Look to the Rainbow (10 page)

     Tara thought about what Mary Katherine had said about Alise. “Do you really think he’ll want me to do a story about that…part of his life?”

     “Why wouldn’t he?” Bobby took the story from her, scanned over it, and said, “This looks great. When the election is over I might have to keep you as a regular feature writer.”

     Tara tried to smile. “That would be nice. Well, I’m leaving in about an hour.”

     “Have fun. And get both of those stories while you’re gone.”

     The love of his life. Mary Katherine had never been a friend to Alise, so was it possible she had gotten it wrong? She drove  to the airport and  as she boarded her flight two thoughts played over and over. One, she was looking forward to seeing Kel, and two, she really didn’t want to interview him about his late wife.

Chapter Nine

     Tara was on familiar territory when she left Hartsfield Jackson airport. She had missed rush hour traffic and drove toward downtown Atlanta without much difficulty. She turned into her parents’ neighborhood and pulled in the driveway. Her mother would be waiting and excited to see her. She climbed out of the car and grabbed her suitcase and was starting up the front walk as her brother Jack pulled up in his red convertible. He sprinted across the yard and grabbed her suitcase.

     “Mom will kill me if you are carrying that when I’m here,” he said, kissing her cheek.

     “It’s not that heavy, I’m only here for a couple of days.”

     “Still.” They laughed. Their mother was adamant that he be a gentleman at all costs.

     Julia greeted her children with smiles and hugs. “I’m so excited about going to the debate tonight,” she said as Tara came back downstairs. “I’ve never been to one before. Mostly I want to see if Senator O’Brien is anything like his father.”

     Jack said, “Mom, you do realize it’s a debate, not a social event. You won’t be conversing with the man over cocktails.”

    “Yes, Jack, I do realize that.” His mother swatted at him and he playfully ducked out of the way.

     “Is Daddy coming?” Tara asked.

     “He is, but he’s grumbling about it.”

     “Well, I’m going to go meet up with the O’Brien entourage, but I’ll see you there.”

     She hugged them both and drove downtown. She valet parked her car at the Renaissance Hotel and went into the lobby where she asked directions to where Kel was going to be meeting with local business leaders to discuss his economic policies. As she entered the conference room, he looked up and saw her and abandoned the conversation he was having with John and Skip and came to meet her.

     Without thinking, he put his arms around her and kissed her. More than once. A photographer snapped a picture and then as if suddenly noticing they weren’t the only ones in the room, they broke their embrace and stepped away from each other.

     “Why am I afraid
I
just became the news?” she said.

     “At least maybe they’ll stop asking if I’ve got one foot in the grave,” he said.

     “I heard you weren’t feeling well. How are you?” They started walking toward the others as the audience started filing in.

     “Not a hundred per cent. But better.”

     She greeted John and Skip and hugged Kimberly and they took their seats as Skip welcomed everyone and turned the floor over to Kel. He fielded questions and outlined ideas and policies he’d like to see put in motion and again she marveled at how well thought out his answers were and how easily he seemed to discuss any topic. She got the sense from the way they responded to Kel that he would have their support.

     They left the Renaissance and toured a local factory where Kel talked with the workers, went to lunch and met with a group of local ministers and religious leaders and went back to the hotel for an early dinner before the debate.

     They ate in private in Kel’s room and then Skip and John and Kimberly went to their own rooms to rest a few precious minutes before they had to attend the debate, leaving Kel and Tara alone.

     They sat side by side on the sofa and he said, “I wasn’t thinking about anything but kissing you this morning. I forgot I was on antibiotics for something, whatever it is that made me sick.”

     She laughed and said, “I’ll take my chances with your germs.”

     “Actually, I think we’re okay. I’ve been on them for forty eight hours now. Are you writing about the debate? What’s the slant on your story this week?”

     She hesitated and then said, “Bobby wants two stories. He wants me to write about you being diabetic-with quotes from you on the subject.”

    “I know I put that out there because I was angry and not thinking, but it still not a subject I really want to be interviewed about. However, a lot of people are writing about it without talking to me, so maybe he has a valid point. What’s the other story?”

     She hesitated. “He wants me to interview you about ‘the love of your life.’”

     “The what?”

     “He wants a story about you and Alise.”

     Kel stood up and looked out the window. Tara remained on the sofa, waiting for him to respond. “Why did you use the phrase ‘the love of your life’?”

     “That’s how he referred to her.”

