Southern Lights - A Novel Part 15

"Senator Baldwin," he said, equally so, and then laughed.

"Are you showing off, Senator? You outrank me." It was a bold thing to say to him since she hardly knew him, but she knew he had a sense of humor.

"Absolutely, and yes, I do. I'm in New York for two days and wondered if you'd like to have lunch." He was as straightforward as any northerner and didn't beat around the bush.

"That would be fun," she said, smiling.

"Are you very busy these days?" he asked her.

"Not busy enough. I'm buried in paperwork."

"How disappointing." He suggested a time and place for lunch the next day, sounded rushed and hung up. She was startled by the call, but he might be a good man to know, and he was certainly interesting to talk to. She had no idea why he had called her. He hadn't flirted with her at the party, and she liked him. He seemed like a bright, amusing person.

She had a minor court appearance the next day, and took a cab uptown to the restaurant he had suggested. It was a chic, busy Italian bistro with good food, that she'd been to before, but not in a long time. He was waiting at a table when she arrived, looking at some papers, and slipped them back into his briefcase. He had a town car and driver waiting outside.

They talked about everything from politics to law to his children, who were twenty-one and twenty-five. His twenty-one-year-old daughter was at UCLA and loving it, and his twenty-five-year-old son was in London, with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He had recently graduated from NYU, at the Tisch School of the Arts. He said his daughter wanted to be a doctor, everyone else in the family was literary or artistic, including their mother, who he said was somewhat eccentric but great fun. He spoke of her like a sister. Alexa hadn't reached that point yet with Tom, and probably never would. But at least they had finally reached a good place. Tom had come to say goodbye to her and Savannah the day after the wedding. He looked depressed and hungover, and she felt sorry for him. But not sorry enough to want him back.

Alexa said that she and her daughter were leaving for three weeks in Europe right after the sentencing in the Quentin case on July 10th. It was still two weeks away.

"I'm going over too," Edward Baldwin said easily. "I use my ex-wife's house in the South of France, in Ramatuelle. It's near Saint-Tropez, but not as crowded. I'm going to Umbria after that. I've rented a villa. Where will you be with your daughter?" He was interested in her and friendly, but she didn't have the feeling that he was pursuing her, and she liked that. Maybe they could be friends.

"Paris, London, Florence, and maybe something in the South, like Cannes or Antibes. I haven't been in a long time, but this is a graduation present for my daughter and we had kind of a tough spring. I had to send her away for four months during the trial and before. She was getting threatening letters, from the defendant. He was doing it to unnerve me apparently, I learned later, and it did."

"How awful."

"Yeah. It was pretty scary. That's how she wound up in Charleston with her father. I had nowhere else to send her."

"Have you stayed close since the divorce?" He had a.s.sumed she had the same kind of relations.h.i.+p with her ex that he did. Alexa laughed and shook her head.

"We didn't speak for ten years. And he hardly saw his daughter, until February. But the last four months changed all that, so I guess it was a blessing for us all, except his wife." She decided to give it to him in a nutsh.e.l.l. "Simply put, he got dumped by his wife, who abandoned him and their two boys. He married me, everybody was happy, and his first wife came back seven years later, I got dumped, and he went back to her. And his mother helped. I'm not from the South, his first wife is. All very simple. So I came back to New York, became a lawyer, and lived happily ever after. I have one daughter from that marriage, and two stepsons I love and just saw again for the first time in ten years, one of whom was the groom at the wedding. And my ex has a very cute ten-year-old who was the vehicle wife number one used to get him back."

"Let me guess," Edward Baldwin said with a look of disapproval. He didn't like the story, although she told it lightly and with a touch of humor, but he could see the hurt in her eyes. "And now they hate each other, and he wants you back."

"Something like that." Alexa nodded. "I'm not interested. It's all over for me."

"It sounds like a bad southern novel," Edward Baldwin commented. His divorce had been simple and clean. His wife left him, but he didn't blame her, and they were still friends. She had done it nicely. "Do you hate him?" He looked curious as he asked. He wouldn't have blamed her if she did. Hearing the story, he disliked him. He despised men like that.

Alexa didn't hesitate this time. "No. Not now. Something healed it for me when I went back there, and saw him, and how weak and pathetic he really is. He betrayed me, but ultimately he betrayed himself, and now he would betray her. I don't hate him now. I feel sorry for him. But I was pretty angry for a long time. Ten years. That's too long to carry a grudge. It's heavy lifting." She had discovered that the hard way, and realized it when she finally set it down.

"You never remarried?" She laughed at the question and shook her head.

"Nope. I was too hurt. And too busy with my work and my daughter. I'm happy like this. I don't need more than that."

