“Kerri?” Brenda knocked on the open door. “It’s time.”
A large suitcase followed Kerri out into the hallway. An empty hallway, save for the decorations that were considered state property and thus would remain. Brenda quipped about her daughter having so much stuff, but didn’t hesitate to help her carry the suitcase down the grand staircase and to the foyer.
“Ready for lunch?” Brenda straightened out her pastel purple suit. Today her hair was coiffed to perfection, and her makeup more immaculate than anything she displayed in the old photo-ops. No more of those for a while. Raymond announced his intention to retire from the public sphere as he concentrated on overcoming his addiction. “Let’s get this over with.”
Kerri stopped her before they entered the dining room. “How do I look?” she asked, twirling in her harlot-uniform of a body hugging black dress and subtle gold jewelry. Brenda rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything. Kerri stopped twirling and followed her into the dining room, where Hunter sat next to Raymond and forced the conversation of the new year.
“…Respectable, I suppose.” Raymond’s hands were clasped on his stomach while a maid set the table for more guests. “I’m not a fan of his, No sir. But I suppose that he will be respectable. I just hope he doesn’t uproot all of those policies I put into place. Not like your father would have.”
Hunter maintained his politician’s smile while he nodded at Raymond. “I’m sure Governor Payne will do just fine during his tenure.”
“Governor! He ain’t governor yet!” Raymond’s knees bumped into the dining table shortly before his family walked in. “Oh, hello…”
Brenda sat next to her husband while Kerri found a space between him and Hunter. “What are you two talking about?” she asked, aware that her father was shooting laser beams over her head. While Raymond would not say he blessed the relationship between his daughter and Hunter Hall, he gave up fighting it, especially now that neither he nor Terrence won the election. One step at a time. Kerri took her boyfriend’s hand beneath the table.
The doorbell rang.
“Oh, that must be…” Brenda got up and insisted that the kids stay in their seats. Raymond grumbled something about “uninvited guests.” By the time Brenda returned from the foyer, she had in tow a tall man with a haggard face that was once considered one of “the most beautiful in the commercials.”
“Mitchell,” Terrence said through gritting teeth.
“Hall.”
Both men averted their eyes while Brenda showed Terrence to a seat far away from her husband, but still near everyone else.
When Brenda came up with the idea to “All have a meal together, because this is clearly something that is happening,” Kerri thought she was joking. Then the invitations were sent and Hunter nearly choked over the phone.
Now here was Terrence Hall, finally stepping into the Governor’s Mansion. It may have been on his own terms, but it was not what he had in mind over a year ago.
“Well, isn’t this a lovely afternoon?” Brenda, always the perfect hostess, summoned the maids to start bringing out lunch. She flashed a smile at her daughter and then spared a smaller one for Hunter. “I’m so glad to see the weather clearing up. I wasn’t sure it was going to after that most recent storm.”
Throats cleared. The tension between both older men was thick enough to need a chainsaw to cut through.
The doorbell rang again.
Nobody got up in time before someone came marching through the door, scaring a pair of maids as they started to bring out the bread and salad. Hunter got up, however, when his mother appeared in the entryway, her nails prime to slash open the back of Terrence’s head. What a friendly divorce. Ronnie filed over a month ago and now lived in her own apartment downtown. Hunter didn’t blame her. Neither did Kerri.
“Oh for goodness sake.” She ignored Brenda, the woman she once smacked in the face, as she tried to get Ronnie to sit anywhere but next to her former husband. “Look at this ass just sitting here like he was supposed to rule this roost. You lost, Terrence! Get over it! Our son’s sleeping with the enemy, as you put it.”
The room fell deathly quiet.
Ronnie grunted, tossed her coat onto the chair next to Terrence’s, pulled it out, and slammed her rear into it. “Hello, son,” she said with a manicured smile. “Hello, Kerri.”
They both nodded to her. Kerri had spent more than one meal with the Halls thus far, although never together. Terrence never knew what to say to her. Ronnie, on the other hand, was the first of the four parents to welcome the relationship with open arms. She was probably relieved that someone around there had a good bond.
“Well,” Raymond said, his seat squeaking as he readjusted himself in this strange impasse. “We’re all here. For the love God, don’t tell us you two kids are getting married.”
Kerri could hear the disdain in her father’s voice. Last thing he wants is to be legally tied to the Halls. “We’re not getting married.” A collective sigh was let out around the table.
“Not yet, anyway.” Hunter didn’t seem to care when his parents glared at him.
“No, it’s not as grand as a wedding, but we did want to announce something special.” Kerri smiled at her boyfriend, one hand going on his shoulder as she attempted to contain her excitement. “We’ve decided to take a trip together. Italy. Next month.”
The only one not shifting in their seats was Brenda, whose face lit up as she finally heard those magic words. “At least you’re telling us this time,” Ronnie mumbled.
“It’ll be good to get away for a while. In a more… conventional manner.”
Raymond leaned forward, his snarl about to bite Hunter’s face off. “You respect my daughter, son. You don’t do a damn thing that…”
“Raymond.” Brenda pushed him back into his seat. “They’re adults, dear. Or did you forget? Hunter’s a good boy.”
