Page 296 of Innocent

She’s going to be a pain in my ass, but at least now I’ll have Leo’s invisible help to buffer Elliot. Although, to be fair, since Grace’s death, Stella’s been more subdued. Maybe Grace was the main instigator more than I realized.

Elliot’s parents aren’t here tonight. Elliot offered to fly them in when he stopped by to vote this morning—and got to say hi and hug them, because the detail drove them in to the polling center—but his mom hurt her ankle a few weeks ago and has trouble walking. His father didn’t want to leave her alone, understandably.

To their credit, they did an interview with a local affiliate station earlier this evening, where they said how proud they were of him.

Well, his mom did. At least his dad didn’t speak much, simply nodding along with her. People who aren’t intimately acquainted with them will likely assume they’re happy for Elliot.

By eleven o’clock, even before results are officially posted in California, MSNBC, CNN, and even FNB are all calling the election for Elliot. Fox News holds out until eleven thirty to admit it, but that’s only because Boone finally called Elliot at 11:21 and conceded.

Cue the balloons and streamers.

Unlike other speeches Elliot’s given, I personally wrote all three of Elliot’s speeches for tonight without input from the other speechwriters. We needed three because of the contingencies: victory, concession, and too close to call.

Needless to say, the victory speech was the longest of all.

Even better? He carried Nebraska by twelve points, which was a larger margin than I and the pollsters had predicted by five points. Meaning next week, I’ll be crunching exit polling data compared to actual votes tallied to see if I can spot the discrepancy. To find out if it was people lying in the exit polls, or we didn’t have pollsters distributed properly to give us a more accurate reflection, or what.

Because we’ll need to know this in four years. We’ll need to be ready. The GOP will have four years to groom and field a better candidate than Boone. Likely a governor, because the GOP’s best and brightest congressional talent in both the House and the Senate are increasingly jumping ship to Independent or even to the Democrats. There are several moderate Republican state executives, however, who are younger, who look good on TV, and who aren’t carrying much in the way of personal baggage to sideline their hopes of higher office.

The other thing we have to worry about is the increasingly hard slide to the far left among the Democrats. Just as the Tea Party signaled a sea change that dragged the GOP too far to the right and alienated critical voters, we also have to worry about Democratic Socialists and others dragging us too far from center in the other direction and doing the same thing.

The majority of voters, regardless of which party they’re registered with, tend to fall close to center. Hence the exploding shift toIndependentin voter registration among people understandably disgusted with both parties.

But the vocal minorities in both parties can irreparably damage relationships with those necessary, centrist voters if the parties don’t actuallylistento those centrist voters. Radical base voters in either major party might skew a primary or mid-term in your favor, but they won’t necessarily win you a general election. It’s capturing and holding the valuable centrist voters.

Kevin Markos steps up next to me and pats me on the back. “Congratulations. It’s your problem now.” He smirks.

I laugh. “Thanks. I think.”

He drops his voice. “He’s good. Just do what we talked about. Nurture those relationships with staffers, don’t fuck them over any more than necessary, and encourage him to give in even when he doesn’t want to so he can strong-arm support when he critically needs it. It’s not easy, but it is simple.”

“I will.”

“And you can always pick my brain when you need it. Keep me on speed-dial.”

“Hell, I’m keeping your nameplate on an office in the West Wing.”

He snorts. “Won’t serve, even if asked, sorry. I’ll take a deputy special counsel title, if you want me to have 24/7/365 access, just in case, but that’s a resoundinghell, noto the office.”

“Duly noted.”

“Don’t worry. Casey has this covered. She’s damned good. See? You nailed that decision on the first try. Trust your instincts.”

“Thanks.”

It’s after two a.m. when we finally leave the ballroom and return to the residence. Elliot’s exhausted, but he’s still coasting an adrenaline high from his win.

I’m justexhausted. I feel…numb. No doubt everything will hit me tomorrow morning, once I’ve had a few hours of sleep to process. After we’re safely locked inside the residence and the alarm is set, Leo and Elliot head toward the stairs.

I stand there in the foyer, staring at my surroundings, trying to…process.

Leo’s already three steps up when he realizes I’m not with them. “Baby boy, are you coming?”

“I’ll be right there, Sir.” That he didn’t put us both on our knees there in the foyer tells me he’s exhausted, too.

They finally continue up the stairs.

I close my eyes and remember what it felt like stepping inside this house eight years ago.