Before I Say Good-Bye Read Free Page A

when you said that, but you meant it.”
    “I remember,” she said.
    He came and stood right in front of her, leaning forward, his face right in front of hers. “Nell, seize the moment. If you don’t, you’ll regret it. When Gorman confirms that he isn’t running, there’ll be a scramble for the nomination. I want the committee to consider candidates behind you from the get-go.”
    “When is the get-go?” she asked cautiously.
    “At the annual dinner, on the 30th. You and Adam will be there. Gorman will be announcing his intention to leave when his term is complete; he’ll get teary-eyed and sniffle and say that, while it was a difficult decision for him to make, something has made it much easier. Then he’s going to dry his eyes and blow his nose, point to you and bellow that you, Cornelia MacDermott Cauliff, are going to run for the seat previouslyoccupied by your grandfather for nearly fifty years. It will be Cornelia replacing Cornelius. The wave of the third millennium.”
    Obviously pleased with himself and his vision, MacDermott smiled broadly. “Nell, it’ll bring the house down.”
    With a pang of regret, Nell remembered that two years ago, when Bob Gorman ran for Mac’s seat, she had had a wild sense of impatience, a compulsion to be there, a need to see herself in his place. Mac was right. She was a political animal. If she didn’t get into the arena now, it could be too late—or at least, too late for a shot at this seat, which was where she wanted to start a political career.
    “What’s Adam’s problem, Nell? He didn’t use to pull this stuff on you.”
    “I know.”
    “Is anything wrong between you two?”
    “No.” She managed a dismissive smile to signify the suggestion was absurd.
    How long had it been going on? she wondered. At what point had Adam become distracted, even remote? At first her concerned questions, asking him what was wrong, had been brushed off lightly. Now she detected an edge of anger. Only recently she had told him point-blank that if there was a serious problem with their relationship, then she deserved to hear about it. “I mean any kind of problem, Adam. Being in the dark is the worst problem of all,” she had said.
    “Where is Adam?” her grandfather asked.
    “He’s in Philadelphia.”
    “Since when?”
    “Yesterday. He’s speaking at a seminar for architects and interior designers. He’ll be back tomorrow.”
    “I want him at the dinner on the 30th, standing by your side, applauding your decision. Okay?”
    “I don’t know how much applauding he’ll do,” she said, a hint of dejection in her voice.
    “When you were married he was gung-ho to be the spouse of a future politician. What happened to change his mind?”
    You did, Nell thought. Adam became jealous of the time you demanded from me.
    When she and Adam were first married, he’d been enthusiastic over the idea that she would continue to be active as Mac’s assistant. But that had changed when her grandfather announced his retirement.
    “Nell, we now have a chance for a life that doesn’t revolve around the almighty Cornelius MacDermott,” Adam had said. “I’m sick of your being at his beck and call. Do you think that will get better if you campaign for his old seat? I have news for you. He won’t give you the chance to breathe, unless he’s exhaling for you.”
    The children they’d hoped for hadn’t arrived, and they became part of his argument. “You’ve never known anything except politics,” Adam pleaded. “Sit it out, Nell. The Journal wants you to do a regular column. You might like the freedom.”
    His entreaties had helped her make the decision not to pursue the nomination. Now, as she considered her grandfather’s arguments, along with his unique combination of ordering and coaxing her, Nell dispassionately admitted something to herself: commenting on the political scene wasn’t enough. She wanted to be in on the action.
    Finally she said, “Mac, I’m going to