A Different Light (40 page)

“The following week, when we were moving the finance offices from the second floor to the third, we all had to stay late, to move our own areas. Ari helped us to pack our desks. He kept looking at my face, and I knew he wanted to ask, but he never did. He carried my boxes for me.” Diana’s voice was almost a whisper. “Donald came to the office looking for me. He thought we were alone, since everyone else had gone upstairs. I’d gone back to get my jacket. Your father came in just as Donald was winding up for the second punch.”

“Oh, my God, Diana,” Athen whispered in horror.

“Ari all but put him through the file cabinets. He picked up the phone and told Donald if he wasn’t out of the city in thirty minutes, he’d have him arrested for assault and battery.” Diana’s eyes began to glow softly. “Donald left, and Ari took me home with him, and he cried as he put ice on my face. By the next morning he’d arranged for surveillance of my apartment in case Donald decided to call his bluff, and he got me a lawyer to start working on my divorce. He was my hero, Athen. No one had ever defended me before.”

“I always wondered why someone so young and
beautiful …”

“… fell in love with a man old enough to be my father? Ari is the only person who ever really loved me, the only one who ever really believed in me. My life began that night, and I thank God every day for having brought him to me. He’s given me the only happiness I’ve ever known.”

“But even now, when he’s …” Athen bit her tongue.

“You need to understand this: I will love that man with my whole heart—in sickness and in health—until the day I die. No one could ever mean to me what he does. He taught me how to laugh, and how to love, and how to believe in myself. He talked me into going to college, and later he convinced me to get my CPA. He is the one and only love of my life, Athen. He’s my real-life knight in shining armor.”

Diana passed the tissue box to a sniffing Athen across the small space formed by their parallel knees.

“So,” Diana said, “now you know. And maybe you understand why I had no interest in sharing him, with you or anyone else. He’s all I have. I admit that I did want to be your friend. Especially after Ari’s stroke, and when John died, I wanted to be there for you. Ari would have wanted me to.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t talk sooner. It must have been so hard for you when Dad was in the hospital and only John and I were allowed in his room for those first few days.”

“Sharing the waiting room with Dan Rossi was the worst part,” Diana said grimly. “He sat there praying for Ari to die while I was praying for him to live.”

“You really think he hoped that Dad would …”

“If you’d seen the look on Dan’s face …” Diana shivered. “Yes, I really do believe he was hoping your father
would not survive.” She smiled wryly. “I guess paralyzed and unable to speak was his second choice.”

“Bastard.”

“Amen,” Diana agreed.

Athen covered her face with her hands. “I can’t believe I let that man talk me into helping him get another term.”

“It isn’t your fault,” Diana assured her. “Dan is a very good liar.”

Athen suddenly remembered why she was there in the first place. “Speaking of Dan, maybe you can help me with something.”

“What’s that?”

Athen opened her purse and took the paper out, folding the creases flat onto her lap. “Meg found this photo on microfiche at the newspaper yesterday. This man, the one in the background, looks slightly familiar but I can’t place him.”

Diana leaned over for a better look. “Phillip Harper. He was a real-estate attorney from around New Brunswick.”

“Was?”

“He retired last year. I heard he moved to Florida or Arizona, someplace warm. He was a real heavy hitter. He had a lot of money, and I think he thought of political contributions as an investment. I didn’t know him well, but I met him a few times.”

Diana studied the details of the picture silently. “We were at this party, your dad and I.”

“You were?”

“It was at Wynn and Ellen Thomas’s house in Saddlebrook. I remember every detail of that night. It was quite the society bash. Tickets were a thousand dollars
a head. Everything was perfect—the caterer, the band. We danced until I could barely stand up. The ballroom was decorated to look like a Hawaiian grotto, complete with waterfalls, and there were flowers absolutely everywhere.”

“Do you recognize the other man, the one in front with Dan?”

