He almost -- almost-- withheld his hand, but finally offered it and we shook, his grip very firm like he was testing me. I was taller than him by maybe two inches and a couple dozen pounds heavier, but of course, he was a governor of an important state in the Union and in some ways, was more important overall than me, despite my family's fortune and influence in the world of commerce.
"So, you're the son of the man who sent my partner to jail over some petty financial accounting mistake and a personal misunderstanding."
I was taken immediately aback by his words. It wasn't a petty financial accounting mistake. Not by a long shot. It was clear insider trading and an attempt to hide it after the fact.
My instinct was to throw it back into his face, because if he really believed that, he was wrong and needed to be better informed. If he knew that was a lie, he was outright lying to my face.
"Daddy, that had nothing to do with Josh," Ella said beside me, her grip on my arm tightening like she was afraid he and I would come to blows.
"Emmet, you promised," Mrs. Carlson said, grabbing his arm and squeezing. He gave her a glare and then turned back to me.
"I hope we can put all that behind us, Governor Carlson," I said and squeezed Ella. "Ella and I are in love and want to spend our lives together. I want us all to be on the best terms and it would really help if we could just let the past be the past. I had nothing to do with what happened and so I hope any responsibility for it rests with people who are no longer with us."
"Yes, Daddy, Josh's father only died a few months ago. Please, don't try to re-fight old feuds."
Finally, Governor Carlson held up his hands as if in surrender. "Okay, okay. I'll let it go. I just want you to know that I haven't forgiven your father for what happened. It destroyed my partner's career. He spent several years in prison."
I bit my tongue, not wanting to make things worse. I could have said that he stayed at what was like a luxury boarding school compared to normal prisons in the country and that he went back to his private world of wealth, with only his reputation, and not his bank account, tarnished, despite making a boatload of money from his transactions. While he had to forfeit that money and pay a hefty fine on top of his jail sentence, he still had a massive investment account that was unaffected by any of his fraudulent actions.
What alarmed me was that Governor Carlson, then the man's business partner, was never implicated in any of his crimes. He escaped closer scrutiny for some reason, and I suspected it was either that he was innocent and raised no red flags with investigators, or he was dirty as hell and bribed his way out of trouble.
I hoped it was the former and not the latter.
Ella grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the living room. "I'm going to give Josh a tour of the house," she said, her voice a bit shaky. "We'll get our rooms set up and meet you and Mom for a drink before supper. How does that sound?"
"Sounds perfect, sweetie," Mrs. Carlson said, visibly relaxing. She grabbed Governor Carlson's arm and pulled him in the opposite direction. "We're going to go check on supper and maybe Emmet will get us a nice bottle of wine from the wine cellar." She raised her eyebrows meaningfully at Governor Carlson and before we could respond, Ella had me into the hallway and towards the other side of the building.
"Oh, my God," Ella said, her voice exasperated. "I thought Mom would have whipped him into shape by now, but he's a stubborn man."
"He has a solid backbone, that's for sure,” I replied, trying to let go of all the animosity I felt in reaction to Governor Carlson.
"It's made of steel," she replied with a light laugh.
"Give us time," I said and squeezed her hand. "The very last thing I want is trouble between your father and me. I wanted us to be respectful in our disagreements, if any, and on friendly terms. He's important to you and I want to be on better than friendly terms with him."
"Good," she said. "Someone has to back down between the two of you."
"I'm happy to be the one to back down," I replied. "For you. Because I love you and want us to be happy to spend time with your parents. I want your father to like and admire me. I'll be a good boy on my best behavior if it means I can get him to forget about the past."
"Thank you," she said and leaned her face up for a kiss, which I gave her gladly.
The way I figured it, the man was going to be my father-in-law -- the only father I would have for the rest of my life. He was a very respected man in politics, and I didn't want him on any side against me or mine. Christian was a professor of law and wanted to get into politics one day. I didn't want Governor Carlson to be an enemy in the federal party.
We did the tour through the house and Ella showed me the grand kitchen with its chef-level appliances, just like my house in Montauk. I imagined that given the heavy entertaining schedule a governor would have, they would need a professional kitchen, even if most of the food was catered. Next, we visited Governor Carlson's office which was all decorated in rich warm paneling and had a lovely fireplace and mantle with a portrait of some notable historic Governor hanging over the mantle.
Finally, she took me to the back patio, and we stood in the cold, our breaths visible on the cold air, and took in the property. It was a pretty nice old historic building.
"I know it can't compete with your family property in Yonkers, but it's nice."
"It's very nice," I said. "With deep historical significance. Money isn't the only measure of value."
"I know," she said and squeezed my arm, pulling me back inside. "It's just that I'm aware of how privileged you were, growing up. It must all seem pretty mundane to you."
"Not at all," I said and kissed her. "I have tremendous respect for the history of our nation and institutions. This is part of it."
We went into the kitchen where a tray of appetizers was laid out. Governor Carlson and Mrs. Carlson were busy getting glasses and the bottle ready. Governor Carlson even smiled at me when we entered the kitchen.
"Would you like some wine, or perhaps a bottle of beer?"