He hobbled across the stage on crutches and her first thought was to rush up there to help him. But he smiled at the representative and made his way, albeit slowly, to the podium, to the raucous cheers of the crowd on the convention floor.
He was in pain. She could tell from the sweat that beaded on his upper lip as she made her way closer.
When the applause died down, Gray looked out over the crowd.
“I’ve never been much of a public speaker. I’ve always let my driving do the talking for me.” He looked down at the crutches. “Sometimes my driving outlines my mistakes for me, too.”
The crowd laughed.
“But the one thing I know for certain is what Governor Cameron and my father, Mitchell Preston, can do for our country.”
His speech was eloquent, impassioned, family oriented, and politically perfect. It was clear he spoke from the heart and his speech wasn’t practiced, nor had it been written for him. If it had been, she would have been the one to write it.
And she hadn’t even known he was coming.
“So I’m very proud to introduce you to my father, Senator Mitchell Preston.”
The applause was thunderous, the people in the convention center already one hundred percent behind Gray’s father. Evelyn took it all in as Mitchell came out and gave his son a handshake, then a very gentle hug. The looks they gave each other were filled with genuine warmth.
It was a perfect moment, and the media caught it all. But it was more than that, because Evelyn saw the bonding between father and son, and that meant more than anything.
She stood and listened to Mitchell’s speech, one she’d helped him prepare. But her gaze followed Gray off stage. She wanted to go to him, to talk to him, but her job was to be there for the senator, so she stayed put while he spoke of the country’s needs and his ideas on how to fulfill them. She was so proud of him, and when he finished, the convention floor thundered its approval.
It was a shining moment, one she was fully caught up in.
It wasn’t until hours later, when all the interviews for the day were finished, that she was able to ask the senator about Gray’s appearance tonight.
“I had no idea he was going to appear. I told him not to,” the senator said.
“I thought he was in Daytona.”
The senator smiled. “I put him up in a suite here at the hotel.”
Her eyes widened. “He’s been here the whole time?”
“Yes. He didn’t want you to know.”
Hurt clenched her stomach. “Why is that?”
“He wanted you focused on what you needed to do here, not on him. He said your job is your priority.”
“I see.” How nice of him to make that decision for her, or to think she couldn’t juggle both. A familiar refrain, and one she’d heard before. “Is he still here?”
“Of course.” The senator gave her Gray’s room number and, once she was certain the senator didn’t need her anymore that night, she headed up there.
It was unfair to fight with a man who was physically down. But then again, he’d looked capable standing at the podium tonight, hadn’t he?
She knocked at the door and a very attractive woman answered. She wore a pantsuit and looked official. And gorgeous, with her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and her exotic eyes all sexy.
Dammit.
Evelyn cocked a brow.
“May I help you?” the woman asked.
“I’m here to see Gray.”
“He’s not receiving visitors.”
“Oh, he’ll see me.” She brushed past. The woman objected, but Evelyn didn’t care.
“I tried to stop her, Gray,” the woman said.
Gray was sprawled on the sofa, his casted foot resting on an ottoman.
“Hey,” he said, smiling at her. “It’s okay, Cathy. This is Evelyn, my dad’s aide. And Evelyn’s a good friend of mine. Evelyn, Cathy’s my nurse.”
His dad’s aide? That’s how he introduced her? And yeah, this Cathy chick totally looked like a nurse.
Not.
Evelyn gave her a clipped nod.
“Cathy, why don’t you take off for the night? I’m good here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yup. I’ll call you if I need anything.”
“All right. Good night.” Cathy picked up her bag and left the suite.
“Come sit down. You want something to drink?”
“No. I want to know why you didn’t tell me you were here.”
He grabbed the remote and turned off the television, then gave her a smile that heated her all the way to her toes. She ordered her body to ignore that physical response to him.
“Because I didn’t want you worrying about me or fussing over me. I knew you had a big job to do this week. I knew how much you’d been looking forward to it. And that’s what you needed to focus on. Not on me.”
She folded her arms over each other. “I see. And you think I’m too stupid to multitask?”
“Uh, I didn’t say that.” He studied her. “Are you pissed at me?”
“You’re damn right, I’m pissed at you. Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? My God, Gray. That accident was horrific. I’ve thought about you all week, worried about you, wondered how you were doing.”
“Exactly. And this was your week to shine. The last thing you needed was to think about me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t treat me like I’m a simpleton. I could have handled your father’s appearance at the convention along with caring about you. And don’t presume to make decisions for me and my life. I thought you were better than that, better than those people who told me I couldn’t be the kind of woman who could have a career and a man in my life, who couldn’t have everything I wanted.”
“So what are you saying?”
“Right now I’m saying I’m damn angry with you for pulling yourself out of my life when you were hurt because you thought I couldn’t handle it and my career, too. I thought better of you. I guess I was wrong.”
“Now hang on.” He struggled to get up, and he winced, reached for his side.
It gave her the advantage. His crutches were across the room. “Just stay where you are.”
“I want to talk to you—face-to-face.”
“We don’t have anything to say to each other that requires you standing up.”
Out of breath from the attempt to get up, he leaned back against the sofa. “Now who’s the one presuming?”
Pain lanced her as she realized she was arguing with him about nothing. “This is pointless anyway. We already knew our relationship was going nowhere, that once the campaign finished, so were we.”
His expression went icy cold. “Oh, is that what we knew? Or did you just make that decision for us?”
She lifted her chin. “Be realistic, Gray. How would we make it work? I’m going to be in D.C. That’s my home base. That’s where I want to be and where my future lies.
