He nodded. “Course not.” He inclined his head toward the front of the room. “And you know he’s not going to stop at being mayor, right? His sights are set on other places. Albany, at the very least.”
Was she surprised to hear it? Not if she was being honest. Since that seemed to be the theme of the night, she stayed silent.
“It’s a hell of a ride that he’ll be taking. He’ll be asking a lot of you.” Rob shot a sideways glance in her direction. “If you don’t think you’re up to it, I advise you get out now.”
She wanted to snap out a retort, to remind him that he had lost the right to give her advice a long time ago. But even if she wasn’t the smart one, she still knew that there was no glory in cutting off her nose to spite her face. “I can handle it.”
“I know you can. The question is, do you want to?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”
His nod was slow and approving. “Good answer.”
Cole stepped to the microphone, looked out into the audience, and smiled, waiting for the buzz of conversation to stop.
“Good evening,” he said. Unhurried. In command. With all the confidence of someone who hadn’t had a pack of lies about him plastered across the front page just two days ago.
Dear Lord, but she loved him.
“And by the way,” Rob said, close to her ear, “even though nothing’s changed, I gotta say it’s been nice talking to you without your claws.”
***
Cole gave the audience another moment. They seemed to have lots to say tonight. Fine by him. He had all the time in the world.
He probably should have been nervous. This was his last official appearance before the election. His last chance to sway people.
Except he really didn’t feel that way. If people didn’t know who to vote for by this point, it was probably going to come down to a coin toss.
No. In his mind, this was his best chance to set the record straight. To let people see the real Cole, mistakes and all. To let them know how he would handle the inevitable screwups, and why they should give him a shot anyway. Most of all, though, it was a chance to let everyone see that the things he’d said about truth and transparency were more than just a campaign slogan.
He waited, and watched, and let himself look to the back of the room, to where Jenna stood beside her father. He knew people were slightly freaked by Rob’s presence. Hell, the reporter from the Loser had practically wet his pants when Rob walked in.
Let them think what they wanted. Cole knew the truth. If they didn’t want to believe it, then he wasn’t the right man for this town after all.
“Good evening,” he said once again, and the audience quieted. He smiled out at them. “I want to thank you all for coming this evening. I hear there’s supposed to be some real surprises on Shark Tank tonight, so I promise to do my best to get you out of here in time to see the excitement.”
Over in the corner, Allison flashed him a discreet thumbs-up.
“With that in mind, let me get right to the topic I’m sure a lot of you are wondering about right now, and that’s the article that appeared in the Calypso Falls Leader.”
Thank God he hadn’t slipped and called it the Loser.
“I think it’s pretty safe to assume that most, if not all of you, are familiar with the story they printed. I think it’s also pretty safe to assume that anyone who read that article would be left with the strong impression that I have some kind of connection to Robert Elias—a man who many would say is about as far removed from my message of truth and transparency as is possible.”
Murmurs filled the room. More than one person glanced toward the back, at Rob, who stood with his arms crossed and his expression impassive.
If Jenna knew how much her posture and expression mirrored that of her father, she would probably croak.
“I am not here tonight to discuss Rob’s history. That’s been hashed over many times. I’m here to give you folks the facts about my connections to him, and then you can make your own decisions.”
Cole glanced at Tim, who seemed to look a little white around the gills all of a sudden. Hmmm. Might have to take him out for a drink after this.
Unless, of course, the gods decided to smile on Cole and give him somewhere else to go after this speech . . .
“But I need to begin by clearing up one very important item. The article implied that I was trying to hide Jenna Elias Carpenter’s identity. That I was trying to conceal her presence on my team. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I did.”
It was as if he had set a hive of killer bees loose in the fire station. That was the best possible comparison to the buzz of voices.
He gave them a moment, deliberately forcing himself to look anywhere but at Jenna. He was pretty sure that if he let himself glance her way, he wouldn’t be able to get through the rest of his speech.
“Here’s the thing, folks. There were many people—myself included—who thought this was the best course to take. We had good reasons, we thought, not the least of them being Ms. Carpenter’s right to privacy. Because the thing is that no matter what Robert Elias did, those were his crimes. Not those of the daughter he hadn’t seen for over twenty years. And nobody deserves to be judged by acts committed by her parent when she was barely school age.”
He saw more than a few heads bowing at that one. Heard more than a few feet shuffling.
“But no matter how pure our intentions, it was wrong of us—of me—to try to keep her hidden, and let me tell you why. Because it meant that when it was uncovered, her presence became the focus of interest, shifting the spotlight off of the issues that should be the true reason for our conversations. Because it means I didn’t trust you, the voters, to be able to look beyond a name. Most of all, because it implies that we—that I—was ashamed of her in some way. The fact is, folks, Jenna Elias Carpenter has been a savvy and dedicated member of the team, and I couldn’t be prouder of her and the contribution she made to our efforts.”