     Kel nodded. “He would see it that way. Bobby is eight and half years younger than I am. When I went to college he was just in the fifth grade. Dad died that year too and I guess he’s always looked up to me. Even now, I still sort of think of him as a kid. I love him, as I do all my siblings, but I’ve never been close to him the way I have to Ross and Kim. He married Alise’s sister before he got out of college and as far as I know they’ve been happy. Because he was married to Debby I never made him privy to some of the more private parts of my relationship with Alise.” His cell phone rang and he paused and answered it. “Time to go,” he said. “As far as a story, well, try to hold him off on the great romance until I talk to John about that first. As for the other, maybe we can do that tomorrow.”

     She stood and checked her hair and make-up and followed him to the door, more confused than ever about his relationship with his late wife.

     He opened the door and held it for her, but before she could exit he leaned forward and gave her a kiss. “Let’s go see what they want to harass me about tonight, shall we?”

     “Tara Kristin,” her father said the next morning as he tossed the paper on the breakfast table. “What is this?”

     The headline read “First Lady In The Future?” and featured a large picture of Kel kissing her the day before. Her father threw two more papers on the table which featured the same photo and similar headlines.

     Jack picked one up and said, “Gee Dad, why didn’t you get
The National Enquirer
and
The Star
while you were at it?

     Michael McCaffrey snapped at his son. “That’s not funny Jack. But your sister probably is about to be on the cover of those scandal sheets too. This is completely unprofessional. What were you thinking?”

     “I wasn’t thinking there would be a photographer. But I
did
want to kiss him, Dad.”

     “You are interviewing him. Reporters don’t get involved with the people they are covering.”

     Julia had picked up the first paper. “Well, darling, that’s quite a shot.”

     Michael said, “Maybe you should find another job.”

     Julia frowned at her husband. “Why, Michael? Because you don’t like Kelly O’Brien? You don’t even know him.”

     “
She
doesn’t even know him.”

     “Apparently she does, or at least would like to get to know him better.”

            Tara said, “I kissed him, okay. It’s not the first time. I have no intention of quitting my job. But I would like to know why you seem so against him. You were almost rude last night and he was nothing but charming to you and Mother.”

     “I just don’t like him,” her father said.

     “He’s coming to dinner,” Julia said. “I invited John and Kimberly and Kel and their handsome nephew too.”

     “You didn’t ask me first?” Michael turned to his wife.

     “I didn’t know I had to. John is the son of one of my closest friends- one of your friends. How can we not ask them to dinner when they are in town?”

     Tara watched her parents argue, something she had rarely witnessed. “I’m going to work. I’ll see you both for dinner. And just for the record, if I want to kiss Kelly O’Brien- or anyone else for that matter- I will.” She picked up her briefcase and walked out the door.

     Jack called after her, “Wait up Tara!” and followed in her wake.

     Julia sat down at the table and glanced again at the newspapers. “I know what your objection to him is, Michael, but that was a very long time ago and it isn’t fair to take it out on him or your daughter.”

     “I will be as gracious as I can be for your sake, Julia, but this relationship isn’t going anywhere. He isn’t right for her.” He turned and left his wife sitting at the table. She looked at the newspapers one more time. She wasn’t sure that she agreed with her husband at all. The photographs told a different story,

     Kel was quiet as they drove to the McCaffrey’s home. He was tired and still not completely feeling one hundred per cent, but he also had the distinct feeling that her father did not like him. He’d asked John how well he knew them and he had said that he hardly knew them, that the relationship had been with Lily and Julia, but that somehow George and Michael also knew each other and Lily had introduced the McCaffreys. He’d only seen them a handful of times when they had come to visit Julia’s family.

     He hadn’t had a chance to discuss Bobby’s proposed articles with John, but he had gone ahead and talked with Tara about what it was like to be a diabetic. He had asked her to be sure and talk with Evan before she submitted the story to give it the balance of having someone well acquainted with his particular case from a medical standpoint to give it credibility. Above all, he wanted to make sure that the public realized that he was and had always been capable of doing his job.

     Talking about Alise, especially with someone he was romantically interested in was more awkward. He had spent so many years not talking about Alise and if he told the truth, how would that affect Jim and Janet? He had never shared details of his marriage with his children for whom their mother was just a distant memory. He had been single for so many years because he had been afraid to have his heart broken again.

     He was falling in love with Tara and even though the timing was horrible, he didn’t know what to do about it except fall. The time he spent with her was resurrecting the old romantic, idealistic side of him that he thought had died a long time ago.