MISTAKEN - The Complete First Season (26 page)

W
e arrived
at the function just as it was beginning. Our table near the front wasn’t the table of honor, and I was somewhat relieved when I realized that this would be more of a meet-and-greet for me than a speech giving event. The banquet hall was huge; there were hundreds of people in attendance. I still wasn’t quite used to giving speeches to this large of a crowd and I was glad I wouldn’t have to today.

I was still pretty stunned at what had just happened at the hotel, though I couldn’t say I was surprised. Will’s behavior disgusted me on one level, but I almost felt sorry for him on another. Part of me wondered if there wasn’t a small part of him that was trying to rebel against what had come to be expected of him by his family. I hadn’t seen it before that day, but there were a lot of ways that we were alike, and even I had to admit that it included the almost slutty behavior we both had demonstrated. Maybe I was secretly hoping I’d be caught with Brandon to get out of my family’s expectations. Maybe that was why I was willing to put up with all the lies and the secrecy.

I received the looks of pity from around the room with a nod or a small smile. I was pretty sure people had assumed we were together, even though there had never been a formal announcement.

I pushed the dry meat and defrosted vegetables they served me at lunch around my plate. I was mostly just trying to look interested in what the speakers were saying to the crowded banquet room. Krystal had taken off to parts unknown and Will was invited to say a few words to the audience after his opponent, a congresswoman who appeared to be in her late thirties.

He took the microphone from a man near the front of the room, making every effort to appear as gracious as possible. I knew from our previous events over the past few weeks that he preferred giving speeches to speaking with people one-on-one. His were almost exactly the opposite of my preferences.

He walked to the front of the room, centering himself in front of the audience. “Good afternoon, everyone. I’m Will Howard, State Rep from the 107th district.” He paused for a moment, it seemed like he was waiting for applause that never came. He cleared his throat. “I, uh, wanted to take a moment to thank you for having me here today to meet the business leaders of Iowa. Please trust that I’ll make your priorities my most important when you elect me to the United States Senate.”

The room was dead silent. Someone coughed from the back of the room and heads turned, it was that quiet. Will’s face flushed and he continued. “We all make mistakes in life, and I want you all to know that I’ve learned and grown from mine.” The rhythm of his speech sped up. “Thank you for giving me and my opponent the opportunity to speak with you all today.” He smiled and nodded at the audience. “Thank you.” He turned to give the microphone back to the emcee of the event then returned to our table.

There was some polite applause, but otherwise nothing but silent stares directed at our table. Thankfully, the emcee told the room that the speeches were over and encouraged everyone to socialize. Will tried to engage me, but I stood up and headed over to another corner of the room, not wanting anything to do with him at that moment.

I looked around for Krystal. I suppose I was wanting to get permission to leave. I had never been so uncomfortable in my life and I just wanted to go back to my room and hide under the covers until Melissa arrived.

I nodded at a few people who seemed to recognize me, forcing a smile to my face, but mostly just trying to duck away from any conversations. I found a quiet corner and turned away from the crowd to check my phone. Nothing.

A woman, who I recognized to be Will’s opponent in the senate race, approached me, touching my shoulder and walking around me to face me. She extended her hand to me. “You’re Jenna Davis. I’m Diana Martinez.”

I shook her hand and gave her a small smile. “Good to meet you. I’ve heard you’re doing some fine work up on Capitol Hill.”

She waved her hand. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I have had some very nice interactions with your father, though. He’s always so willing to reach across the aisle. I wish nothing but the best for him on his campaign.” Her smile appeared to be genuine.

“Thank you.” I returned a much more genuine smile to her.

She motioned me with her head to follow her further into the corner. Her voice dropped to a hushed whisper. “So I heard you were seeing Brandon Richardson.” She cocked an eyebrow high onto her forehead.

I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. I wasn’t even sure how to respond. “Oh?”

She nodded. “I have friends in San Francisco. They said they saw you with him.”

I nodded and my voice lowered a notch. “Oh.”

She raised another eyebrow, almost with amusement. “So you
are
seeing him. God, he’s fantastic, isn’t he?”

My voice was gone. “Uh…” It was all I could manage to be able to get out. Talking about Brandon was about the last thing I expected to have to do today after what had happened with Will.

She chuckled. “Never mind.” Her gaze went over my shoulder. “Oh, here’s my husband.”

I turned to face the tall man dressed in a military uniform, silently willing my face to go back to its natural color.

She continued. “Jenna Davis, this is my husband, Lieutenant Colonel John Martinez.” She smiled up at him.

