Look to the Rainbow (36 page)

     Skip cleared away the remains of dinner and told her he was going to make some calls and check the news reports downstairs, but that he’d be back up in a little while.
Mary Katherine carefully lay down beside Evan and watched him sleep, grateful that she had the opportunity this evening instead of the alternative.

Chapter Thirty-One

    
Kel wasn’t sure, when his alarm went off the next morning, if he really slept. He assumed he must have, but he was exhausted when we sat up and contemplated his usual morning routine.  All he could think about was Tara and the events of the day before as he tested his blood sugar, showered, dressed and went downstairs to take his insulin and eat. In the end, he had elected not to stay at John and Kim’s house. He hoped Tara and Michael would wait until he got there before they left for Atlanta. He had again the sinking feeling that they were finished, but didn’t think she would leave this time without saying goodbye.

     He let himself in John and Kimberly’s front door and heard voices in the kitchen and followed the sound. Everyone stopped talking as he entered and he and Tara made eye contact. Then they all seemed to start back their conversations and Kel drew Tara aside and asked her if they could talk in private.

      They went into a small den off the kitchen that John used as a home office and Kel stood in front of her and gently placed his hands on her shoulders and said, “You’re leaving me, aren’t you?”

     “Yes,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes. “But not because I don’t love you.”

     Tilting at windmills was the phrase that came to mind. It seemed that when it came to affairs of the heart that was all he was ever doing. “Then why are you leaving?”

     “Kel, yesterday a man was killed and another injured trying to take a photograph of me. Evan and Casey were hurt and we could have all been killed. If we try to stay together, it will never stop. I can’t live the rest of my life running away from the media. It has to end. I guess I always knew it wasn’t going to last.”

    “And I always thought it was meant to be.”

     “I know. And I’d give anything if that was true.”

     “All my life I wanted to be President of the United States. Now I would throw it all away, if I thought it would mean you would stay.”

     “It’s too late for that and I would never ask it of you.”

“The door is always open if you decide you made the wrong choice,” he said finally.

     “The door to the oval office?” she asked.

     “That, and the door to my heart. It will never be closed to you.”

      Tears spilled over. “To the end you
are
the most romantic man in the world.”

     “I love you,” he said.

     “I love you too.” He did take her in his arms then and kissed her slowly and passionately and she wanted nothing more than to be able to kiss him like this every day of her life.

     She broke the kiss and said quietly, “I have to go.”

     “I wish you wouldn’t.”

     She didn’t think she could stand the tears in his eyes. “But I have to.” And she swept out of the room and he heard her tell the others goodbye and the front door close. He turned toward the window and wept with the kind of deep emotion that only someone whose heart is broken can feel.

     Evan woke and found Ross sitting near the bed and Mary Katherine asleep on the sofa. “Ross? What time is it?”

     “Don’t even think about going for a run,” Ross said.

     “When did you get here?” He wasn’t even sure what day it was.

     “Very late last night. I talked to you at about one and again at three. You don’t remember?”

     “Sorry, but no.” He looked back at Mary Katherine. “How long has she been asleep?”

     “Not long. It took some talking to convince her I could look after you. I swear both Mary Katherine and the dog counted every breath you took last night.”

     Evan laughed, even though it hurt. “What can I say? The dog worships the ground I walk on.”

      “I don’t think he’s the only one. How bad is the pain?”

     “Bad enough that I’m going to start asking you to forgo the twenty-four hour rule.”

    “I think you’re lucid enough to take the risk. Hang on.” Ross came back with a glass of water and some pain killers. Evan tried to sit up but with his head throbbing  and the pain in his chest he couldn’t manage it. Ross lifted him and handed him the pills and the water and then helped him lay back down.

     Evan closed his eyes again and Socrates came and stretched out next to him. Evan scratched him behind the ears and asked Ross, “How many days should I wait to run?”

     “Weeks, Evan, not days. It will take you as long as anyone else to heal.”

     He was suddenly feeling incredibly tired again. “I was afraid you’d say that. Thanks for coming Ross.” How could he need to sleep again so soon after waking up?

     “There wasn’t any question that I would come. Get some rest.”

