An Irresistible Bachelor (An Unforgettable Lady #2)(96)

Jack felt like kicking over the man’s gravestone.

Callie spoke against his chest. “Last night, I finally realized that Grace wasn’t the only one I was protecting. I decided I was going to tell you everything. But then the announcement came out and I lost sight of . . . everything. Who you really are, what you promised me. I wish I could go back and unlock that door, Jack. I really do.”

“It’s okay.”

The forgiveness, he thought, was so easy. So simple. So complete.

“This morning, when I learned you’d kicked out your mother, I suddenly realized I’d read the situation completely wrong. And I spoke with Grace.” She pulled back. “But I want to be clear. I did not ask her permission to tell you. I told her I was going to explain everything to you, because I had to or I was going to lose the man I love. And nothing would be worth that.”

He gently took her face into his hands. As their lips met, he would have done anything to avenge her if he could have, but that time had long passed. Now he could only protect her. And that meant his candidacy was off.

She was absolutely right. A reporter would find out about Hall somehow and blow the story up into an exposé that would rob Callie of the privacy she held so dear.

She took a deep breath. “And I can’t get Anne out of my mind.”

Jack frowned. “Anne?”

“Last night I found a letter from General Rowe to Nathaniel. We were right. It was Anne in the mirror. And her father would have supported a marriage between the two of them after all.” She shook her head. “Anne lost her last chance to see the man she loved. Last night, I was determined not to have that happen to us, but then I thought everything had changed. I thought we were over.”

As he bent his head down to her shoulder, he thought they were lucky. Lucky to have found each other. Lucky to get past the obstacles even if it hurt.

We cut it so close, he thought, and then laughed.

“Your timing is good,” he said. “I was about to formally announce my candidacy, but obviously I’m not—”

“No. Don’t call it off!”

He pulled back and shook his head. “Good God, how can I run now?”

“I’m not going to hide anymore. I’m not going to protect him and neither will Grace. If you don’t think I’ll hurt your chances too much, I want to stand beside you when you run. I don’t want you or me or Grace sacrificing anything for that man. He didn’t deserve it when he was alive. And now—I just refuse to believe it matters anymore.”

“Callie, are you sure you want to do this? It’s not going to be easy.”

“There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you. I just wish I wasn’t such a liability.”

Jack stared into her eyes with disbelief. “You are not a liability to me. And besides, the voters have to choose me because they believe in my vision for the state. God knows, I have enough scandals of my own. If my platform, my convictions, aren’t enough to override my own past, it’s not going to matter what your father did or who he was.”

There was a pause and she smiled softly at him. “So you’re going to run? Because I think you would make a fantastic governor.”

Jack couldn’t believe the way she was looking at him. She was so steady, so certain, even though he had the sense she knew what she was in for.

“Okay. I’ll run.”



Out in the hall, Gray Bennett looked over as the DA for Suffolk County tapped him on the shoulder.

“Listen, Bennett, I’m due at my kid’s soccer game this afternoon and we’re wasting time out in this hall. How much longer do you think he’s going to be in there?”

Gray opened the door to the conference room a crack. He took one look at Jack and Callie kissing and shut it with a smile.

“I think it might be a while. Why don’t I give you a call?”

The man smiled slowly and then nodded with a knowing grin. “Sounds good. Hell, if that redhead wanted to see me, I’d give her the time, too.”





Epilogue


“MCallie, look at the time.” Gerard Beauvais’s voice broke through the silence of the conservation lab. “You will be late!”

Callie glanced at her watch and leapt from her chair. “Oh, not again. I totally lost track of—”

She began frantically screwing on lids and putting brushes away.

“No, I will do that,” Gerard said, shooing her away. “You must go.”

She grabbed her coat and her backpack. On the way to the door, she was talking to Gerard over her shoulder. “About the Tintoretto. We need to—”

“We will talk of it tomorrow! Go!”

She ran for the stairs and burst out through the back entrance of the MFA. Breaking into a jog, she fumbled for her keys as she went over to a silver Volvo station wagon.

When she was speeding down Huntington Avenue, she flipped on the radio.

“With the polls just closing now, we’ll have the results of this year’s elections in a matter of minutes. The hotly contested governor’s race, between Jack Walker and incumbent Butch Callahan—”

She turned the thing off, unable to bear the tension. Heading into town, and running a couple of yellow lights along the way, she tried to pay proper attention to the road. She didn’t want to smash up the first and only car she’d ever bought for herself on a night like this.