More Than Rivals (4 page)

Her shy smile belied her strong voice and words. “With all due respect to my fellow candidates, I felt there was something was missing from the race—”

“The race was missing a woman?” the moderator interrupted.
 

“Well, that’s sort of obvious, right?” she asked, looking down at the row of men next to her.

The silent crowd roared with laughter. Pleased with the result, she waited for the room to quiet before she continued, “Of course, I think a woman’s perspective is important, especially since women make up the majority of the district’s population.
 
But I don’t think I’m a better choice simply for my gender. I’m also Mexican-American, but that’s not a reason to vote for me. People should support me because in addition to hands on legislative experience in the district as a county supervisor, I also have real life experience to bring to more national issues. I still work as a nurse because I think it grounds me to be more than a politician. I’m also part of the American healthcare system. I understand the issues around both patient care and administration.”

Her smile faded, and her voice lowered in seriousness. “And, I also know something of the American military. I’ve never served, but as the former wife of a serviceman, I know many of the issues facing our troops and their families. I’ve seen how we send young men and women in harm’s way, yet we don’t pay them enough and they qualify for food stamps. I see how we underfund their medical care once they return as veterans. I can speak to these things in a way my colleagues can’t.”

Her expression warmed again and she brought it all home. “Finally, I’m a single parent, though I’d say my son and I are a complete family. Regardless, I know the challenging parenting life of so many Americans. I guess to sum it up I’m a real person who can bring a dose of reality to Washington.”

As the crowd gave her stronger applause than they had any other candidate, she glanced to her side as something caught her eye. Jack had done what she’d been too self-conscious to try. He leaned forward in his seat to look around the three men between them. His expression was warm and approving as he stared at her. She gave him a small smile, but quickly looked away.
 

When the event ended, there was an hour of mingling and glad-handing. Lily pushed the upcoming conversation with Jack to the back of her mind as she worked the room. Both Jordan and Martha had also fanned out in the crowd, buttonholing new supporters.
 
As the morning wore on and the place emptied, Lily found herself discussing a local homeless shelter with a pair of clergy members. A tap on her elbow made her look to her side.
 

Jack smile at the two priests, “Excuse me, Reverends, but I need a word with Supervisor Robles.”

“Uh…yes,” she fumbled a moment before extending her hand to the clergy. “Father Larkin. Father Selby. It was very nice meeting you. I’ll send my staffer Jordan over to follow up with you.”

As they shook her hand and wished her well, she made eye contact with Jordan. With a nod, she told him to tend to the nice members of the cloth. He shook his head “yes,” though he also raised his eyebrows at the sight of Jack. Her frozen smile said nothing of the butterflies afloat in her stomach.

When she turned to Jack, he silently ushered her over to an empty part of the auditorium. His path required her to walk past her mother who was in deep conversation with another older woman. Lily tried to ignore her, but Martha’s suspicious stare burned through her. She turned to see her mom’s furrowed brow in full investigation of what was going on with her daughter and the handsome candidate. With no better answer or reaction, Lily shrugged and followed Jack to a side table.
 

Half-sitting on the table, he extended his long legs out and offered her the edge next to him. She joined him, but gripped a chair to brace herself. His smile did little to soothe her nervousness.

“So…,” he said, meeting her gaze. “I’ve been replaying how we met the other night. I’m pretty sure you were the first to omit the truth.”

“What?” She chuckled.
 

“I’m not saying I didn’t leave out some facts. I’m just saying I believe you did it first.”

“You said your name was Jack.”

“My family and friends call me Jack. You said your name was Lily. That’s not exactly close to Ursula.”

“I was named after both of my grandmothers. My grandmother on my father’s side was named Ursula which is my given name. Lily is the name of my mom’s mother. It’s my nickname.” She gave him a skeptical look. “But back to the fibbing. You live in San Francisco. In fact, you live in Marin; otherwise you couldn’t run for this Congressional seat.”

“I still have a house in San Francisco. I have an apartment in Marin.”

