Candidate: A Love Story (23 page)

They sat in the back of a Lincoln Town Car as they passed by most of the monuments, lit and ethereal against the night sky. When they got to the gate at Arlington, they were met by a guard. Grady got out of the car, spoke with the man for a few minutes, and got back in the car. The gates opened and they were ushered in.

Kate shook her head. “Do I even want to know how that just happened?”

Grady smiled and looked out the window.

“I’m not sure who gets into Arlington National Cemetery in the middle of the night,” she said.

“Rich and I go way back. He’s been the night guard since before I was born.” Grady looked at Kate. “It’s a favor.”

“That’s some favor,” she said, and then they were both silent as the car wound through the white headstones.

Generations of fallen men and women, alone and inexplicably breath-taking.

A few minutes later, Grady and Kate were standing in the viewing section at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“I’ve always been fascinated with this place,” he said, sitting down like a kid on a field trip.

“Arlington?”

“Yes. Well, actually this spot, these guys. The times I was allowed to come to D. C. with my dad, our driver would take me here and I’d sit and watch the changing of the guard over and over again,” Grady said softly. He looked straight ahead at the impeccably dressed guard pacing the Tomb. There was not a trace of charm or charisma, just fascination, serious and genuine fascination.

“I remember memorizing the steps, you know, counting all twenty-one, and then the twenty-one-second pause before the about face. It’s really a dance they do every hour, well, I guess it’s every thirty minutes during this time. It’s always crowded in the summer.”

Kate nodded.

“I prefer winter,” Grady confessed.

“Why?”

“Because that’s when it really counts, winter. Not that it’s ever easy, but these guys are here doing their routine 365 days a year. Summer may get a little hot, but winter is cold and lonely and they are still here, even when no one is watching. They are at their best, pushing their limits and no one is watching. That’s important.”

He looked at Kate and she couldn’t have looked away from him if her life depended on it. She was mesmerized. Kate thought she was done being mesmerized by anything.

“These guys, the sentinels, they commit for two years. Did you know that?” Grady asked.

Kate shook her head.

“They spend the first six months studying. No outside contact, no television. It’s an honor, really.” Grady turned toward her and continued quietly. “During Hurricane Isabel, they were told to stand down for safety reasons and they disobeyed, didn’t want to leave the Tomb. Isn’t that incredible? I mean in a town with so much bullshit, that kind of genuine commitment . . .”

Kate would look back on this moment in the glow of her nation’s capital, the summer air, a place, at a time most people never get to experience it, as the very moment she knew she loved him, as in, was in love with him. She would never have been able to admit it then, but that was the moment.

“Alone?” slipped off her lips.

“What?” He turned back to watch the guard.

“When you were young, you watched alone?”

“Sometimes Ray, our driver at the time, would get bored and come out to sit with me, but I was usually alone. I liked being alone. Still do.” He turned and looked at her again.

“Well, that’s interesting, because you never seem to be alone.”

“That’s all just a game, Kate. The summer months, ya know?”

Yes, she thought she did. Standing there with Grady as the second guard made his approach, Kate began to truly understand him for the first time. She turned to watch the iconic ceremony. Grady was fine sharing his summer months with the world, but he was determined to keep the hard-fought winter months for himself.

The benefit was a success and the campaign raised the money they needed to get them through election night. Grady’s speech went off without a hitch. He brought youth and humor into a room that desperately needed it. He sat with his father on the plane ride home. It was the first time Kate had seen the senator smile since they left California. He clearly loved his son, but there seemed to be a complicated relationship between the two. Kate wasn’t sure why theirs should be any different from the rest of the world. She supposed money didn’t change family.

Chapter Twenty-Five

K
ate was not anxious to attend the Carousel of Hope Ball this year, for obvious reasons, but a few days after returning from Washington, D. C., there she was. Her mother had already commented that Kate’s dress was cut too low in the back, but she also added that Senator Malendar’s speech was informative and moving. She approved, that’s what she said. As if the whole of the Malendar family was waiting for Mary Flanagan’s stamp of approval.

Kate found Grady with her father. Police Chief Flanagan was looking dapper in his tuxedo, a “penguin suit,” as he referred to it once every two years when he broke it out for just this event. Her father was a handsome man. Dark hair cut very short and balding in the back. His mustache was perfectly trimmed for the evening and for some reason, Kate remembered that when she was a little girl he went through a stage where he curled his mustache up just a little at the corners. Her mother had hated it, but Kate recalled fondly now, standing at a distance watching her dad, that she loved sitting in his lap and twirling his big dark mustache. Her father was a good man, a hard-working man. In that moment, she realized her father and Grady had a lot more in common than most people would think. They were already talking as she approached.

“Not very many people are fans of the LAPD these days. Are you blowing smoke up my ass to get to my daughter? Because that’s not going to work.”

Grady looked at Kate, seemingly not shocked one bit by her father’s candor. In fact, he almost looked like he enjoyed it.

“Sir, I’m not really looking to ‘get to’ your daughter. I’m guessing you’ve already formed an opinion of me, and probably one well-deserved, so no, I’m not blowing smoke up your ass. I’m genuinely impressed with the changes you’ve implemented over the past few years. The police department is just one spoke in the wheel. With all due respect, you guys aren’t responsible for all of the city’s success, nor are you to blame for all its faults. Communities, governments, non-profits, are all part of the problem and the solution. I do think you should rotate your vice and narcotics cops out, promote them even, as it seems like some of them stay too long at the party and end up lost.”

“Is that so? And how exactly would you know that?” her dad asked, standing a little taller. Kate recognized his shoulders thrown back a bit as his defensive stance. She had seen him do it with her brothers. He was preparing to put Grady in his place, but she could have told him there was no need. A few more words and he would not only respect Grady, he would actually like him, but that was for her father to figure out.

