Wrecked (The Blackened Window) (39 page)

A knowing look passed around the table, but no one said anything, and I was suddenly weary, annoyed at the whole situation. I stood, clearing my dishes. “You’ll get to meet her for yourself. She’ll be at the gala.”

* * * *

Christmas with my parents was peaceful, better than I expected. We were scheduled to attend the Senator’s formal Christmas dinner that night and, even though I had done it practically every year, I still dreaded it.

It was excess and luxury, exactly as one would expect when being completely cynical about Washington. The meal was amazing, but it sort of had to be. Stacy was there with her family, but they were seated at the other end of the table.
Someone still remembers.

She caught my eye a few times, sometimes smiling, sometimes rolling her eyes at the BS flying around the room. After the meal ended, the guests were invited to the various common rooms of the home. Most of the men went to the den to play snooker because Billings was a pretentious fuck who couldn’t play pool like the unwashed masses. I groaned inwardly and went the other way, to the bar between the den and the formal living room.

The bartender poured me a neat Macallan 25, and when I turned, Stacy was there. She wore a long red dress with gold threading that was a mix of sexy and festive. She smiled at me, but leaned past me to order the same drink. As I tried to walk away, she grabbed my hand, subtly, almost covertly.

I looked at her in surprise. Absolutely everyone at this party knew what had happened between us. Well, not everything that happened, but they did all know about her father finding us fucking—with what I now knew was questionable consent—in my office at the Pentagon, about him punching me in the face, about her absolute refusal to press charges against me even though she could have and would have won in court.

We were supposed to be personae non-grata to each other. Once she had her drink, she pulled my hand and tugged me out a wide French door to the patio. It was warmed with braziers so guests could smoke or get fresh air without freezing.

“Hello.”

She said it sweetly, kind of soft, like we were intimate. But we weren’t. Not anymore.

I responded, gruffly, taking a step back from her. “Hi, Stacy. Merry Christmas.”

She pressed forward to kiss my cheeks. “Merry Christmas.” Her voice was breathy, and she lent the words a dark, lusty tone that hinted at how merry she wanted to make my Christmas.

I held her shoulders and disengaged her from my space. Firmly, so it was clear that there wasn’t going to be any merrymaking between us, this Christmas or any other.

Her shoulders slumped and her face fell. “How long are you going to keep punishing me, Xander?” Her voice was actually forlorn.

Empathy colored my response. “Stacy, I’m not punishing you. There’s nothing to punish you for. But we don’t belong together. You were an important part of my life for a long time, but things changed between us. You have to move on.” My last words were more emphatic.

She got a determined set to her jaw that I recognized. She was going to do something stupid and self-destructive, under the guise of refusing to let me tell her what to do. “There’s nowhere for me to move on to. No one else I can even think of trying to build a life with. There’s just you. You’re the only one who knows.”

She ran her hand through her hair and I distractedly thought that I would have wanted her to wear it up. She had a beautiful neck. My thoughts flashed to the memory of my mouth on her throat and the sounds she would make underneath me. She spoke again, pulling me back to the moment.

“What can she possibly know about all this? How will she survive this?”

I didn’t answer her because I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t know how Leda would navigate the world I came from. It was full of lying, promises in exchange for favors, fine print fuckovers, ruthless people doing what they thought they had to, to survive. Leda was too damn
good
to know how to deal with this. Finally, I looked at Stacy and just said, “I don’t know.”

I was too sick of the game with her to keep playing, and she misunderstood, thinking she had a small victory, so I added, “But I’m not discussing it here, with you.”

She flashed a megawatt smile and slammed her scotch. “All right, big man. I’ll leave you to figure it out on your own. We’ll see if you come up with the same answer I did.” She walked back into the house and I sat in an Adirondack chair under the brazier, sipping my scotch, savoring it.

I checked the time on my phone, and saw a text message from Leda. It was a few hours old and so sweet and pure that it just twisted in my gut as it nearly proved everything Stacy had been talking about.

Hey Boss man! How RU? Merry Christmas. Miss you. XXOO—L

I responded, but refused to let my fucked up life touch her in anyway, if I could help it.

