Candidate: A Love Story (30 page)

Grady nodded. “Will do. Thanks for making me look cool. How’s Marie?”

Leo tilted his head back and forth in a so-so motion.

“She has her moments. Pretty much kicked the cancer’s ass again. Doc says she’s in remission, but those meds, all that poking and prodding at her . . . ” Leo’s eyes got a little glassy. “Eh, you know what? I got no complaints. She’s a fighter and still as gorgeous as the day I met her.”

“She is a beauty,” Grady said, smiling and trying to ease some of the pain in Leo’s eyes. “Grandkids are good?”

“Terrors, all three of them, but they keep us young.” Leo looked at Kate, who was standing in the center of an aisle, eyes closed, smelling the flowers. “Speaking of young, looks like your lady already appreciates our market. Now get going before she changes her mind about you.” Grady turned to look at Kate in all of her inhibition-abandonment, and his heart pulled not for the first time that evening.

“Good idea. Thanks, again. We’ll catch you on the way out.”

“Sounds good.” Leo waved him off, picked up his clipboard, and got back to work.

Grady came up behind Kate and wrapped his arms around her, and again Kate let him.

“Are you falling asleep on your feet, or imagining you are in a sea of the most beautiful flowers?”

Kate smiled, eyes still closed.

“Both.”

Kate opened her eyes.

“This is incredible. So different at night. The sounds and the lighting, it’s . . . ” Kate couldn’t seem to find the words, and then she pulled him behind the masking of an empty stall and kissed him. It looked for a minute like she might have kissed him right there in the middle of the aisle, but the election was a month away and Grady knew that Kate’s PR-self never really slept. Kate pulled back from the kiss and released Grady’s shirtfront she’d been gripping in what felt like desperation. He knew all about needing Kate, but it was nice to see he was not alone.

Grady’s face eased into a deep smile. “Okay, well, note to self, flower markets in the middle of the night are worth it.” Grady snaked his arm around her waist and kissed her again. This time was slow, as if they had all the time in the world. When he pulled back, her eyes were still closed. He brushed her cheek, kissed her cold nose.

“Mmm . . . the smell is amazing. Why have I never notice the smell before? I’ve been to this market dozens of times and somehow it’s different, it’s different with you. Everything is.” Kate opened her eyes and looked into his. For a brief moment she looked like one of those teenage girls strapped into a roller coaster about to depart. Excited, but still not sure. Grady had seen that look before, but less frequently these days. He took her hand and led her back to the main stalls.

“You haven’t seen anything yet. Let’s start with orchids and then move on to roses. There are over three dozen different kinds of roses at this market on any given day.” Grady handed her a map that outlined each stall.

“Did you know that technically George Washington wasn’t just our fist president, but also the first rose breeder in the United States?” Grady felt like a child on a field trip with a pretty girl he was trying to impress.

“I did not know that very interesting fact. Money probably, I mean who else could afford roses at that time?” Kate said, picking up the aroma of coffee in the air.

“Always comes back to money doesn’t it? Maybe he was the only one willing to till the soil, create the right chemistry. Maybe he worked harder,” Grady said, leading her toward another entrance.

Kate laughed. “Maybe, Mr. Malendar, maybe that’s exactly what it was. And I’m sure he took care of all that gardening by himself, right? I mean being the president and all, I’m sure there was no staff,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Actually, the presidency was nothing like it is now. Things were different—”

“One word, Grady, one word,
slaves
.” Kate moved past him and toward the coffee booth. “I mean that’s all I have to say. Sure things were different, different worse, for everyone but white wealthy men.”

“Christ, we are talking about five different things now. How do you do that? Turn one comment into a full-on discussion. Monumental issues all because the man grew roses.”

Kate turned to face him, still walking backwards.

She smiled. “It’s a gift.”

They both laughed.

“Yeah well, this isn’t a win,” he said. “We will resume this discussion once I’ve had at least three or four hours of sleep.”

