Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 107639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
The night spun out in a series of endless meet and greets like that one. With each subsequent introduction, I did my best to make a small conversational connection so that Kenji would be able to find people to talk to throughout the evening when I was pulled away for various reasons.
Tension vibrated between us despite the plastered-on smiles and deliberate touches intended to sell our “romance” to everyone there.
We finally moved from the receiving line into the library. Kenji was clearly still angry.
So was I.
How dare he get mad at me for trying to protect him. For trying to clean up my own messes for once. For keeping him from always having to take charge.
“There he is,” Ben MacNeely said as I entered the large ballroom and took stock of the crowd. “We were just talking about our next MP, weren’t we, Holmes?”
I reached for Kenji’s hand as we approached the group of men clad in crisp Armani and women in sparkling couture gowns. “That can’t be right. If I remember correctly, you were more likely lamenting Man United’s embarrassing showing on Sunday.”
Once everyone’s laughter and teasing died down and I’d thanked everyone again for coming, Samuel Holmes pulled me aside with his wife, Laura. “So, Ev… sorry, Landry—that’ll take some getting used to, won’t it? Sorry. Anyway, Laura and I wanted to talk to you about a special measure coming up in regards to the transfer of water rights. Her parents’ estate is on the Derwent and…”
He and Laura began appealing to me to support the special measure by explaining water rights in excruciating detail. I finally stopped him mid-plea.
“Sam, I understand riparian rights as I’ve been managing Davencourt Park for years, which stands on the River Wey. Unfortunately, I’m not able to dig into details about the special measure this evening, but did you know that the Davencourt Foundation funds clean water initiatives and ecological research? I’ll have to look into it, but the Derwent might be on the list of rivers positively impacted by our efforts here tonight.”
Kenji smiled and leaned forward. “Landry and Cora are also spearheading a project to establish new riverside walking trails. That project is near Epping, I think. Isn’t that right, darling? The more funding the project gets, the more trails they can create, which fits right in line with Landry’s personal hope of decreasing childhood obesity and increasing sustainable movement habits in adults.”
As the cocktail hour continued, the situation repeated itself. Someone tried to pull me aside to ask a favor or win my support on something, and Kenji managed to turn the conversation back to the evening’s purpose. Like a dutiful spouse.
He had to be hating every minute of this. It was an unwelcome reminder of all the other times in the past decade Kenji Toma had been forced to bail me out of scrapes. If only I hadn’t dragged him into this mess by telling that one little lie about being engaged to him. And if only he hadn’t felt duty-bound to double down on the lie with a bigger lie to try and fix things.
By the time I pulled his chair out at the dinner table, I was annoyed, anxious, and generally on edge.
It was probably for the best I wasn’t able to sit with him. Instead, I was seated a few places away between Baroness Colborne and Teddy’s wife, Kaveri.
Kaveri winked at me as soon as I inquired after her comfort. “I believe you’re the one in the hot seat. How has the evening gone for you so far? Okay?”
I smiled and shrugged. “I can’t say I’m not used to the scrutiny, although I’ve never had it focused on my brains over my brawn, so to speak.”
The sound of her gentle laughter garnered attention from a few people sitting close to us. People’s eyes had been on me all night, but the fact I was now seated between the prime minister’s wife and the Lord Speaker placed me directly in the limelight.
“My lady, thank you again for coming,” I said, addressing the Lord Speaker, Baroness Colborne, on my other side. “I understand from Teddy that you and your husband have recently returned from a holiday to Santorini. How did you find it?”
She and I both knew this was a dance in which a certain amount of small talk needed to happen before delving deeper. Teddy had arranged for us to have coffee in his office the following morning with a few other influential MPs, so it wasn’t necessary to talk shop at tonight’s event anyway.
While she explained her Christmas holiday and the joy her grandchildren found in visiting a place they’d only seen on television, I recognized the universal look of joyful affection on her face from sharing tales of her family with someone new.
I glanced over at Kenji and noticed he’d been placed close to Jamie Winthrop. The older woman between them seemed perfectly happy to be entertained by Kenji and Jamie sharing stories with her from both directions, and it was clear the three of them had created one of the more fun pockets along the large expanse of guests.