When Love Calls (15 page)

“Good morning.”

“Going to your office?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Moments later, the doors opened again and he strolled down the hall toward his office. As soon as he walked in, a bustling commotion began as assistants and aides tried to get his attention.

As soon as he went into his office and closed the door, the noise stopped. Kent was sitting at the conference table surrounded by several books, folders and laptops. “Morning,” Kent said, looking up as Randolph entered.

“Good morning, Kent,” Randolph said, dropping his briefcase on his desk and removing his suit jacket. “Okay, let’s get started. What’s first?” He picked up a government report in a blue folder, read the title, flipped through the pages, then opened to the first page. His day had begun.

Louise and Otis signed in at the security desk, then took a seat and waited to be escorted on their Capitol Hill tour. There were several other people sitting around waiting, including what looked like a number of student groups on class trips and a delegation from Japan.

“I hope he won’t be too busy to give us the full tour. I’m really looking forward to it,” Louise said as Otis sat beside her, admiring the intricate stonework surrounding the huge atrium.

“Oh, I don’t think the senator will actually be giving us the tour. He’s far too busy for that. He’ll probably have an assistant or an aide give us a nice walk around a bit. He’s a very busy man.”

“Well, of course he is but that won’t do, now, will it? How am I supposed to help him if he doesn’t tell me what he wants?”

“Help him?” Otis questioned. “Help him with what?”

Louise smiled. Otis shook his head. “No, Louise, now, this is too far. Messing around in your grandsons’ lives is one thing and even delving into the lives of their friends and relatives is marginally acceptable, but you can’t start disrupting the life of a United States senator. That’s just going too far.”

“Too far! Of course not. He invited me here.”

“To take a tour, yes. But he never asked you to play matchmaker, did he?”

“No, not in so many words, but the spark in his eyes was there. Believe me, I recognized it instantly.”

“Maybe he was just tired.”

“No, he’s interested and he needs my assistance.”

Otis shook his head, knowing that there was no reasoning with her when she got this way. He only hoped that Randolph would have the good sense to stay as far away from them today as possible. He was wrong.

“Mamma Lou, Colonel Wheeler, welcome.”

Louise turned and smiled happily. Given her reputation, few men were happy to see her. In fact, most ran for their lives, Trey Evans being the one who immediately came to mind. “Hello, dear. We were just talking about you. We’re fine and we’re very excited to take this tour.”

Otis’s jaw dropped. Louise never ceased to amaze him.

“Colonel Wheeler, how are you, sir?” Randolph asked, shaking his hand.

“Just fine, Senator, and thank you for the invitation. It’s always exciting to be here. We know you’re a busy man, so we don’t want to take up too much of your time. As a matter of fact, if you have an aide or an assistant we’ll be just as delighted to take the tour with them.”

“Not at all. I wouldn’t dream if it. I’ve been looking forward to this, as well. I’ve cleared a nice break in my schedule for us. We’ll start off with lunch in the Senate Building and go from there.”

“Excuse me, Senator Kingsley, can I get your autograph?” A student walked over to him with pencil and paper.

“Sure,” Randolph said, signing his name. Then suddenly a mass of kids began surrounding him as teachers and chaperones tried to control their sudden excitement.

Louise and Otis looked on as security stepped in and Randolph continued talking to the students. “You never cease to amaze me, my dear,” Otis said into Louise’s ear.

Louise smiled. “That’s the whole idea.”

“We better get out of here before I start another riot,” Randolph said, escorting Louise and Otis down the hall toward the elevators. “Hungry?”

“Starved,” Louise said happily.

Ten minutes later, they were seated in the main dining hall of the Congressional Building. Large and ostentatious, the room was crowded with members of Congress, staff and guests. They sat at a table off to the side near the center courtyard. They each ordered the special of the day, then talked and enjoy a nice leisurely meal filled with laugher, good conversation and welcome friendship.

As usual Colonel Wheeler was spotted by someone he knew. The two men chatted a few moments, and then Colonel Wheeler was extended an invitation to sit in on a security meeting that his friend was facilitating, leaving Louise and Randolph to sit sipping tea after lunch.