Little girl…I miss you too, so much. I’m bored without you. But on the plus side, daydreaming of what I’m going to do to you when I see you. Merry Xmas XXOOFFFFFFF—X

She responded quickly and we had a flirty text exchange that did more to cheer me up than anything anyone currently in DC could have.

What is FFFFFF? ☺—L

What do you think an F might be?—X

Well, then that was a lot of F’ing. A little pent up, are we?—L

“Alex? What are you doing out here?” My mom was at the doors, beckoning me in. “Come inside. We’re leaving and you need to thank our hosts.” But I was already moving toward her. I left my empty glass on the bar with a tip and we wound our way through the house to the foyer.

Senator and Mrs. Noe were at the door, saying goodbyes—gracious smiles, glad-handing. He was about the same height as me, a full head of gray hair and some loose wrinkles in his face. She was significantly younger than him, but still older than me. She had a deep strawberry blonde hair color that didn’t seem entirely feasible on her tanned, almost swarthy, skin tone.

We said our goodbyes, barely keeping eye contact long enough to avoid being rude. In the car, my mother turned to me.

“What were you doing talking to Stacy outside?” Her voice was worried, more than angry.

“Exactly that. Talking to Stacy, outside.”

She just held my gaze, face implacable.

I relented. They knew everything already anyway. “She wants to get back together. She’s actually wanted to for a while. It’s why she came to Texas for med school. She could have gone anywhere with her letter of rec from the Surgeon General. I mean…done and done. Welcome to med school. She came down there to follow me, try to get back together with me.”

There were a few beats of silence then my mom and dad spoke at that same time.

“Maybe you should give it another try. It’d piss her dad off plenty.” Dad laughed at that.

“You have to stay away from her, son.” My mother’s voice carried some alarm.

I responded to both of them. “Or, you can let me handle my own shit.”

My mom turned back to the front and asked my dad, “Why would you even
suggest
that, Denny? That little fuck up nearly ruined all of us.” Her voice was whip-crack sharp, but Dad was unimpressed.

“Because Jackson is being a fucking idiot lately. He voted against a bill we sponsored and he’s been courting that jackass, Rusty Weintraub. You know, the Jew from California.”

Jesus, this the gene pool I was created from. God damn it. I’m not coming back here again.
I was silent for the rest of the drive, plotting how I’d take Leda somewhere, anywhere, else.

* * * *

The next morning I called Leda, but she didn’t answer her phone. I tried her parents’ home number. Her mom answered and informed me that she and her siblings had taken the kids out. I asked to leave a message, and once I told her my name, we had a short conversation.

“Oh! Xander! Hi, Merry Christmas! How is your vacation going?”

“Hi, Mrs. Collins. Vacation is very quiet, relaxing. Honestly, kind of boring.” I chuckled a little.

“Oh, gosh! With all these little ones underfoot—and really the big ones too—it’s never boring around here.”

“Well, Merry Christmas to you, too. Could you just let Leda know I called to give her the flight information?”

“Oh, sure. Do you want to give it to me and I can pass it on? Let me just grab something to write with.”

I heard her setting the phone down before I answered. I smiled, hearing some of Leda’s kindness in her mom’s voice. I heard a sound of victory and she picked the phone back up.

“Okay, I’m ready now! I mean, it’s really like I can’t ever find anything when I need it, but when I go to clean things up later today, I’ll find seven pens.” She laughed.

“I hate that too!” I let my smile into my voice.

“Ready. Give me the flight info.”

“The plane is going to come up on the thirtieth and there’ll be a two p.m. departure on the thirty-first, from the private air field near O’Hare. She’ll need ID at the driveway. I can text her the exact address. I don’t have it right now. She is going to fly with the Senator’s sister and her husband. Bitsy and John Ivory.”

She had been murmuring along with me, letting me know she has heard me. But she paused there, and I knew it was because of the name. To her credit, she held her tongue. Her voice was a little softer when she spoke again. “Okay, Xander. We will drop her off. Why don’t you touch base with Leda before then, just to let her know who to look for?”

