’s going to freak when she finds out I said something. Things are complicated.”
Blair sighed. “Fine. I can be patient.” Her eyes welled up and a laugh escaped. “I can’t believe I have another sister.” Her eyes narrowed. “So you said you thought she might be the one. Are you talking marriage? What kind of a timeline? Months? A year?”
I burst out laughing. “Are you seriously going to give me a hard time over this?”
“Just making sure you’re good enough for my little sister.”
I smiled so hard my face hurt. I’d always adored Blair, but I’d never loved her as much as I did in that moment. It was classic Blair to just accept Jackie as if it were nothing.
If Jackie were going to need someone in her corner other than me, I’d just given her the best champion I could think of.
“I’ll make you a deal. You can vet my relationship with J
ackie as long as you let me do the same for you. You deserve a really good guy, Blair. You deserve everything.”
She smiled—a real smile, the one she gave her friends, a million times brighter than any of her perfect, political smiles.
“I’ve always wanted a brother.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Blair Reynolds and Will Clayton were seen embracing at POV. Do I hear wedding bells in their future?
—Capital Confessions blog
Jackie
I walked through the Capital Confessions offices, my nerves on overdrive. It was early; I only had an hour before I needed to show up at the Clayton campaign headquarters.
I wasn’t sure how Sean was going to handle me quitting. He had to know I wasn’t planning on working for him forever; he knew I wanted to be a consultant. And at the same time, I was one of his biggest sources . . .
I knocked on his office door, my hand trembling slightly.
“Come in,” he barked.
Well, at least he was in a good mood. Fuck.
I turned the knob, stopping short as his gaze pinned me.
“Where the hell have you been? You don’t respond to emails or phone calls anymore?”
“Sorry. It’s been crazy.”
“Crazy? Crazy is having my best fucking blogger go AWOL. You owe me two posts now. I should fire you.”
I winced. “Yeah, about that.” I set the letter on his desk. “I’m quitting.”
“You can’t quit.”
“I have to. Things are getting out of control, and I can’t keep this secret identity forever. I was eighteen when I started working for you. It was never meant to be a permanent thing. I can help out until you find someone to replace me, but as soon as you do, I’m out.”
“Are you crazy? Replace you? You’re my best blogger. Do you have any idea how much money is at stake for me if you leave?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to leave you in a lurch, but this isn’t working. Price would fire me in a heartbeat if they found out. We knew I would eventually have to quit. I can’t keep doing this.”
“So that’s it. You’ve worked for me for three years, and now you’re just out.”
“I have to be.” I hesitated. “Besides, it’s not like you need me all that much.” I gestured toward his computer. “I saw the mention in Capital Confessions. You’re getting plenty of dirt on Will Clayton without me. Your source must be turning up some pretty good intel.”
Flirting With Scandal Page 17
