“Oh, he is definitely on board, but I think it’s insane.” He kept his tone even, but he could almost see the wheels turning in Mother’s mind, and he wouldn’t encourage her.
“I don’t know about that, dear. It’s past time you found someone and settled down. And if it helps your campaign, then why not now? Mimi Fields’s daughter is single.” She snapped her perfectly-manicured fingers. “And so is Leila Mitchell’s daughter. I could invite them for drinks if you want. We need to get ahead on planning our winter program for Ladies’ Auxiliary anyway.” She reveled in her role as queen bee at home, the only female in a family full of testosterone, and saw no reason why her reach shouldn’t extend to her social circles. She’d ruled over her husband and three sons with great relish when the children were still at home, and now that they had all moved out, she looked for opportunities to exert her influence.
She looked positively gleeful at the prospect of playing matchmaker, which made him want to revisit the file folders of pre-screened candidates. The only thing worse than Mother ruining his first chance at marriage would be to have her arranging the second.
“Thank you, but that won’t be necessary. I’m seeing someone already, and if it doesn’t work out with her, the team assembled a group of candidates for me to choose from. The whole thing is ridiculous, though, and I’m not sure if I’m going through with it or not, so don’t get any ideas.”
“Rutherford, it’s not ridiculous. This is real life, and what voters think matters, whether you think it’s a valid concern or not. If this is the only thing holding you back from a win, I don’t understand refusing to address it. Why let a silly little technicality ruin your chances at re-election?” Nobody else used his full name, and she reserved her right to do so whenever she pleased.
“I don’t think it’s a silly little technicality, Mother. We’re talking about a real, legal marriage to an actual human being—someone with feelings and a family, someone who could get hurt. That’s not something I want to consider part of my re-election strategy.”
“Well, when you say it like that, it sounds bad. Thinking of it that way will get you nowhere. You hire staff for every other aspect of the campaign, and this doesn’t have to be any different. Consider it a strategic partnership, and it won’t seem so strange. You’ll hardly be the first candidate to do something like this.” She took a miniscule bite of her salmon. “You can probably wait until after the election to decide if you want to proceed with the marriage. See? One step at a time, no muss, no fuss.” She sipped from her water glass. “What’s wrong with giving the people what they want if it will help move things along?”
“I have my limits. Besides, I doubt Lily would appreciate me getting engaged to some random person if she doesn’t happen to be ready to take things to the next level just yet.” He didn’t want to bring Lily into the conversation, not with his mother, but she was starting to warm to the engagement idea a bit too much. Time to shut it down.
“Why haven’t we met this mystery woman?” She narrowed her eyes, the same piercing blue that he saw in the mirror staring back at him. After her merciless interference in his past romantic relationships, her suspicion was hilarious. She knew exactly why he wouldn’t bring up a relationship with her.
“Because it’s a new relationship, and we’re not serious yet.” And the whole thing was none of her business, but he wouldn’t say that to her face.
“Well, what about her, then? Just take the natural next step and propose to her. Talk about an easy solution.” She waved her hand as though the problem was solved.
If he’d been drinking at the moment, he would’ve spit water on Mother’s perfectly pressed cream St. John suit. He could just imagine how Lily would react to a proposal after their months of deliberately casual dating. “I don’t think so. Like I said, it’s not serious.”
“Well, who is she anyway?” To Mother, no woman in her right mind would turn up her nose at the chance to marry a congressman, a Richardson of the old-money, high society Dallas Richardsons no less. A Richardson might as well be a Rockefeller, for goodness sake.
“Her name is Lily Ashton. She’s a model.”
Mother wrinkled her nose and then quickly hid her distaste with a saccharin smile. “She must be the young lady I’ve seen you with in the paper. And what a lovely name, Lily. I’d like to meet her.”
“Here’s something you may be interested in. You know the wedding I went to on Saturday?”
