"Shame on me," she murmured into the quiet of the room, as the show shifted into a commercial break. "I need to be stronger than this."

And she would be. In time. Wasn't she allowed a little weakness, at least in the short term?

The show resumed with a shift in topic. She saw a picture of Mark Canfield and turned up the sound.

"While the presidential election is nearly eighteen months away," the host said, "already things are heating up in the state of Washington. Bill?"

The camera panned to one of the other men in suits. "It's true. Senator Canfield, always a voter favorite, is facing a unique and uncomfortable situation. Trouble in his own home. Nearly two months ago we learned about his daughter from a previous relationship."

Dani nearly dropped her coffee when her own picture flashed onto the TV screen. She swore.

"Danielle Buchanan arrived unexpectedly and turned around the whole campaign. The senator was up-front with the public and the poll numbers showed the American people respected his honesty. Experts believe the main reason for that is the senator's wife, Katherine Canfield. She's seen as the perfect wife and mother. She has embraced Dani, both literally and figuratively. If the wife can forgive the husband, then the nation can, too."

"It didn't work for Hillary," one of the other guests said.

"Different situation," Bill went on. "The senator's relationship with Dani's mother predates his marriage. But while the numbers were climbing, they've taken a sudden downswing in the past couple of weeks, ever since the public discovered that Dani and the senator's oldest son-who is adopted-have formed a romantic relationship."

Dani knew what was coming and braced herself to see that horrible picture of her driving away from Alex's house. Sure enough it was put up in a corner.

"The problem is," Bill said, “the American people have a limit to what they can tolerate and they're not willing to accept the love child of a presidential candidate dating his adoptive son."

"But they're not related," the host said.

"That doesn't seem to matter to the polls. The senator's numbers have been dropping steadily. If this continues, there's not going to be a Canfield bid for the presidency. The campaign will be over before it even begins."


***

"Your young man is here," Bernie told Dani the following day shortly after two. "Go on. I'll finish up here."

Dani's stomach tightened with dread. "No, it's okay. I'll tell him I can't see him now. I want to work my whole shift."

Bernie grinned. "I just said 'your young man.' Now I'm talking like my mother. I need work to distract me. Go. It's fine."

Trapped by a kind man with good intentions, Dani nodded, then walked through the main dining room of Bella Roma.

The lunch crowd had faded to only a few diners. She easily saw Alex standing by the front door. He didn't look happy.

"You've been avoiding me," he said as she approached.

She hadn't seen him in nearly a week. Despite everything, she found herself wanting to step close and have him hold her. She wanted to feel his arms around her and breathe in the scent of his body. She wanted to kiss and be kissed and have all the bad stuff go away. Which only showed that she was spineless, weak and in need of a feminist intervention.

"I haven't known what to say," she admitted, then nodded toward the back. "We can talk in my office."

He frowned. "So there's a problem."

"Let's talk in private."

He followed her into the small, crowded space. There was a desk, a file cabinet and not much extra room. Especially with them both standing.

"What's going on?" he asked. "You haven't returned any of my calls. I went by your grandmother's place this weekend and she said you were out of town."

She'd hated to ask Gloria to lie for her, but she hadn't been ready to face Alex yet. She still wasn't

"I'm not ready to deal with this," she admitted.

"Deal with what? What are you talking about? Dammit, Dani, why are you avoiding me?"

"Because I don't want to see you," she snapped back. "Can I make it more plain than that? I don't want to see you."

He stiffened as if she'd slapped him. "All right. You going to tell me why?"

She couldn't. She couldn't say the words without crying and she refused to break down in front of him. She turned away.

"Just go," she said softly. "It will be easier that way."

He grabbed her by the arm and turned her to face him. "Maybe I'm not interested in easy. Maybe I want the truth."

"You want bullshit, because that's where you live," she snapped.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

His eyes were the color of a midnight sky. She hated that she could be angry and hurt and still notice that.

He swore then and crossed his arms over his chest. "I can't believe it," he said. "I expected better of you."

