Trail of Destruction

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Emily sat at the desk in her hotel room, working on her latest blog. Since joining the campaign trail after graduation, her days had been jam-packed as she followed her dad as he went from one event to the next. Whenever they took a break, she would take out her laptop and start blogging. She could understand why her Uncle Ryan loved journalism. She got a thrill out of putting her thoughts into words and watching as her number of followers grew each day.

This evening, her dad had a dinner scheduled, but the rest of the staff was free. Emily planned to finish her blog, order some room service, and curl up with a good book. As she closed her laptop, her room phone rang.

"Hey, Emily. It's Amy. Do you want to grab some dinner? I hear there's a good Mexican place nearby."

Emily hesitated. "Sure. I was going to eat in my room, but I guess I could go for some Mexican. Did you invite Tyler and Ryan?"

"No. I thought it would be fun to just have a girl's night out. Order some margaritas and let our hair down. If I decide to dance on some tables, I don't want it to make it into your uncle's column tomorrow."

Emily laughed. "How do you know I won't put it into my blog?"

"Because I'm only going to hop up on the table if you join me."

"Yeah, Dad would love that. The candidate's daughter lets loose. See it on YouTube."

"Well, then maybe we better not get too wild and crazy."

"That's probably best." Emily glanced at her watch. "Do you want to meet in the lobby? Say ten minutes?"

A half hour later, the women were settled into a booth, munching on chips and salsa, each a few sips into their margaritas.

"So how do you like being back on the trail?" Amy asked.

"It's great. Last summer, everything was so new. Looking back, I think I felt a little overwhelmed." Emily twisted a strand of hair around her finger, a habit she'd had since she was a little girl. "But this time, I feel like I've settled right into the swing of things."

"Don't you miss your friends?"

"Yes, but everyone scattered after graduation anyway. They took jobs all over the country. So we're staying in touch by phone and email. I probably get three hundred texts a day, so I don't feel too abandoned."

"Any boyfriends?" Amy asked.

"No. I dated a lot in school, but no one serious. Which I guess is good, considering I'm traveling all over the country now. That would be hard if I was in a relationship." Emily reached forward to dunk a chip in the salsa. "Eventually I'd like to find the right guy, but I'm not in a hurry to settle down."

Amy leaned forward. "So what would the right guy be like? What are you looking for?"

"Well, like I said, I'm not really looking too hard right now. But I guess I like guys who have a good sense of humor, you know, who are fun to be around. A lot of the guys at Duke were pretty serious. I mean, they'd go to parties and get kind of wild when they were drunk, but the rest of the time, they were so into their grades and worried about getting a good job."

"And you weren't like that?"

"Not really. I've always done well in school. I didn't need to study very hard to keep my grades up."

"Lucky you," Amy said. "School never came that easily to me."

The waiter arrived with a heaping plate of nachos with chicken for Emily and vegetarian quesadillas for Amy.

"Mmmm. That looks great," Amy said. "I used to be able to eat like that when I was your age. Enjoy it while you can."

The waiter asked if everything looked good. The women assured him that it did and then both ordered a second margarita.

When he left for the bar, Emily turned back to Amy. "So, how about you? Any boyfriends back in Chicago?"

Amy blushed, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "No. I was married once, but it didn't work out. I'd like to get married again. I'd really love to have kids. But like you said, with all this traveling around, it's hard. It'll be easier once your dad's in the White House, and we're living in D.C."

Emily knitted her brows. "Are you planning to move to Washington if my dad gets elected?"

"Yes, he's promised me a job as his personal secretary." Amy's eyes brightened. "I'd love to work in the Oval Office."

"Yeah, I guess that would be pretty sweet."

"How about you? Do you think you'd want to live in Washington?"

Emily shrugged. "I haven't thought much about it. I had planned to go to law school eventually, but I just sort of thought I'd wait and see how things turned out with Dad before making any plans."

Amy smiled at her. "I know he'd love it if you took a job in his administration. He's told me that he'd find you something if you were interested. He doesn't want to push you into anything, but he'd be thrilled if you worked on his staff somewhere."

"Really?" Emily raised her eyebrows. "He said that?"

Amy nodded. "Sure. He talks about you all the time. He's really happy you and your brother are working on the campaign now. He wants Tyler to take next semester off and then go back to school after he gets elected. And, like I said, he's hoping you'll take a job in the White House."

"I would definitely be interested. I would have asked him about it, but I didn't want him to feel pressured into finding something for me."

Amy laughed. "The two of you need to talk to each other. You didn't want to pressure him, and he didn't want to pressure you."

"I guess I'll bring it up with him now that I know. Do you think he ever reads my blogs?" Emily shrugged, not wanting to seem too eager. "I mean, I know he's busy and all."

"Well, you know how tied up he is during the day. But usually in the evenings, he'll ask me to pull them up so he can read through them. He's really impressed with your writing. He thinks you have a lot to do with his popularity among the under-thirty crowd."

Amy slid out from the booth. "I'm going to run to the rest room. These margaritas are going right through me."

Emily watched her go, wondering when in the evenings Amy was seeing her dad. It had to be after the rest of the staff broke up. In fact, it sure seemed like her dad's personal assistant had a lot of personal information about him. It was as if Amy had taken her mom's place as her dad's confidante. The longer she dwelled on the matter, the more worried she felt. When Amy got back from the bathroom, Emily cut the dinner short, a sickening feeling in her gut.