“Yes, of course. The reason you couldn’t meet us for dinner with the Carlisles.”
“The bride was Lily’s best friend, Carly Piper from that Around the World in Thirteen Cakes show you pretend you only watch because the housekeeper DVRs it.”
Her eyes lit up with interest. Mother had an unhealthy obsession with The Cuisine Network, an interesting choice for someone who rarely ate anything substantial.
“Carly Piper? I adore her and that handsome man who does the show with her. I saw their engagement episode when they were in Paris. Very romantic.”
“Maybe I can get an autograph for you.”
“Don’t be silly.” She snapped her fingers. “You should see if they still make wedding cakes when you get engaged. Their work is phenomenal.”
Years of practice made it possible for him to refrain from rolling his eyes. “Okay, Mother, I’ll do just that.”
Ford checked his watch. “I need to run.” He leaned over and kissed her temple before leaving. “Nice to see you.”
“You too, dear.” She was already waving to a friend across the dining room when he reached the door.
Chapter Four
Later that evening, Ford sank into the plush cushions of Lily’s sofa and sipped his wine as he lazily pushed the little golden elephant he’d given her across the end table, looking right at home. After working and sitting in the planning meeting for her new nonprofit organization all day, she was ready for a break, and he was definitely easy on the eyes. They’d made a lot of progress at the board meeting, and she was finally catching up, but wondering what was going on with Ford made it hard to relax and catch her breath. When he’d asked to meet her, it sounded urgent. Now that he was here, it could’ve been any other evening. Either he wasn’t as concerned about whatever it was as he’d let on, or he was much cooler under pressure than she’d realized. He was taking his time, checking out her apartment and sipping his wine. He’d given her the wine a month ago, a gorgeous pinot noir, and no matter how many times it happened, Lily wondered if she’d ever be comfortable accepting gifts from him. There was a lot she still didn’t know about Rutherford Buchanan Richardson, III—like what kind of family would hoist that name upon a little boy, continuing the family legacy or not.
She set her own glass on the coffee table and joined him on the sofa. When he met her eye, she saw the tension she’d sensed earlier. Ford didn’t usually stay inside her apartment for long when they went out. Always the gentleman, he’d come up to collect her, but he’d never spent any significant amount of time in her home. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to keep things casual, or if he was uncomfortable being in her apartment under the watchful eyes of her late husband’s photographs and memories. Her space wasn’t one big shrine to Nathan, but there was definitely evidence of him.
Had there been bad news for his campaign? Or was it something else? Was he breaking up with her? Could you break up with someone who wasn’t officially your girlfriend? What was going on?
She glanced at the clock and stopped the runaway train of questions in her mind. If he was going to end their relationship or whatever it was, he needed to do it and get out so she could catch up on the backlog of shows waiting on her DVR. Downton Abbey wasn’t going to watch itself. Surprisingly, the thought of never seeing him again squeezed her heart a little. She’d miss him, miss what they had together, which was nothing, really, so she’d be fine. She’d just have to remind herself of that.
“So, there was something you wanted to talk to me about?” She sounded lame e
ven to her own ears, but the suspense was killing her.
“Yes, and thank you for having me over. I thought it would be nice to have some privacy.” Ford shifted on the sofa and took a long sip of his wine. “This is really good, by the way.” He swirled the ruby liquid, keeping his eyes on the hand-blown glass she’d bought on a trip to Spain.
“It should be. You gave it to me.”
“Oh?” He laughed, a bit nervously. “I guess I have great taste in wine.” He put his glass down and ran his hands across his thighs, looking nervous. “I’ll definitely have to bring this one next time, too.”
“That sounds great.” She pulled her feet under her, still uneasy but not quite so worried he was about to bolt now that they’d made vague plans for the future. The bigger question was why she cared one way or the other, but she’d tuck that away for later.
“Did you get caught up on everything today? I know you had that important meeting with your board.”