A smattering of applause followed those words. He would have preferred a standing ovation, but he would take what he could get.
“As for Rob Elias and my connection to him,” he went on, and proceeded to list each and every interaction, from the time he helped Jenna escort the man from the coffee shop right through to today’s phone call. He kept a close watch on faces as he spoke. Some still seemed dubious. Some nodded thoughtfully. Some smiled.
Mrs. Cowburn gave him a thumbs-up.
“And as for the supposed secret meetings between Ms. Carpenter and her father, let me point out a couple of things. First, Ms. Carpenter met with her father as part of a deal she made with him. Breakfast once a week in exchange for him staying away from me and my events for the duration of the campaign. Second, these are two smart people. If they were trying to have secret meetings, don’t you think they would have chosen someplace other than McDonald’s?”
Good. People laughed. Laughter could woo them into his corner.
“Third, this is a father and daughter who have not seen each other in many years. It’s probably safe to think that they would have many things to discuss. And fourth—and most important of all—while I was not at these get-togethers, Ms. Carpenter has assured me that she never discussed the election or my campaign activities with her father. I believe her. Not just because I want to, but because she has never given me any reason to not believe her.”
That got a bit more applause, a few more nods. Not a huge response, but the audience was with him. He saw it in their faces and felt it in his bones. Which meant it was time to wrap this up. Now, while they were on his side.
But while his closing remarks were intended for everyone, there was only one face he wanted to see as he made them.
“So that’s it, my friends. I am truly sorry for not trusting you enough to know that you could see beyond names. I hope you will forgive m
e for not being honest with you from the start. I trust that you will understand that sometimes . . .”
He paused and let himself drink in the sight of Jenna, still hovering by the door. Her hands were clasped in front of her and her eyes were wide and encouraging, and her lips were softly parted as if she were about to whisper something slightly off-color.
It was time to speak his truth.
“I hope you will understand, my friends, that sometimes, a man will make some wrong turns in the hope that they will bring him closer to the woman he loves.”
***
The trouble with amazing, life-changing romantic gestures was that no one ever told you what to do when they were over.
Jenna was yanked from her bubble of joy and disbelief—He loves me! He loves me!—by a firm hand gripping her arm and pulling her out of the room.
“Wait,” she said, but she might as well not have bothered. Rob—for, yes, it was her father pulling her down the hall—merely tightened his grip.
“I thought he had more brains than that,” Rob muttered, and something about the fierceness in his words made Jenna snap back to reality and dig in her heels.
“More brains than what?” she demanded. “Than to admit to his mistakes and stand by someone he loves?”
“Oh, for God’s— Jenna. He had that speech all prepared. He’s had time to get ready for the questions and the comments. Do you really want to say anything to the newspaper right now?”
Shit. “I hate it when you’re right,” she said, shaking off his arm and hurrying toward the exit.
“Lucky for you it doesn’t happen very often.”
She stopped. Turned. And for the first time in over twenty years, she laughed out loud at something her father had said.
***
Two hours later—two hours of showering, pacing, changing clothes, chasing Kyrie away, ordering her mother to stop calling, and checking out the window every thirty seconds—Jenna finally heard the door buzzer.
“You know the code,” she said into the speaker. “Why are you wasting time down there?”
“Because I want to be sure you don’t have a frying pan in your hand, ready to slam me over the head.”
“That’s a pretty stupid answer, Dekker.”
“How about this one: I want to know if your sister is home, so I know how many clothes I can take off before I reach the top of the stairs?”
She leaned on the entry buzzer so long and hard that it could probably be heard in the next county.
He climbed the stairs far too slowly for her, but when she caught sight of his bare chest and his shirt slung over his shoulder, she forgave him all.
“Hi,” he said when he reached the top.
“Hi.” Seriously? Did she have to get in touch with her shy side now? “I was starting to think you might not show up tonight.”
“I had to answer a lot of questions. It seems that when you drop a bomb at the end of a speech, people want to know everything. And take your picture.” He frowned. “If I had known how many people would want to have their picture taken with me tonight, I would have worn—”
His words came to an abrupt halt. Probably because she couldn’t wait any longer and dive-bombed him.
The kiss started off tentative, searching. Then his shirt hit the floor and his arms locked around her and the happy joy bubble appeared once more.
“I love you,” she said when she came up for air. “I didn’t get to say it like you did, but I love you. So much that I still can’t believe it’s real. And I am so sorry for being such an idiot and getting pissed off when you wanted to find a way to stay together, but I was so scared, and it all just—”
It was probably a good thing that he kissed her then. She was on the verge of babbling all her secrets, and really, that would be horrible when there were so many better ways to use her time.
“I got nervous when you disappeared,” he said against her neck. “One minute you were there and then you were gone, and I thought maybe I had scared you off.”