“Have you spoken to Trey Evans lately?” Louise asked. Randolph’s blood pressure spiked as Louise chuckled, enjoying his flabbergasted expression. “Don’t answer, I wouldn’t dream of asking you to betray his confidence.”

“Confidence?” Randolph asked, recovering his coolness.

She chuckled again. “I know he’s been hiding from me. You can assure him that I am quite busy using my talents elsewhere.”

“I’ll make sure to pass that along if I see him.”

“That will more than likely be at the poker game this weekend.”

“Is there anything you don’t already know?”

“Not much,” she said. It was Randolph’s time to chuckle. “Okay, now, why don’t you tell me about her?”

“Tell you about whom?” Randolph asked, refusing to be taken off guard again. Louise looked at him steadily and smiled. He nodded, knowing that his coy restraint was more than likely futile given her talents.

“The reason I’m sitting here,” she said.

Randolph surrendered. “Her name is Alyssa Adia Wingate.”

“That name sounds familiar,” she said.

“As a matter of fact, she said that she knew you, or rather, her grandmother knew you and she remembered her father talking about you a while back.”

“Who’s her grandmother?”

Randolph opened his phone and quickly scanned the message Kent had sent him earlier with all of Alyssa’s information listed. “Alyssa Granger.”

“Alyssa Granger, now, there’s a name I haven’t heard in years. Yes, I know Allie. She and I were very close at one time. How is she?”

“I’m afraid she’s apparently in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.”

“Oh, no, how heartbreaking,” she said, obviously affected by the sad news. “The last time I saw Allie was at her husband’s funeral and before that, it was at her daughter’s funeral. Seems we meet at the worst possible times.”

For the first time, Randolph really considered the woman sitting across from him. As others were far more frail and delicate, Louise Gates, at over eighty years old, was as spry as a jackrabbit and just as spirited. She was part of the group his senate committee was trying to help.

Passing legislation for financial, medical and home-care assistance, he felt obligated to make their lives as trouble-free as possible. But there were so many issues that his job was made even more difficult just by doing it. There were insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists, medical and fair-housing agencies and senior social-services agencies all vying for his attention, not to mention Social Security, Medicare and discrimination issues.

Louise Gates, of course, was the exception. But there were the others, like Alyssa’s grandmother, who were depending on him to make their retirement years as comfortable as possible, and he intended to do just that.

“You said you were close, and now?” he asked her.

“Yes, we were, but we drifted apart,” she said, still shaken by his news.

“If you’ll excuse my directness, Mamma Lou, you don’t seem like the type to allow a friendship to just drift apart.”

“Very astute, Senator. No wonder your numbers are through the roof. Yes, it’s true we allowed our friendship to lapse. It was best. There were personal issues on which we didn’t agree.”

“I see.”

“And now, her granddaughter is all grown up. The last time I saw her she was barely a teenager. So, tell me about your Alyssa.”

“She’s not exactly my Alyssa.”

“But you’d like her to be.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I’m sitting here, aren’t I?”

“Very astute, Mamma Lou.”

Alyssa stifled a yawn, covering her mouth casually so as not to draw attention to herself. She was still tired. She’d gotten to bed late the night before after spending the afternoon and then all evening at Randolph’s house. They ate, made love, laughed and talked and then ate and made love again. It was the most passionate day she’d ever had. By the time he dropped her off at her car and followed her home, it was after eight and she was exhausted.

He called her and they talked again the whole time he was driving home. The whole day was like something out of a fantasy or one of those romance novels. Things that never happen to real people, but it did—it happened to her. Then morning came too early and she needed to come down to earth.

It was sex. It was fantastic. And it was over. She’d seen the women on his arm in the past and she was nothing like them. They were all tall, wildly successful in their professions and drop-dead gorgeous and that definitely wasn’t her. She was average by any standard. Nowhere near what he was used to, so the only logical reason for her being with him was opportunity. She was his little secret and the tryst was all too familiar.

