The Law of Attraction(21)

“It’s okay.” I sat up and fixed my clothes while he had them buzzed in. When he was done I looked at him and smiled. “Don’t worry. We’ll have the opportunity to get seriously freaky soon.” I know — I’m just so wonderfully warm and romantic sometimes. A sweet talker like me should write for Hallmark.

“I’ll make sure it was worth waiting for,” he said, giving me a slightly wicked look and went off to splash cold water on his face. I could have benefitted from being hosed down.

* * *

Not long after, Mark and Adam were at the door and Braden invited them in. They obviously didn’t see me standing off to the side behind them. Ask me how I figured that out.

“Braden looks happy.” Mark smiled. “Everybody’ll be getting deals tomorrow. Stole a car and committed sixty-three moving violations during a high speed chase? No problem. Just don't do it again.”

“So did Harvard take Yale or did Harvard go down?” Adam asked.

“More importantly did Yale go down? We want to hear how you handled her tongue,” Mark said lasciviously. I suppose that I could have gotten all offended by this but, come on, it wasn’t like Jess and I didn’t dish details too, and I mentioned that I spend time with guys in jail, right? I just rolled my eyes.

“Don’t you think you should at least say hi to her first?” Braden asked.

“Oh fuck!” Mark spun around. “Hi, Gabrielle! How are you doing?” Adam just cracked up.

We were waiting for the pizza and sitting in front of the TV drinking beer while some kind of pregame show was on when Mark brought up a different subject.

“So how about that article in the Times today that mentioned Gabrielle's dad?”

“I didn’t read the Times today. Just the Inquirer,” I said.

“I was busy moving Drew all day. I didn’t get a chance to read anything,” Braden added.

“Does your father know that you're dating Gabrielle?” Adam asked and I immediately started to get worried. Braden looked at him warily.

“I told my parents that I just started dating somebody and that I was bringing her to the fundraiser, that’s all.”

“My dad’s not in jail or anything?” Images of Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken floated through my head and I started to panic.

“Nothing like that!” Mark assured me. “You have the Times?” he asked Braden. Braden got up and brought it in, handing it over to him. He paged through until he found what he was looking for. “It's called The New Kingmakers and it's a piece about a small group of CEOs who aren’t really well known but who supposedly have a lot of influence. The article said that these guys all have been showing interest in supporting centrist politicians – almost like they had a plan. We just thought you’d be interested since Gab’s dad is one of the CEOs mentioned and your dad is, you know, a centrist politician?”

“My dad lives in New York. Why would he get involved in a Pennsylvania Senatorial election?”

“The article was hinting about their ability to put somebody in the White House,” Adam replied. Great. This was starting to sound like some weird conspiracy theory.

“And they have a “plan.” Isn’t that special? You know, I have some footage of an alien autopsy you guys should check out,” I said sarcastically, and Braden snorted with amusement.

“Switching sides already.” Adam shook his head.

“Hey, it's the New York Times, not the National Enquirer,” Mark shot back. “I just figured that Senator Pierce might be interested in knowing that his son is dating the Kingmaker’s daughter.”

“My dad does things strictly by the book,” I said. “He wouldn’t make a bed without asking three people to advise him, two people to draft proposals and someone to provide catering. He’s not sitting in some smoky back room plotting the future of the country.”

“Can I see the article?” Braden asked. Mark passed it over and Braden took a few minutes to read it.

“My dad would probably just find it an amusing coincidence. For the record, he’s not the pawn of any secret cadre of businessmen with moderate political views.” He winked at me and my tummy fluttered again. Ha! I was on the teasing end for a change and Braden was on my side! I loved it!

“I think you guys should take a road trip to Roswell,” I joked.

“Maybe you can prove that Elvis is still alive and break the Da Vinci Code on the way,” he added and I giggled. Mark and Adam gave each other a look.

“I think it’s just the two of us now, Adam,” Mark said.

“Want to lay some cash on how long he has?” Adam asked.