'Hi, honey.'
She turned and slapped him across the face. Hard.
'That's for hurting Mom.'
'Becca-'
'Are you fucking around on her? With Mandy?'
'Becca-'
'You are, aren't you? Goddamnit, Daddy, you're just like all those other politicians-a fucking asshole. Like all men.'
Disappointing your wife is a tough thing for a man. But disappointing your child-that's a worse thing. The worst thing. To see that look of utter disgust in his daughter's eyes cut Bode Bonner to his core.
Jim Bob knocked on Mandy's closed office door in the Mansion then entered. She was crying. He was carrying that morning's newspapers.
'You okay, kiddo?'
She nodded like a little girl. Jim Bob sat down as if weary then tossed the newspapers on the desk.
'You see all this?' She glanced at the headlines-BODE BONNER A CHEATER… BONNER A GONER?… ANOTHER MARRIED REPUBLICAN WITH A MISTRESS… JOHN EDWARDS REDUX… SCHWARZENEGGER SEQUEL- and nodded.
'And TV last night?'
Another weak nod.
'What are you going to do?'
'About what?'
'The baby.'
She shrugged innocently.
'Have it.'
'You're not considering an abortion?'
'An abortion? Bode's pro-life.'
'He might make an exception for you.'
'He would be disappointed with me.'
'Maybe not.'
'I could never have an abortion.' She smiled as if she were looking at baby clothes. 'Do you know that right now he-or she-is five inches long and weighs five ounces and has little hands and fingers and toes. I even felt a little kick.'
Jim Bob sighed. She had it bad.
'Donations to the reelection committee dried up, like someone turned off the money faucet,' Jim Bob said. 'The donors are pulling their pledges to the Super PAC. And John Ed called, wants to know if this will derail his special legislation.'
'I can't worry about his condemnation bill right now. I got Mandy to worry about.'
'She wants to have the baby.'
' Why? '
'Because you're pro-life.'
'But this is my life.'
It took four bourbons for Bode to work up the courage to call his wife.
'Is she pregnant?'
He couldn't tell his wife the truth.
'No.'
'You're not lying to me, are you?'
'No.'
He was lying about lying.
'Are you drinking?'
'Are you talking in an Irish accent?'
'So you had to drink to find the courage to call me?'
'I'm drinking 'cause my life just went into the crapper.'
'What did you tell Becca?'
'She slapped me before I could say much of anything.'
'Good for her. Ask her to slap you once for me. Maybe twice.'
'I'll make a note.'
She was silent.
'Lindsay, please come home.'
'Are you going to cut the school budget?'
'If I don't, will you come home?'
'I'm not negotiating, Bode.'
'I am. I'll do anything you want. To get you back.'
'Except love me.'
'Lindsay, I've always loved you.'
'Do you love Mandy?'
'No.'
'You're having an affair with a twenty-seven-year-old girl, but you want me to come home and stand by your side? Be the good wife?'
'I ended it. With Mandy.'
'You did? Why?'
'The Professor said-'
'Oh. For politics. Not for me.'
'What about you? Are you having an affair? With your doctor?'
'No.'
'If the press finds out you're having an affair with my only political rival, I'll never be president.'
'That's why you care?'
'Lindsay, I can be president.'
'Why do you want to be president?'
'Because I can.'
'That's it?'
'It's an adventure.'
'It's a game. Just another game to win.'
'Lindsay, life's just a game to men. Sports, business, politics… winning football games, making money, winning elections… you do it to prove you can.'
'Prove to whom?'
'Yourself.'
He heard her sigh, and then she was silent for a moment. Bode asked the question he had to ask.
'Do you love him?'
'I don't know.'
'But you might?'
'I might.'
'Your doctor wants my job and my wife.'
'He doesn't want your job.'
'Just my wife.'
'And what do you want, Bode? Your job or your wife?'
He loved his wife, but did he love politics more? He didn't answer quickly enough for her liking.
'Your job.' She exhaled into the phone. 'The Governor's Mansion is not my home. It never was. And the White House never will be. I don't want that life, Bode. You'll have to live it alone.'