"What?"

"You saw the shows on Sunday. You've been reading the papers. You know the numbers are falling and you're running away, just like you said you would. You're taking the easy way out. I never thought you'd get political so fast."

She went from sad to furious in two nanoseconds. "Welcome to my world of disappointment. That's what I've been thinking about you. For starters, I haven't gone political, but how kind of you to judge me. As for why I've been avoiding you, here's the reason. I'm tired of lying, cheating, rat bastard men in my life, of which you are apparently the latest in a long chain. You talk a great game. You played me like a pro. Congrats on that, by the way. You make Ryan look like an amateur."

He dropped his arms to his side. “I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Drop the act. I've talked to Fiona. I know the truth."

"What truth? There's no truth."

"Right. You're a lawyer. Everything is relative. If that works for you, great. But it doesn't work for me. How incredibly pedestrian of me to expect the man I'm sleeping with to sleep with only me. I suppose you can get out of it on a technicality. We never had the 'it's exclusive' conversation. My bad. No, wait. Your bad. You're a disgusting person. I'm sorry I got to know you, I'm sorry I slept with you and I can't tell you how much I regret that because Mark's my father, I can't just walk away from you and never see you again."

He took a step toward her. "You think I’m seeing someone else?"

"I know you are. Fiona. She told me. Are you excited about the baby?"

He stiffened and looked stunned. "She's pregnant?"

Dani stared at him. "She didn't tell you? Gee, I spoiled the surprise. Yes, Alex. You're going to be a daddy. In the end you get everything."

“I’m not sleeping with Fiona," he said, but he sounded distracted.

“That's convincing. Look, you don't have to play the game. She told me everything. It's obvious she's been in your house and in your bed. I'm too tired to keep fighting this battle. I give up. I'm so over men. I thought you were special. Better… But you're not."

"I don't deserve that. I haven't done anything."

"Let me guess. You're sorry I had to find out this way."

His gaze narrowed. "If that's really what you think of me, then we have nothing to talk about."

"Didn't I tell you that when you first walked in?"

He stared at her for a long time. She braced herself for the apologies, the explanations. She desperately wanted him to prove her wrong. That's how gone on him she was. She wanted him not to have cheated so they could be together again. Talk about sad.

But in the end he didn't say anything else. He walked away and never looked back.


***

It was the worst possible time to be practicing a speech she didn't want to give, but Dani couldn't come up with a good excuse for changing her appointment with Katherine. It was only after she'd parked and walked to the front of the house that she realized she could have simply phoned and said she wasn't feeling well.

Apparently, along with her heart, she'd also lost her brain.

The thought flashed in and out of her head so quickly that it took her a second to understand its meaning. When that sank in, she slowed, then stopped, right in the middle of the walkway.

She'd lost her heart? Was that possible? Did she love Alex?

She stood there, waiting for the answer to the question, then realized she already knew the truth. Of course she loved Alex. Not loving him would have made what he'd done so much easier to take.

"The hits just keep on coming," she murmured to herself, then continued up the wide path to the front door.

All she'd ever wanted was to find where she belonged. Instead she'd made a mess of everything.

As she knocked, she did her best to clear her head. She had to focus on her meeting with Katherine. She would deal with Alex-pain when she got home.

"Dani!" Katherine opened the door and smiled. "Come in, come in. Are you nervous yet? I hope not. You're going to do great and I'm going to be able to say I knew you when."

Dani stepped into the large house and instantly felt the welcoming warmth reaching out to comfort her. Katherine was lovely and gracious as always.

"I'm trying not to think about the speech," she admitted as she followed Katherine into her office. "When I let myself go there, I feel like I'm going to throw up. It's not pretty."

"Vomiting rarely is. Can I get you something? Coffee? Soda? Water?"

"I'll take a water."

Katherine walked to an antique chest which opened up to reveal a small refrigerator. "One of my indulgences," she admitted as she removed two bottles of water. "When I get working on a project, I hate to break my concentration. I'm terribly spoiled."