Page 45 of The Senator's Secret
“What the fuck was that?” Carter screeches like a little girl when he rushes in my office and slams the door shut, so we can talk privately. His timing is impeccable. He had to have been watching for when Jake and Gus walked out the door, because as soon as Jake left, here was Carter.
“I’m in love with Jacob Chancellor,” I say without any inflection.
“Well, I know that, silly,” he replies. “Is there trouble in paradise?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Well? What happened?” he practically shouts. “Did you fight? Did he cheat?”
“No,” I answer. “No, none of those things.”
“Well then, what is it?”
“I think I’m really in love with him. Not ‘I was in love with that lobbyist three years ago but wasn’t bothered when he fucked that intern at Jules’s station on camera,’” I explain. “Like ‘if it doesn’t work out, I’ll be devastated’ in love with him.”
“Oh, honey,” Carter sighs like he’s watching a goddamned Hallmark movie. “You found your penguin.” If there’s one thing Carter loves, it’s other people finding their forever person since he found his. Carter is a true romantic.
“Yeah,” I say as I burst into tears. “Isn’t it terrible?”
He gathers me into his arms and rocks me like a giant baby. When I have finally calmed down, Carter assures me that everything will be all right. He knows how I really am? How I’ve never made time for another person in my life, how I never thought that I would find love so I never bothered, and worst of all he knew how attracted I always was to Jake even if I never told him all of the sordid details like I did with Jules. Then he tells me my hair and makeup stylist is booked for tonight and that she’ll be at the brownstone at five because above all else, he’s damn good at his job which is managing me.
“We need to clear the dockets and hand off the cases we have,” I tell him.
“Why?” he asks.
“We’re going campaigning with my penguin,” I explain, making him laugh.
“Excellent. I’ll coordinate everything with the henchman.”
“Thank you.”
“Let’s go and win your penguin the White House!”
“Our Favorite Senator May Be on the Outs with Campaign Manager.”
Chapter 13
Fake it till you make it
“You have got to be shitting me.”
Jake picked me up right at four o’clock, so I wouldn’t be late to meet my hair and makeup artist. Cara has been making me look good for formal occasions for the last year and a half, and I like to think we’ve become pretty good friends in that time.
Cara is a single mom to the prettiest eight-year-old little girl with dark, rich brown hair like her mom’s and startling green eyes. She’s a couple years younger than Jules and me, but not by much. And as far as I can tell, her baby-daddy has never been in the picture. She has never, not once, ever mentioned an ex to me or Jules.
“Hey, Auntie Grace,” Rachel says when I open the door to greet them.
“Hey, kid, what’s up with you?” I ask as I tousle her hair, making her laugh.
“Sorry,” Cara says when she rolls her tote into the house behind her daughter. “My sitter is sick. I think being sick means she’s getting laid.”
“Oh the good old days,” I say wistfully, making Cara laugh.
“Here,” Gus says, taking the heavy tote on wheels from Cara and lifting it into his arms like it’s no heavier than a sheet of paper. “Let me take that for you.”
“Thanks,” she says with a sweet smile.
“Wow,” I whisper with my eyes wide. “I think our stoic Gus might be smitten.”