“Which, no doubt, you only rented to run in this district,” she said throwing a hand on her hip in playful indignancy.

“Maybe. Regardless of your point here, you were the one who fibbed first.”

She smiled and looked down for a moment. “Well…” When she looked up, she stared up into his hazel eyes. She noticed they had more green in them than brown, and the green stood out against his sandy blonde hair. “I was honest when you asked if I was a med student.”

“Ah…But when I asked if you worked in Petaluma you said ‘no.’ You said you were a nurse at CPMC. You failed to say that you were a supervisor in Sonoma County.” He snickered. “Which I might add is really your job. It’s what you do full-time and most likely where you draw a bigger paycheck since you don’t work that often at the hospital.”

“Okay. That’s all true, but I didn’t lie.”

“I didn’t say you lied. I’m just saying you omitted information. Why’d you do that?”

“Oh come on,” she said, throwing up her hands in disbelief. “It was almost ten at night, I’d just come back from a run, and I looked like crap and was sweaty. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.”

His smile slowly turned into a grin. “I believe I said you looked quite the opposite of crap.”

Her eyes widened, and it was her turn to be quiet for a second. She felt like a bashful thirteen year old girl. “Thanks. I think I said something similar to you.”
 

Nothing was spoken as the two gazed at one another in recognition of their mutual attraction. Lily held her breath because she didn’t want to say anything more. She liked the feeling between them and didn’t want to break it, but she also wanted to hear what he’d say.

After a slow nod, he asked, “You didn’t know who I was, did you?”

“No. Not at first…though I thought you looked familiar.” She smirked. “And when I asked about you…in a number of ways I might add…you only said you were a lawyer.”

“Well, I
am
a lawyer.”
 

“And I’m a nurse.”

“Okay. So we’re even.”

 
“And it was only when you took off your hat that I recognized you.” She chuckled. “But you
never
recognized me. Not that I think you would even if I was dressed like I was today.”

“What do you mean?” He raised his eyebrows and leaned back for a better view of her. “I really don’t think we’d ever met before.”

“Oh yes, we had.”

“When?”

“A year or so ago. Maybe more. At the big fall Democratic fundraiser in San Francisco. Charles Kingsley introduced us.”

“I don’t believe that. I’d remember you,” he said emphatically.

“Well, we did, and you certainly didn’t remember me. You botched my name before moving along to the next person. You called me Ursula Roberts. I remember it because your date actually got my name right.”

“Oh.” He frowned. “I’m sorry. I must’ve been in a rush.”

“Yeah, I’d say you were preoccupied.” She tilted her head as she recalled the flashy redhead he was with that night.

“Maybe so.”
 

He appeared uncomfortable as he shifted in his seat. Lily could see he was on the defensive, but she still thought it was the perfect opportunity to needle him a bit. “I think the bigger question is why haven’t you ever taken my call since we met?”

“Oh…er…yes.” He shifted uneasily once again. “I usually do have my staff follow-up on all calls.”

“
All
calls? Or just calls from the hicks in Sonoma County. I bet you take the calls of the supervisors in San Francisco and Marin.”

“Some of them…” He laughed and held up his hands as if to stop the barrage of her comments. “But give me a break. I only have a tiny part of Sonoma in my district. The majority of my district is SF and Marin. Technically, I don’t represent your supervisorial district.”

“I know. I know.” She smiled. “It’s to be expected. Lucky for you, your staff is always helpful.”

He studied her for a moment and shook his head. “But it looks like I’ve been missing out.”

She felt her face become warm, and she was sure she was blushing. She looked around the room to get her bearings. While the crowd had dwindled down, they were still in a very public setting. Nothing had changed in their situation. In resignation, she shrugged. “But we’re here today.”

“Yes, we are,” he said thoughtfully. “It’s unfortunate.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mother’s expression of curiosity and concern. Reality was literally staring Lily in her face. She sighed. “Yeah. I think we should probably both get going.”

“Probably so.”

She extended her hand. “Nice meeting you again.”

