Jennifer Morey - Executive Protection

Her worried blue eyes met Lucy’s. “Is he going to be all right?”

“I don’t know. He isn’t improving yet.” She kept her tone neutral.

Kate turned away with a weak sigh. She may have the outward appearance of healing but she still had a long way to go.

“He’s in good hands,” Lucy reassured her. “The best doctors at Duke are taking care of him.”

“Your father?”

Lucy adored her father and he deserved all of the attention he received. Someday she hoped to earn the same level of respect. “He’s one of them.”

“You’re a very good nurse, Lucy.” Kate grimaced as she moved too quickly to pick up the spoon again.

Lucy helped her, handing her the spoon. Why had she said that?

“Thank you.” She stirred the soup. “I can see you enjoy what you do. And you take the time to do everything right. You don’t miss a thing. You care for your patients.”

She did care for them. That was what she loved about the literacy program where she volunteered. Helping others gave her a sense of achievement and self-worth. And she met a lot of people. Lucy loved talking to people, the social side of it. She wasn’t one who liked being alone. She lived alone now, and frequently talked to herself. Maybe a dog or a cat was in order so she could at least talk to something with a beating heart instead of her empty home.

“If it wasn’t your father who inspired you to become a nurse, what did?”

Realizing she hadn’t responded to Kate’s compliments, and that she had strategically done so, Lucy felt as though she should explain. “It was my father who inspired me. I loved listening to the stories he’d tell. The lives he thought he couldn’t save but did, who the people were. He believes in what he does. He believes he’s making a difference and he appreciates having the talent and the brains to help others.” Lucy smiled fondly. “My father is doing what he was meant to do. He doesn’t do it for the status. He does it because he loves it. And that’s why he’s so good at it.”

Kate smiled with her. “And you’re the same way.”

Appreciating that Kate recognized that about her, she said, “You’re being awfully kind.”

“Kindness has nothing to do with it. My son could learn a thing or two from you.” Kate grimaced again as she tried to sit up straighter.

“Thad?” Lucy went to help her, adjusting the pillows behind her and the angle of the bed. What could Thad possibly learn from her?

Kate breathed contentedly, more comfortable now. “Thad is a very good crime scene investigator. Smart. Tenacious. But he’s also bullheaded when it comes to his personal life.”

Lucy wasn’t sure she wanted to continue this conversation. “I doubt I can help him with that.” Not his personal life.

“You love and respect your father. Enough to want to be like him.”

Lucy didn’t reply, not quite knowing what to say to this or why Kate had broached the subject.

“It’s not the same for Thad,” Kate continued. “And I feel that I’m partly to blame.”

Lucy opened the blinds a bit more, letting more cheery light into the sterile room. The busywork didn’t keep her curiosity at bay. She turned from the window. “Why do you say that?”

Kate sipped some iced tea. “I was home with the boys when they were young, but then I started working more in politics. Buck had always aspired to go into politics, ever since he was a teenager. He was a senator when he died.”

“I don’t see how Thad’s bullheadedness relates to that.” So his parents had both been busy. That didn’t mean they didn’t love their kids or could be blamed for how they’d turned out.

“I wasn’t around much. I was vice president and then U.S. ambassador to France. And Buck...”

Her voice trailed off as she fell into memory.

“What happened?” Lucy had to ask. She was drawn in now. She’d read some news reports, but to have it come right from Kate’s mouth was sensational.

When she turned sad eyes to her, Lucy felt contrite. This was a living, breathing person. As famous as she might be, her relationship with Buck and his infidelity had hurt her.

“Buck was a fantastic senator who unfortunately had a taste for extramarital affairs,” Kate said.

“I’ve heard a little about that,” she said gently. “I’m sorry.”

Kate waved her hand, letting it fall to the hospital bed, a testament to how weak she still was. “I’m over it.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Lucy had to ask. There had to be a point. Kate seemed to be delivering it quite deliberately.

“If Thad seems bullheaded about marriage, it’s because he endured the fallout from his father’s bad behavior,” Kate answered. “The press had a field day when Buck’s body was found in his mistress’s bed. It wasn’t his first affair. He had many and I knew about them. I didn’t do anything because I did love him and I was having a hard time working through the fact that he didn’t love me the same way. The boys were aware of his infidelity, too. Thad saw what it did to our marriage. To me. I gave Buck my heart, unfettered. It was difficult to overcome his betrayal. It broke me for a while. The press was merciless. They found out about all of the other affairs and that I had done nothing about them. I stayed with him. It was awful that his body was found where it was, but it was worse with the string of other affairs splashed everywhere in the media. I was humiliated. Thad resented his father for that. And after Buck died, he couldn’t mourn the way he should have. He lost his father, but he was robbed of mourning the loss of a father. He lost his cheating father, not the man he grew up idolizing.”

Lucy could see how that would mar a person’s outlook on marriage. “You still haven’t told me why you’re sharing this with me.” She was a true politician, skirting direct answers.

Apparently coming to the same conclusion, Kate said, “I see the way you look at each other. And at the same time, I hear the things Thad says. I know my son, Lucy. He’s attracted to you.”

Lucy held up her hands. “Whoa.” She waved them in protest. “Whoa. Thad is easy on my eyes, but I am not interested in him.”

“Because he’s opposed to marriage and a family? You want a husband and kids and you don’t think he’s capable, isn’t that right?”

Wow, how had she gleaned all of that? She’d heard some of their conversation, but...to confront her with it? “I’m not even remotely entertaining any such possibility with your son.”

“Yes, I know. And I’m not trying to force you. I’m only trying to help you understand that Thad needs to adjust his thinking when it comes to women, and it will take a special woman to make him do that.”

Adjust his thinking? Did Kate consider Lucy the kind of woman who could do that? A special woman...

“Thad is all hot air when he talks about marriage and kids,” Kate continued. “When he falls in love, he will see how wrong he is. He’ll want marriage and children because he’ll finally realize that it will be different than it was for me. He uses me as the basis for his judgments, and that’s a mistake.”

“He also may never fall in love.” He could spend the rest of his life believing marriage wasn’t for him. He may never get married, may never have children. He may live with someone, even for the rest of his life, but there would always be that part of him that he withheld.

Lucy did not want a man who’d cut himself off to the full potential of love, a man who expected any and all relationships to fail. She was a firm believer that thoughts manifested themselves. If he believed and expected marriage and family to fall apart, they would.

“I’m not asking you to start dating my son,” Kate said. “All I’m asking is that you keep in mind the cause of his wrong thinking when you’re with him.”