Chapter 102

7:45 p.m. Sunday

The same town car that had driven Rita, Camille and Estrella during the day pulled up in front of The Vista, one of the most prominent social venues in the area.

Andy waited for the driver to open the door before getting out and assisting Regan to the street.

Regan wore a simple black cocktail dress with purple sequins. It was cut low enough to display just a hint of cleavage and stopped at mid-thigh. Her heels added three inches to her height and her legs glistened in black silk stockings. She wore her hair up and had a diamond choker around her neck that Rita had retrieved from a safe in the house. Andy could only imagine the value of the jewelry.

Andy wore his tuxedo with a bow tie and cummerbund that matched Regan's dress. The woman who designed the dress for Regan several months earlier had made the adjustable accessories for Regan's male counterpart at the same time.

The only jewelry Andy had was a gold watch that belonged to his Grandpa Drayton. Evan had given him a matching watch chain that had once belonged to Andrew Duffield. It clipped to the inside of his jacket allowing the watch to be placed into Andy's inside pocket. The watch was one of Andy's most prized possessions - although he rarely thought about it. His grandfather had retired from the railroad before beginning a second career as an alfalfa farmer.

The second hand was a train that circled the perimeter of the watch. Regan had marveled at it when Camille had pulled it from her purse to see if Andy wanted to take it with him. He carried something from each of his grandfathers - which he found gave him a little bit of comfort.

Regan had attended events of this nature before - although never without her parents. She was nervous - but not as nervous as Andy.

She didn't take Andy's arm when she got out of the car. Instead, she put her hand in his. It was how she preferred it and she didn't care what anyone else thought.

Andy saw the red carpet was actually blue (not that the fact helped quell his nerves). He figured it was perhaps 40 yards from where the car had stopped to the door - but those 40 yards were lined with television lights and photographers.

The city wasn't as celebrity conscious as Los Angeles but it still had a large presence in the media. The local television stations and newspapers had segments about the area's fashion elites and there were several blog sites that critiqued who appeared where wearing what.

"Don't pick your nose," Regan said in a soft voice. She had seen how pale Andy looked and was trying to lighten his mood. It didn't appear to work. He just looked over at her and blinked rapidly.

"Relax," she said. "We're going to be fine. And if we screw up, it'll just give us a bigger group of people that can kiss our asses."

One of the event organizers saw the young couple and came to greet them. Rita had called to let them know her daughter would be attending in her stead so someone was watching for Regan to arrive. Rita decided the identity of Regan's escort would remain a surprise.

"Ah, Miss Riley," the young woman said. Andy put the woman's age at middle-20s. "I'm so glad you could join us."

"Thank you," Regan said politely. "I'm very honored to be here. Please, allow me to introduce my boyfriend. This is Andy Drayton. Please, do not introduce him as Andrew. He prefers Andy."

The woman dutifully scribbled down Andy's name on a card that she passed to another woman. The second woman would lead Andy and Regan through the procession of cameras, letting each member of the media know exactly who they were talking to.

"If you don't mind waiting, we'd like for you to enter near the end," the woman said.

"We don't mind waiting," Regan said. "But, we're pretty inconspicuous so if you just want us out of the way, that's fine."

"Out of the way?" the woman asked. "Oh, of course not! Riley Capital Investments is one of our largest donors. You and Mr. Drayton are to sit at the head table with the other dignitaries. We're simply waiting for another of our large donors to arrive. His mother called us this afternoon and told us his son would be representing him. I, however, do not know the son's name. I've been a bit too busy to call back. Do you know the owner of the Duffield Group, by chance?"

Regan turned to look at Andy - but he had his eyes closed and his head tilted toward the sky. She turned back to the woman.

"Is it a British corporation?" she asked.

"Why, yes," the woman replied.

"I suspect I know who you'll be looking for," Regan said. "Did you speak to Countess Anne Duffield, by chance?"

"Yes," the woman said, happy that she wasn't going to have search for an anonymous face exiting a vehicle.

"It's me," Andy said with resignation when Regan elbowed him gently in the ribs. "Evan is my father."

"Oh," the woman said, her eyes wide. "How should I address you? Do you have a title?"

"No," Andy said. "Andy Drayton is fine."

"Of course," the woman said. She would need to have someone break away from the organization to verify Andy's statement. The last thing she wanted was for the Earl of Smithfield's son to arrive and to be missed because two kids decided to play a prank. She gestured to the woman she had handed the card to, took it back and whispered something in her ear. The second woman slipped off to the side and pulled a phone from her purse.

The first woman turned back to Regan and Andy.

"We'll send you in just after Representative Parham and before Senator Freeman," she said. "Is that acceptable?"

"It's fine, really," Regan said. "Don't worry about us. If you have someone else that thinks they should be sit up front, feel free to change our places with them. We just came to support the worthy cause. We don't need acknowledgement or accolades. We're not old enough to get our egos bruised by where we sit."

She winked at the woman who fought a laugh - and lost. The second woman came back over and gave a simple nod. She showed her phone to the first woman, who looked at it, then at Andy and then back to the phone.

"Well, it shouldn't be long," she said. "For now, I'm going to place you in Marcie's capable hands. She will shepherd you through the media and get you seated. Thank you both again for your sponsorship and for attending our event this evening."