"Everybody needs more than that. I do too. I just don't have time. I'm too busy taking political junkets to Taiwan and Vietnam, keeping my const.i.tuents happy, and playing the political game in Was.h.i.+ngton. It's fun. But it doesn't leave time for much else." They both knew that wasn't true either. There were lots of married senators-most of them, in fact. For whatever reason, he didn't want to be married again either. They had that in common. They were both afraid of something, getting hurt or commitment. And he didn't have the excuse of a nasty ex-wife who had screwed him over, since he said they were good friends and got along. He was obviously alone by choice. He had said in the course of lunch that he was fifty-two years old. And had been divorced for twenty. That was a man who either liked to play a lot or was afraid of getting tied down. Either way, Alexa thought he'd make a fine friend.

Eventually, he paid the check, and she thanked him for lunch. She hailed a cab to go back to work, and said goodbye to him in front of the restaurant. She had given him her card, and was surprised when he called her on her cell that afternoon.

"h.e.l.lo, Alexa, it's Edward." His deep voice and southern accent were easy to recognize.

"Thanks again for lunch. It was fun."

"I enjoyed it too. I just had a thought. I'm having dinner with my ex-wife tomorrow night and her husband, and I wondered if you might like to meet them. She's a wonderful person."

"I'd like that very much," Alexa said. She gave him her address, and he said he'd pick her up at eight. She was startled when she hung up, and didn't even know what to say to Savannah, so she said nothing. She just got dressed for dinner the following night, and put on a black suit that she usually wore to court.

"What are you all dressed up for?" Savannah asked her as she came out of her bedroom. She was going to the movies with friends.

"I'm having dinner with a senator and his ex-wife." Even saying it sounded absurd.

"You're what? What senator?" Savannah didn't know of any that her mother knew.

"Senator Edward Baldwin, from South Carolina." Savannah vaguely remembered hearing that he was at the wedding but hadn't met him. Luisa had been bragging about him.

"Did you meet him at the wedding?"

"Your father introduced me. He's very nice. Just as a friend. He followed the Quentin case on TV."

"So did the whole country." She looked at her mother more closely then. "Is this a date?" She was stunned. Her mother hadn't said a word.

"No. Just a friend," Alexa repeated. She looked blank.

"What's with the ex-wife?" Savannah looked suspicious, and her mother laughed.

"They're good friends." And with that, the doorman buzzed the intercom in the apartment and told her that there was a car waiting for her downstairs. She kissed Savannah, picked up her purse, and ran out the door, as Savannah stood staring after her and then rushed for her cell phone. She called her New York grandmother immediately, and Muriel answered on the first ring.

"Hi, cutie." She could see that it was Savannah. "What's up?"

"Red alert. Holy s.h.i.+t. I think Mom has a date."

"How do you know? With who?" Muriel was immediately interested.

"She got dressed up, and she was having dinner with a senator she met at Travis's wedding, and his ex-wife."

"His ex-wife?" That sounded strange to her. "They're friends," Savannah said in a conspiratorial tone.

"What senator?"

"Baldwin, from South Carolina."

"Well, I'll be d.a.m.ned," Muriel said, and they both burst into gales of excited laughter.

Chapter 21.

The evening with Edward Baldwin's ex-wife was fun, unexpected, and totally crazy. She and her husband had a penthouse on Fifth Avenue, three unruly teenage sons, and he was a successful movie producer. As soon as Alexa met him, she recognized the name. And his wife was a best-selling author. She said she had only started writing after she left Edward, but Alexa knew she had had an extremely successful career ever since. She had met her husband when he had bought her book and produced the movie eighteen years before. They were attractive and funny and nuts. Sybil was wearing some kind of flowing robe she'd bought in Morocco. Her husband was in jeans and an African s.h.i.+rt. They had four dogs who were everywhere, King Charles Spaniels, and a parrot on a perch in the living room. Alexa had read several of her books. She was the daughter of a famous Hollywood producer, and now married to one. And it was obvious that she and her ex-husband genuinely liked each other, and he got on famously with her husband. Their children treated Edward like an uncle, which was a far cry from Luisa's performance with Savannah.

This was straight out of a movie, but it was also a lot of fun. They boiled lobsters for dinner and all helped while the dogs barked, the phones rang, the stereo blared, and the kids' friends came in and out as though there were a party going on somewhere. Their whole life was a party, and they enjoyed themselves. Sybil was very pretty and about ten years older than Alexa, somewhere around forty-nine or fifty.

It was the funniest and most entertaining evening Alexa had ever had. They all had a great sense of humor, even the kids, who had been friendly, and the parrot spoke only four-letter words.

"She wasn't quite that zany when I married her," Edward explained as he took Alexa home. "Brian has kind of brought it out in her, and it works for them. But she was a lot of fun then too. She was a terrible practical joker, and always had a whoopee cus.h.i.+on in her purse. She's basically just a really wonderful woman." He smiled lovingly as he said it.