They both agreed, and stopped at the coffee booth just inside the main entrance.

“Bless your soul. I will have the largest coffee you have,” Kate said.

Grady laughed and so did the woman now pouring the coffee.

“I’ll have what she’s having,” he said, and reached for his wallet.

Warm coffee in hand, they set out to explore the stalls. Dodging carts and vendors buzzing in and out.

“So, Leo is a friend of yours?” Kate asked.

“He is. I’ve known him and his wife, Marie, for almost eighteen years now.”

“Huh,” Kate said, touching the greenery as they passed one of the stalls. “Do you know him from here, or . . .”

“He used to be our family florist. Owned a little shop in Pasadena when I was growing up. I worked summers at his place, cleaning up, riding with him on deliveries. He taught me pretty much everything I know about flowers and a big chunk of what I know about life. His wife got cancer when I was in high school.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well, she’s a fighter, but the expense of her treatment almost crippled them. He was a small business with small-business benefits. He also had crazy taxes. When I was in college, I’d help him with his returns over winter break. It’s where I really learned about the middle-class squeeze.” Grady picked up a huge coral rose and handed it to Kate. “I mean, have you ever seen anything so extraordinary?” he asked, changing the subject.

“No,” she said, moving to him, but careful to keep her distance, “I’ve never seen a more extraordinary rose or a more extraordinary man.”

Kate looked at him and there it was. He wanted to be that man in her eyes more than anything else. That thought, he would admit, was a little scary.

“So, what happened to the flower shop?” Kate asked, putting the rose back.

“She was in remission for a while with the first bout, but it came back around the time I graduated. Leo couldn’t hold it together any more. They needed benefits and cash, so he sold the business and came to work here.” Grady sipped his coffee. “He said she was all that mattered in his life, so if he had to have a job, he’d get a job.”

Kate sighed. “That’s a very sad story. For him and the state of our country, but he seems happy.”

“He is happy.” Grady smiled and pointed out sunflowers bursting out of newspaper cones. “He has two kids, three grandkids, and Marie is in remission again. They were married fifty years this past January.”

Kate raised her eyebrows. “Wow, that is something I can’t imagine.”

Kate yawned and Grady could easily imagine that many years, as long as they were with her.

“Getting tired?” He asked.

“Nah, just ignore that. The coffee should kick in any minute.”

“Well before you start fading, let’s hit the tulips. We should probably get out of here anyway before the florist buyers show up. It’s a zoo in here by three.”

They continued walking and Grady commented, sort of like one of those home gardening television hosts, that “tulips were from the lily family.” Kate followed that with the fact that “they were also related to a family that included onions.” They were quite a pair, the two of them, delirious flower nerds. Grady bought a huge bunch of tulips and picked up another bunch of daffodils while the woman in a green apron wrapped the tulips in newspaper. Grady threw out his empty coffee cup and put his free arm around Kate. She quickly moved it and looked around. Grady laughed.

“Oh yes, this will be a scandal if anyone catches us here at the Los Angeles Flower Market, drinking coffee and geeking out over flowers. That is a scandal from which my father will not recover.” He tried to hold her again and Kate grew serious.

“It’s not that we are here, it’s that people don’t need to know we are here together. I mean . . . damn it. I’m usually articulate when I’m not around you.”

“I know, I’ve seen you bullshit with the best to them.”

“Shut up. You know what I mean. We can’t be seen,” she said, holding up finger quotes, ‘together.’ It doesn’t look right for either of us.”

“Fine,” Grady said as they approached the exit and Leo.

“Ah, looks like you found something for your pretty lady there, Grady.”

Kate blushed and looked around again.

Grady smiled and handed Leo the daffodils. “For Marie.”

Leo nodded his head. “Her favorite. I’ll get them to her this morning. Brighten her day. Thank you.” He hugged Grady and then kissed Kate’s hand. Kate should have continued to be on guard, should have corrected Leo that she was not Grady’s lady, but looking in the man’s weathered brown eyes, it didn’t seem important. In the whole context, as Grady had put it, who cared?

