Page 37 of Marriage (Red, White &) Blues

Me, Gloria Kowalski—er, um Parker—havingpool sex.

As we were alone again, Blake led me inside the house, where we dried off and I slipped on a pretty satin negligee that Jupiter had given me before she’d left. She either had a sizing sixth sense or got my size from Blake or Maisie because it hugged me in all the right places. Beautiful pale blue with pink hibiscus flowers. Very me. I loved it.

“You didn’t have a bridal shower,”she’d said.

Blake and I snuggled up on the sofa eating leftovers. He turned the television on and I choked on the bite of food I’d just swallowed. There were pictures of Blake and me walking out of the courthouse.

“Blake Parker, son of business mogul Robert Parker and brother to junior senator and future presidential candidate Brockton Parker, was married in a private courthouse ceremony earlier today,” CNN reported.

He switched to a different station. TMZ was on. “Who is this mystery woman to join the Parker dynasty?”

Blake pressed theoffbutton on the remote.

“How did they find out?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I honestly didn’t think anyone would care. I’m not the mogul, nor am I the presidential candidate.”

“Blake, you need to know something I probably should’ve told you sooner. Ican’tvote for your brother. Just meeting him once… The way he treated me... I just don’t see how a man like that would be good for the country.”

“You don’t have to vote for my brother. Want the truth?”

I nodded.

“I’m not voting for him, either. He’s my brother, but I don’t particularly like the man and I’m not convinced he’d make a very good president.”

“Do you think the press will let it go? I’m not news.”

“I don’t know.”

The press didn’t let it go. For the next week, my face was plastered across news and entertainment sites. A source close to the family told TMZ that we’d met while on vacation in Paris. That was true.

Pen called. Sierra called. Mom never called and I never called her. I think we both knew whatever relationship we had ended when I found out about her lies. Some betrayals were hard to get over. I’d put my life on hold. I’d stayed with her because she begged me to. She didn’t want to be alone. I commuted to college and took the first job offered to stay with her. We should’ve been celebrating my marriage and her finding new love. Instead, we had this. Nothing.

They’d reported on the schools I’d gone to, where I’d worked after graduation, and who my friends were. I suppose it helped, or maybe it didn’t, that they were able to link me to the McCain and Von Dutton families. They even speculated that my father dying of cancer was why we’d opted for a courthouse wedding. Well, the reporters who didn’t presume I was pregnant.

We were summoned to the Parker estate. Mr. and Mrs. Parker, along with Jupiter, Brockton, and his family were all there waiting on us.

Maggie, the housekeeper, led us to the dining room. “We need damage control,” Mr. Parker said as we were taking our seats.

“What damage?” Blake asked. “We got married. Nothing else.”

“You had a courthouse wedding instead of a lavish affair. That makes people think you have something to hide. And she’s common?—”

“Whoa—stop right there, Father. My wife isn’t common.”

“By all accounts, she’s poor. Her father was a chemical engineer and her mother works in an office. Her father was a registered member of the Democratic party.”

The servers rolled in the plates for dinner service. We started with a soup course. Tomato bisque. Once they’d filled our drink glasses and left us to eat, I took a few spoons of my soup and then tried to set his mind at ease.

It didn’t work.

“My father was a registered member, but I’m not.”

“And where do your political leanings lie, Ms. Kowalski?” he asked.

Ms. Kowalski? How much more insufferable could he get? Even if my legal name happened to be Kowalski until the paperwork got filed, I still married his son in a legal ceremony. For all intents and purposes, I was part of the Parker family, of which,Ms. Kowalski, had been said cruelly to separate me from.Please universe grant me the strength not to leap across this table and smack the shit out of the man, I silently prayed while balling my dress at my thighs under the table to keep my hands occupied.

“Parker,” Blake corrected, interrupting his father. “She’s Mrs. Parker now and you damn well know it. But given she’s your daughter-in-law, you could at least address her as ‘Gloria.’”

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