He extended his hand to me. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Davis. I’ve been a huge admirer of your family’s for some time.”

I shook his hand. “Please, the honor is mine. Thank you for your service.”

He nodded with a smile and turned to face his wife.

“Honey, she’s friends with Brandon. You remember how he helped me out of that jam a few years ago during my last election?”

“Of course. Great guy.” He gave me an unsure smile. He seemed almost as uncomfortable with the topic of conversation as I was.

My eyes darted between the two of them. I wasn’t even sure how to respond.

“Well, be sure to tell him that Di says hello the next time you see him, okay?” She grinned widely at me. “And give my regards to your father, would you?”

I nodded and managed to find my voice, though it barely sounded like more than a hoarse whisper. “Of course.”

She took her husband’s hand and walked away.

Krystal walked over and lifted an eyebrow at me. “What was that about?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. Old friend of Brandon’s, apparently.”

Her lips turned up into something of a smile. “You’ll find quite a few of those out there, unfortunately.” She glanced down at the phone in her hand then looked back up at me. “Your father is on his way.”

My eyes widened into saucers. “What? Here?”

“Yes here. Where else?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Why is he coming here?”

“He was invited, Jenna. That’s why you’re here, remember?” She gave me a knowing look. “Just because none of the other candidates came today, doesn’t mean they couldn’t have.”

“Right, but they didn’t. So why is he coming?”

“I think he wants to be sure you aren’t caught up in Will’s…” She trailed off. “…unfortunate events. I think he just wants to be sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine. You could have told him that.”

“I did tell him that. He didn’t believe me.” She glanced down at her phone again, then over at the entrance. “I think he’s coming in now. I’ll be right back.”

I watched as she walked over to the entrance and led my father over to where I stood.

He leaned down and kissed my cheek. “How are you, sweetheart?”

I gave him a quick embrace, then took a step back. “I’m fine, dad. You didn’t need to come today. I think I’m handling this fairly well.”

His brows furrowed a bit. “You’re standing alone in the corner with a banquet hall full of people. It doesn’t look like you’re handling anything very well.”

I couldn’t really argue with that. Not that I was a social butterfly on a good day, but I wasn’t usually one to stand in the corner, either.

He gave me a knowing look. “He’ll be dealt with, Jenna.”

I nodded. “I think he should be given the chance to deal with it himself. Let him clean up his own mess.” I glanced around the room to see where he was. It looked like he was trying his best to engage with people one-on-one, just like we had talked about earlier. Maybe he really could learn his lesson, change his stripes.
Unlikely
. I didn’t really even understand why I wanted to give him a chance to prove himself after the way he’d treated me, but there was just something so sad about how far he had fallen. And how fast. It made everything seem tenuous, even my own life.

He pursed his lips, nodding, like he might actually give it some consideration. “We’ll see.” He motioned with his head toward Krystal, who was off talking with a reporter several feet away. “You should go get some rest. You’ve had a long day. I’ll stay and work the room a little.”

“I’m okay, dad. I’ll stay.”

He touched my shoulder and gave me a warm smile. “It’s not a punishment, Jenna. I’m worried about you.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“I’ll have Krystal take you back to the hotel. And Jenna…”

I looked up at him. “Yes?”

He rubbed his lips together, pausing for another moment. “I’m sorry. I should have listened to you. There won’t be any more matchmaking coming from your mother or I. I’m sorry we pressured you into this.”

I nodded again. Had he really even just said that? “Okay.” It was the only response I could even think of at that moment.

He patted my shoulder and walked over to Krystal, motioning back at me.

I watched him as he began to interact with the crowd of people that had formed around him. He was a natural politician. Or maybe just well-practiced.

Krystal sidled up to me. “Shall we get out of here, kid?”

“Yeah.” I turned to her. “Do you mind if we stop for something to eat on the way back?”

“I don’t care. What are you in the mood for?”

I shrugged. “Burgers sound okay?”

She grinned. “Sounds divine.”

W
e had
a few hours to kill before Melissa’s plane was due to arrive. We found a diner, a little hole-in-the-wall type place that was clean. We both ordered a burger and fries.

“I’m worried about you, Jenna.” Krystal gave me a stern, almost motherly look. Disappointed might have been a better term for the way she looked at me.

I lifted my shoulders in a little shrug and took a sip of my water. “I’m fine. Nothing to worry about here.”

She tilted her head and regarded me, her gaze sweeping up and down over me. “I’m not so sure about that.”

I gave her another small shrug and decided to change the subject. “How’s the campaign going? Other than Will, I mean.”

