Love Connection

Home > Other > Love Connection > Page 41
Love Connection Page 41

by Crimson Romance


  She joined him, pulling the strap of her purse over her shoulder and looking exasperated. “Let’s get out of here.”

  With an insistent tug on his sleeve, she dragged him out of the house, pulling the door closed behind them. The gorgeous sunny afternoon clashed with the tension they’d escaped. “Want to tell me what that was about?”

  She blew out a breath, pushing her hair out of her face. “They can’t resist putting their noses in my business, I guess.” She urged him further down the sidewalk, toward the car. “I’m sorry. I really thought they would be so much more positive after all we’ve been through. Guess I was wrong.”

  He opened her door for her and waited until she dropped into the seat with a graceful swivel before closing the door and going around to the driver’s side. “I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could tell it was bad.”

  He started the car and turned the radio down, glancing over at her before checking his mirrors and pulling away from the Ashtons’ house. “Did they try to talk you out of marrying me?”

  “Not in so many words, but yes. They don’t think we’re a good fit, but it really doesn’t matter. We don’t have to be a good fit.”

  Her words hit him like a punch to the gut. Sure, logically he knew that their arrangement was not romantic and he shouldn’t expect that she’d grow to love him or anything, but still. She must have been serious the other night when she stopped things from going too far between them. For her, their agreement was no more personal now than when they’d first made it.

  He wanted their relationship to be more like what they were projecting, though, to do more. He checked his phone, glad to see the text he’d ignored was the news he was hoping for. “I have good news for you.”

  She turned to face him, the light catching subtle red highlights in her hair. “Oh yeah?”

  “You and your dad are booked for Good Morning, Dallas. You’ve got the nine thirty slot after the cooking segment on Monday morning.”

  “Oh, Ford! Thank you so much.” Lily unbuckled her seatbelt and pushed across the front seat to wrap him in a hug. “I really think it will do wonders for us.”

  The hug was awkward in the cramped space, but he didn’t want her to let go and move back to her side. He kissed her temple, savoring the moment, glad that her parents’ disapproval hadn’t dampened her enthusiasm for him. Having secrets together and facing opposition made their bubble of privacy that much more intimate.

  “It was no problem. I’d do that and more for you any day.”

  “Soldier On is so important to me, and it means a lot that you arranged this for us. I mean that.”

  She sat up, shifting in her seat as she buckled herself in. He watched her, glad to see her so happy. “If it’s important to you, then it’s important to me.”

  • • •

  The following morning, Lily left her apartment, running behind for a photo shoot. Somehow, the closer the location, the harder it was for her to leave on time. International flight and weeklong assignment? No problem. Quick shoot at a local site? Not so much. She only had to drive to a nearby company headquarters for a shoot that would be used for internal communications, so her subconscious must have convinced her that she could sleep in. The fact that the company was a huge national corporation with thousands of employees who would see the materials did nothing to prompt her to get ready quickly.

  After the disastrous visit with her parents, Ford had looked so deflated. But as far as she was concerned, she and Ford could declare their first victory, however small. The fact that she’d defended their engagement as though it were real gave her confidence that she could do it again if it came up. They knew her better than anyone, so if she could fool then, she could fool anyone. Her parents were ardently liberal, vehemently opposed to everything they thought Republicans stood for, so to have them accept Ford would be major. Too bad they’d shot that hope down before they even left. Not even waiting until they could speak privately, they’d voiced their concerns and objections, as nicely as they could, but strong and unmistakable nonetheless.

  He’d hinted about his family life, and Lily had a good idea that it would be similarly difficult to sway his parents to their side. Having a win in their pockets would bolster her confidence, help her ignore the nagging thought that they’d made a huge mistake.

  Distracted with thoughts of getting to work on time, her parents, and convincing everyone that their engagement was authentic, Lily didn’t notice the people loitering in the common area outside her apartment building. When the first reporter approached her, she was caught completely by surprise.

  “Good morning, Ms. Ashton, what can you tell us about your engagement to Congressman Richardson?” A young woman shoved a handheld recorder up to Lily’s face and stayed with her, walking backwards as Lily tried to keep moving toward the parking lot.

  “I don’t know what you mean. There’s nothing to tell,” Lily answered, though she wasn’t completely sure she should say anything. Perhaps “no comment” was more appropriate in these situations.

  “What do you make of Sam Coldwell’s accusations that your engagement is conveniently timed to coincide with next month’s election?” The young woman continued, undaunted by Lily’s short reply.

  Lily stopped, frozen as the words hit her. “He said that?” Certain that she’d broadcast her guilt and confirmed what the reporter suspected, she consciously arranged her features in a way that she hoped was more neutral. Time for her years in front of cameras to pay off.

  She’d tried to stay more informed about the congressional race now that she was a part of it, but she’d been preoccupied with work and Ford the last couple of days. In her rush to get ready and out the door that morning, she hadn’t turned on the television or checked the news online. Never in her wildest dreams, or nightmares, would she have thought that anyone could guess what they were up to. They’d anticipated having to carefully convince people who knew them that they were sincere, but to have their true plan revealed so succinctly, and so quickly, was unnerving.

