CHAPTER 17
Natalie
“There you go,” I said, putting the finishing touches on the tie my father was wearing. He beamed and pulled me into a hug, which I gratefully returned. It felt like ages since I’d seen my father in person, and I had missed him.
“So glad you could be here today, sweetheart. I know it’s been rough,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll have some time to catch up once this rally is over.”
“Yes,” I said with some hesitation. While I would have loved nothing more than to catch up with my father, I knew he still didn’t know the full story regarding what had happened with Colt, and why I had requested to permanently have another guard on my detail. It was a conversation I wasn’t looking forward to, to say the least. “Are you nervous?” I asked, changing the subject.
Dad laughed. “Not nearly as much now that you’re here! You know you’ve always been my good luck charm!”
“Really? I was afraid that I’d lost my place with Ms. Penson here!”
“Oh, you hush up now,” Dad said, a slight blush coming to his face. It warmed my heart to see it though. Ms. Penson was the waitress from the restaurant we’d been at before the gunman ruined everything. I hadn’t been aware that she and my dad had stayed in contact afterwards, but I was certainly pleased to learn that they did. Things had been so stressful for him lately; he deserved someone to help him unwind every once in a while.
The backstage curtain cracked open, and a young woman poked her head through. “Speaker Finley, you’re on in two minutes.”
“All right,” he said. “Thank you.”
Not before long, we heard the polite applause from the crowd as the opening speaker finished delivering Dad’s introduction. “Are you staying back here?” he asked before preparing to take the stage.
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m not up for being in the crowd today.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in a little bit then.”
“Break a leg,” I said as my father disappeared behind the curtain and out onto the stage. His presence was greeted with thunderous applause, which made it overly abundant all of a sudden how popular he had become over these past few months. We didn’t want to celebrate prematurely, but all signs were pointing to him being in the lead as the vice-presidential pick. His popularity would undoubtedly give a much-needed boost to the presidential ticket, he connected with voters in a way that most politicians never managed to achieve.
I had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before we looked back to these days as the simpler times…
It was a bittersweet feeling indeed.
I retreated farther backstage, where various people from my father’s political team smiled and offered me warm greetings. I politely said hello back, and made my way to the television room, where I could watch the live broadcast of my father’s speech and see how he worked the crowd. I’d heard him practice this speech before, he had recited it in the car, so I would know when he was nearing the end of it. When he got toward the end, I would meet him out on the stage, and we would wave at the crowd and shake as many hands as possible before leaving.
Settling onto the couch before the television, I couldn’t help smiling as I watched my dad pace the stage, speaking to his riveted audience. He was a natural, and his charisma just leapt off the screen. I knew he had to look even more impressive to those actually out in the audience.
As I sat there watching my father’s speech though, I began to wish I had gone out to watch from the crowd when my mind began to wander in ways I didn’t want it to.
If I’d been out in the big crowd, it would have been easier to keep thoughts of Colt at bay…
But as usual, whenever I sat idly for too long, he popped into my mind, particularly the last time I had seen him.
Every night, I’d been tossing and turning, thinking about him and convinced that he hadn’t truly meant those hurtful words he’d said to me. But I didn’t want to be in denial; I refused to be one of those girls who couldn’t accept what was right in front of their faces.
Colt had openly resisted me that night. He hadn’t even wanted to be in my presence. And most of all, he hadn’t been able to say that he loved me back. After all we’d been through, he just didn’t feel the same.
In his words—it didn’t matter.
My heart broke a little more each time I thought about it, but I knew the only thing I could do was move on and wait until time mended my heart back together again.
I just wished it wouldn’t take so damned long.
“Natalie…”
I jumped at the sound of someone calling my name in a sing-song voice. Turning around to the sound of clicking high-heels, a smile spread across my face. “Eden!” I cried out.
She skipped toward me, her arms outstretched and ready for a hug that I gladly returned.
“Girl, it feels like it’s been forever!”
“I know!” I said. “What are you doing here?”
“My dad and I flew over in support of your dad, of course!”
“Well, I’m so glad you’re here. I haven’t seen you since Turkey!”
“Well, you’ve understandably been busy—future…what would you be called? Second-daughter?”
I laughed. “Let’s not count our chickens before they’re hatched.”
“Your dad has this in a bag,” Eden said confidently, taking my hand as we both sat on the couch and turned to the television to continue watching the rally. Dad was now taking questions from the audience, explaining the ideas and policies he would like to someday see implemented in our government.
“So…” Eden said, a grin on her face, “the last time I saw you, you were in the company of a very handsome stranger. Anything ever become of that?”
