“Ah, yes. Now I remember,” he says, tongue in his cheek. “You said it felt like kissing your foster step-cousin.”
Our laughter bubbles over at the same time and fills the car. It feels good to laugh as hard as I do when I’m with Wallace. If only the sex hadn’t been weird and I hadn’t cared too much to let him settle for someone who didn’t want him the way he deserved.
“You dodged a bullet, baby.” I give him a quick peck on the cheek.
“Is that what you’re doing by not taking on Owen Cade?” he asks. “Dodging bullets?”
I regret telling him everything. He knows my history with Maxim, since Vivienne warned her big brother off dating me. She said I was rebounding from a guy I met in Amsterdam. It had been months by then, so I’d assumed she was wrong.
She wasn’t.
I’m just glad Wallace and I only dated a few months and I didn’t waste any more of his time. Just long enough to know we were better as friends. He did have the unfortunate honor of being my second lover, and Maxim was a hard act to follow. I don’t think anyone could have satisfied me right after being with him. I needed the effect he had on my body to fade, and it wouldn’t. As much as I hate admitting it, Maxim left an imprint on me, and other hands felt wrong. No one else inside me fit the same, felt the same.
“You’re gonna miss the opportunity of a lifetime to avoid some guy you slept with for only a week ten years ago?” Wallace scoffs. “You’re better than that. Smarter than that. Too ambitious for that.”
“Speaking of ambition,” I say, smoothly pointing the finger away from me. “Congrats on this promotion. Kimba and I love having you here in DC now.”
“I’ve always wanted my own research team,” Wallace grins. “but I didn’t expect to have it for years. I’m pretty stoked about this opportunity with CamTech. Moving closer to you guys was a bonus for sure.”
“Good things happen when you’re brilliant and work hard.”
He shrugs off my praise with a lift of his shoulders and a modest smile. “Whatever. Now stop distracting me with flattery. Back to you and Maxim Cade.”
Ugh. It was worth a try.
“There is no me and Maxim Cade.”
“Sounds like avoidance. What does your therapist say?”
I release a two-ton sigh. “I haven’t talked to her about it. I will. I just . . .”
“You just what, baby girl?” He pulls my head down onto his shoulder. “Go on. Tell foster step-cousin Wally all about it.”
I snort-laugh and turn my face into the comforting scent of his sweater. “He lied to me,” I say, and I hate that hearing it still makes me a little sad. “And he played me for a fool.”
“Did he really, Lenny?” Wall kisses the top of my head. “Or do you tell yourself that so you won’t have to deal with how he made you feel? Maybe still could make you feel?”
My head pops up and I stare at him in the thin illumination lent by the city’s bright lights passing outside the car window.
“Not you, too,” I say, making a disgusted sound in my throat. “You sound like my therapist. And Mena.”
“I think maybe they’re both right.” Wallace searches my eyes, a concerned frown on his dear face. “There’s some part of you that’s afraid to trust happiness because of what happened with your mom.”
“It’s not happiness I don’t trust. It’s him. And his lies. He made a fool of me.”
“Okay. Then don’t sleep with him, but don’t pass up the chance to manage the next president’s campaign.”
“Who knows if Cade will even win.”
“He will if you and Kimba get a hold of him,” Wally says with a smile.
“There’s still the matter of Owen’s father.” I spit the unpleasant word out. “I need to know he won’t interfere and that I won’t have to deal with that bastard.”
“These seem like things you can talk through and work out. Senator Cade isn’t his father. Don’t miss out on this, baby girl. They call you the Kingmaker now. What will they say when you make a president?”
“I don’t care what they call me. I just want to do the things that are important to me. To my people and other groups that have been disenfranchised, overlooked and dismissed.”
“If you get Cade elected, you can write your ticket. Campaign managers for winners end up White House staffers, cabinet members, real power players. It could catapult you and Kimba.”