  The reporter looked pleased that she’d caught Lily off guard and powered forward. “Yes, ma’am. He’s questioning the authenticity of your relationship, asserting that your engagement is part of some elaborate scheme to win the election. Would you care to comment?”

  “Um, no I wouldn’t. No comment.” Even if she had an appropriate response ready, Lily was certain that she’d give the truth away with her fumbling. Cursing her lack of preparation, she tried to edge past the reporter.

  She stepped in front of Lily and continued to ask questions, remaining calm but firm. “What do you have to say about the fact that your engagement comes on the heels of Mr. Coldwell challenging Congressman Richardson’s marital status?”

  Brushing past the reporter and ignoring her shouted questions, Lily continued on toward the parking lot. She could easily answer with something about being a private person or wanting their relationship kept out of the public eye, but answering one question would lead to more. This could get out of hand very easily and quickly. She couldn’t encourage it, couldn’t take the chance.

  The reporter and the cameraman with her trailed Lily, each question more provocative than the last, until she reached her car and slid inside. She watched the reporter tell the cameraman to stop filming, apparently admitting defeat at least for the time being. Surely this wasn’t the last time these accusations would come up, and Lily wondered how long she could endure them before snapping. Hands shaking, she started her car and took a deep breath. She wanted to call Ford, to make some sense out of what had just happened, but she needed to leave. If she sat in the parked car too long, the team may decide it was worth another try and approach her again, either knocking on the window or blocking her way. She pulled out of the lot, concentrating on steadying her breath and paying attention to the road ahead.

  • • •

  After the photo shoot, during which she summoned every ounce of her professional reserve, Lily called Ford. T
he day of work dragged on, the hours ticking by at a glacial pace, with the morning’s incident, the stress of keeping their secret, and the confusing emotions spiraling through her. Shoots always ran much longer than it seemed necessary, with every person involved having their own opinion about every minute detail of the campaign, but today was especially brutal.

  “Hey, you.” His voice came through the line, his baritone warm and welcoming. None of the panic or dread she’d been harboring all day was reflected in his tone. Despite the nerve-wracking day, a soothing calm washed over her at the rich sound of his voice. Whatever happened next, she wasn’t facing it alone.

  “Hey.” She hesitated, wondering if he’d even heard about what was happening with the Coldwell campaign. “So, I had an interesting visitor this morning.”

  “Oh?” His voice held no hint of understanding. He still sounded playful and happy to hear from her. She hated to ruin his day, but there was no way around it and no more time to waste.

  Why didn’t he already know about this and have a plan to address it? It would’ve been so much easier if she wasn’t the bearer of bad news. “A reporter came to my apartment building this morning and stopped me on the way to work.” Saying it out loud made her realize that her privacy was likely a thing of the past now. “Fortunately, they didn’t actually come knocking on my door, so I guess that’s one good thing, but I’m sure it won’t be long before that happens, too. She wanted to get a comment from me about the remarks your opponent has been making about our engagement.”

  “What remarks?” Tension crept into his voice.

  “Apparently he’s been saying that our engagement timing is a little too convenient to be believable, that it’s all orchestrated for the campaign. Basically that he knows what we’re up to.” Why had she agreed to this? It was so obvious, and they hadn’t even thought ahead enough to plan for when people connected the dots. What a mess.

  He swore under his breath. “Okay, what did you say?”

  She tried not to take offense at the thought that he even had to ask, but they were both in an unfamiliar situation. “I said no comment, and then I hurried to my car.”

  Her shocked reaction and fumbling reply likely signaled to the reporter that she was on the trail of a real story, but Lily kept that to herself. They probably had major damage control to do, and the details could wait. Ford and his campaign team came up with this brilliant engagement plan; now they could come up with a way to fix it.

  “Good. That’s good.” She could almost hear the gears turning in his mind. Apparently, since she hadn’t folded at the first sign of pressure, he was confident that they could prevail. “They’ll twist anything you say, so never give them anything to use.”

  “So, you had no idea this was going on?” Wasn’t he always connected to everything having to do with his campaign?

  “None at all. I’ve been out of pocket all day, haven’t even been to the office yet. I was meeting with a senior citizen advocacy group this morning, and the rest of the day was spent working with a group I need an endorsement from.” When he paused, she could hear his car radio playing softly in the background. “I’m sure they’ve seen it at headquarters, though, and it’s probably killing them that they haven’t heard from me yet. Can you meet me at the campaign office? They wanted to meet you and brief you on upcoming events anyway.”

  “Sure, no problem.” The last thing she wanted to do was meet with the team of advisors who’d dreamed up the genius scheme that got her into this mess, but they were in too deep now. As stressed as she was, it would be nice to share the burden if nothing else.

  He gave her the address, and she navigated out of the parking lot, into the early evening traffic. Like it or not, some things had to be done.

