When Love Calls (28 page)

“Then why are you doing this?”

“I can’t hold you back anymore.”

“Hold me back, what are you talking about?”

“I’m not the woman for you, we both know that.”

“Adia,” he said softly, “don’t do this to me.”

Alyssa turned away as tears started filling her eyes. The emotional whiplash of loving him, then letting him go was tearing her apart. She took a deep breath. “It was a physical thing and we let it go too far as it was.” She quickly wiped away the tears.

“Are you kidding me? A physical thing? I’m not going to just let you walk out of my life like this. I love you and you love me. Why are you doing this?”

“Because it’s best and it’s the right thing to do.”

“Right thing for who? You? Me? Your grandmother?”

“This isn’t about my grandmother.”

“I think it is. She doesn’t want us together, so you’re just ending it. Just like that, you’re willing to end us for her.”

“It’s complicated,” she said.

“Don’t give me that.”

“The longer I’m in your life, the harder it’s going to be. I love you, yes. But I can’t have you. I know that now.”

“You already have me.”

“No, the cost is too high. I’m not willing to pay it.”

“Adia.”

“Please, Randolph, this is hard enough already. We can’t see each other. Anything more would be pointless. You’re just too tempting and I love you too much.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

“I’m being rational. You’ll understand and thank me one day,” she said.

Randolph walked over to the open door and glanced upstairs. “She wants us over and you’re not even going to consider otherwise, just do exactly what she wants. If that’s the case, then you’re not the woman I thought you were.”

“My grandmother had a hard life. She’s lost so much.”

“But still, she had a life, which is more than she’s willing to allow you, or us.”

“I can’t believe you’re being so difficult about this.”

“If living here is the problem, then come live with me, be with me. We love each other. Marry me, now, tonight. I know a dozen judges that would be delighted to perform the ceremony right now.”

“What?” she asked.

“Come leave with me now.” He crossed the room quickly and took her hand. “Tonight, right now.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“So you just intend to hide in the house for the rest of your life, avoid relationships, commitment and love because if might lead to something real. This isn’t fair. You can’t do this to yourself, to us, because your grandmother has problems with men.”

“She doesn’t have problems with men, only politicians, with senators.” She backed up and walked from him.

“Why? Was your grandfather a politician or something?”

She whipped around too quickly.

His eyes sparkled knowingly. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

“You don’t know,” she said.

“Know what? Then tell me.”

“My grandmother was protecting my mother.”

“Like she’s protecting you now?”

“Goodbye, Randolph.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but didn’t. He just left.

Forty-five minutes later, Senator Bob Wellington walked up to Randolph, smiling as he always did for no apparent reason other than that he seemed to think that his boy-next-door attitude and schoolboy charm would hide the fact that he had no idea what he was doing.

“Hey, you made it,” Bob said, shaking Randolph’s hand as they met at the reception. Randolph nodded, still withdrawn. “You okay, buddy? You look a little shell-shocked,” he said.

“Yeah, just a bad few hours, that’s all.”

“What happened?” Bob asked.

“You saw the newspaper this morning….”

“You mean, the beautiful woman on your arm?”

“Yeah, although, apparently she will no longer be on my arm,” he said.

“Had to happen sometime, bro. I guess you found out, huh? You can’t be too careful these days. I mean, it’s not as bad as before. Even so, you have to be careful.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The thing with her grandmother,” he said.

“What about her grandmother?”

“You don’t know?” Bob asked as Randolph looked at him questioningly. He stepped to the side, and Randolph followed. “Your girl is Alyssa Granger’s granddaughter,
the
Allie Granger,” Bob said. Randolph’s expression never changed.

“Allie Granger, from the Vincent Dupree scandal about fifty-plus years ago. Father was just talking about it this morning. Apparently Senator Vincent Dupree had an affair with Allie Granger and she supposedly had a child. Then his wife found out and shot him. Of course, everything was denied, you know, hush, hush. There was no affair, there was no child, the gun was being cleaned and went off by accident five times.” He chuckled. “Man, those were the days. But you know what they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Randolph looked at Bob as he laughed. He wasn’t sure if Bob was an idiot or just an insensitive fool, but either way, he needed to leave there now or he’d be front-page news having punched Bob out.