“And you,” he said with a smile. “I look forward to the next time.”

“That’s right.” She smiled in realization. “I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.

“Yes we will,” he said as his smile grew wider.
 

Later that evening, Lily swirled her gin and tonic as she waited for Jordan at her favorite restaurant’s bar. She was annoyed because he was always late for personal events. Professionally, Jordan erred on the early side of punctual, but he slacked off with friends and family. She checked her watch again and reminded herself she loved Jordan despite his flaws. He was great at his job and a good friend.

When he finally sauntered through the mass of waiting patrons, he nodded and waved to the many people he called friends — or at least the Facebook definition of friend. His gregarious personality was also a useful trait for Lily. Jordan knew someone most everywhere, and for those places he didn’t, he had a contact who did. While Jordan made his way through the crowd, Lily ordered his drink.
 

“Evening, Lily,” he soon said as he pulled out his barstool.

“Good evening. I already ordered you your drink.” She smiled and took another sip of her cocktail.

“Thanks. What are we drinking tonight?”

Placing Jordan’s drink in front of him, the bartender answered for Lily. “Manhattans. She went old-school.”

“That’s my girl,” said Jordan as he snatched the maraschino cherry from his glass. He nodded to the bartender. “Thanks, Carmen.”

Carmen acknowledged him with a wave, moving on to her next customer, and Jordan smiled at Lily. “I’ve got a dinner date, so let’s cut to the chase. How is it that you’ve had coffee with Bengston and you didn’t tell me?”

Lily gave her drink a sheepish swirl, as she remembered how she planned on delivering the story. She’d already decided to tell Jordan everything. It was the right move to do politically so he’d watch out for her, and she needed to do it for her own mental health. After the candidate forum that morning, her mother interrogated her about her conversation with Jack. Martha’s curiosity was hard to deflect, but Lily avoided telling her mother any specifics about him. After keeping everything bottled inside, it was time to fess up. She shrugged and started her story. “It happened earlier this week.”
 

As she relayed how she met Jack the night at the coffee shop and then her conversation with him earlier that day, Jordan responded with chuckles, guffaws, and more than one incredulous look. Afterward he shook his head with a smile, “I don’t know, Lily. This is weird.”

“I know it’s weird.” She hung her head for a moment. “And I know I should nip it in the bud for the campaign’s sake, but … well … I like the attention from him.”

“I was worried about that…” he said and took a drink.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I don’t know much about the guy other than his record. After I saw how he was with you this morning, I got curious.”

“What did you do?” she asked warily.
 

“First, I Googled him to find out if he had a girlfriend.”

“And?”

“And he’s been photographed with different women over the last few years—mostly this one redhead, Beverly Reggio.”

“Yeah, I believe I met her once.” Her voice was flat as she recalled the redhead who actually got her name right.

“She looked familiar to me, too, so I called my friend, Allen, at the
Chronicle
who writes the society section.”

“You did what?” Lily’s head jerked back in alarm. “Why are you letting the press know we’re poking around?”

“No big deal. I just said John Bengston was an opponent, and I was wondering about him.” He flipped his hand as if he was tossing something aside. “Allen didn’t think twice about it. Besides he asked me out again.”

She rolled her eyes, but said, “So what did your
friend
, Allen, say?”

“That Bengston—” He stopped himself and raised an eyebrow. “Wait. You just called him Jack when you told me your story. Should I call him Jack, too? Or John?”

“I don’t know. You should probably just call him Bengston.” She shook her head at herself. “That way only one of us is completely confused about him.”

“Okay then. Allen says Bengston doesn’t lack for female companionship. He gets around some.”

“So he’s a player?” Her whole being deflated. Until that moment, she hadn’t really thought of Jack with other women. She wanted to close her eyes to avoid Jordan’s stare.
I’m such a fool
, she thought.
Of course, he sees a lot of women
. She recalled Jack’s comments about her being the most interesting and prettiest woman he’d seen in a while.
Yeah, right. I bet he says that to everyone
.