  • • •

  Lily parked beside Ford’s car in the parking lot and hurried toward the door before any more nosy reporters materialized. Was this to be her life until they either got married or ended things? Inside, the office was exactly like the campaign headquarters she’d seen in movies: abuzz with activity, machines whirring, phones ringing. It even smelled like coffee and warm copier paper. Sure, most movies didn’t feature handsome congressmen striding across the room to greet their fiancées of convenience, but everything else was the same. He and his situation had created this problem for her, but watching him approach, handsome and confident, still made her stomach flip flop. Engagement of convenience or not, when they were in front of other people, they were on, so when he wrapped her in a quick hug and dropped a sweet kiss on her lips, she reciprocated.

  “Thanks for getting here so quickly. The team has seen everything, and they’re waiting for us in the conference room.” His even tone and carefree smile belied the tension they both felt.

  Ford took her hand and led her toward the conference room in the back of the building. The people at work in the office didn’t try to hide their curiosity, openly staring at her and watching as they walked through the office. Bad news travels fast. She offered a bright smile to anyone who caught her eye, hoping to project a calm confidence. The mood in the conference room was decidedly less animated, and Lily’s heart dropped when she saw the seven serious faces lining the table.

  Taking her seat, she smiled and tried to appear comfortable as she faced the advisory team, who looked like they blamed her for the mess. Ford brought her a bottle of water and sat next to her. “Since we were both so busy today, we missed a lot, it seems. That reporter that visited you was only the tip of the iceberg.”

  Charlie welcomed her to the group and introduced her to the rest of the team. “We are so glad to have you on the team, Ms. Ashton. If you’ll make sure Joelle has all your contact information, you can get all further communication electronically. For now, we have your information and schedule right here.”

  He passed a folder across the table to her, and she stopped herself from asking if it was a “Welcome to the Richardson Campaign” packet. “I’ll do that; thank you.”

  As she flipped through the pages, she found advisory team member information, the basics of Ford’s platform, a schedule of upcoming events, and a list of talking points. “Are these pre-written tweets?”

  Robert cleared his throat. “Yes. Our social media intern prepared them. If you have an opportunity, we’d love for you to try to use any or all of them. It will be helpful in reaching the younger voters that we tend to lose to Democrats.”

  “I doubt that eighteen-year-olds are swayed by political tweets.”

  “It’s just one of a many-pronged approach. It can’t hurt.” Robert shrugged. The reach for voters who traditionally identified as Democrats clearly wasn’t a top priority. Lily assumed the Tea Party candidate was the real threat to Ford’s re-election chances.

  “Sure, I’m happy to help in any way that I can. And is it safe to assume that these are the events I’ll need to attend?” She pointed out the highlighted entries on Ford’s schedule.

  “That’s right. We would love to see you there, but so far none of them will require you to address the group or anything. That’s really more for earlier in the election, so next time we might call on you.” Next time? If everything went according to plan, she’d be Ford’s wife the next time he ran for office. “And now, unfortunately, there is the unsavory business of our chief competitor’s attack on your relationship.” Charlie pulled out a tablet and brought up one example after another of Sam Coldwell sound bites, each one questioning their relationship or outright accusing the Richardson campaign of orchestrating the engagement to distract voters from the issues. Though it was true, Lily wondered what issues their engagement was distracting voters from. As far as she could tell, the only issue facing the campaign was created by Coldwell himself, who made Ford’s bachelor status something to talk about.

  “We haven’t responded one way or another yet,” Caroline said, interrupting her thoughts. “We have to do something, though; we can’t simply allow this rhetoric to continue. Reacting too quickly has never been wise, so
we’re taking a moment to formulate our plan.”

  Ford leaned back in his chair, and Lily was amazed at how he could appear so unaffected in the face of this campaign crisis. He’d had more experience with the pressures of running for office, so maybe this wasn’t the worst he’d experienced. “The way I see it, we either go on the offensive and push back, or we make a quick statement about the engagement and put more effort into showing our happy faces in public. I’m sure we could get a mushy statement about how very much in love we are, etcetera, etcetera, put together relatively quickly.”

  Hearing him address the matter so devoid of emotion made Lily glad she’d kept a bit of her desire to herself and never forgotten that this was all an elaborate agreement. In the cold light of the crisis, he didn’t seem to mirror the complex development of emotions she’d struggled with. They had a good relationship, and they clearly liked each other, but the fact was that he needed this engagement. He wouldn’t have proposed if his campaign hadn’t depended on it. It was too easy to get caught up in the emotions their chemistry inspired, but they’d never agreed to anything more than an engagement. Not love. This was a strategy meeting, nothing more, and if she wanted to protect her heart she’d keep that in mind.

  “The best bet is probably a combination of both—you know, hit it from every angle,” Robert said, then paused to drain his takeout coffee cup and toss it into an overflowing garbage can full of similar cups. “You two will need to be seen together a lot while Ford’s in town, both in candid situations and at planned events. Lily, if you could spare the time to accompany him to D.C., that would be even better. We’ll put the word out and make sure that the press picks up on every appearance you make, even if it’s nothing more than grabbing your morning coffee together or picking out your china pattern.” He snapped his fingers. “Especially if it’s picking out your china pattern. I’ll bet we could get a wedding feature in D Magazine or Texas Monthly, and maybe one of those bridal magazines, and have them cover you planning the wedding. People eat that stuff up.” She could practically see the gears turning in his mind as his plan took shape.

 

‹ Prev