I rolled my eyes. “That so doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“What about this?” He fiddled with something on his phone before shoving it in my face. “Buzzfeed is rating your ass with an overall nine out of ten stars.”
Staring at the screen, I shook my head in disbelief. “I don’t even have a response for that.”
“The one thing that could be worse than mooning the world would be for everyone to be repulsed by your ass. That’s not the case. You’re getting mad ass love.”
I couldn’t help laughing at the absurdity of it all, and Barrett grinned. “Man, I’m glad to hear you do that. For a minute there, I thought I was going to have to hold you back from jumping off the train.”
“It’s still a temping thought.”
“Trust me, tomorrow there will be a bigger story than your ass.”
“No offense, but that isn’t exactly comforting coming from the guy who is still known for his nude pics from multiple years ago.”
“Hey, something that impressive is unforgettable.”
I laughed once again. “You would think about it that way.”
“In the end, we make quite the couple, don’t we? The ass and the dick.”
“Yes. We do,” I replied with a smile.
“Come on, let’s go back inside.” He flashed me a wicked grin. “I want to see if any of the advisors are secretly checking out your ass on their laptop.”
I didn’t feel ready to face anyone, especially with tears still fresh on my cheeks, but Barrett was right. There was nothing I could do, so might as well keep moving forward—both me and my ass.
I smacked him playfully on the arm before letting him lead me back inside.
BARRETT
Just as I had foretold, Assgate dropped from the top of the news stories after a few days. Thankfully, it didn’t even cause a blip in Dad’s polling numbers. Instead, momentum grew. When voters went to the booths on Super Tuesday, they were all about James Callahan. Dad swept each and every primary.
Bolstered by the overwhelming victories, we stayed busy on the campaign trail. With just a week until primaries in Kansas, Louisiana, and Nebraska, the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María kept the roads hot while crisscrossing around the states. I didn’t know how Dad still had a voice left after delivering so many speeches, but he managed to bring the same conviction and power to each and every one of them—regardless of the size of the venue or the crowd.
Whenever Addison and I made an appearance, the press came out in droves to cover it. I didn’t think anyone in the campaign could have anticipated just how popular our engagement would actually be. To reiterate Caroline’s assessment, people “shipped us”—whatever the hell that meant.
At the end of the day, it was really more Addison they were enthralled with. After all, she was the working girl who had won the heart of an eligible billionaire bachelor. She embodied the fairytale of beauty taming the beast, and damn if the girl didn’t know how to turn on the charm. She effortlessly transitioned from talking with farmers in the heartland to chatting up seasoned politicians. Some of the aides had jokingly started calling Addison “Kate”, referring to Prince William’s wife, Catherine Middleton. Others remarked that Addison had the same effect as Princess Diana when she had breathed life into the stuffy House of Windsor, except in this case, she was breathing life into the sometimes boring world of political campaigning.
Of course, anything would be an improvement over Dad’s closest rival, Cliff Waterston. The man could have easily played Winston Churchill in a movie, and his two sons had the same bulldog features. Since America was obsessed with superficial youth and beauty, they were falling for us hook, line, and sinker.
The more time I spent with Addison, the more I found myself not having to pretend so much. She was incredibly easy to be around. Yeah, we argued—a lot—but I didn’t feel that she despised me anymore. Initially, I hadn’t cared if she liked me or not, but now…now I felt determined to make her see me in a different light.
Addison was becoming more to me. I loved her humor, her charm, and her warmth. People loved her, and I was beginning to wonder if I hadn’t also fallen under her spell a little. Get a grip, Callahan.
Ty snapped me from my thoughts by waving a beer in front of my face. “Want one?”
“Hell yes,” I replied before taking the longneck from him. After popping the top, I took two long pulls before setting the beer down then ground my fists into my eyes to clear my blurring vision. I’d spent the last few hours on the bus trying to get some work done, and I needed a break.
When Addison emerged from the bathroom, I did a double take at her appearance. It wasn’t the fact that she’d shed her dress for a pair of leggings and an oversized T-shirt; it was that she looked sick as a dog. She hadn’t complained, but she’d been nursing a cold for the last week. Tonight, her eyes had dark bags underneath them, which contrasted sharply with her ghost-white face. I hadn’t gotten a good look at her since she’d collapsed on the couch, bundled herself in several blankets, and buried her head in her laptop. I couldn’t believe how quickly her condition had worsened.
Since I had never been good with expressing myself tactfully, I blurted out, “Man, you look like hell.”
Ty smacked me in the back of the head. “Idiot,” he mumbled.
Addison scowled at me. “For your information, I couldn’t care less how I look at the moment.” She swiped a tissue under her runny nose. “I can assure you I feel much worse than I look.”