"Do you miss her?" Alexa asked boldly.

"Sometimes," he said honestly. "But I was a lousy husband. In those days, I wanted politics more than my marriage. She deserved better than that. And she got it with Brian."

"And now? Do you still want politics more?" She liked him, and he had an interesting life. He was a collection of odd contrasts, the old and the new, the North and the South. His ex-wife said she hated the South. She thought it was hypocritical, antiquated, and uptight. Alexa liked it more than that, but she could see her point, in some circles. Luisa embodied all the worst of the South. But others were s.h.i.+ning examples of everything good about it. And there was so much about Charleston Alexa had loved.

"I don't know," Edward said in answer to her question. "Politics are still the driving force in my life. But I don't want just that. At one point I did. I don't want to wind up alone, but I don't want to go through all the bulls.h.i.+t you have to go through to wind up with the right person, or maybe the wrong one. I want to wake up married to the right person. But I don't want to make any effort to get there, or take the risk of making a mistake. Which means, I'll probably wind up alone." He laughed. The prospect didn't seem to disturb him. "I guess I'm lazy."

"Or scared," she challenged, and he nodded slowly.

"Maybe," he admitted. "And you?"

"Teriffied for the last ten years," she said honestly.

"And now?"

"Maybe thawing out." She wasn't sure.

"You have good reason to be scared after what your husband did to you. That was rotten."

"Yes, it was. I never had any desire to try again with someone else. I thought the risks were too high. I think I feel more relaxed about it now. But I was gun-shy for a long time."

"Relations.h.i.+ps are so d.a.m.n complicated," he said gruffly, and she laughed.

"Ain't that the truth." And then they talked of other things, until he dropped her off. She thanked him, they shook hands, and his limousine drove off as she walked into her building. He was going back to Was.h.i.+ngton in the morning.

Predictably, his cell phone rang as the car took him to his hotel. It was Sybil, his ex-wife.

"She's perfect for you. Marry her immediately" was Sybil's opening line, and he groaned loudly.

"I knew that would happen if I introduced her to you. Mind your own business. I just met her."

"Fine. Then give it two weeks and propose. She's terrific." Sybil had loved her, and so had Brian.

"You're nuts, but I love you," he said happily. He loved his friends.h.i.+p with Sybil, better than he had their married life. It had been more commitment than he wanted then. All he really cared about then was his political life. Sybil knew it, so she made a graceful exit, before Brian came along.

"I love you too," Sybil said sweetly. "Thanks for bringing her. I really like her. She's smart and honest and fun and beautiful. You won't do better than that." He had done all right with her, but that was a long time ago.

"I'll let you know how it works out," he said firmly, with no intention to tell her.

"Goodnight, Eddy," she said, as he reached the hotel.

"Goodnight, Sybil. Give my love to Brian, and thanks for dinner."

"Anytime." And she clicked off. She truly was nuts, but he loved her, in the nicest way.

Edward called Alexa again before she left for Europe, and got her schedule there. He wasn't sure, but he thought their paths might cross in London or Paris, and he said he'd call her if that was the case. He had to go to Hong Kong first. He seemed to travel constantly. The day before they left for Europe, Alexa attended the sentencing in the Quentin case. Luke Quentin was no longer wearing a suit. He was wearing a jail-issue jumpsuit, as he had in the interrogations. He looked unkempt and angry, and was curt with his attorney and blamed her for his conviction. He was far angrier now at Judy than Alexa. His defense counsel took the brunt of his blame. He ignored Alexa completely, which was a relief.

Jack was there, but Sam wasn't. He was on another case.

The judge did what he said he would, and gave him the maximum sentence for each charge, and ran them all consecutively, a hundred and forty years in prison, life without parole, several lifetimes. He would never see the light of day again. He said something rude to the public defender as he was led from the courtroom, and didn't look at Alexa. The war was over. He no longer cared. He would be transferred to Sing Sing prison within the next few days.

Alexa left the courtroom with Jack. Some of the relatives of the victims had come to the sentencing, but most hadn't. Charlie and his family weren't there. They had all gone back to work, and were satisfied with the convictions. They could guess the rest and would be notified later. It was over for them too. And sadly, the eighteen young victims were gone forever.

The press was there, but not as forcefully as they had been at the trial. Alexa left the courtroom when it was over, and drove away with Jack. Luke Quentin was just another case, a dangerous criminal they had put away. There would be other cases, although less sensational than this one. The Quentin case had been the high point of her career.

