The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(63)

She smirked at him.

“We’ll be sure to do that—thanks for the advice.”

He smirked back.

“Always a pleasure. Hope to talk to you again soon.”

Finally, he went over to Maddie.

“Hey,” he said. He didn’t know if he was allowed to give her a hug with all these people around, so he just smiled at her. “Thanks for coming.”

“Hey, yourself,” she said. “Who were you just talking to? She looks scary.”

He laughed.

“Oh, she’s scary, all right. She’s a reporter for the L.A. Times, and she’s very good at what she does, which means now I have to warn everyone that she’s here.”

Maddie looked around at the people starting to fill up the seats, the reporters and photographers all setting up, and the colorfully decorated stage, with the campaign signs at just the perfect level for the cameras to get them.

“It looks like you’re on track to be great already. But you’re busy. I don’t want to keep you. Is Alexa here yet?”

So she didn’t know Alexa wasn’t coming.

“No, she’s staying back at City Hall to keep track of everything else.”

He couldn’t tell whether the look on her face was surprise, or relief, or something else.

“Oh. Okay. Well, I’ll be right here. Let me know if you need an extra hand for anything.”

He touched her arm.

“Thanks. I will. Have you—”

“Theo?” He turned, to find one of the campaign interns at his elbow. “The mayor sent me to find you. He says he can’t find his talking points?”

Theo shook his head.

“I was waiting for this. I brought extra copies. I’ll be right there.” He turned back to Maddie. “I have to run, and I’ll probably be running around all through this, but thanks again for coming.”

Maddie clasped his hand for a second.

“Of course. See you later.”

The next thirty minutes were frantic, as that time before an event like this always was. He ran back and forth from the mayor to the press to the families to the mayor to the governor to the campaign staff, and finally back to the mayor right before it was go time.

“I’ll be in the back, watching and taking some pictures for social media. Mimi from the campaign is in charge of getting everyone on and off the stage at the right times, but if anything goes wrong, I’ll be right there.”

His boss waved him off.

“You have that anxious look on your face, Theo!” He turned to the governor, being briefed by Sybil. “Does your staff always have that anxious look on their faces when they’re talking to you before you go on stage?” He and the governor both laughed like he’d said something hilarious. Theo and Sybil just sighed.

Theo walked back out to the schoolyard and took a deep breath. Everything was tentatively looking good. There were so many people, they’d had to run more folding chairs over from City Hall, which was great, and there was lots of press to witness that, which was even better. He looked for Maddie in the crowd and found her: a few rows from the back, on a seat along the center aisle. She waved and smiled at him, and he smiled back.

The local high school jazz band kicked into gear, and the crowd cheered for them, and then again for the politicians who all came out to the music. Some of them—oh God, including his boss—were dancing. He made a note to tell his boss, yet again, to never dance in public.

The speeches started: his boss went first, which was one of the benefits of this being on his home turf, and he introduced one of the parent speakers. It was the one Theo had been the most nervous about, but she drew a huge round of applause. Theo let out a deep breath for what felt like the first time in weeks.

Just as one of the state representatives started to speak, he heard the protests start. Everything had been going too well.

At first, it was just indeterminate yelling, but eventually he could make out some “Not MY tax dollars” and “Don’t pollute our schools!” chants. So uncreative. The protestors from the left could always at least rhyme.

He could tell Mimi had done what they’d talked about in advance, and cranked up the sound on the microphones, because everyone on their side suddenly got a lot louder and almost drowned out the protestors.

The protestors kept chanting, but the police kept them a few yards back from the last row of seats. Thank goodness most of the reporters were still looking at the stage and taking notes. Granted, a bunch of the photographers had turned around and were shooting pictures of the protestors, but he’d expected that.

Theo heard a commotion behind him, a shout, cheering, and more shouting. He turned around to see a cop on the ground, and protestors, now with masks on, running toward the seats as they waved their big wooden sticks that had moments ago held protest signs.

One of the masked protestors was running toward him, maybe to attack the politicians, maybe to attack the crowd—he didn’t know which one. If he charged at the crowd, Maddie was right there in the middle. And Theo couldn’t get to her in time. He spun back around.

“Maddie!” Theo yelled. “Watch out!”

She jumped up, turned around, and tripped the guy running toward her. She grinned at him, and he grinned back. Until he saw the look of panic wash over her face. She pointed and started to run toward him.