She turned to confer with Marcie and Andy shook his head.

"Fuckin' Evan," he mumbled.

"Fuckin' Mom," Regan said. "She didn't tell me we were going to be on display."

Andy sighed and reached into his breast pocket for his watch. They had left their phones in the car and he didn't know what time it was. He felt something else in his pocket when his hand went inside. It was three or four index cards held together with a paper clip.

He pulled them out and looked at them.

"Oh, crap," he said.

Regan was watching the events going on around her but turned to see what else was troubling her boyfriend. He handed her the cards and she looked at them.

She recognized her mother's handwriting across the top - and her father's neater writing below it.

"Surprise," Rita had written, adding a smiley face at the end. "Here are some prepared remarks if you want to deliver them. If not, no problem."

Regan glanced at the cards and then back up at Andy.

"She's lucky I won't see her until tomorrow night," she said.

"Yeah," Andy replied. "I was thinking the same thing about Evan."

"This smells more like something your grandmother cooked up," Regan countered. Andy nodded his agreement as the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives was led down the blue carpet. Andy thought she looked every minute of her 70 years.

"Miss Riley, Mister Drayton," Marcie's voice said from next to them. "Are you ready? I'll go first and let everyone know who you are and then let you know if anyone wants you to stop for an interview. Are interviews permissible?"

"Brief," Regan said. "And only if they focus on the organization and our families' donations to it."

"I'll be clear about that," Marcie said - although she knew it wouldn't matter in the slightest.

"Well, here goes nothing," Andy grumbled.

Evan put down the phone in disgust. It was almost 11 p.m. in Toronto and he had just tried his son's phone again - with no luck.

"Mum, what were you thinking?" he asked.

"I didn't realize they were being sent there alone," Anne said defensively. "Rita told us about it a couple of weeks back. I knew we needed to make some charitable donations to offset our U.S. tax burden so I sent them a check from Duffield Group. The last I heard, Rita was going to talk to them about joining her and Robert tonight. The thought of them being sent off alone didn't enter my mind."

Evan shook his head and looked out at the dark sky.

"Please discuss things like this with me or Camille before you do them," Evan said.

"I informed you that I'd made a donation to the Cancer Foundation," Anne countered.

"Yes, but you neglected to inform me that we'd been invited to join them at this event," Evan pointed out.

"In my defense, I needed to save those spots for Regan and Andy if they chose to go," Anne told him. "Things will be fine."

"You hope," Evan stated. "I would imagine that he's already found out what's been done and is now ignoring our calls or he's simply left his phone elsewhere and it's going to be a surprise to him. Mother, Andy is a bit like father. He doesn't care much for surprises. I want you to know, if things go to hell, I will not shield you from his wrath. I will not let your actions interfere with the relationship I'm building with my son."

"This truly bothers you," Anne said.

"It bothers me when you place Andy in situations that are foreign to him," Evan said. "He didn't grow up with his moves and rationales scrutinized. He is learning on the fly, so to speak, and we can't keep tossing him into the deep end without a life preserver. Eventually, he's going to drown. Just remember, he hasn't developed the social skills he needs to survive in that sort of world."

"He's survived in a worse world that this one," Anne said.

"No," Evan interrupted. "It was a different world but it wasn't a worse one or a better one. The skills he learned there do not translate readily to the situation you've placed him in. It takes him time to warm up to people before he will socialize with them. Depending upon who is there tonight, he might be placed in a spot where he will be extremely uncomfortable. If he were forewarned and decided to accept the responsibility, that's one thing. But to toss him in there without a second of preparation is not acceptable. Please tell me that you understand this. I don't want to have this conversation with you again - and I don't want to have to limit your interactions with him for fear you'll do something like this in the future. Please tell me that you understand that decisions such as these belong to Camille and to me."

Anne nodded. She had rarely seen her son so upset but she didn't understand why. She saw Andy as an adaptable, intelligent young man who would thrive in any circumstance.

"Regan will be with him," she pointed out.

"Which is the only saving grace in all of this," Evan said. "Right now, I need to contact Cammie and let her know what's transpired."

"She should know," Anne said. "She was with us when we discussed worthwhile charitable entities and she knows I sent a donation to them."

"Does she know the size of the donation?" Evan asked, irritation still evident in his voice.

"Well, no," Anne admitted.

"I do not understand why you chose such a large amount," Evan continued.

"We have the money and we needed to offset our tax bill," Anne said simply.

Evan closed his eyes. It had been years since he'd screamed at his mother but he was dangerously close to doing it now.

"You know full well that we give smaller sums to a multitude of groups in order to avoid the situation you created tonight," Evan said through clenched teeth. "We stay below the radar by spending money around and by not publicizing it."

Anne swirled the tea in her cup and stared at the saucer.

"I wanted to match the Rileys' donation," she confessed. "Rita told us that she and Robert gave $250,000 so I did the same. I wanted Andy to know - at least in this instance - he was on equal footing with them. Was that so wrong?"

"They don't care about equal footing, Mother," Evan said. "Regan and Andy were on equal footing when he and Cammie lived in the gutter. You wanted the Rileys to know that we have money, too. It had nothing to do with Andy or Regan. You wanted to show Rita Riley that she couldn't push the Duffields around."