Her eyes were wide and had a rich burn to them. There was a frailty about her, a kind of beauty that stung.

It stung because it was out of reach, Frank realized. It was over.

He knew it as he watched Hardly help her sit down. There was something between them beyond holding hands. A certain kind of ease that only comes with familiarity. Frank didn’t think that they had been together in public. Tracy’s radar screen was too big and he would have heard about it. But they had spent time together somewhere, a lot of time, that much was clear.

He glanced over at Helen and caught her staring at him with a pained expression on her face. She had seen everything he had. Before he could settle, someone took his elbow from behind and he turned. It was the president, bright and charismatic, shaking his hand and delighted to see him like they were brothers returning home for a holiday.

“How are you, Frank?” the president asked. “I’ve been meaning to call you all week. We need to talk about—” The president paused in mid-sentence and looked around at the table. Everyone had stopped talking and was listening. Then he turned back and flashed a dazzling smile. “This looks like a pretty rough crowd, Frank. Maybe you should switch seats with the first lady.”

Everybody laughed.

The president pulled Frank closer. “We need to talk,” he said in a lower voice. “It’s important. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

Frank nodded, watching the president return to his wife. Hardly began telling a joke that he’d heard at The Palm over lunch. As Frank sat down, he could feel Linda’s eyes on him from across the table but tried to ignore it. Fight it. He tasted the wine and caught Stewart Brown staring at him from a table in the back by the kitchen. Frank turned away, nodding at Senator Richards, a fragile man of seventy-five seated at table 2 beside a young, sexy woman in a revealing dress.

Waiters began serving dinner. A camera flashed.

Frank looked up and saw a photographer stepping away from Senator Richards. The elder statesman was frozen in his chair and remained speechless. When he turned to Frank for help, Frank looked at Linda seated beside Jason Hardly and was only too glad to oblige. He got up from the table, mouthing silently to the senator that he would take care of the situation for him. There was no reason to be alarmed.

He followed the photographer to the back of the room, saw him take another shot and then pulled him aside.