“That’s right!” The silverware on the table jangled when Terrence slammed his fist on it. Ronnie jumped beside him, but Brenda looked as if she were used to these kinds of outbursts. “My son does right by every woman he dates. Damnit, Mitchell, not every young pair of kids dating has to be bad.”
Everyone stared at him as if he were drunk. Hunter broke the silence by saying, “This lunch could be going a lot worse.”
It neither got worse nor better. Brenda tried to steer the conversation toward how lovely Italy was any time of the year, while Raymond grumbled into his wine glass; Terrence looked around the dining hall as if he would never be back again, and Ronnie spun a knife in the table whilst staring down her ex-husband. These people need help. The Mitchells and Halls, together at last. Maybe they could get a discount on group therapy.
The doorbell rang a final time near the end of lunch. The Mitchells looked up and then at one another. “Are we expecting someone?” Brenda asked. When Raymond shook his head, it fell to Kerri to get up and see who it was. Hunter came with her.
“Ah, if it isn’t Romeo and Juliet.” Joshua Payne took off his sunglasses the moment Kerri opened the front door. “Still alive, I see. I do love a new spin on an old tale.”
“Who is it?” Raymond called from the dining room.
“Tell your father that when he gets the chance, I would love to step in and take a look around.” A car pulled up the driveway, full of Mrs. Payne and the little Paynelings. Both boys pointed excitedly at the Governor’s Mansion. “I was supposed to come by to scope things out tomorrow, but I’m afraid I have a … thing.”
Kerri was worried her father would be irate at the interruption. Instead he appeared pleased to get the hell away from Terrence and distract himself with anyone else – even if that was his replacement. The Halls remained in the dining room while Brenda got up to show the Paynes around the estate. Both Payne boys dashed into the living area to stare at the flat screen TV that once delivered quite a few shocking stories.
“And how is my favorite couple faring?” Joshua asked whil
e his sons raved about the video games they were going to hook up to this TV. “Glad to see you’re still together. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the reason things finally quiet down around here.”
In politics, that was never possible. “We’re going to Italy,” Hunter said. “Ever been?”
“No, I can’t say I have. And I won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Except here.”
Both he and Hunter shared one of those knowing smiles men liked to flash each other. Kerri scoffed, but said nothing.
“I was afraid that what happened with your fathers would do you two more harm than good, but I see that I was wrong.”
Now Hunter dropped his smile. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, nothing in particular. I wouldn’t want to imply something.” Joshua turned to wave at his sons in the living room. “After all, I’m just a dark horse that charged from the back of the pack to win the race.”
Hunter took an aggressive step forward. “You did it,” he hissed in half wonder, half anger. “You’re the one who told Mitchell’s campaign manager about my father’s affair.”
“Did I? I don’t recall that.”
“How could you have known such a thing?”
“I told you, Mr. Hall, I have eyes and ears everywhere. Would’ve been terrible if your new little sister told one of her teachers about your father, and that teacher happened to be one of my staunchest supporters. So would it have been terrible if Mitchell’s bookie at the racetrack always turned around to donate some of that money to me. People are rude. They tell on each other all the time.”
“I thought you said you didn’t want to play dirty.”
“And I didn’t. Nothing that wasn’t true came out. I made sure of that.”
“You could’ve ruined our lives!” Kerri exclaimed, and Hunter asked her to keep it down.
Joshua gave her a sympathetic smile. “Your lives seem to be doing just fine. With your parents off their thrones, no one will care if the governor’s daughter runs off with one of the competition. If anything, your lives will be the better for it. Huh.”
“What?”
“It’s sort of like I brought you two together in the end. Funny. I never thought of myself as a nurse much. That’s more my wife’s style.” Joshua tipped his hat to them. “Excuse me, Miss Mitchell, Mr. Hall. I need to see a man about a mansion.”
Kerri and Hunter remained standing in awe even after Joshua’s departure from the foyer. I stopped wondering how that news broke. It seemed pointless in the aftermath. People found out these things in politics all the time. Who were they to suspect another politician… for once? “Maybe if my father had more eyes and ears around, they would have told him to stop gambling,”
Hunter took her hand and kissed it. “It doesn’t matter anymore, my sweet.” He gestured to the gardens outside the door. “Let’s go for a walk. I want to enjoy this sunny day with you.”
Voices raised in the background as Ronnie dug into her ex-husband again for being a cheating scumbag. Brenda attempted to cover them up with a loud comment about the chandelier in the foyer and how valuable it was. Raymond shouted for everyone to shut the hell up because he had a headache. The Payne boys flew out into the hallway, gawking at this painting and that bug on the floor. Once Brenda shrieked at the appearance of the stink bug, Kerri grabbed Hunter’s other hand and ran out into the sunshine with him.
It felt good to be back in the first place they met and fell in love. Well, neither of those things happened in the gardens. But it is where I kissed him for the first time. She did it again now, bringing Hunter’s lips down to meet her own between this shrub and that rose bush.
Never in Kerri’s life had she known a story of greater fortune than the day she met her Romeo.
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When Romance Prevails (The Dark Horse Trilogy Book 3) Page 7