Edgewater (13 page)

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Sure.”

I made my voice sound light, but a heaviness had settled in my chest as I thought that maybe Charlie Copeland would get the spot I'd be leaving open. I forced myself to take a deep breath.
Yim, yim.

“More wine?” Charlie asked.

“I have to drive later,” Lennox said.

“Lorrie? I'll top you off?”

“No, thanks. I'm good,” I said.

“Lorrie's always only good for one glass,” Lennox said. “Unless it's champagne—then she can't resist.”

“If only I'd known,” Charlie said.

“This is good, too,” I said, and I picked up my wineglass and took another sip to prove it.

“When does your dad get back from DC?” Lennox asked.

“I'm not sure,” Charlie said.

“What bill is he voting on?”

“Lennox,” I said, “I don't think Charlie wants to talk about all that.”

“It's all right,” Charlie said. “You can have one more question. Make it a good one.”

Lennox bit her lip, thinking. “All right,” she said finally. “What's something your dad always tells you? Like, not in a sound bite, but something he'd say to you personally over dinner.”

“I don't have many dinners with my dad these days,” Charlie said. “But after the whole expulsion thing, he kept going on about how today's stupid decisions will ruin your life tomorrow.”

“I read his NYU commencement speech,” Lennox said. “He said you can't ignore the past if you want to step boldly, confidently into the future.”

“That sounds like him.”

“Does he really have the highest IQ of anyone in the Senate?”

Charlie shrugged. “I don't know.”

“He said one question,” I reminded Len.

“Right,” Charlie said. “And anyway, the time has come for me to teach you my favorite party game.”

“What's that?”

He smiled wickedly. “Watching everyone else.”

“Oh, I've got that covered,” Lennox said, swinging the binoculars around on their cord. “I spotted your mother, and the Speaker, and the guy who does the political commentary for Channel Four.”

“Gimme those,” Charlie told her. He raised the lenses to his eyes. “When I was younger and my parents hosted things in the ballroom that I wasn't invited to, I'd sit up on the balcony and
pretend I had telekinesis, and just by zeroing in on someone and concentrating really hard, I could control the person's next move. Sometimes I'd convince myself that it actually worked.”

“Are you doing it now?”

“Naturally. There's a guy in a blue shirt by the lion statue next to the pool house—he keeps grabbing multiple appetizers off each tray. Here.” He handed the binoculars to me. “Can you see him?”

“Yup. He's got a napkin full of crab cakes in his hand.”

“Right, now watch. He's going to take one more crab cake, and then he's going to step to the left.”

“His left or my left?”

“Um, my left. I mean, your left. Our left.”

Our
left.

“Sorry, Charlie. He just moved right,” I said, and I felt disappointed about it.

“Shit.”

“Don't be so hard on yourself,” Lennox said. “You're just not as good at this as you thought you were.”

“You think you could do better?” he asked.

“I know I could,” she said.

Charlie took the binoculars back from me and leaned in toward Lennox. In the process, he moved his knee from mine. The spot of heat now felt strange and empty.

“I spy with my little eye . . . I'm looking for someone political,” Lennox said.

“Pick a douchebag, any douchebag,” Charlie told her.

“Okay, fine. I spy with my little eye an old man's bald spot.”

“That describes, like, fifty percent of the heads at this party,” Charlie said.

“Well, this bald spot is in front of the topiary garden, and its owner is at least six foot five, I'd say. He's interested in a woman about ten feet away. She's standing next to a grizzly-bear topiary, and he's built like a grizzly bear himself. But he's a gentle giant, just working up the nerve to go talk to her.”

“All right, I'm testing you on this,” Charlie said. “Hand those over, and tell me when he's going to make a move.”

“In three, two—”

“He just turned,” Charlie said.

“Nice!” I said to Lennox, and I held out my fist for her to bump it.

“It's Victor Underhill,” Charlie said. “I can't believe he's here.”

“Who's Victor Underhill?” I asked.

“This guy who used to work for my dad,” Charlie said. “But they had a falling-out years ago. I haven't seen him since I was a kid.”

“Can I see what he looks like?” Lennox asked.

Charlie handed the binoculars over. I leaned forward, toward the rail on the deck, straining to get a closer look myself, but we were too far from the topiary garden. When Lennox lowered the binoculars, I took them for myself. “Is it okay if I look, too?”

“'Course,” Charlie said.

“He's big,” Lennox told me. “Hard to miss.”

“I see him,” I told her. Even from a distance, Victor Underhill looked a little bit more menacing than the other guests. Not
quite the gentle giant Lennox had described from the view of his back. His feet were planted in a wide stance, as if he was daring someone, anyone, to approach and just try to mess with him. I put the binoculars down on the table. The game was done.

The music had drifted off, and suddenly a man's voice was coming from the speakers. A smattering of clapping followed, and then another voice, a distinctly female one, took over.

“Ah, the Famous Talking Julia Doll, in all her glory.”

“Don't you want to go down and hear her?” Lennox asked.

“I've heard it all before,” Charlie said. “But I know you want to go.”

I started to shake my head, but Lennox had scraped her chair back. “I do, if you don't mind,” she said.

“By the time you get close enough, her speech will probably be done,” I said.

“Nah, she'll go on for a while,” Charlie said. “You should go if you want. She always puts on a good show, and she has a special announcement planned for tonight.”

“A special announcement?” Lennox asked, her eyes widening. “
The
announcement? Oh my God, is your dad
here
?”

Charlie grimaced and shook his head. “No,” he said a bit too quickly. “It has nothing to do with him.”

“Methinks you doth protest too much,” Lennox said. Her voice rose with excitement. “You'll come watch with me, right, Lor?”

I tried to telepathically let her know that I didn't want to leave the safety and privacy of this tree house, where no one would possibly recognize me. But somehow, it wasn't working.