She yawned again, but this time she didn’t cover too well, and Nina, sitting directly across from her at the conference-room table, looked at her, questioning. Earlier, she’d managed to avoid all of her questions and leave her with the idea that nothing actually happened between them. That they had left shortly after Nina did, and that she did go home and start packing. Alyssa just didn’t elaborate on what she did in between.

Now it was almost five and she couldn’t wait to get home. She’d worked through lunch and tried really hard to focus on the job, but it was difficult. Everything reminded her of Randolph, and then when Ursula returned to the office unexpectedly and mentioned that she’d seen him having lunch with a woman in the Congressional restaurant, she knew that everything was back as it should be.

She’d gotten his message, of course. He called twice. But returning his call was the last thing she intended to do. She intended to just put him out of her mind and consider last Sunday a sweet memory just as her grandmother once did.

By the time the meeting was over, she’d managed to refocus on what was going on and offered some good suggestions and answered a few questions. Later, she turned off her computer for the day, gathered her things and left.

Chapter 11

“H
ello.”

Louise and Otis looked around, hearing the greeting.

“Over here,” the voice called out again. “Yoo-hoo.”

They looked next door and saw a woman standing on her front porch, holding a broom and waving. “Are you lost?”

“Good afternoon,” Louise said. “No, I don’t think so. Actually we’re looking for someone, Allie Granger. Do you know if she still lives here?”

“Yes, she does and she should be at home. You might want to try knocking a bit louder. The doorbell sticks and she might be in the back of the house. Sometimes it’s hard to hear the doorbell in the kitchen, especially when the television is up too loud.”

“Thank you,” Louise said as Colonel Wheeler knocked firmly on the side panel. A few moments later, they heard a small voice calling out from the other side of the door, and then the lace curtain pulled back and an older woman peeked out. Louise smiled. The door opened.

“Louise, Louise Gates, is that you?” Allie asked, not sure if her memory was failing her again.

“Hello, Allie,” Louise said, smiling happily.

“What on earth?” Allie said, opening the door wider.

“It’s been a long time,” Louise said.

“Yes, it has. You look great.”

“Liar,” Louise joked, then smiled and laughed.

“Well, don’t just stand there in the doorway, come in, come in, please.” She stepped back and allowed them to enter.

“Allie, this is a dear friend of mine, Otis Wheeler.”

Colonel Wheeler nodded and smiled as he always did. “Good to meet you, Allie.”

Allie took his large hand and barely shook it. “Come on into the parlor, we can talk there.”

“Actually, Allie, I’m gonna let you two young ladies sit and chat for a while. You don’t need an old rooster like me in the way. I saw a nice little shopping center a few blocks away. I’ll pop over there and make myself useful.” He nodded and smiled wide. “It was good meeting you, Allie.” Then with a quick peck on Louise’s cheek he stepped back outside and down the front steps to the car.

Allie closed the door and turned. “Well, isn’t this a blast from the past?”

“It certainly is, Allie.”

“It’s been a long time, Louise. What on earth brings you here today?” she asked, leading the way to the parlor.

“That’s just it, it’s been a long time, too long a time. Someone mentioned your name to me recently and knew I needed to stop by and see you. We’re getting too old to drag hard feelings around.”

Allie smiled and opened her arms wide. She and Louise hugged long and hard and tears started to fall. “Oh, look at us, a couple of old broads crying like babies. Enough of this parlor stuff, let’s go in the kitchen and get us some tea and cookies.”

“Sounds like a perfect idea.”

The two women spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen, talking and catching up. Louise was heartbroken to hear several old friends had passed, and Allie was amazed that both Matthew’s and Raymond’s sons were married.

“Time is passing us by, Allie.”

“Lord knows that’s the truth. So, what have you been up to? Are you still living on the island?”

“Crescent Island will always be home. I’ve been traveling a bit, visiting. My grandson Tony and his wife, Madison, had twins recently and I just needed to see them, although I’m still waiting for my other grandson, Raymond, and his wife, Hope, to slow down enough to start having children. I tell you, there’s nothing like welcoming babies into the family.”