“You can blame my father for that one. He dragged me out while I was still processing what you said.”
“You mean when I said that I love you?”
The happy joy bubble was suddenly lodged in her chest. She had to breathe hard to get the words around it.
“Do you have any idea how amazing it is to hear those words now, when it’s just us? When I don’t have to share you and don’t have to think about anyone but you and me?”
His hands slid down her back, molding her to him as they went. “Oh, hell yeah.”
“I know you weren’t trying to hide anything,” she said. “Not in a sneaky, deceptive way, I mean.”
“Actually, I think I might have been.”
Funny. He didn’t sound at all apologetic.
“Are you going to take the Fifth?” she asked.
“Nope. I screwed up, and I’m not going to try to hide that. But I’m also going to cut myself some slack. It seems that when I think about not being with you, my sense flies out the window.”
“Oh, that is a dilemma.” She slipped her thumbs into the waistband of his trousers. “We’ll just have to make sure it never happens again.”
“What, me losing my marbles?”
“No. Us being separated.”
“Yeah. About that . . . I was thinking.”
She kissed the spot right above his heart. “Are you sure you want to be thinking right now?”
“For this I can.”
Something in his voice had her pause, lift her head, search out his eyes.
He smiled and took her hand. “I think I have a solution to that not-being-together thing. And it’ll help with your problems with your name, too.”
Her heart thumped hard against her chest. “Cole—”
“See, I figure that if you’ve changed your name a few times already, you might be okay with doing it once more. Jenna Dekker sounds pretty good to me.”
Epilogue
Jenna hurried through a bitterly cold January afternoon toward the doors of Town Hall, hoping she had parked near the entrance that would be unlocked. Navigating the icy parking lot in these heels was going to be challenge enough. If she had to traipse around the building in search of entry, she might just keep walking. There were cozy jammies and fuzzy slippers calling to her.
However, since the comfort items in question were at Cole’s house, and this moment was all about him, she couldn’t exactly get away with hiding.
Not that she was doing that anymore, anyway. But she still had her moments.
She hurried to the door, relieved beyond belief when it opened a crack and a familiar head popped out.
“Get your ass in gear, girl,” Margie ordered. “If I hold this much longer for you, the place’ll get so cold we could set up a skating rink for Satan and his buddies.”
“That would make for quite a sight.” Jenna slipped through the door and into the blessed warmth.
“You’re telling me. Except your father would probably be one of them, and God knows I could happily live without seeing him in one of those sequined jumpsuits.”
A sentiment with which Jenna could heartily agree.
“Is everyone here?” She shrugged off her coat and gave her hair a shake before setting out for the auditorium.
“Yep. You’re the last one. Were you waiting to make a grand entrance?”
“More like I got caught up in work and lost track of the time.” Something that was happening more and more these days.
Not that she was complaining. In many ways, having her identity made public had been the best thing that could have happened to her, professionally speaking. Not only did it mean she could choose to stay in Calypso Falls, it meant she could focus on the work she wanted to do instead of the work that would take her away. With that, Just Jenna Promotions—her own
business as a freelance PR gal for charities and nonprofits that couldn’t afford a dedicated staff—had been born.
Margie sniffed. “What is it with you girls always working your tails off? It’s New Year’s Day, for frick’s sake. Doesn’t anybody have any fun anymore?”
Remembering the way Cole had chosen to ring in her new year that morning, Jenna could only smile. And hope that any rogue blushes could be blamed on nervousness as the noise from the auditorium grew louder.
Jenna was just about to ask if Margie knew where she was supposed to report when Allison popped out of a side corridor.
“I knew you were going to be late.”
“And that’s why you told me to be here half an hour before you really needed me, right?”
“I see I’m going to have to change my strategies.” Allison took Jenna’s arm and dragged her away from Margie. “Come on. Loverboy is waiting.”
Jenna shook off Allison’s grip—barely—and followed her down the corridor until they reached a small room filled with Cole’s team and the members of the Calypso Falls town council. Aubrey glanced up from her conversation with Tim and waved. Ram looked at Jenna, then to his watch, then back to Jenna with a thumbs-up before drawing back the stage curtain for what she supposed was a surreptitious peek.
“Stop sneaking away from me and get in the line.” Allison pointed in the direction Jenna assumed she was supposed to go. “Oh, and take this.”
Jenna took her place and looked down at the book Allison had shoved into her hands. When Cole had asked her to be his Bible-bearer while he took the oath of office, she had laughed and made a joke about Elias women, sacred books, and spontaneous combustion. But now, with her finger tracing the gold letters on the white leather cover, she sent up her own silent thanks—for Bree telling her to volunteer on the campaign, for Cole’s willingness to give her a chance, for the complete insanity of an Elias owing her greatest happiness to politics. But there it was.
No one would ever convince Jenna that the Almighty didn’t have a sense of humor.
Life of the Party Page 27
