Look to the Rainbow (32 page)

     “Tara, who did you vote for?”

     She answered that one question. “I voted for the best candidate.”

     Then she climbed in Jack’s car and they sped away. A number of cars followed them to their parents’ house in Lennox.

     She took her bag up to her bedroom and poured herself a glass of iced tea and sank down on the sofa in the sunroom as Julia came in from the garden. She knew her mother was going to want to talk, but first she had to ask herself one question. Could she really run from the press for the next eight years and beyond? Last night she’d been sure they didn’t matter. This morning she wasn’t sure she could handle them for even one more day.

     So much for a decision made.

      Kel went to vote and was met when he arrived by a small army of reporters and photographers. He simply smiled at them as he went inside and greeted them on his way out. They began asking questions. Did he think he would win the election? Did he vote for himself? How did he vote on the state level? And was Tara coming to wait for the results with him? He declined to answer all of them except that he hoped he would win. Unlike they had with Tara, they didn’t follow him through the narrow one way streets of Newport. He knew they would be present later as he awaited the results and would cover either his acceptance speech or concession speech.  Tara had told him countless times that they never left her alone, and he believed her, certainly they had been there in large numbers at Janet’s wedding.  But he had never been in a situation where he felt besieged by the press. He wondered if they had followed her to the polls today, wondered if she had handled it all right. He didn’t have to wonder if she had cast her vote for him. He was certain she had.

     Instead of going home, he went to George and Lily’s where he knew everyone would congregate after they each cast their own vote. Alan and Janet were already there when he arrived. He met John on the way out of the house to vote himself.

     “Who’d you vote for?” John asked.

     “An architect from Rhode Island,” Kel said. “Do you think he really has a chance?”

     “I certainly hope so,” John said. “I’ve put a lot of hours and personal effort into making sure he does.”

      “It’ll be a long day,” Kel said.

      “That it will.” Kimberly came out of the house and gave her brother a kiss before she climbed in the car beside John.

     Kel went inside and found George and Lily drinking coffee in the sunroom at the back of the house. Odette greeted him warmly and brought him a cup of Earl Grey; he never drank coffee.

     “How can you stand to wait the whole day?” she asked as she handed it to him.

      “I am going to have to try and think of something else to do. Maybe we’ll take the boat out when Evan and Mary Katherine get here.”

     “Well, when Langston gets back from court we’re going together to vote and then I have prepared a feast for you to enjoy while you wait. And then I made a huge cake for you to have when you celebrate at campaign headquarters.”

     “And if we lose?”

     “We won’t,” she said confidently, “ but I guess then we’d have a lot of cake to drown our sorrows in.”

    He laughed loudly and sat down beside Lily to drink his tea.

     “Kel,” she said. “I can’t believe that today you are going to be elected President of the United States.”

     “I hope everyone is as sure as you are,” he said.

     “All the polls say you have a healthy lead,” George said.

      “Let’s talk about something else,” Kel said. He had to think about something else. It was only ten thirty in the morning. His thoughts kept wandering to Tara, and he couldn’t think too long about that either. He’d told her everything was up to her and he would wait for her answer, whenever it might come. He suspected he wouldn’t hear from her today, but he could still hope. Thankfully, the family started to pour in, Jim, Ross and Molly, Skip and Sara and not long after, Evan and Mary Katherine. Bobby and Debby and their children were the last to arrive. It was almost like a holiday, the anticipation hung in the air and by mutual agreement they kept the television and internet off, ate lunch together and then took out both Kel’s and George’s sailboats. Late in the afternoon, Kel, Evan, John, Ross and George went to the golf club and played nine holes of golf, which was photographed and filmed by the press. Kel gave them a brief interview when they were done and made them all laugh when he asked who was winning. It was only after dinner that everyone gathered in front of the television to start watching the returns.

     By nine o’clock it was all over. In a landslide Kel had been elected President of the United States. John and Skip were ecstatic, he’d won by a far larger margin than they had hoped for. He called his running mate, Senator Larry Winston and congratulated him and accepted the hugs and good wishes of his family and then they went downtown to his campaign headquarters to be greeted by friends and campaign staff and he made a stirring acceptance speech. As his audience cheered and the speech was broadcast across the nation and probably the world, when it was over, the first thought he had was that he wished Tara was there to celebrate with him.

     Tara watched Kel’s acceptance speech with her family and was so over with so many emotions that she didn’t know what to do. She was so unbelievably happy for him, but he now had the job that might make it impossible for them to be together. The press was still camped outside their house, waiting for her to make an exit. Where they thought she might be going, she couldn’t guess. She desperately hoped that they would decide that there was no more story and go home, but she knew without a doubt they would not. She had no idea where she was going from here. Even if she and Kel were together, she still didn’t have a job and she couldn’t very well move into the White House with him. He had talked of love and forever in the same breath, but they had never discussed exactly what a future together might look like. Of course, they hadn’t been able to predict the outcome of the election, but she knew, deep down, that she’d always known he would win.