I hung my head and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Yeah—a headache.”
Eden’s brow furrowed as if she hadn’t been expecting that response. “What do you mean?”
“Things didn’t work out.”
She pouted. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I said. “Would you believe he ended up on my dad’s security team?”
“Hmmm…” she said, and then grew quiet, clearly waiting for elaboration.
“Yeah…And uhm…Well…things started happening between us. My father ended up wanting him to be exclusively on my security detail. And we tried to keep things professional between us at first. But then, things grew into something more. Or at least I thought they did. I was wrong though. First, he claimed to have feelings for me and that he would basically be with me no matter what. But then, he abruptly changed his mind and said he wanted to keep things strictly professional between us.”
“He said that?”
“Yes. I…I was so angry. I thought that maybe he’d just been lying to me all along. Using me. That he was done with me after he managed to get what he wanted a couple times…I felt so used. So disgusted with myself for falling so hard for him. I should have known better. Guys like him are nothing but players and always will be. I don’t know why I expected him to be different. I made a fool of myself, Eden. I kept coming on to him, thinking that he privately must have felt the same way and that he was just resisting me to be noble. But now I see that he was resisting me because he was never serious about me to begin with. He just wanted to whisper sexy words in my ear until he was done with me.”
A silence stretched between us. My eyes had gone out of focus, clouded with tears, as I stared at the TV.
“Did you give him a chance to explain himself?”
“There’s nothing to explain,” I said with a sigh.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Sometimes—like you said—you can’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.”
“I think those chickens hatched and ran away already,” I said. I thought I saw a secretive smirk on Eden’s face, but as I heard my father’s words drifting from the television, I didn’t have time to think any further about it. He had finished the question-and-answer segment, and was giving his final words. That meant it was time for me to report to the stage with him and put on my happy face to greet the crowd.
I stood from the couch. “Well—it’s about that time,” I said, turning toward Eden. “Hey, what are you doing tonight? Do you want to hang out?”
Again, as I looked at her, I got the feeling she was holding back on something. She tried to arrange her face back into a neutral expression, but I knew her well enough to know she was concealing a smile. I narrowed my eyes at her, confused.
“Let’s take a rain-check on that, all right? You never can know what will be going on tonight. I’ll be in town for a while though, so trust me—we will definitely get a chance to hang out again soon.”
“All right…” I said. “Text me.”
With that, I turned around and headed back toward the front, until I reached the curtain. I stood there for a moment, waiting for my cue to go out on stage. Once Dad and said his last words, music would start playing, and that would be when I went out on stage with him.
Approximately ten seconds later, that time came.
Taking a deep breath to control the nerves that always arose in me at times like this, I pushed the curtain aside and stepped out, plastering a smile onto my face.
The crowd erupted into even louder cheers at the sight of me, as they always did for some reason. My father had joked a time or two that I was popular enough to enter a career in politics myself. But I couldn’t imagine such a lifestyle; I much more preferred law.
Dad turned toward me, holding his hands out. I grabbed his hand and together, we took a bow toward the crowd. The music continued to blare and the crowd continued to cheer excitedly.
I was taken aback by the sheer volume of the crowd. It seemed that with each rally Dad gave, the turnout just kept growing bigger and bigger. This was certainly the biggest crowd he’d had to date. I glanced sideways at him, wondering if he found it as overwhelming as I did. But just as I should have expected, he was handling it all with expert poise. Still holding my hand, he headed toward the edge of the stage with me in tow, where he began leaning over to shake hands. Security guards followed behind us, and moved to the front of the crowd as well, making sure nothing got out of control.
As I shook hands, I glanced around the crowd, spotting Ms. Penson toward the front. She smiled warmly and waved at me, and I waved back at her.
I then began looking around at the various signs being held into the air. The signs were always my favorite part. Dad’s supporters were full of creativity and often came up with great slogans to show their support. I had mentioned to him before that if he secured the nomination, he should consider asking supporters to help come up with a campaign slogan.
My heart stopped at the sight of one sign though. I stared, wondering if I was seeing correctly. It wasn’t a sign for my father. Instead, it read: Natalie For My Heart.
I looked at the person holding the sign, and it was none other than Colt.
Tears welled in my eyes, and in that instant, I knew I had been stupid for all the wrong reasons.
I knew I shouldn’t have believed it when he claimed he wanted nothing but a professional relationship with me. We had made too strong of a connection for that.
Smiling and laughing through my tears, the instant I made it across the stage and close enough for him, I dove right into his arms.
Loud cheers erupted all around us as our lips met.