Lee Ann slipped her arm through Jeremiah’s. “And where is Aunt Lynn? I don’t see her.”
“Probably worrying the waiters to death.” He chuckled good-naturedly. “You know your aunt. Walk with me outside. I need some air already.”
Lee Ann laughed lightly, and it stopped as if a cork had slid down her throat. A warm wave fluttered in her stomach as they drew closer to the group assembled near the balcony.
She’d only seen him from a distance in the past, although she’d watched him closely during his run for the junior Senate seat and listened to her father extol his virtues. Although Lee Ann worked closely with her father as his personal consultant, she tended to steer clear of the interactions of the power brokers, rarely visited Washington and worked out of the family home or occasionally at her father’s local office in Baton Rouge.
“Congressman,” one of the ladies announced. All eyes turned in their direction.
Jeremiah let out a hearty laugh. “Now that’s the way I like to make an entrance, introduced by a beautiful woman.” The group dutifully chuckled. He turned to Lee Ann. “I’m sure most of you know Lee Ann Lawson, the real power behind the senator.”
Lee Ann’s face heated. She looked from one to the other. “He gives me too much credit.”
“All deserved, my dear.” He slipped her arm out from his and patted her hand. “Senator Preston Graham, have you met Lee Ann?”
“I’m sure if I did I would have remembered,” he responded, his dark eyes doing a slow stroll across her face. He extended his hand toward her.
Lee Ann stretched out her hand, and he leaned down and kissed the top of it. “My pleasure.” A smile teased the corners of his mouth. “I feel as if I already know you.”
She tilted her head slightly to the side. “Why is that?”
“Your father talks about you all the time.”
Her gaze darted away for an instant. “He does the same about you.”
“Is that right? Hope it’s all good.” Light danced in his eyes.
“Yes, it is. He thinks very highly of you. And congratulations, by the way, on your win.”
“I’m still getting my feet wet. Your father is an excellent mentor.”
“That he is.”
“Can I get you a drink?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
After they both realized that he was still holding her hand, Preston chuckled. “Maybe it’s a sign that we should go out together.”
Lee Ann’s soft laugh brushed against him like a caress. He tucked her hand in the curve of his arm.
“I’m surprised we haven’t officially met before,” Preston said as they crossed the expansive room.
“I try to stay behind the scenes except when my father needs me front and center.” She smiled and tried to keep her feet moving one in front of the other even as the electric energy of Preston Graham bounced off her, short-circuiting her brain.
“You do a very good job of it, considering that you are his political adviser of sorts. At least that’s my understanding.”
“I do oversee his activities, but it’s more like a personal assistant,” she said.
They reached the bar. “What will you have?”
“A white wine spritzer.”
He gave the order to the bartender and ordered a bourbon for himself.
“My brother’s favorite drink,” she commented as they were served.
“A man after my own heart,” he joked. “And apparently the ladies, as well,” he added with a lift of his chin in the direction of her brother.
Rafe was in a close conversation across the room with a stunning woman who Lee Ann hadn’t recalled seeing before.
She shook her head in amusement. “Rafe does keep busy.”
“And what about you? When you’re not personally assisting your father, what do you do?”
She was thoughtful for a moment. “Running the house and keeping an eye on my sisters and brothers is pretty much a full-time job.”
“It doesn’t sound as if you allow time for yourself.” He stared into her eyes over the rim of his tumbler.
Her heart fluttered. “I find ways to enjoy myself,” she said in her defense.
Preston studied her for a moment and decided to let the topic go. “What’s it like growing up with a father like Branford?”
They walked together to an available table and sat down.
Lee Ann’s smile was wistful. “Where can I begin?” She gazed around the room. “My life has been pretty much like this for as long as I can remember,” she said with a sweep of her hand. “Politics and parties and entertaining and being in the spotlight has been a way of life.”
He heard something in her voice, a note of hesitancy, regret. He couldn’t be sure.
“I would think it was pretty exciting.” He sipped his drink and watched the muted light play across her finely etched features.
Her warm hazel eyes flickered across his face. “I suppose it would be looking in from the outside. But to us, all of the people who everyone else reads about were like family.” She drew in a breath, reached for her glass and realized that her hand was shaking. She concentrated on bringing the glass to her lips without spilling her drink. “What about you?” she asked, steering the conversation away from herself, a topic that she didn’t relish discussing.
Preston set his glass down, tilted his head slightly to the side, his full lips pressed lightly together and puckered out. “Well, I’m a product of a single teenage mom. Public schooling. My mama worked two jobs that added up to one most of my life.” His dark eyes drifted away from Lee Ann. “She would tell me every day that she expected me to make something of myself. She wasn’t working so I could grow up to be a nobody.” The corner of his mouth jerked as the images of those days of “have not” flashed through his head. “As soon as I was old enough, I got a part-time job after school, packing groceries, delivering whatever needed to be delivered, flipping burgers, waiting tables. You name it, I did it at one point or the other.”
“It must have been hard.”
He looked directly at her. “I suppose to someone looking in from the outside,” he said, playing with her statement to him. “But like you, it was the only life I knew. Sometimes I would see the other kids in their new sneakers or tooling around town in their daddy’s car, walking into fancy houses.” His face and voice took on a hard edge like a tide that suddenly rushed to shore pulling the sand out from under your feet—unexpected and scary. “I knew there was more out there than what was in front of me, and I had to find a way to get it. My life and my mama’s struggling made me what I am. Determined and focused to get what I wanted. And I did, but I’m not finished yet.”
Lee Ann held her breath anticipating what she wasn’t sure. And then he smiled and the tide slowly receded, and she was standing on solid ground again.
“Don’t mind me, I can get a little caught up in my own rhetoric sometimes,” he said, catching the look of apprehension in her eyes. “Come dance with me.” He stood and extended his hand, once again the dashing, gallant gentleman.
Lee Ann placed her hand in his, and he helped her to her feet. They moved onto the dance floor, and then she was in his embrace. And he was all around her, his arms, the lines of his body, his scent. Her head barely reached his shoulders, so she found herself resting it against his broad chest as they moved in harmony, swaying easy to the music of the band, and she had the oddest sensation that she