The Billionaire's Kiss(76)

Callie laughed. “He’s not how everyone made him out to be.”

“Sounds like the two of you are getting along. I think you’d make a beautiful couple.”

“We’re not like that,” Callie protested. She didn’t want Vi mentioning any of this to Amy.

“Ah, to be young and in love,” Vi said. Her voice swelled as if she was about to begin a long story of dubious authenticity. Such stories were Vi’s forte. She seemed to have one for every occasion. If Callie had scraped her knee, Vi would have had some story about injuring her leg in the Pyrenees and healing the wound by drinking a bottle of wine and eating a wedge of brie.

“I never said I was in love,” Callie said, a little too eagerly. She wondered if Vi had caught her slip. What was the use? Vi was going to think whatever she wanted to think. “I don’t know what to do,” Callie admitted.

“Don’t worry,” Vi said. “Your secret is safe with me. Did your mother ever tell you the story of how she met your father?”

“I don’t know,” Callie said. “I was only eight when she died.”

“Well, let me tell you the story. Maybe it will help you. The day your mother met your father, we were at the beach. I must have been twenty years old. Oh, it was a terribly hot day, and I still remember the terrible pink bathing suit your mother was wearing. I, of course, was wearing a bikini. I insisted on jumping into the water first thing on account of how hot it was. Your mother treated me the same way your sister treats you. She followed me in and yelled at me about riptide. Somehow, she got caught up in the current, and the water started pulling her out. I was so frightened, but she was calm. In my mind. I can still see her floating farther out. She was so calm about it. She was always the level-headed one of us. Anyway, before I knew what had happened, a lifeguard pushed past my and swam out to save her.”

“Dad was a lifeguard?” Callie asked.

“Heavens no,” Vi replied. “You father could barely swim. I snatched up the lifeguard as soon as he brought your mother back to shore, but she met your father that night.”

Callie laughed. “I’m not sure what this has to do with my situation.”

“Sometimes you just have to go with the flow. If you’re afraid, don’t be. Maybe you’ve been overthinking things. “So you didn’t think you’d end up liking Logan, or you thought he’d be someone else. Forget about all of that. Go with the flow. See where it takes you. Now I have to run. I’m sure we’ll talk soon. After all, your sister is due next week.”

“Bye, Vi. Send Amy and Ethan my love,” Callie said.

“Send Logan mine,” Vi said.

Callie laughed. “I’ll make sure to do that.” She walked along the water’s edge for a little while longer. Maybe she should go with the flow. She just doubted that the flow would ever bring her back to DC. This would all be so much easier if she even had an idea where Logan was or what he was doing.





Nineteen

Congressman Jack Coburn stood up behind his broad mahogany desk and held his hand out. Even when they were in college, he always looked like he was posing for a photo-op. Now, wearing a striped tie and a blue blazer, he looked even more so. With his neat side part, every hair on his head was perfectly in place. His smile filled the room with warmth. Like Logan, he had this way of looking right at you like you were the only person in the world.

Jack had been born to run for office. Logan used to joke that when Jack was born his parents wrapped him in an American flag instead of a blanket. And, as Logan looked at him, he knew there was a reason that Jack, despite being the youngest son in his family, was the one given the nod to run for the Congressional seat his father once held. The desk, which he stepped out from behind, had belonged to his father, and his father's father. It was enormous and ornate, and it took up nearly a quarter of his tiny office across the street from the Capitol Building. Behind it was a whole array of pictures of Jack's family over the years. There photos of his father shaking hands with LBJ, his grandfather standing next to Truman, and family shots from their compound on the Cape.#p#分页标题#e#

"With all your family's influence, I thought you'd be able to swing a better office than this," Logan said as he took Jack's extended hand. "Is this a converted closet or something?"

Jack tightened his grip on Logan's hand and held it as a signal of his seriousness. "It's all seniority. I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. If I can last a few years, I'll have one of the good offices, but you didn't come all the way down here to talk architecture." He let go of Logan's hand. "What's up?"