    Tara was tired of moping around her parents’ house, but didn’t have the desire to find an apartment and she was no closer to deciding what she wanted to be when she grew up than she was when she left Washington. The only thing she thought she might want to be, in all honesty, was Mrs. Kelly O’Brien, but that wasn’t going to happen. Michael offered to call some contacts and get her interviews at a dozen papers or magazines, but she insisted that she wanted nothing to do with journalism and he understood why.             She sat at her computer in the study and half- heartedly surfed the internet job boards. She gave up and went to email instead. There were several from members of the O’Brien family. Casey and Janet sent photos of their gowns for the inauguration, so that “just in case you come you’ll know what we’re wearing”. Skip sent a message asking how she was doing, Mary Katherine a fairly long one saying how irritable Evan was as a patient and how mad he was that he couldn’t run. She had attached a cute picture of him and Socrates napping and Tara was glad to see the bruises on his face were fading.

     Julia came in with a fed-ex envelope and said, “Look what just came!”

     She handed the envelope to Tara who pulled out four engraved invitations to the inaugural ball and a handwritten letter from Skip saying they had all cleared secret service screening and were welcome to attend any and all inaugural events.

    She held the invitation and felt the tears well up in her eyes again. She was so tired of crying. She felt as if it was all she had done for weeks. She would love nothing more than to see Kel sworn in as President and dance with him at the balls that followed.

     “Do you want to attend, Tara?”

     “I do, Mother, but how could I? What might happen if I do?”

            “ I haven’t seen one photographer or reporter since you came home. Before Kel made his statement to the press they were here every day even when you weren’t. I think they finally understood what they were doing.” Julia sat in the club chair next to the desk.

            Tara nodded, she had noticed the decline of reports about her as well. Aside from an article with several pictures from the accident in
People
and a report in
The National Inquirer
suggesting the whole thing was staged to make it look as if she and Kel had broken up when they hadn’t, she had not seen anything at all.  “It’s too late, Mother. I left him. Again.

     “It’s never too late. But it’s up to you if any of us goes. Think about it.”

     “I will. But it
is
too late.”

     “Well, then,” Julia said, “I guess that just leaves the question about what we are doing for dinner. Jack is at a fraternity meeting and your father is at some associated press event.”

     “Can we just order in and watch a movie?”  It was something they had loved to do when she was in high school.

      “There’s a lovely Thai place close by that delivers. Massaman and basil fried rice?”

     “That’s perfect.”

     “You pick the movie and I’ll go order.”

     Tara hesitated and instead of going to the armoire where the DVDs were stored reached into her brief case and pulled out her copy of
The American President.

     Kel adjusted his tie, checked his watch and picked up the gray leather Bible on the bedside table. It was the one his mother had entered the family records in, and had underlined verses she wanted him to read. He had never missed his parents as much as he had the last few weeks. Using this Bible seemed the most appropriate choice for being sworn into office. Before he could go downstairs, there was a knock at the door and John and Skip came in.

     “Well, this is it,” John said. “In a couple of hours we’ll all have to call you Mr. President.”

     “Please don’t,” Kel said, smiling. “At least not in private. I guess this is a good time to say thank you to both of you. I wouldn’t be about to do this is it hadn’t been for all the work you put in.”

     “You might have done it without us, “ John said. “But we were glad to be along for the ride.”

    Kel turned to Skip. “So, Skip, have you made any plans? Have any idea what you want to do now that the campaign is over?”

    “The only decision I’ve made s not to return to Hopkins,” Skip said. “Fortunately I’m extremely wealthy so I don’t have to decide right now.”

    “I did have an option for you,” Kel said.

     “Oh, really?”

     “I’d like for you to be my press secretary. I’ve discovered I don’t really trust the press over the last few weeks. And John and I couldn’t see ourselves in the West Wing without you. The job is yours if you want it.”

    Skip stepped forward to hug his uncle and wondered if that kind of close contact would be appropriate in the future. “I don’t think I would have made it without the campaign to distract me. You and John saved me, you really did.”

    John said, “Is that a yes?”

     “Yes,” Skip said. “I would love to serve at the pleasure of the President.”

     “Now that we have that matter settled, I guess it’s time to go.” Kel said.  He was grateful for these few minutes alone with John and Skip who had worked even harder than he had to make this happen. He had spent the day before dividing his time between George and Lily, Evan and Mary Katherine and his children. Dinner had been with all of his family. The only person he had wanted to be present and wasn’t of course, was Tara.