He called Kent and got a quick rundown of what had happened between Allie Granger and Senator Vincent Dupree. A few minutes later, he called Alyssa. “Meet me at the Tidal Basin.”

“There’s no point,” she said.

“Meet me,” he said, then hung up.

An hour later, Alyssa walked up, knowing exactly where to meet Randolph. They stood side by side, each staring out at the monuments as the Potomac River reflected the moonlight. The Japanese cherry trees, long since bloomed, waved gently in the warm breeze.

“Don’t confuse me with Vincent Dupree, Alyssa. I’m not that man.”

“I know who you are, Randolph.”

“And yet you’re still doing this.”

“I have my reasons.”

“I know your reasons. You’re doing this because your grandmother wants you to.”

She paused, turned and looked at him. He actually thought that she was breaking up with him because of her grandmother. Of course he was wrong, but he didn’t have to know that and probably in the long run it would make things easier for him to move on. “She needs me. She protected and cared for me when I needed her. Now it’s my turn.”

“Fine, we can both protect and care for her, then.”

“She’s right, you know, it’s for the best.”

“Best for whom?” he asked. “I can’t believe that you’re letting your grandmother run your life. Her Alzheimer’s—”

“What about her Alzheimer’s?”

“—isn’t an excuse for taking over your life and for you letting her. She needs to let go and you need to let go, too.”

“Randolph, I don’t want to be that woman who ended a man’s life’s work. You are a United States senator. Millions of voters chose you to represent them, to look out for them. How can I possibly stand in the way of that? And if we stayed together and this ruined your career, eventually you’d hate—”

“Don’t even finish that sentence,” he said, cutting her off before she finished. “How could you think so little of me?”

“I don’t, believe me.”

“Then let this pass. Scandals come and go every day in Washington, you know that. Just let it pass.”

“I can’t. There’s too much at stake. You know, I wondered why you invited me to join you in San Francisco. Was it because it was as far away from D.C. as possible?”

“I wasn’t trying to hide out with you, if that’s what you’re asking. California is my home and I just happened to want you there with me. I invited you to see my world outside and away from politics and D.C.”

“And lunch with your sister that day at The Capital Grille. It was so public, so many people. You and me having lunch might have caused them to talk, but your sister and me having lunch, then you popping in later looked just too innocent.”

He shook his head. “I invited my sister because I wanted the two of you to meet. Two of the most important women in my life needed to know each other. I got held up on the Hill because the Goode scandal was about to break and the Speaker of the House wanted me to take over his position as chairman.”

“And what about—”

“Listen to yourself, Alyssa, that’s your grandmother talking, suspicious and mistrusting. Remember, you wanted discretion, not me. I never wanted to hide us.”

“It didn’t work. Everybody found out and my grandmother was jettisoned right back in the newspapers all over again because of me.”

“No, Alyssa, because of her. She needs to take responsibility for her actions. She chose to have an affair with Dupree. And now she’s choosing to let that affair tear us apart. Don’t let her do this to us.”

“And your career, what about that?”

“What do you want from me, Alyssa? A promise? A guarantee? An assurance? You know better than that, politicians don’t do promises. But there is one promise this man can make you and that’s to love you for the rest of my life. I’m a politician. That’s my job, not my life. This is my life, right here, right now with you. Do you think I really care what other people say about my personal life?”

“I care,” she said. “You can help so many people. I can’t let you just throw that away.”

“I love you. We can make this work, I promise,” he whispered softly.

“I know you do and I love you, too. That’s why to love you I have to let you go.”

“Don’t give up on us, Adia,” he said softly.

“I don’t have a choice.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It doesn’t have to, it just has to be the right thing to do for everyone.”

“I thought you were stronger than this. I guess I was wrong about you. One question, how do I stop loving you?”