As pleased as she was that he’d remembered and asked, he wasn’t there to find out about how her emerging enterprise was coming along. “We did. Sure, it was an intense day, but we needed to buckle down and get things ironed out. I won’t let myself get that far behind again. Fortunately, for all of us, my dad is the most passionate person on the team, and he didn’t let the whole thing fall apart while I was busy with Carly’s wedding.”
“That’s great. Can’t wait to see how things come together.” He cleared his throat and let his eyes wander around her apartment. Either he was interested in the décor, which was admittedly awesome, or Ford Richardson was nervous. “Listen, I have to talk to you about something, and it’s a bit awkward.” Finally. She wanted to shout at him to get on with it, but he looked like he might be sick.
She reached out and covered his hand with hers, surprised to find that it was trembling. “What is it? Is everything okay?”
He cleared his throat and angled his body to face her. She’d never seen him look so intense, not even during his impassioned stump speeches. Maybe he was seriously ill and didn’t know how to tell her. She picked her wine glass up and took a sip, willing the smooth liquid to calm her nerves.
“I’m just going to lay it all out, just blurt it out, and then we’ll figure out where to go from there.” Once he got started, he didn’t seem quite so afraid to continue. The shaking stopped, and he squeezed her hand. “I need a wife, and I’d like it to be you.”
Her wine threatened to come out her nose, but she managed to swallow before she set the glass down. “I’m sorry, but what? I think I misheard you.”
“I know, it sounds crazy, and I’m sorry for springing it on you like that.”
“Um, is this a joke, or are you horrible at proposing?” Her heart raced, but why? She wasn’t interested in marriage, was she? Not again, and not to Congressman Richardson, at least. Lily never even voted Republican, for Pete’s sake. Strange, then, that the idea was kind of appealing.
He laughed, that rich, easy laugh that could turn her knees to jelly. “I’ve never proposed before. Are you saying that’s not how to do it?” His smile was charming; his eyes twinkled in the low light of her living room.
Oddly enough, she wasn’t compelled to shimmy down the fire escape to the street below to avoid the explanation of this strange proposal. “No, I don’t think that’s how you do it.”
The awkward tension fizzled out of the air between them with the light joke, but Ford’s eyes turned serious. “It sounds crazy, but I need a wife. Or at least a fiancée to present to the public. I don’t stand a chance of re-election without it, thanks to my opponent’s pandering to the lowest common denominator.”
“Okay, want to explain that to the layperson?”
“My opponent, Sam Coldwell, is pushing the family values angle so hard that voters are losing sight of the real issues facing our district and the country. I run on a conservative platform, and for better or worse, I’m seen as less of a viable Republican candidate since I’m single. My opponent, on the other hand, is happily married with an adorable child and one on the way, and he never hesitates to bring them to the voters’ attention. With everything else being equal, I can’t beat him on the family values front since I’m not married, and that could be the one thing that loses the election for me. So…” He spread his hands, as though helpless to change the situation.
“So, what exactly are you saying?”
“My advisory team provided a list of pre-screened women who were willing to enter a political marriage, and they want me to go through the group and choose one to be my wife.” He cringed. “It’s even worse saying it out loud. I know how horrible that sounds, believe me.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure you do.” She shifted on the sofa, mind reeling from the idea of a political marriage. Her first marriage had been a dream come true, and it ended too soon. Though she’d never admitted to herself that the day would come that she would move on, some part of her knew she could, eventually. She always assumed it would be for love, though, nothing like this. Entertaining the idea of marriage wasn’t something she took lightly.
“As much as I tried to convince them otherwise, the team is adamant that this is the only way. I don’t know that I would actually be able to follow through and marry one of those women. I’m not a robot. But I do need a public fiancée, at least until Election Day.”
“And then what?”
“Then we see what happens. If I win, there’ll have to be a serious discussion on how to move forward. If I lose, then you’ll be free to move on if you like. We don’t have to keep it up if you’d rather not.”