“Good night, Leo. It was a pleasure meeting you,” was all she said.

Kate and Grady walked into the ink-colored evening, alight only by dim street lamps. The fragrance of thousands of blooms lingered all the way to the car. Kate would remember this night forever. She would replay the evening hundreds of times, and mark it as the magical start of her very best friend’s married life. She would also remember that she had never felt more in love or more off balance in her entire life. When they got to the car, in the shadow of the parking lot, Kate took Grady’s face in her hands and gently kissed him.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“For showing me things.”

Grady touched the back of his hand to her cheek.

“For turning things upside down, surprising me, making me feel cherished, and giving me the most wonderful view.” She kissed him again.

Chapter Thirty-Three

T
he following Tuesday, Kate walked into her office to find Mark and a stack of tabloid magazines. Internally she gasped at the headlines, her heart was racing, but she let nothing show. On the outside, she was the same as always. Ready to work. Within an hour, her staff was working on gathering the facts and coming up with a damage control strategy. Kate filled her mug with coffee from the office kitchen and went behind closed doors. She needed a minute. She was only halfway through her much-needed minute when Grady knocked and then walked right into her office.

“Kate, I wanted to get to you before this crap broke.”

“Why?” she asked on a whisper, holding her mug with both hands. She stared out the window, and did not turn to face him. She couldn’t.

“Um.” She could tell by his voice that he was suddenly uneasy. “Because . . . I thought we could have a good laugh. Kate, I know—”

She spun around and the look on her face silenced him. It wasn’t anger, she was simply struggling to say in one piece.

“It’s fine. Did you really think this was ever going to work? Were you delusional enough to think that I believed you loved me forever, Grady?” Kate said batting her eyelashes and holding her hands up to her face like an innocent schoolgirl. “I get it. I’m a big girl and believe me. I’ve done this before. We had a good time, things happen.”

“What?” Grady was stunned.

Kate turned aloof and finished him off. “I’m just pissed that this is going to hurt the campaign and that you managed this on my watch.” She looked down at her desk and despite the look in his eyes, she willed herself to stay together.
Survive, Kate, at all costs.

Grady actually stumbled back a step as if he’d been physically hit. “Am I really supposed to stand here and . . . ? Do I have to explain to you that I didn’t . . . oh, Kate, are you kidding me?”

She looked up at him, her jaw clenched, and broke his heart. Kate could see it in his face, but she couldn’t stop the flood of doubt and suspicion. It didn’t register with her that it might be just another stupid rumor. She immediately believed he was a scumbag that slept with a hooker. Part of her felt awful now that he was finally in front of her, dumbfounded, but most of her began putting on the armor. She’d spent the last hour pacing Mark’s office, listening to the sordid details, and closing her heart off like one of those medieval drawbridges. Above everything, she could not let the pain in. If there was any chance, any chance at all, that he would, that he . . . she just couldn’t let any of it in. She wouldn’t survive. Grady took her arm and she pulled away. He took a deep breath and his eyes were angry now.

“First, first of all, I don’t pay for sex. I don’t have to.”
Touché, nice opening and probably very true.
“Second, when I’m with a woman—”

Kate turned away and he took her face gently.

“When I’m in love with a woman, I don’t . . . I can’t even believe I need to say this to you.” His hand dropped and he moved around her office like a prowling cat, frustration simmering. “I’m not Nick, god damn it! In fact, screw him for doing this, making you into this.” He flailed his hands up and down. “I thought . . . Jesus, we haven’t . . . we’re right here aren’t we? You, your first thought was that someone that . . . even though my heart literally jumps to be near you, that I’d throw that all away. I’d pick up this hooker and take her to the Wilshire. What’d she say?” He ran his hands over his face. “Oh, yeah, ‘Just like in
Pretty Woman
,’—really? That’s not even the best lie anyone’s ever told about me. This wasn’t even a really good one, Kate.”