Chapter Seventeen
I’m still standing there, stunned and staring, when Ralph Cortland walks up. “Ah, I see you’ve met Senator-elect Callahan,” the smarmy senior senator from Georgia says.
“Senator-elect?” I croak.
“Yeah, can’t officially call Ward a senator until he’s sworn in. Right?” Ralph pats me on the shoulder and leads Ward around me and into the Senate Chamber.
Fuck.
Me.
I drift inside in their wake while struggling for something—anything—to say.
Forcing myself to not grab Ward, shake him, and scream in his face in the process.
Doing so wouldnotbe good for my career, but it would probably make C-SPAN2’s ratings rocket through the roof.
Holy.
Shit.
I reach down and poke myself in the thigh, hard, just to make sure I’m not caught in some really realistic dream.
Or would that be nightmare?
Yeah, nightmare. Definitely a nightmare.
Either way, Ward’s still standing there, chatting with Cortland and a senator from North Dakota, whose name I can never remember because I think I’ve exchanged maybe fifty words with the sullen old bastard since he was elected the same time I was.
This…can’tbe happening.
I want to turn and run, maybe even go puke in a bathroom, when the current lame-duck vice president, who’s not much longer for his office, is escorted in and the chamber is called to order.
Ward looks my way several times but, at that distance, I can’t be sure what I’m reading in his gaze, or if he’s even focused on me or not.
Thiscannotbe happening.
Hell. I’m trapped in Hell.
But I watch as Ward indeed goes through the motions and is sworn in. I applaud when everyone else does, and I struggle not to keel over, because I feel like I am going to do that at any second.
Then everyone’s led out to go take pictures for the second ceremony, leaving me standing there and wondering if maybe I am about to pass out.
“Hey.” I jump at the soft voice and realize it’s Daniel. “You all right?”
Heat flushes my cheeks as an irrational guilt fills me and I mentally kick myself. “Yeah. Just…”
What?
Justwhat, you idiot?
Daniel studies me. “I was waiting outside to walk with you to the—”
“Oh, shit. Yeah, sorry. Come on.” That’ll buy me a few minutes, at least.
“What’s going on?” he asks again when we’re almost there.
“Got asked to help co-sponsor a bill and got distracted. It’s a morning for distractions.”
