can say that again,” Holbrook said with a laugh. “Problem is, in politics your friends and enemies are never clearly defined in the first place. That’s why I need someone like Carter to help me keep them straight.”
No longer enjoying her cookie, Liz set the last of it down on a paper plate. “So you’d call yourself a particularly good judge of character, Carter?”
“I’m…cautious,” he said. “It’s necessary in my line of work.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being cautious.” Isaac took Reenie’s hand, in a casual gesture but when Carter wasn’t looking he shot Liz a glower that told her to back off a bit.
For the sake of politeness, she wanted to—but she couldn’t. Not when she had him cornered. “How so?” she asked.
He pinned her to her seat with an unswerving gaze. “I’m a strategist of sorts. I keep an eye on the playing field, attempt to figure out who will do what under a certain set of circumstances and go from there.”
Liz folded her arms. “So you draw assumptions about people based on limited information.”
Reenie’s mouth fell open and Isaac cleared his throat—another attempt to warn her she was being rude. The senator and Celeste shifted uneasily in their seats. But Liz was too intent on making her point to change course. She didn’t even blink as she waited for his answer.
“Don’t we all?” he countered.
Liz thought she could guess at the assumptions he’d made about her. Past events didn’t paint her as particularly astute or perceptive. “Innocence can make people blind.”
“I wouldn’t argue with you there,” he responded.
“Maybe that’s not a bad thing,” she said. “Maybe there are too many cynics in the world already.”
He scratched his head. “From what I’ve seen, the innocent rarely survive.”
“Some people might be tougher than you think.”
“That’s definitely a more pleasant surprise than finding out the opposite is true.” He rose to his feet. “I’d better go. It’s been nice chatting with you, but—” he offered Liz a brief smile “—I’ve got an early day tomorrow.”
After coaxing Carter to take home a plate of cookies, Celeste showed him out.
In the silent aftermath, Liz squirmed against the pointed stares of everyone who remained.
“What?” she said.
The front door closed and Celeste’s footsteps echoed across the entry.
“What’d he do?” Reenie asked, sounding a little shocked.
“Nothing,” Liz said.
“But you never act like that. You’re soft-spoken, well mannered, reserved. I’m the temperamental one.”
“You went after him like a piranha,” Isaac added. “Why don’t you like him?”
Liz offered Reenie’s father a feeble smile. “I do like him. Really.”
“He comes highly recommended,” the senator responded. “He used to work for a state senator who is now a congressman, and even though Carter’s very discreet about the past ten years or so, according to Congressman Ripley, he’s honest, straightforward, fiscally responsible and hardworking. I’ve seen a lot of that in him myself. I wouldn’t have set you up with him otherwise.”
“I know.” Liz patted his arm affectionately. Since her own father had remarried eight months after her mother’s death and basically dropped out of her life, she regarded the senator as a sort of replacement, even though she’d only met him eighteen months ago. She hadn’t meant to be rude to his aide. The frustration she’d felt at dinner, and the disappointment she was experiencing with her love life, had simply boiled over. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” he assured her. “Carter has a few rough edges, I can see that. Go ahead and challenge him, make him think.” He sat back and smiled. “If anyone can handle it, he can.”
LIZ WASN’T HOME fifteen minutes before Reenie called. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Of course. Why?” Carrying the cordless phone with her as she moved through the house, Liz began to straighten up. This part of the day was typically the most difficult. Once the kids were in bed and the place had fallen silent, she rambled, feeling more alone than at any other time and looking for ways to fill the void Keith had left behind. In recent weeks, creating lists and projecting financial statements for The Chocolaterie had given her fresh purpose, but she was too agitated to concentrate on her lists tonight.
“You seem stressed.”
She was stressed. She feared her investment in her new candy-making enterprise might be a mistake and she wasn’t sure what she’d do if it failed. She didn’t want to go back to working at Finley’s Grocery. There, she couldn’t earn enough to squeeze by. And in such a small town there weren’t many better jobs available for a former flight attendant. “I’m just overwhelmed, trying to launch my own business and all that.”
“You need to slow down and relax. Isaac and I are worried about you.”
Liz’s brother had always been there for her. When they were young and their stepmother had been making life so miserable for Liz, it had been Isaac who had defended her, supported her, given her a shoulder to cry on. He’d helped her through the rough time right after she’d found out about Keith, too.
“Tell him I’m fine. You two have enough to worry about with Gabe. Have you heard from him?”
“Yesterday. They’ve postponed the surgery.”
“Why?”
“They’re still running tests.”
Liz picked up her son’s sweatshirt and hung it on a hook in the coat closet. “I wish he’d play it safe and come home.”
“So do I,” Reenie said. “If the operation goes badly…” She drew an audible breath. “It’d kill my parents.”
It would affect Reenie and Isaac and a lot of other people, too. Since the car accident that had ruined Gabe’s NFL career three years earlier, he had been coaching football at the high school. Most of his players worshipped him like a big brother. “He’ll be okay,” she said.
There was a brief silence before Reenie continued. “Mica seemed happy tonight. She talked a lot about the store. She’s so proud of you.”
A candy shop had been Liz’s mother’s dream. And now it was hers and Mica’s, too. At Mica’s insistence, Liz had driven by the store on the way home so she and Christopher could see the progress and say good-night to their father. “The kids are doing well.”
Liz felt certain she’d done the right thing in following Keith to Dundee. He was a good father, despite what he’d done, and her children were thriving. She had to keep her mind on that, on what really mattered, or the loneliness would drive her crazy. Reenie and Isaac tried to support her, but they were caught up with their own family. And now, with surgery for Reenie’s brother looming in the near future, they were more preoccupied than usual.
“So…was it Keith?” Reenie asked.
“Was what Keith?” Liz replied absentmindedly.
“Did he say something that upset you tonight?”
“I wasn’t upset.”
Silence met this response, which compelled Liz to elaborate. “I was frustrated.”
“Over what?”
Where did she start? Eighteen months earlier, she’d been devastated to find out that her husband had another wife and three children living in Idaho. When he’d left her to try