Keisha stood in a daze in the observation gallery of the House chamber with Will on one side and her mother on the other. She was nervous. She was excited. She gripped Will’s hand tighter to steady herself. He glanced down at her and gave a reassuring smile.
She didn’t know why she was so anxious. It wasn’t her big day, but for some reason she felt that it was.
Am I really here? A year ago, she never would have imagined that she would be an honored guest at the Capitol, of all places, but here she was in the reserved seating area for the families of representatives who would soon be sworn in for the 112th Congress.
She adjusted the sleeve of her fitted navy blue dress and leaned back to look around Will’s shoulder at her stepmother, Sara. The blonde woman looked trim and refined in her black Chanel suit and pearls—the perfect congressman’s wife. Beside her stood Keisha’s towering half-brother, Paul, in a blue jacket and khakis. He gazed earnestly at the busy house floor where Vincent Dupré would soon take the oath of office for the tenth time. At Paul’s side stood her half-sister, Kendall, who, despite the importance of the moment, looked bored, as usual. The young woman glanced down at her French manicured nails before staring at the ceiling.
This is my family? Keisha thought with bemusement. What a world.
Life could always surprise you. Not only had Keisha discovered that she had a living, breathing father, a brother, and a sister, but she also had stumbled onto the love of her life when she least expected it. Keisha smiled as she gazed down at the engagement ring on her finger. It was the ring she had refused to pick out for herself. “Surprise me,” she had told Will, trusting that she would love whatever he chose. And she did. The ring was beautiful with an antique design and amethysts—her favorite stone—encircling an emerald-cut diamond at the center. Will had made the perfect choice and she loved it even more because he had come up with it all by himself.
A tug of her hand brought Keisha’s thoughts back to the present.
“It’s starting,” Will said.
She returned her gaze to the House floor where her father and the rest of the Maryland delegation walked toward the front of the huge room where the Speaker of the House stood behind an elevated podium.
Dupré looked confident as he raised his hand to take his oath, but she knew he hadn’t always believed that he would make it there. A lot went into giving him his last-minute election win, and most of the heavy work had been done by Will.
It had been Will’s idea to call one of the networks and finally grant an interview. Dupré had originally balked at the idea. “I’m not giving any more blood to those parasites!” he had exclaimed. But when Will explained that they would grant the interview only if they set the parameters first, Dupré started to listen to Will’s plan. Keisha had initially panicked when she realized that Will wanted her to participate in the interview, too, but once he worked his calming magic, she, too, capitulated.
“I want you two to finally take control of this,” Will had said vehemently in her apartment that day. “We’re not letting everyone else tell the story for us anymore.”
Will had stood on the sidelines beside the cameraman as Keisha and Dupré did their interviews. He was a reassuring presence as they poured their hearts out. Keisha knew she could not have done it without him.
When the two-part interview appeared on television a week later, Keisha didn’t know what to expect. Would her words be twisted around? Would her father be embarrassed further? But it turned out better than she had expected. The segment was beautiful, sweet, and emotional. Dupré revealed a side of himself that most voters had never seen before, and, in her heart, Keisha knew it wasn’t an act. Dupré really was a thoughtful man. Of course, politically he was more conservative than she liked, but she was quickly learning that people aren’t always as simple as they seem. Her father was allowed to have some complexity, and she was, too.
Though Keisha had not talked to him since the day she walked out of campaign headquarters, she wondered what Dr. Parker was doing right now. He had called her father the morning after the nail-biting election night to offer his congratulations on Dupré’s victory, but she had not received a similar call from her old mentor. She had gotten an email from Jay, though, and Tanya had sent the text message, “Congrats on the win and the engagement. I wish U the best.” That text had surprised her. Keisha hoped an arctic thaw would end the frigid relationship she had developed with her old friends. After hearing from those two, she realized there was some chance they could be friends again.
“This is so weird,” Keisha whispered in bewilderment.
Will smiled down at her. “Actually this is pretty run of the mill. After Vincent finishes his oath, they have a few bills coming up for vote on the floor.” He chuckled as he leaned toward her. “I think one is about cows.”
“No, all of this,” Keisha said as she swept her hand around her, finally giving words to what she had been thinking all afternoon. “My father down there.” She smiled up at him. “My mom on one side. You on the other. It’s so…surreal. I never would have dreamed it.” She laughed. “You’re not going to dissolve into thin air, are you?”
He smiled and kissed her cheek. “Not anytime soon. I’ll always be here, Keisha. Always.”
“If any other man said that, I’d tell him he was full of it.” She smirked. “But you made a believer out of me.”
“You made a believer out of me, too,” he said, winking and giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.