The President's Daughter by Mariah Stewart

Author:Mariah Stewart
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Washington (D.C.), Journalists, General, Romance, Suspense, Psychological, Mystery fiction, Fiction, Businesswomen, Children of presidents
ISBN: 9780345447395
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
Published: 2002-07-30T23:16:33+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“Mom?” Dina called from the front door. “Are you here?”

“Out back, Dina.”

“I brought you some soup,” Dina announced as she tucked the container into the refrigerator. “Chicken soup.”

“What’s the occasion?” Jude came inside.

“Well, I thought with you being sick, you could use a little something. I won’t even try to pass it off as homemade, though. I picked it up at Elena’s on my way through town.”

“Oh, I see. You called me at the library and Mary told you that I had called in sick.” Jude nodded her head.

“No, Simon Keller told me.”

Jude froze. “Where did you see Simon Keller?”

“He came to see me today.” Dina grinned, the words fairly bubbling out. It was clear that she was more than a little pleased.

“Why?” Jude asked sharply.

“Why?” Dina’s eyes widened. “A great-looking man comes to see me, and my mother asks why? Thanks a lot, Mom.”

Jude still stood in the same spot inside the kitchen door.

“He came to ask me out to dinner on—” Dina stopped to study her mother’s stricken face. “Mom, are you all right?”

“Dina, don’t go out with him,” Jude said softly.

“What’s wrong with him?” Dina then asked, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” Jude brushed her aside. “I guess I’m just thinking you don’t really know him. You know how I’ve always warned you about strangers.”

“And when I was nine and ten years old I needed to be warned. I’m almost thirty now. Do you think I still need you to remind me to be selective? To be careful? To not talk to strangers?”

Dina’s fisted hands rested on her hips.

“I’m sorry, Dina. . . .” Jude’s hand rose to her face. And suddenly Simon Keller was the least of her problems.

How do I tell her? She’ll turn from me, and never turn back. How could she ever forgive me for lying to her all these years? Why didn’t I tell her sooner?

Waylon whined at the front door. Jude turned her back on Dina and gathered the dog’s leash from the back door.

“I’ll take him, Mom,” Dina said softly. “You obviously don’t feel well.”

“I can—” Jude protested.

“So can I. Go curl up on the sofa with that book you started reading over the weekend. We’ll only be a few minutes.”

Dina snapped the leash on the basset’s collar and opened the door. “We’ll be right back.”

Jude watched from the living room window as Waylon stopped to sniff an early dandelion, and tried to screw up her courage to tell Dina everything she’d spent a lifetime keeping secret. Telling Dina the truth was going to change everything—the last thing Jude wanted at this stage of her life. There were plenty of other things that could happen to you once you hit your mid-fifties. Arthritis. Osteoporosis. Sagging jaw-lines and drooping body parts. You name it, the middle-aged woman was going to have to deal with it, in one form or another, sooner or later. Of course, the market was flooded with remedies, the health food stores stocked with herbal treatments, for many of the woes of aging.

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