“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure I knew everyone there that night. These events draw the same people every time. State pols. County people. Only the wealthiest contributors and the candidates. This was the last big fund-raiser before the election, as I recall. But I don’t think I remember this man.” Diana shook her head. “I wish I did. Especially if this was what Ari was looking at that morning.”

“Meg said she scanned the paper from end to end and found nothing that related to Rossi but this.”

Diana handed the picture to Athen. “Maybe the key lies with the mystery man. I wish I knew who he was.”

“So do I.” Athen folded the paper and tucked it into her bag. “I wonder if my dad knows.”

“I’m sure he does.” Diana nodded. “But then again, if Ari could speak, we’d know the whole story, wouldn’t we?”

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR
makes,
Athen mused as she dressed for the Memorial Day outing.
This time last year I was praying for gale-force winds. Today, I can’t get there fast enough.

She’d tried for the past week to make the call she knew she had to make, but each time she lifted the receiver, she’d returned it to its cradle without making the call. After torturing herself for days, she decided to wait until the press conference on Wednesday. The plan was to nab Quentin on the way out of the room and nonchalantly ask him to stop at her office before he left the building. That plan was scrapped when he blew out of the room as soon as the last question was asked and answered.

There was always plan B.

Chances were that he, along with just about every other living soul in Woodside Heights, would be at the picnic today. Well, Athen was ready for him. She’d corner him and give him her best, her most sincere apology. With any luck, maybe by tonight she’d back in his arms again.

There was no need this year for Callie to urge her mother to hurry. Athen was downstairs and dressed before Callie was awake.

“You look nice, Mom,” Callie said as they got into the car. “I like that outfit on you.”

It had been chosen carefully, black and gold checked Capri pants, a pale gold cotton pullover, black sandals, a chunky gold bracelet, and a gold scarf to tie back her hair. The picnic be damned: she was dressed for an impromptu dinner invitation, with maybe a stop afterward at the park to feed the ducks. Ever hopeful, her words of apology well rehearsed, Athen headed off for the day’s events with Callie.

Diana had insisted on accompanying them. “Dan will be attempting to hold court as he has for the past sixteen years,” she’d told Athen. “We’re going to be there to remind
him that he’s just another ex-employee, just like all the other old-timers.”

“What do you mean, remind him …?”

“Just follow my lead,” she told Athen.

Callie sighed as they waited for Diana when they stopped to pick her up. “I just love Diana’s little house, don’t you, Mom?”

Diana waved from the front window, locked the door, and walked briskly to the car.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Diana said while en route to the park, “have you spoken with Meg since she left on Monday?”

“She called last night. Everyone at the station out there is buzzing about her new job. And of course, she can’t wait.”

“When will she start?”

“Officially, she goes on Chapman’s payroll October first, though the station won’t kick off until December. Of course, Brenda wants her here as soon as the station in Tulsa will release her from her contract.” Athen pulled into the already filled parking lot at the park.

Callie went off in search of her friends, and Diana and Athen walked toward the gathering under the trees.

“Now stay close, Athen,” Diana instructed. “Because today I’m going to teach you something you should have learned from your father.”

“What’s that?”

“How to work a crowd.”

Athen marveled at how fluidly Diana floated through the throng, never matching the wrong name to the wrong face. Dressed all in white—a white cotton dress with a full skirt, a wide-brimmed white hat, white sandals—she could have been the hostess at a garden party.

“Mrs. Amory!” Diana took the hand of a plump woman who was headed for the food table and turned to Athen. “Athen, of course you know Mrs. Amory. She worked side by side with me every time your father ran for Council.” She turned back to Mrs. Amory. “Oh, and wasn’t that first election night one to remember? Did you ever see such rain? And how is your daughter? Did I hear she’s engaged …?”

Next it was, “Mrs. Simpson.” Diana bent to place a kiss on the face of an elderly woman perched on the edge of picnic bench. “What a coincidence! I was just telling the mayor about that pothole at the end of your street. Athen, Mrs. Simpson is the lady I was telling you about. The most dreadful pothole … perhaps someone from Streets could go out tomorrow and take a look?”

