Page 35 of Pursuit of Happiness

“She’s pretty,” Gordon said.

“She’s gorgeous, but why do I feel like you’re looking at herfrom a casting kind of view?”

“Maybe I am. You know if you start appearing together in public,everyone is going to start imagining her as a First Lady.”

“Don’t even. We are so far from that.”

“You and her or you and the presidency? Because I can tell youthe latter isn’t true, and by the way you two look at each other, neither isthe former.”

“I’m having way too good of a night to try to unpack thatsentence,” Meredith said with an exasperated sigh. “How about we let it go forthe night? I’ll go say a few words, rally the troops, and then take the rest ofthe night off and enjoy at least a few hours of privacy.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. “The car to theairport leaves at four thirty a.m., and you have a meeting scheduled with UniteHere as soon as we land, and a full day’s schedule after that.” He wagged afinger at her. “Whatever you do, make sure you’re fresh-faced and ready to talkpro union like it’s all you ever think about.”

“On it.” She edged away before she could say anything else,signaling to her speechwriter, Tim Akins, to follow her to the elevator. On theway downstairs, she told him her ideas about freshening up the stump speech,and asked him to write them up and run them by Gordon’s team in the morning.She’d planned to talk to Gordon about her ideas later, but this way she couldfocus on Stevie the rest of the night without interruption. How she wished shecould go to her now, strip off this stiff suit, and…

She hadn’t thought that far. They’d kissed sure, and their kisseshad been amazing, but she’d felt Stevie ease back a bit every time they’d comeclose to something more. She’d gotten Stevie her own room, but that was whenhaving her here was a hopeful expectation, not a done deal. Now that they werein the same city again, would Stevie want to take their relationship to thenext level? Did she?

Yes, she did. From the moment Stevie appeared in the hotel suite,Meredith had been consumed with the thought of making love to her, and ifcircumstances had been different, she would have dragged her away from thecrowd and they’d both be naked right now. She prayed Stevie showing up meantshe wanted the same thing.

The elevator doors opened into the ballroom on the first floor,and Meredith put on her game face and strode into the room, shaking hands andsmiling at all the supporters who’d gathered to cheer her on. She took thepodium and locked eyes with Stevie for just a second before she scanned therest of the crowd. Acutely conscious and incredibly aroused that Stevie waswatching her every move, Meredith gave the speech she’d practiced a dozen timesin the shower. After she’d thanked all the right people and given the media therequisite number of sound bites to play and replay over the next week, shestepped down and leaned close to Jen.

“Tell her I’ll come to her room. Fifteen minutes.”

Jen nodded, and Meredith walked back through the crowd, makingtime to press flesh with everyone in her path. She hoped no one could tell herresponses were rote and her mind was elsewhere. In a few minutes, these momentswould all be behind her, and tomorrow she’d start all over again in Nevada andthen South Carolina, state by state, until she’d secured enough votes to winthe nomination, but for tonight, all she wanted, all she cared about, washaving Stevie all to herself.

Chapter Eleven

Stevie stood in the middle of the hotel room, strangelyanxious. She wrote it off to the fact she’d epically failed to pack a singlething for this last-minute trip, but she knew there was way more to her rollercoaster of feelings than that.

Jen had escorted her to the room, which seemed a bit likeoverkill, but when she’d asked her about it, Jen’s response had been terse.“Mere said to keep you from the media, and she asked me to see to itpersonally. All the professionals on staff are busy tonight, and a lot of thevolunteers are college kids angling for jobs in the administration—big onenthusiasm and political smarts, but not very savvy when it comes to workingthe press.”

Stevie noted a slight tone when Jen mentioned how the“professionals” were busy, and she wondered if Jen resented having to escorther to this room rather than hang out with the rest of the movers and shakersin Meredith’s campaign. She cast about for something to say that would dissolvethe tension. “It must mean a lot to Meredith to have you here with her. Haveyou worked on all of her campaigns?”

“Hers, our dad’s, and our brother James Jr. My brother Michaeland I are the cogs in the Mitchell political machine.”

“She’s lucky to have you.”

Jen scrunched her face, like she was thinking really hard. “Iguess. We work well together, but she’s got a whole team for this race.”

Stevie detected an undercurrent of resentment in Jen’s words, butmerely replied, “Teams are good.”

“Sure, yeah. Well, if you need anything, let me know.” Jen handedher a card and pointed out her cell number at the bottom. “The place iscrawling with the press corps, but the registration for this room is not underthe campaign block, so no one should bother you, but if you decide to wanderthe halls or order room service, you do so at your own risk. And Meredith’s.”

Jen’s parting words sounded ominous, and now that Jen had lefther alone in the room, Stevie grasped the reality of her situation. She was ina hotel with the entire campaign team for what was expected to be the nextDemocratic nominee for president. There really wasn’t a bigger fishbowl. Shewas still wearing her suit from court, and she didn’t have a change of clothesor even a toothbrush and she hadn’t eaten since the half sandwich she’d stolenfrom Hannah hours earlier and some pretzels on the plane. She also hadabsolutely no idea when Meredith was going to show up. She’d said fifteenminutes, but that had been thirty minutes ago, and judging by the size of thecrowd downstairs, she’d likely only made it through half of them by now.

Stevie paced the room and took in her surroundings. It was morethan a room; it was a full suite, complete with a sitting area, a full-sizeddesk, an oversized bathtub, and a king-sized bed with two robes stretched outacross the duvet. She sat on the edge of the bed and fingered the sleeve of oneof the robes while her mind processed the implication. She’d spent the time onthe plane finishing up prep for tomorrow’s hearing, and hadn’t allowed herthoughts to wander to what would happen once she showed up at Meredith’s hotel,but just being here was a promise of sorts. Was she ready to make good on it?

A knock on the door roused her from her musings. She checked thedoor viewer before answering and yanked the door open the minute she saw it wasMeredith on the other side.

“Did someone call for room service?” Meredith said.

Stevie tugged her into the room and shut the door. Meredith hadchanged into jeans, loafers, and a sweater. She liked this version of her. “Iwould’ve called a lot sooner had I known the wait staff was so cute.”

“Cute, huh?”

“Pretty, gorgeous, beautiful—any one of those works.”

“You want to know what I’d like better than a compliment?”

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