Page 46 of Blue Jean Summer

“You’re telling me that the governor’s daughter was crowned Miss Virginia and he still said nothing?”

Catherine let out a sharp laugh. “Not even a note in the mail. When I was younger, Mom said it was because his political career was just getting started. He won his US Senate seat at thirty. That’s…unheard of.” She clenched her jaw. “And then he had an affair with his office aide and got her pregnant while his wife was back in Richmond with their newborn. Mom didn’t want to ruin him. That was never her plan; but she did want me to reap all the benefits of being the governor’s daughter. Some days I wish she had wrecked his life.” Hissed vitriol radiated from each staccato word.

“Your mom worked for him?”

Catherine nodded.

“And she never told anyone what he had done?”

Catherine looked up at me like I was the dumbest man to walk the earth. “When my mom got pregnant with me, Monica Lewinsky was still being dragged in the headlines five years after that story leaked. She did what she had to do to prevent herself from being the martyr for a married man who couldn’t keep it in his pants.”

“That’s not fair,” I said.

“Life isn’t fair,” she said as she pulled a piece of hay from the bale and wrapped it around her finger. “Rather than being painted as a home-wrecker or a scorned woman or an obsessed employee who was delusionally in love with her filthy rich boss, who just so happened to be the next generation of the Grant political dynasty, she got out of DC and moved to Honey Hollow.”

“But he knows who you are.”

“He does.”

I held her a little closer and tried to ignore how natural it felt for the two of us to be snuggled together. “You tried to talk to him at my granddad’s funeral.”

Catherine nodded. “I was there to pay my respects, but I may have had ulterior motives. I had a hunch the governor would be there. He never passes up a photo op or a chance to rub elbows.” She rolled her eyes.

“Sounds like he wouldn’t pass up a Wilder wedding,” I said.

A caustic laugh slipped out of her mouth. “You’d be surprised what he’ll do to avoid being near me. I can’t even get in touch with him these days. I was going crazy up at the house, trying to figure out how to invite him. It’s…why I came down here. I hate having to go through his office with its assistants and gatekeepers. The last time I did it was when my mom died. I got a condolence card in the mail a month later. He had his secretary sign it. The mother of his child dies and that’s all he could muster…”

“If it makes you feel better, I didn’t vote for him,” I joked. “Granted, I couldn’t because I’m still technically a Maryland resident, but my granddad didn’t vote for him either.”

She smirked. “Then that makes two of us.”

“You sure you want to invite him? That you want him to walk you down the aisle?” I asked.

“It’s tradition.”

“Fuck tradition.”

Catherine trailed her finger along the ripped edge of her shorts. “I feel like I’ll regret it if I don’t. If he says no, that’s on him. I just have to psych myself up to do it.”

“Let me.”

“It’s my problem. I’ll figure out some way to ask him.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and scrolled through my contacts. “I’m more than happy to make him my problem.” I showed Catherine the governor’s cell phone number that he had given me at the funeral. “He might not answer your call, but he wouldn’t dare not answer mine.”

Chapter 13

Catherine

“No boots today?” I asked as Hayes held the kitchen door open for me. We rounded the corner of the house and headed to the shady area where I had parked between Hallie’s minivan and Hayes’s SUV.

“I need to look like a Wilder today,” Hayes said, then smirked. “Even though I saw the way you were staring at my ass when I went down to the stables in jeans early this morning.”

“I’ve never known anyone able to weaponize cowboy boots and denim the way you do.” I brushed my hair over my shoulder. “It’s unfair.”

Hayes froze mid-stride and looked at me. “Payback, sweetheart. Your ass in those painted-on denim shorts the other day was unfair to me.”

And with that, he kept walking.