     “Well,” Julia said. “I know you must be so happy for Kel.”

     She nodded, still watching him on the television screen.

      “What will you do now?” Julia asked.

      “I don’t know. He’s going to be President. The press won’t leave me alone and we haven’t spoken since Janet’s wedding.”

     “Aren’t you at least going to call and congratulate him?”

      She shook her head. After all, Kel hadn’t called her when he won. “Please don’t keep talking about it, Mother. I have no idea what’s going to happen.”

     And she really didn’t.

     It was after midnight when Kel and Jim returned home, so technically it was the day after the election. Kel told his son goodnight and went to his own room and immediately walked to the French doors that opened to the curved balcony overlooking the bay. He stepped out on the balcony. It was a clear night with a bright nearly full moon shining over the water. He leaned on the railing and replayed the night’s events over in his head. It should have been the time of his life, but it fell short of a perfect moment because Tara hadn’t been there to share it with him. He stretched he hand out over the railing so that the moonlight fell over his palm. He closed his hand into a fist and pulled it back and when he opened it he found that it was empty. A metaphor from his past, alluding to the song that said a man with the woman he loved beside him could hold moonlight in his hand. The song went on to say that the man with moonlight in his hand really held nothing. When everything he had thought was real about he and Alise had faded away he had stood on this balcony and felt total despair and realized that he was grasping for moonlight. Tonight he didn’t feel despair, but he felt a keen sense of being lonely, the ache of missing her so real he actually felt the pain. He sighed, and turned away from the view and the moonlight and went back inside.

     Before he turned off the light, he checked his phone and saw a text message from Tara. 
So very proud of you
. A short text that said both nothing and everything all at once. He turned off the light and fell asleep hoping she missed him as much as he missed her.

Chapter Twenty Nine

     If Tara thought that things would be easier after the election, she was wrong. If anything, the press pursued even more than before. They all seemed to think some kind of announcement was coming about Kel and Tara now that the election was over. She remembered reading stories about Princess Diana being hounded by the press and wondering why she found it so challenging and couldn’t just ignore them. Now she knew first- hand how difficult that was. She had made arrangements to stay in her apartment through the first week of January and had lined up a moving company to take the contents of her apartment to Atlanta while she debated what her next career would be. Thankful for the generous allowance from her grandmother’s estate, at least she didn’t have to worry about money while she tried to figure out her next move. She still hadn’t heard from Kel, they were both stubbornly waiting for the other to cave, she supposed. Casey had become an ally and was more than willing to help her face the media people that seemed to be everywhere they went.

      She debated whether or not to get Kel a Christmas gift and finally decided that she would. With nothing else to occupy her time, she did her holiday shopping and visited with Casey and Evan and Mary Katherine. One day when the clouds threatened early snow, she went downtown and bought a few gifts for her parents and decided to try and find Kel’s gift. She had developed what Casey called tabloid radar- she could spot a potential photographer very quickly now, even in a city filled with people toting cameras. As one headed toward her she ducked into the first shop on her right, which happened to be a bookstore filled with old books. She browsed the shelves and then had an idea. She approached the older gentleman at the counter.

     “Do you by any chance have anything by Ayn Rand?” she asked.

      The man smiled kindly a her and said quietly, “As it happens, I have a very fine first edition, signed by Ms. Rand, of
The Fountainhead.
”

      “Perfect,” she  said. He handed it to her to look at and it was in excellent condition.

      The gentleman leaned closer. “He comes in sometimes and had asked for me to keep my eyes open for this book. I had been holding it just in case, but I think it will be better coming from you. Christmas gift, is it?”

     She was shocked that he recognized her, but then wondered why she should be surprised. It seemed everyone did these days. “Yes.”

     He completed the transaction and said kindly, “I wish you well, Miss McCaffrey. My wife and I consider the next president to be a valued customer. I hope they will leave you alone and let the two of you get on with your lives, hopefully together.”

     She thanked him and left the shop and was photographed again as she stepped out on the sidewalk. She called Casey and asked her if she wanted to meet for coffee and braced herself for the onslaught of attention, but was determined not to give up doing the normal day to day things that everyone else did. She would not let them force her to become a recluse inside her apartment.

     Kel sat at the grand piano and played Christmas carols while Janet and Jim and Alan finished decorating the Christmas tree. He had almost passed on setting one up this year, but Janet had insisted, even though most of the festivities would, as they always had, take place at either Ross and Molly’s house or Lily’s. Janet had made the house as festive as it usually was, hanging garlands and their stockings over the mantle, setting out other decorations throughout the house.