Look to the Rainbow (3 page)

      “I’ll look forward to it.” Lily rejoined them.

     “Oh good, you’ve met.”

     “We have indeed,” Kel said.

     “Kel, do you have a few minutes?” Alan asked.

     Kel sighed. “Sure Alan, but maybe we had better step outside?” The two of them disappeared through French doors that led to the terrace and Lily said to John, “Oh dear.”

     John said, “I asked Alan not to bring that subject up tonight.” He placed an arm around Janet’s shoulders. “Sorry, princess. But well, with all the people here.”

     “It’s okay John,” Janet told her uncle. “Do you think he’ll come around?”

     “This is what you want?”

      She nodded.

      “Then he’ll come around. So, Tara Kristen is it?”

     “Usually I drop the Kristen. Although my father insists on using the double name.”

     John said, “I haven’t seen your parents in years. How are they?”

     “Good. My father is happy for me to have this opportunity to work for
Newsworthy
but I do have to confess, he isn’t a big supporter of Senator O’Brien.”

     “Well, if you do the job Bobby’s hoping you will, maybe you’ll win him over too.”

     She laughed. “Maybe.”

     Lily took her by the arm and said, “Come darling, there are some people I want you to meet. They are just dying to meet Julia’s daughter.”

     Outside on the terrace Alan took a deep breath and said, “Kel, we have to discuss this.”

     “Yes, Alan, we do, but I’m not sure this is the right time or place.”

     “You refused to discuss it when it was just family.”

      “Fair enough. What is it you want to say?”

     “I love her Kel.”

     “I realize that Alan. You’ve always loved her.”

     Alan said softly, “I have, but it’s a different kind of love now.”

     “Maybe someone could explain exactly how that happened. Because I am apparently completely in the dark about this romance and I got the impression everyone else was as well. Why did you keep it a secret?”

     “It wasn’t exactly a secret. It just wasn’t on public display. We both ended up at one of Mother’s charity events without a date and neither of us was particularly interested in talking to anyone else there, so we spent the evening keeping each other company. The usual good night hug turned into something more.”

     Kel shot him a look that made Alan quickly add, “No, not that. I mean I kissed her. She kissed me back. I started dropping by to see her in Providence.  Suddenly we were dating. You know how dating relationships go, you either end them or you decide to get married. We decided to get married.”

     “What’s the rush?”

     “It’s not as if we need to get to know each other better. Kel, I understand it has been just you and Janet and Jim for a long time. And we all know Alise was never up for parent of the year. If I turn out to be half the father you’ve been I’ll be happy. But Janet is about to get her master’s degree in architecture, she’s an adult. Everybody’s been dropping not so subtle hints for years that I need to get married. Don’t you thinks it’s possible that I’ve just been waiting for her ?”

     Kel was silent for a moment. “I guess it’s possible.”

     “But you aren’t giving us your blessing.”

      “Can I have a little time to think it over, Alan?”

     “You aren’t just saying that to put off saying no?”

     “I’m saying I need a little time to think about it.”

     “Fair enough. Thanks.”

     “We need to end this for now, as I’m the guest of honor at this very nice but unnecessary birthday event and your mother will be expecting to see everyone out on the dance floor. I’ll give you my word that I will talk to you and Janet again before I go back out on the campaign trail.”

      They walked back into the ballroom just as the music changed. Kel saw Tara standing on the edge of the dance floor and stepped up behind her. “Care to dance?”

     “Are you sure you are asking an able partner? I’ve heard from several people that you are a regular Fred Astaire.”

     “Your mother grew up in Newport. You had ballroom lessons.”

       Tara laughed. “I did.”

      He held out his hand and raised one eyebrow. She took his hand and followed him. He did dance beautifully; his lead was easy to follow and he was graceful and athletically agile at the same time.

     Casey was dancing with Evan Jones when Evan asked, “Who’s that dancing with Kel?”

     “Her name is Tara Kristen McCaffrey.” Casey replied. “Bobby’s hired her to follow Kel’s campaign.”

     “She’s very pretty. He seems to be enjoying himself, too.”

     “He seldom finds someone who can follow him like that,” Casey said.

     “Well,” Evan said, looking away from Kel and Tara, “I don’t have that problem tonight.”

     They both laughed because Evan had taught Casey the dance steps they were executing in the living room of his and Mary Katherine’s Georgetown house when she was twelve.  Casey noticed Evan’s wife Mary Katherine making her way around the room with her camera, taking photos of the guests as they danced. “Doesn’t Mary Katherine miss dancing with you?”