“Me?”
“I really hope so, Lily. I know I’m asking a lot of you, that we’re nowhere near ready for marriage, but I need help. I need you. I don’t want to pick a woman from the list.”
“What exactly would I be agreeing to?” She couldn’t believe that the conversation hadn’t ended with her showing him the door already, but something made her want to hear the rest. Maybe she wasn’t quite ready for marriage yet, but she wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Ford. And a not-quite-real engagement was perfect for someone who wasn’t ready for a real marriage. She’d never considered the possibility that any man could replace her first husband, not in her heart, and not in her life. Ford wasn’t asking to take that place, though, and he knew it wasn’t going to be real. This might be the ideal solution.
He smiled, clearly relieved that he hadn’t been turned down without another word. “First, thank you for hearing me out. The only thing worse than having to come to you with this crazy scheme would be for you to laugh me out of your home. I could hardly get through the conversation with my team, and I’ve been dreading having to ask you.” He sipped his wine and sat forward a bit as he explained. “We’ll need a public proposal. We can discuss that later, if you agree, but it’s got to be somewhere we’ll have an audience and photographers. After the proposal, we’ll make a formal announcement, so you’ll want to tell your friends and family rather than let them be surprised when they read about it online. This engagement can’t be a secret, and nobody can know that it’s for the campaign. I know that probably goes without saying, but if word gets out that you are simply playing the part, then I’d be ruined.” His blue eyes pleaded with her to acknowledge the gravity of the situation. “After that, you’ll just have to play the part of loving fiancée. I’ll need you to attend campaign stops with me, fundraisers, things like that. Pretty much the same events you’ve been coming to, but more of them, and with you taking a more active role. Also, you’d be more visible in the public eye, so if you’re, uh, seeing anyone else, I’d have ask you to end things.” They’d never even discussed whether or not their relationship was exclusive. This was crazy, but the idea was growing on her.
“I’m not seeing anyone else, but my friends and family will think I’m a nutcase. I mean, people know that I’ve been dating you, but nobody thinks it’s serious.” It wasn’t serious, and it wasn’t going to be. Did he think they could simply
pretend otherwise in front of other people and go back to normal behind closed doors?
“We haven’t been incredibly open about the nature of our relationship, so I don’t think it’s inconceivable that things could be more serious behind the scenes than they seem, you know. The public will buy it without a thought, and your friends and family will probably go along with it if we show them that we’re a good match. I can visit with anyone who has concerns to show them that I’m a good guy, but you won’t be able to tell anyone that this is an arrangement. Not even Carly or your parents. Nobody. For all intents and purposes, this will be a real engagement as far as anyone knows. We’ll have a confidentiality agreement drawn up that I’ll need you to sign, but we’ll have a solid, believable story to tell people, so maybe it won’t be as bad as you think.”
“Maybe.” Her parents would probably be happy to hear that she’d moved on, but her friends would likely think that she’d lost her damn mind. Pretending to suddenly be in love with Ford could prove to be exhausting, but it might be worth it. Friends were always trying to set her up with guys. At least that would stop.
“If it makes it any easier, remember that I’ll be in D.C. when Congress is in session, and you’re welcome to stay here if you want a break from me and the campaign circus. We could easily say that work keeps you here. I’d love to have you come with me, too, though. I have a nice apartment close to the Hill, and I’m rarely there, so you could get some breathing space. We can see how it goes, and you might decide that you want some time away and alone.” And when she was home alone, she would truly be alone. There wouldn’t be any phone calls, video chats, sad emails. She could be completely, blissfully, alone. This could work.
“So, if you don’t win the election, we just say goodbye?”
“Not unless that’s what you really want. I’ve really enjoyed dating you, so I don’t think I’ll want to end things just because we don’t have to carry on with the engagement. I won’t hold you to it, though. We don’t have to get married, if that’s what’s worrying you.”
Texas Temptation Page 100