“David Gilmartin.” Diana hugged a thin, bald man. “I was devastated to hear about your wife. What a loss to us all. Athen, David’s wife passed away in March.”

And on it went until Athen whispered in her ear, “What in God’s name are you doing? And when can we stop and sit down for a minute?”

“A cold drink would be wonderful, yes, thank you. Athen? Something cold?” Diana scooped up two cans of ice-cold soda from a huge cooler. “You are doing what the mayor is supposed to be doing at things like this, and we don’t stop till it’s over,” she said out of the corner of her mouth as she handed one of the cans to Athen and popped open the lid of the one in her hand. “Before this day is over, you will have shaken every adult hand, kissed every baby, and said something endearing to every child in attendance.”

“That’s what you do when you’re campaigning,” Athen grumbled and searched the throng for the only person
she was interested in talking to. “Which I am not.”

Diana nodded in the direction of the small crowd that had gathered around the former mayor. “Dan certainly is.”

“He can do whatever he wants.” Athen made a face. “And he doesn’t need to campaign. The job is his.”

“Now, Athen, didn’t your daddy ever tell you there’s no such thing as a sure thing?” Diana turned to the couple approaching them from the left. “Ann … Mike. How good to see you again.”

Athen scanned the crowd for a tall, dark-haired man with broad shoulders and a killer smile. She found him over by the ball field where the children were being divided into teams.

“Excuse me, Diana. Jim, Nancy, it was wonderful to see you,” she echoed Diana’s smooth tones in making a graceful exit. “My daughter is in the softball game, and I don’t dare miss a play.”

She took a deep breath and headed across the field, rehearsing what she’d say to him. With each step, her heart pounded a little louder. She came up behind him and fixed a smile on her face. She touched his arm and he turned around, obviously surprised that she had approached him.

“I thought that was you.” She smiled at him as calmly as possible. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

“Is there a score?” she asked.

“Not yet.”

The awkward silence was her cue.

“Quentin.” She took a deep breath. “I want to apologize to you. I had no right to interfere with the way you do your job. And I do understand that that’s what you were doing when you wrote the Rossi story. I realize now
that my expectations were out of line.”

“Do you?” he asked, not looking at her.

“Yes, I do.” She tried to sound as contrite as she could.

“Did Meg have anything to do with your change of heart?” He seemed to be looking at her from the corner of one eye, but the dark glasses made it tough to know for sure.

“We discussed it,” she acknowledged, “and she told me I was dead wrong. Which I was. My feelings were hurt and I guess it was difficult for me to look beyond that at first.”

“Athen, I would never intentionally hurt you,” he said softly.

“I know that.” She smiled, relaxing. The worst was over. “You were right, of course. If Rossi says something, you have to print it. Especially if it’s about me. Whether I like it or not.”

“I’m glad that you understand.” He looked down at her, his eyes shielded by the dark glasses. “I’m very sorry that something I did upset you. But I can’t promise that it will never happen again.”

“I understand.” She nodded. “You do what you have to do.”

She waited for him to say something else, and when he did not, she took a small side step to better study his profile. There was no smile on his face, no banter forthcoming. No hand reached out for hers. Quentin looked distracted at best, uncomfortable at worst.

He turned to her stiffly. “Thank you for the apology. It means a lot to me to know that you understand that it’s not personal.”

She smiled her biggest smile, happy that it was behind them. Now they could pick up where they’d left off.

“Well, then,” he said awkwardly. “I guess I’ll see you next week at the press conference.”

He nodded to her as if she were a casual acquaintance. She watched, dumbstruck, as he abruptly strode off across the field in the direction of the parking lot without a backward glance. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment at his apparent disinterest, her mind numb in the wake of his sudden dismissal.

Her disbelieving eyes followed the maroon cap as it wound through the rows of cars, her stunned heart clanging dully on the macadam as it dragged behind him, all the way across the parking lot.

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