     “Not at all,” Evan said. Was there a hint of regret in his tone? “Her Newport series sells as fast she can produce them.” Mary Katherine’s latest artistic endeavor was putting large scale portraits of Newport’s upper crust on canvas. The results were a dazzling display of Newport society in black and white with touches of hand tinted color. Lily’s friends paid enormous price tags to have them to hang in their elegant drawing rooms. The series was interesting and beautiful, but every artistic style she had attempted, from her early impressionistic paintings to her photographic work had been widely popular and lucrative. She had easily become one of America’s most celebrated artists and was highly collectible. Although Evan was well paid in his medical practice, it was Mary Katherine’s income that allowed them to live a lifestyle comparable to that of the people they associated with in Newport. Evan played polo with Kel and kept a number of horses without thought of the cost , had a sailboat designed to look like a pirate ship and had driven a number of convertible sports cars over the years they’d been married, all gifts from Mary Katherine. They resided in an impressive three story house in the heart of Georgetown and had traveled the world while Mary Katherine took photographs for her own artwork and several renowned publications that kept her on retainer, but Evan was always happiest here, when they spent time with the O’Briens and Lansings, the family that had become like his own. Each time they came to Newport to visit, they left discussing the possibility of moving there themselves, but Evan had made a promise to Ross that as long as Kel was in Washington he would stay there. Kel’s chronic diabetes had resulted in a couple of near fatal incidents and although it was well hidden from the general public, his family was always concerned about his health. If his bid for the Presidency was successful, it could mean at least eight more years before Kel or Evan left Washington. For now, Newport was a short and easy flight for them as Evan, to please his Blue Angel father, had had his pilot’s license since he’d been sixteen and maintained the small plane he’d inherited when his parents had died when he was in college.

     The dance ended and Kel kept Tara on the dance floor for the waltz that followed. “Interesting,” Evan said to Casey as they continued dancing as well.

     “Very,” Casey said. And it was. Kel had carefully guarded his heart after Alise’s infidelity and sudden death. He seldom stayed on the dance floor through two songs with any one person and she couldn’t help but notice that one, they seemed to be enjoying each other’s company and two, that Mary Katherine had just taken a photograph of the two of them.  Casey looked over Evan’s shoulder and saw her parents dancing and smiled as she saw that John and Kimberly were watching Kel dance with Tara too. And then the thought came to Casey that her grandmother, ever the matchmaker, had planned this all long.

     “Let’s take a break,” Kel said, as the waltz ended. “Would you care for a walk in the moonlight?”

      “Oh, so you would be the romantic sort, would you?” she asked, but going along with him as he walked off the stone terrace and across the lawn.

      “Yes, I would be. Will you write that?” She couldn’t help but notice how charming his smile was and rather liked the way a stray lock of jet black hair had fallen down on his forehead.

      “Hmmm, I don’t know yet.”

      “You know what the biggest complaint they have about me is? The fact that I don’t have a wife. Apparently there is a contingency of voters out there who don’t like the idea of me in The White House without a first lady.”

     “Have you ever considered marrying again?” It was something many people would want to know.

     “I haven’t. But there is a long complicated story behind that and it isn’t one I feel comfortable sharing with you. At least not yet.”         They walked along in silence, but it was amazingly not awkward for either of them. Kel stopped walking when they reached the Cliff Walk and they stood gazing out onto the ocean.

     Tara said softly, almost to herself, “What a view.”

      “It is quite something. I designed my own house to be able to look at it from several rooms.”

      “You designed it?”

     He laughed. “You haven’t done your homework. I haven’t always been a senator. Before I jumped in the political arena I was a fairly well known architect. But that’s ancient history, so long ago that people have forgotten. You would have been very young when I was designing buildings.”

     “I can see there must be a little Howard Roark in you,” Tara teased.

     “You’ve read
The Fountainhead
?” He looked surprised.

      “Of course.”         

      He smiled. “I seldom meet anyone who appreciates Ayn Rand. This could be an enlightening proposition at that.” He consulted his watch. “It’s getting late. Let’s walk back.” They crossed the lawn again in a comfortable silence and he opened the door for her. “Thank you. I enjoyed the dancing and the conversation.”

     He left her standing there and she watched him take Janet out on the dance floor for the last dance of the evening. Many of the guests had left while they’d been outside and the group dancing were mostly members of the family. Mary Katherine had abandoned her camera and was dancing with Evan. Alan had taken Casey as his partner while Janet danced with her father. They were all laughing and calling out to each other as they danced.  Lily came along beside her and followed her gaze. “They are all quite something, aren’t they?”