“Just my opinion, sir. I watch the news, read the papers, just like everyone else.”

“From your gilded cage?”

Kate began to interrupt, explain to her father that he had no idea what Grady did, but she felt Grady’s hand at the base of her back. She stopped, unable to move because his hand was on her skin. Her mother had said the dress was cut too low, maybe she was right. Kate steadied her breath.

Grady glanced at her quickly and smiled. “Sure, if that’s what you want to call it. From my cage, that’s what I see. Some of those officers are good men and women who seem like they’re pushed too long, too thin. At the same time, I’m sure you train the hell out of them and it’s hard to move them along, but . . . ” Grady took a pull of his beer, “hell, I don’t know.
You
manage the third largest police department in the country, I don’t. None of the work you do is simple.”

Kate’s father seemed speechless. “You get this from your dad?” he asked.

“My opinions?”

“Yeah.”

“No, they’re all mine.” Grady looked Chief Flanagan square in the eye and it was Kate’s turn to smile. Not many men, people in general, could take on her father, but Grady had found a way to discuss the job without sounding like he was trying to fit in. He was still himself, even acknowledged his gilded cage, but got his point across. He would probably make a great politician, but then Kate realized he was far too good a person for that game. Her father and Grady launched into another discussion, and Kate excused herself to go talk with her brothers. As she turned away, she ran right into the one man she could have gone the entire evening without seeing. Her heart immediately shifted into overdrive with a mix of nerves and something else far too complicated to figure out.

“Nick.”

“Kate. You look beautiful,” he said, steadying her by her shoulders. Kate immediately found her balance and stepped back.

She looked down and ran her hand along the eggplant-colored silk of her dress and willed herself to relax. She had felt fantastic tonight when she had left her apartment, sexy even, and she was not about to let Nick “change her energy,” as Reagan would say.

“You do too,” she said, finally making eye contact.

Nick laughed. His dark brown hair looked like it was starting to gray a bit at his temples. His tux was modified. He wore a black straight tie instead of a bowtie; it was much more Nick’s style. Kate found herself wondering if that was the same tux she’d helped him pick out the summer before they were married. It must be, how many tuxes did a man own?

“Would you like to dance?” Nick asked as if it was the most normal thing. This snapped Kate out of her memory.

“I would not,” she said quickly. She saw the shock in his eyes and laughed a little out of sheer nerves. “I just don’t think that’s a good idea, do you? I was pretty sure I would see you here tonight, and it’s fine. I’m just not sure we’re ever going to be buddies, you know? Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, sure, Katie.”

“Don’t.”

“What?”

“You know what. Don’t do that easy, ‘We’re just hanging out at my parents’ house’ banter. We don’t do that anymore, we’re not those people. I don’t sit on your lap and laugh at your jokes.”

“Kate.”

“No, it’s fine. Really, I just want to make that clear. Lay out what we are and what, on the occasional awkward moments we have to see each other, we are not. So much of our marriage was about what you wanted, what made you comfortable. So, in our divorced life, I’ll let you know what is acceptable for me.”

“Okay.” Nick rubbed the back of his neck.

Kate watched as his face seemed to pinch together and he tugged on his tie, trying to loosen it.

“It was good to see you, Nick,” she said as she turned to leave, and then changed her mind. She felt better, stronger, and she wasn’t going to let that feeling leave just yet. “Actually, it wasn’t nice to see you. Expected, inevitable given the event, but not nice. I’m pretty sure it’s never going to be nice. Anyway, enjoy the evening.” She turned to leave again, the back of her dress swishing against her legs, but once again turned back. One last jab. “Oh, and congratulations, by the way. I noticed you’re getting married.”

“Kate.” He reached for her, and she retreated, stepping backward, as if he was a rattlesnake.

Nick sighed. “I was going to let you know before, give you a heads up, but—”

“But you didn’t, right?”

The look on Nick’s face was the same one she had seen thousands of times. It was the same pathetic, poor-me face she used to rush to remedy. “You didn’t give me a heads up because, well it’s not about me, is it? Never really was.” Kate’s eyes flashed with anger she didn’t let out very often anymore.

Both Ethan and Neil approached and stood next to Nick. They smiled. She was not sure where they came from, but she was fully prepared to now watch her brothers launch into shoptalk with her ex-husband. They were all cops, it was what cops did.

“You look great, Katie,” Neil said. “I’m pretty sure Grady was finally able to roll his tongue up before he started talking with Dad.”

“Yeah, those two seem pretty tight already,” Ethan added looking out toward the dance floor.

Both brothers, decked out in tuxes too, although Neil’s tie was already pulled free, took a pull of their beers and looked at Nick as if they had just noticed him standing there.

“Nick,” they said in unison.

“Hey, guys. I was trying to get your sister here to dance with me, but I’ve just managed to piss her off.” Nick smiled his normal “you know women” smile, but neither of her brothers replied. Nick seemed a little uncomfortable, and then asked, “Wait, who the hell is Grady?”

Neil smiled, taking another sip of beer. Kate watched the whole thing play out like a scene from some Irish version of
The Godfather
.

“Kate’s new man,” Ethan said.

Nick looked at Kate. She was smiling.

“He is not my new man. What’s gotten into you two?”

Neil looked at Nick and said, “He’s totally her new man. Loaded too. Private plane, the whole shebang.”

Nick grew increasingly uncomfortable. This was not the way her brothers normally acted around him. Something had changed, and while she started to laugh at their tough-guy routine being turned on one of their own, she could have cried too. Touched, she leaned in to kiss them each on the cheek.