“Oh, she’ll
know.
They’ll have their whole retinue with them and the private airfield there is small. She just needs to ask for the Ivory plane. And people will be falling all over themselves to help her.” I laughed and her mom echoed me, but quieter.

She then asked, curious about the multibillionaire business mogul no doubt. “Are they only coming up for one night?”

“No, they’re already in Chicago, spending the holidays with their kids and their families. The plane is just based out of DC, so when they are somewhere for a prolonged time, the plane usually needs to be used by someone else in the company. I think it’s supposed to save some money somehow. Not sure. Because it is
their
plane. The company has others.”

“So, now they have to fly an empty plane up? Why don’t they just take a commercial flight or something?”

I smiled, because that was a completely rational question and Bitsy and John weren’t rational. “Welllll,” I drew the word out, not wanting to sound like a snob, or make them sound snobby, even though they were. “They like to have their space. The amenities of flying their own plane.”

She laughed a bit. “Well, I guess if it was an option for me, I would too. So, what have you been doing with your break? Having some fun and relaxing, I hope.”

“Oh, you know. Some time with my parents. Saw a few old friends. I’m mostly just bored. Leda was teasing because I’ve been studying.”

“Well, yeah! Why are you studying on your break?”

“Not much else to do. Most of my old friends grew up and moved away and government doesn’t really take a break.”

“Why don’t you just come up with the plane and meet our family? We’d love to have you, Xander.”

The invitation surprised me, but also made me smile. She was kind, and talking with her felt like talking to someone who was just
good.
Who authentically wanted the best for everyone around her. “I don’t want to impose on your family time, Mrs. Collins.”

“Well, now we have a few things to fix, Xander.”

Uh-oh. Did I say something wrong?

“First, please call me Kathy. Secondly, we have always been an open house. Everyone is welcome, son. You can most certainly come and absolutely would not be intruding. Besides, Leda is missing you a lot, I think. She’d be so happy to see you.”

Her words just fucking flooded me with warmth. “Well, why don’t I talk with Leda and make sure she’s fine with it. I feel bad springing something on her like that.”

“No! Let’s surprise her. You just come up and then come on over. We’ll play it by ear from there. What do you think?”

“Umm, I don’t know. I’d love to meet your family and I do really miss her. Yeah, okay. Let’s do it.” I smiled, feeling a little excited. “I’ll look into the planned flight time to be sure I will be there at a decent hour.”

“Sure, we usually eat dinner around six. Why don’t I give you my cell number and you can text me when you have the info?” Her voice held a little sneaky-sounding glee.

“Well, now you have to wait for
me
to find a pen. Be right back.” I heard her laughter as I set the phone down for a moment, even though I had a pen and paper on my old desk, right next to me.

We finished the phone call and I got to work making the arrangements. The first step was getting permission from the Ivorys—I wasn’t at all worried that they might say no, but I wouldn’t get anywhere else without their clearance.

Bitsy chided me when I spoke to her about it. “Of course it’s fine. Let me have my assistant deal with it. Kelsey!” She put Kelsey on the phone with me and we discussed the details. The plane was scheduled to fly up fairly late, when air traffic is sparser, but she told me she’d fix it, asking when I wanted to arrive.

“Probably around four-thirty. Dinner at her parents’ home at six.”

“Very good, sir. Any requirements for your car? Liveried, I’m assuming.”

“No, I’ll drive myself. Whatever kind of car is fine.”

“Very good. Shall I arrange a bottle of wine to take to dinner?”

Jesus, I need a personal assistant. She is on top of shit.
“Um, no. I don’t know their preferences. How about some flowers?”

“Very good, sir. They will be in your car. The car will be waiting at the airport for you. Anything else? A hotel room or will you be staying with them? If so, you need something more than flowers.”

“No, a hotel, please.”

“Very good. Downtown or near them?”

“Near them.”

“All right, Westin or Hilton?”

“Westin.”

“Yes, sir. The arrangements will be made before the end of business today. Shall I email you your itinerary?”