And you’re”—she waved her hand—“everywhere else.”
“So you’ve decided that you and I can never work. And there you go presuming again.”
She refused to let him bait her. “It just doesn’t make sense and we’ll both get hurt in the long run.”
“Yeah, might as well cut our losses while we can, right? A good campaign strategist knows when to get out of a race before an impending loss.”
“Yes. That’s it exactly.”
He reached for the remote. “Then I guess we’re done here, Evelyn.”
She stared down at him, already missing him, aching to lie down beside him and put her arms around him one last time.
But he was right. It was time to cut their losses.
“I guess we are, Gray.”
She turned around and headed toward the door, pausing to take one last look. “You should call your . . . nurse to help you off the sofa.”
She closed the door to the suite behind her and made it all the way to her room before the tears started to track down her cheeks.
She left the light off as she entered her hotel room, closed the door, and fell onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
It was over between them.
It should be a relief. Now she could concentrate on the presidential campaign with nothing else on her mind, no emotional entanglements.
Just work. Just the way she’d always liked it.
She smiled into the darkness, realizing the idiocy of that statement.
She’d just walked away from the man she loved. And she’d never told him she loved him.
Despite the fact it was “for the best,” as she’d told him, it wasn’t the best.
Not for her, anyway.
She rolled over on her side and closed her eyes, needing to shut it all out, just for a few minutes.
Maybe tomorrow she’d be back to her old self again.
And then again, maybe she’d never be her old self again, because being with Gray had changed everything.
The floodgates burst and she let out a soft sob, then anguished cries as pain wrapped itself around her, squeezing her until she couldn’t breathe.
She’d lost him. She loved him, hadn’t wanted to leave him, and she’d let everything go anyway.
There was no winner at all in this race.
*
GRAY THREW THE REMOTE ACROSS THE ROOM.
Dammit. Shit. Fuck.
That’s not the way this should have gone down.
He dragged his fingers through his hair, so damn frustrated. He wanted to jump off the sofa and go after Evelyn, to pull her into his arms and kiss her until the frustration and misunderstandings were obliterated.
Seeing her tonight had made him so happy.
Why hadn’t she been happy, too?
He’d wanted to surprise her, not piss her off.
Had he presumed? He hated being one of those guys. He leaned his head back against the sofa and stared at the white ceiling fan blades, their soft whirring sound the only noise in the otherwise quiet suite.
He was a guy, and guys weren’t all emotional and shit. Women liked to think they could do all that multitasking. And God knew Evelyn was a master at it.
He blinked. She was right. He’d made decisions for her instead of telling her where he was. He would have loved to have seen her this week, even if only for a few minutes here and there. She’d have given him comfort when he was feeling like shit, which was mostly every goddamned day since he’d done the flying car bit.
So why hadn’t he let her? Because he thought he knew what was best for her?
Since when? She was an independent woman more than capable of juggling her job and their relationship.
But maybe the accident and subsequent end of his season had altered his mood more than a little, and he’d backed off his relationship with Evelyn because of it.
What better way of altering a relationship than calling all the shots, right? It was the one thing he’d been able to control in this whole out-of-control week.
Only he hadn’t been in control of the relationship with Evelyn any more than he’d been in control of the number fifty-three during that hellish wreck. So he’d gained nothing, and lost everything.
Now what was he going to do about it? Because Evelyn had just walked out on him, out on them, and effectively ended things between them.
How was he going to fix this now? Or could he even fix it?
He grabbed his phone and made a call. He needed help.
TWENTY-NINE
“WOW. YOU REALLY KNOW HOW TO FUCK UP A RELATIONSHIP, don’t you?”
A week after the convention, Gray was resting on the back deck of his place in Daytona. At least he had company. His best friend Garrett had a day off and was playing Tampa Bay next, so he and his fiancée, Alicia, were spending the day with him.
“This is not the pep talk I’m looking for, buddy.”
Garrett laughed. “Hey, if you want a pep talk, call someone else. All you’re gonna get from me is honesty. You f**ked it up. Am I right, Alicia?”
Alicia winced. “I was hoping I wouldn’t get dragged into this one, but yes. He’s kind of right, Gray. There’s nothing worse than telling a woman she can’t do it all.
And you hid from her. While you were injured. You know a woman who cares about you would want to check on you and be sure you were okay. What were you thinking?”
Gray sighed. “I was trying to help. But I made the wrong choice. I get that now.”
“Well, that’s a first step—admitting you were an asshole,” Garrett said, lifting the beer to his lips. “Now what?”
“I have no idea. She’s back in Washington and busy as hell with the presidential campaign.”
“So?” Alicia asked. “If you want her, go after her.”
Gray rapped on his cast with his knuckles. “I’m a little slowed down here.”
“Oh, the poor millionaire,” Garrett said. “You mean there’s something you can’t do? Gimme a break. You’ve always been the man with a plan. There’s nothing you can’t do, cast and broken ribs or not. So what’s got you flummoxed?”
He looked out over the water. “I don’t want to hurt her again.”
“Man, love really screws with your head, doesn’t it?”
“Hey,” Alicia said, giving Garrett a mock glare.
“I didn’t say it screwed me up. Just Gray.”
Alicia laughed and turned to face Gray. “So, do you have a plan? And hopefully that plan doesn’t include manipulating her again?”
“I thought I had one, but it might make her angry if I did something without her knowledge again. Ours is a complicated relationship, and getting to that place where the two of us could be together isn’t easy.”