Her mouth twisted into an expression I didn’t recognize on her. “Will is an idiot. He should have known better. His campaign manager should have known better.” She shook her head and took a sip from her drink. “Girls always talk. Women, not so much. But girls…” She pressed her lips together. “Girls always talk.”

My eyes dropped to the table. “Is this going to affect my father’s campaign? I’d hate for him to suffer for Will’s stupidity.”

I saw her shrug before she took another drink from her glass. “Probably not. It’s a long term thing. By the time he’s actually running, everyone will have forgotten about Will Howard. He’ll be a long lost footnote.”

I looked over at her, my brows knitted together. “It’s not that long. The primaries aren’t very far away.”

Her lips turned up in a crooked smile. Her head cocked to one side. “You know he’s not really running this year, right? Running against an incumbent is political suicide.”

My jaw dropped open a little. “Then what am I doing in Iowa?”

“Helping your father win the straw poll.” She shrugged. “It’s a non-binding thing, but it gets his name out there, let’s everyone know he’s serious. Running for the presidency is a six year plan, if you’re smart, anyway.” She smiled over at me, her look of pity obvious. “I thought he would have talked to you about this.”

I twisted my mouth around and looked down at my glass. “No, he didn’t say anything.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Well, he probably wanted you to take it seriously. This is going to help him tremendously in the long run. Just the cable news appearances he’ll get out of this will be worth every second.”

“Every second that
I’ve
spent here, you mean.” I took a sip from my water. “Why didn’t anyone think I could handle knowing that little bit of information?”

She tilted her head from side to side, considering my question. “I don’t know, Jenna. You’ve been through a lot.”

“I’m getting really tired of people saying that.”

The waitress brought our food to the table and I took a bite of my burger, thankful I didn’t have to talk about anything else for the moment. I was tired of hearing about how much I’d been through. When would it stop already?

“God, this is so much better than that crap they served at the luncheon. The roast beef there was more like beef jerky.” Krystal was wolfing down her burger between sentences. “A good burger makes everything better.”

I smiled in response, nodding, enjoying my own lunch.

She wiped her mouth off with a napkin and took a long drink of her soda. “I’m sorry I didn’t make things more clear about the campaign, Jenna. What you’re doing here is important. It raises awareness and money. Both important.” She took another bite of her hamburger.

I nodded in response. “I’m glad I was available to help.” I took another bite of my own food.

“It all worked out in the end, didn’t it?” Her lips tugged into a tight-lipped smile.

“I suppose it did.”

She nodded again. “So what’s up with your friend? Is she coming out to stay?”

I managed a small shrug. “I have no idea. She was pretty upset when I talked to her this morning. I think something happened in Portland.”

“Hmm.” Krystal took a bite from a fry and pointed it at me. “She’d make a great assistant for you. I thought so before. You should talk to her about it. It would give you something else to do…” She averted her eyes over my shoulder.

“Something other than your brother, you mean?” I raised an eyebrow in her direction.

Her eyes darted back to mine. “Exactly.” Her mouth widened into a grin. She flipped the rest of the fry into her mouth and took a long drink from her soda. “You’re a funny girl.”

I made a sound through my nose, but couldn’t help but return her smile. “I don’t think she’ll stay very long. I’m going to try to get her back to San Francisco.”

She nodded. “I imagine she’ll want to get back to her family.” She tossed another fry into her mouth. “So no ideas about what happened with her boyfriend?”

I shook my head. “No. It didn’t sound good, though. She’s a pretty tough girl, so it must have been bad.”

Her brow furrowed with concern. “Let me know if I can help, okay?”

I nodded. “Can you clear my schedule for a few days? I’m not sure what I’m going to find when she gets off the plane. I don’t think she’ll be up to doing campaign events, though, for sure.”

She nodded. “Yeah, of course. For as long as you need. I’ll see if your father wants to hang around for a few days and do some of these things himself. It’d be good for him.”

The thought of my dad going to a county fair to judge a “Most Beautiful Cow” contest made me smile. I took another fry and shoved it in my mouth to cover my amusement.

“I know; you’re thinking about him getting his loafers dirty. It
is
a pretty funny thought.” She grinned.

I couldn’t help but snicker a little. I’d never seen my father do anything remotely outdoorsy, which explained why he needed a surrogate to do most of his person-to-person campaign events in Iowa. I’d never been much of an outdoors-type of girl myself, but I wasn’t afraid to do it when I had to.

Her grin widened. “Okay. Let me see what I can do. If it turns out that a pig or some other farm animal will go without being judged, we might have a problem. Otherwise, take a few days off and help your friend.”

“Thanks, Krystal.”