“Goodbye, Randolph.” She reached up and touched his face, then stepped back and walked away and went back to her car and drove off. Moments later, she stopped by her father’s place and told him what had happened. Afterward she went home, closed the door, then just stood there.

“You went to him,” Allie said rather than asked.

Alyssa looked up to see her grandmother standing midway on the stairs looking down at her. “Yes, I met him at the Tidal Basin.”

“What happened?” she asked, already assuming the worst and glad that she’d taken steps of her own to finish this once and for all.

“We talked.”

“And you weakened, didn’t you?” she assumed. “You went back to him. Of course you did. He’s a man and that’s what they do, they make us weak. Every man knows exactly what to say and what to do to make a woman weak. They lie, they cheat and deceive you and say anything to get what they want, especially his kind of man. He’s used to getting his way and making his power work for him. But you can’t believe a word they say, ever. It’s all to make you weak.”

“But he made me strong, Grandma.”

“It’s all just an illusion to get what he wants.”

“But he didn’t, we’re not together anymore,” Alyssa confirmed.

“Good, you did the right thing.”

“Did I?” Alyssa asked.

“Yes, of course you did. He would have hurt you eventually, you know that.”

“No, I don’t. He loves me too much.”

“They all say that, baby, but then they use you, then leave you with nothing but empty promises. I know, Alyssa, I went through it, too,” Allie said.

“No, Grandma, not like this,” Alyssa said.

“Yes, like this. Love is love, there’s no differences, no degrees,” Allie insisted. “It’s for the best. Trust me, I’m thinking of you and your pain. I’m just trying to protect you, save you from hurt.”

“Then I guess you failed because I already hurt.”

“I knew this was going to happen. I knew he was going to hurt you. What did he say to you? What did he do?”

“It’s not what he did, it’s what I did. He loves me and I had to push him away.”

“But you did the right thing, something I should have done all those years ago. None of this would ever have happened if I did.”

“Grandma, this has nothing to do with you. I didn’t leave Randolph because of what you said or what you wanted. I left him because I had to in order to save his career. The papers are crucifying him and I can’t let that happen because of me. He’s a good man and a wonderful senator. He’s done so much good in his position and can do so much more. He can help so many people. I can’t just destroy his career knowing that. He told me to just wait it out, but I can’t. Being with me is hurting him. I had to end it to save him. I love him too much not to.” Tears steamed from her eyes as she spoke, her voice thick with emotion and pain.

Allie looked down at her, staggered by her words. The sacrifice she spoke of was something Allie knew nothing about. She’d never given anything up in order to save someone else. Yes, she was selfish just as Louise said before, spoiled and selfish. Could she have been wrong about everything all this time?

Yes, she always said that she loved Vincent, but she didn’t really. Not the way her Henry loved her, without reservation, unconditionally. He sacrificed for her just as Alyssa was sacrificing for Randolph. “That kind of love fades in time, you’ll see,” she said, holding on to that one last thread of selfishness.

“Grandpa loved you like that and stood by you no matter what. Even when he knew you were wrong, he was there by your side defending you because he loved you that much.” Allie didn’t reply. “He knew, didn’t he? He knew about you and Dupree.”

“That was a long time ago, a different time and a different situation.”

“No, you wanted me to give up Randolph because of something that happened a long time ago in a different time, so it’s that same situation. Grandpa knew, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” she said quietly.

“And he knew about Mom, too, didn’t he?”

“What about your mother?” she asked.

“That she wasn’t his child.”

“Who told you that?”

“You did.”

“I would never—”

“No, you wouldn’t, not deliberately. But it was the Alzheimer’s—”

“There you go again with that. For the last time I do not have Alzheimer’s disease.”

“Then how else would I know about Mom?”

“Gossip, you’re listening to that newspaper reporter woman and reading those rag newspapers. It’s lies, all lies, it always was.”

“No, it’s not, Grandma. My mother, Katherine, was Vincent Dupree’s daughter and Grandpa knew it.”