The next day Alexa and Savannah flew to London and stayed at a little hotel that Alexa had remembered from her youth. They had tea at Claridge's and visited the Tower of London, walked New Bond Street, and gaped at all the jewelry and pretty clothes. They watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and visited the royal stables. They did all the fun tourist things and shopped in Knightsbridge, Carnaby Street, and the flea market in Covent Garden, where Savannah bought a T-s.h.i.+rt for Daisy. And they went to see several plays. They had a wonderful time, and flew to Paris after five days.

They checked into a small hotel on the Left Bank, and started their stay out with lunch at an open-air cafe, planning their attack on the city and what to do first. Alexa wanted to go to Notre Dame, and Savannah wanted to take a boat ride on the Bateau Mouche on the Seine, and walk along the quais. They decided to do all three and had time that afternoon. And they wanted to see the view from Sacre Coeur the next day, and visit the Louvre and Palais Tokiyo. They went back to the hotel to rest for a while before dinner, and Senator Baldwin called Alexa there. He had just arrived in Paris and was in the city for two days on his way to the South of France.

"What have you ladies been up to?" he asked her, and she reported on their a.s.sorted doings. He was impressed by all they'd done. "Could I talk you both into dinner tonight, or do you have other plans?" Alexa asked if she could check with Savannah and call him back.

"What do you think?" Alexa asked her, extending Baldwin's invitation to them both.

"I think it's great. Why don't you go alone?" She had just turned eighteen, and felt very grown up, and capable of wandering around Paris for an evening on her own.

"I don't want to go alone. I'm here with you. Do you want to do it, or is it too boring for you?" Savannah was her priority, and this was their trip. Savannah wanted to meet him and check him out, and it sounded fun to her. He was a senator, after all. How bad could it be?

Alexa called him back five minutes later, and said they accepted with delight. He was staying at the Ritz, and suggested they come there for dinner, and they could eat in the garden. The weather was beautiful and warm. He invited them for eight-thirty. And at the appointed hour, Alexa and Savannah met him at the restaurant, wearing skirts and sandals and pretty blouses, with their blond hair brushed straight down their backs. They looked more like sisters than mother and daughter, and he said they looked like twins.

The hotel was very beautiful, with an ornate mirrored lobby and huge vases of flowers everywhere. And the garden table where the headwaiter settled them was relaxed and balmy in a marble courtyard with a fountain, and there was music coming from the main restaurant. It was a perfect way to spend a warm Paris night, and he looked happy to see them.

"How was Hong Kong?" Alexa asked him after introducing him to Savannah, who was unusually quiet. She was watching him and how he looked at her mother. No question, he liked her, and not just as a friend. Savannah approved. He seemed nice, he was friendly, he wasn't pompous, and he had a good sense of humor. It was a good beginning.

"Short, hot, and busy," Edward Baldwin said about Hong Kong. "I'm looking forward to the South of France. I haven't had a vacation in months. I need one." He led a stressful life, and so did she. Particularly after the Quentin trial and four arduous months of preparation.

They ordered dinner, and he asked Savannah about her plans for school. He was impressed by Princeton, and said that his daughter was a senior at UCLA and wanted to go to medical school. She didn't want to come back to the East, and was hooked on California and hoping to get into Stanford.

"My mom wouldn't let me go there." Savannah smiled at him. "Too far away, but I didn't get into Stanford anyway. UCLA's a great school. I should have applied there, but I didn't."

"Princeton will be fine, thank you," Alexa interjected. "I don't want you three thousand miles away. Four months in Charleston was bad enough. I miss you too much," she said, and both the senator and her daughter smiled at her. She was honest about it. "You're the only kid I have."

They talked about art and theater then, and what Savannah wanted to study. It was like an easy evening with an old friend, and he was good with kids. She had seen that when she had had dinner at his ex-wife's house with her three teenage sons, who were in and out constantly and seemed totally at ease with Edward and he with them. He told Savannah she should come to Was.h.i.+ngton and visit the Senate. She looked interested, and he told her she was welcome anytime. He had an easy, comfortable way with people and a sharp mind. And by the end of the evening, Alexa and Savannah were totally at ease with him. He walked them out after dinner and put them in a cab back to their hotel. They stood in the Place Vendome for a minute, admiring how beautiful it was. It was all lit up and spectacular looking with the obelisk in the center. And then they got in the cab and gave the driver the address of their hotel on the Left Bank. Edward waved and strode back into the Ritz.

"I like him," Savannah said, as they drove across the Alexandre III Bridge to the Left Bank.

"I do too," Alexa admitted. "Just as a friend."

"Why just as a friend?" Savannah challenged her. "Why not more than that? You can't stay alone forever. I'm leaving in September. Then what are you going to do?" Savannah was serious. She worried about her. And it was time for her mother to have a man in her life again. It had been too long, and she was still young. She wasn't even forty yet, although she would be soon. Edward Baldwin was fifty-two, which Savannah thought was a good age for her mother.