“Please?” she begged.

“All right,” I said. To Charlie, I added, “We'll be back soon, and we'll help you clean up.”

“Of course we will,” Lennox said. From the distance, we heard a pause, then laughter, but we were too far away to hear the joke itself. Lennox grabbed my hand. “Come on, before we miss too much.”

We raced down the steps of the tree house, through the woods, and out onto the lawn. The crowd was packed near the stage, but we found a little pocket with an only partially obstructed view of Julia Copeland, who was giving thanks to a long list of donors and volunteers. “I bet the senator is here,” Lennox whispered. “That he's been here all along, hiding in the wings. History is going to be made right now. Just watch.”

“One of the greatest privileges of my life is that occasionally I get to be the host of events like this one,” Julia Copeland said. “Though I don't deserve any of the credit for the incredible display Mother Nature offered up. When you plan an outdoor party, the recurring nightmare is that the weather won't cooperate. But tonight, well, I don't think I've ever seen the moon so bright or the sky so filled with stars. It's like a night out of my dreams, giving us the perfect setting to enjoy the beautiful music of the Jessarae Band.”

Julia paused for an obligatory burst of applause. “And I am thrilled to have had the pleasure of your company, and I'm honored that each and every one of you took time out of your busy schedules and gave up this coveted summer evening to come to our home.”

Lennox was standing on her toes, listing first to the left and then to the right, trying to see around people's heads.

“Your support means so much, not only to me but to countless others, as well. Particularly on a night like this, when we have so much to enjoy, it is important for us to remember those who are less fortunate. I think of them every time I look in the mirror. Yes, I am the wife of a senator, and I've enjoyed many privileges in my adult life. But I am also a sister, a daughter, a mother—that last label is the one I hold most dear. My love for my son matches the love that each and every one of my fellow citizens has for his or her children. I may be standing here under the stars with you tonight, but I grew up in a small apartment in a rough town, and when I study my reflection up close, I see not only myself but also the child I once was. I see my own mother, who worked two jobs in order to lift her children out of the life we were living. I see other mothers, just across town, doing the same thing right now. It is their collective dream that their children get the very best shot at living long, healthy, productive lives. And it is that very dream that has inspired me to realize one of my own. Tonight I am announcing my candidacy for the United States House of Representatives.”

She barely got the words out, and the applause was thunderous. You could feel the ground trembling from a thousand hands clapping at once. “She's running for the senator's job?” I asked.

“No,” Lennox said, still slapping her palms together. “For a seat in the House of Representatives. She'll be a congresswoman.”

“I promise you,” Julia Copeland said, the applause dying down. “I promise you that I believe in the dreams of everyone
in the First District of the great state of New York—those of you here tonight and those who could not be here, those we encounter every day, and those we may never meet. I do not plan to rest until we create a space where everyone has a chance to see their dreams for their children come true. And the key to that is education.”

More applause, hooting, and whistling. Lennox's eyes were gleaming. “Isn't this exciting? I can't believe it!”

I felt the tears pricking behind my own eyes, because I was suddenly thinking about those parents in the First Congressional District. Parents who cared enough to dream about their kids. Parents who didn't leave them.

“You okay?” Lennox asked.

“I'm fine,” I said. “I'm just getting it now, what you always said. Politics is really moving—the way it affects all of us.”

Lennox believed me right then, because she so genuinely believed it herself. When she got excited about something, she wanted you to feel it just as much as she did. She squeezed my hand, and we listened to the end of the speech. The Jessarae Band took the stage again to sing a song they'd written just for the occasion. The lights that were strung up all over the property dimmed until we were all standing in the dark, with just the glow of the stars above us. From the direction of the ocean came a loud bang, and then another, and another. Streaks of light were shooting up, high into the sky above the water. When they were maybe a thousand feet above us, the streaks exploded into fireworks of red, white, and blue. The crowd gave a collective gasp. Even the wealthiest and most jaded people could still be awed by fireworks.

But right then there was somewhere else I wanted to be. “Let's head back,” I told Lennox.

“Do you realize how remarkable this is?” Lennox said as we walked away from the crowd. “The wife of a senator running for Congress. I think they'll be the first spouses in the legislative branch.”

“If she's elected,” I reminded her.

“Of course she'll be elected. And if he runs for president . . . Can you just imagine? The First Lady has never been a congresswoman herself!” She pulled out her phone. “I have to take notes on this.”

“Press only,” I reminded her.

“I'm not going to live tweet any pictures,” she said. “But they can't stop me from posting something on my blog later, right?” She stopped in her tracks and pulled my arm. “Hang on. I want a selfie of us all dressed up—I promised Nathan.”

“You promised Nathan?”

“We're trying to be friends,” she explained.

“Oh, really?”

“Relationships are complicated,” she said. “You'll find out when you and Charlie start getting serious.”

“I thought you'd given up on getting Charlie and me together.”

“What gave you that impression?”

“You made me leave him to go watch Julia Copeland's speech.”

“That was part of your political education,” she said. “Which temporarily sidetracked the fix-up plan, but it's still on.”

“He said he and Shelby were on a break.”

“A ‘break' is code for break
up
.”

“Not that it matters.”

Lennox rolled her eyes at me. “Here, approve this picture.”

She handed me the phone, and I looked at the photo she'd snapped. The lighting wasn't great, but I liked the way our cheeks were pressed against each other's, so close that in the fuzziness of the picture, you almost couldn't tell where one of us stopped and the other started. “I approve. Send it to me when you send it to Nathan.”

I didn't remember that my cell phone wasn't working at that moment until she was pressing buttons. I wondered if my first paycheck from Oceanfront would cover that bill. But of course, even if it would, I hadn't even started working there yet, and there were other bills to pay first.