Free Indecent Proposal by Molly O'Keefe Page A

could get pictures of him and Ted playing catch. They’d had to send staffers out to buy baseball gloves because they didn’t have any.
    One of Ted’s bodyguards taught him how to throw the ball, because Dad tried but got frustrated too fast and started drinking from the flask he always had in his pocket.
    Mom had been furious. At Harrison. At Ted. At the world that was always so willing to disappoint her.
    But no matter how awkward and truly false the event Mother was orchestrating, she used these little vignettes as a way to get work done. Today she was in there talking about Harrison’s VetAid initiative to provide veterans returning home from war and their families much-needed legal aid.
    You just had to wade through a lot of lies to get to the truth of his family.
    “Ashley is coming to the fundraiser next week. That will help, won’t it?” he asked. He’d finally gotten his sister on the phone and she’d agreed to do three events to help his campaign, on the one condition that he come to Bishop, Arkansas, to get her.
    Have you ever in your life been just Harrison? she’d asked. And not Harrison Montgomery?
    Once , he’d answered, thinking of Ryan Kaminski and that night that seemed more dream than real.
    “Maybe we need another photo of you with your shirt off,” Wallace said, pulling Harrison’s thoughts away from tattoos and one-night stands. “Or a trip down to Manuel’s Tavern to get your picture taken behind the bar.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “You are the new generation’s JFK Jr.—let’s not shy away from the sex appeal.”
    “That’s a bit of a stretch.”
    “I’m getting worried, Harrison.”
    “Yeah, I get that. But I’m not going to take off my shirt. If we stick to the message: education, family—”
    “Community, yes. The message is good. But Glendale has the same message and way more money. And his dad is dead.”
    And my dad is alive and still making mistakes .
    Behind him he heard the scuff of footsteps on the brick porch and turned to see Noelle standing just outside the doorway.
    “They’re ready for you,” she said, and he nodded at her.
    “I’ve got to go,” Harrison said to Wallace.
    “Is Noelle there?” Wallace asked.
    “Of course.”
    “What’s she wearing?”
    “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
    “What? I like her.”
    “You have a serious thing for inaccessible women.”
    “Wait … why do you think she’s inaccessible? I could totally—”
    “Goodbye, Wallace.”
    “Wait, wait—Jill down at Headquarters said a guy from Homeland Security came looking for you.”
    “For me?”
    “Yeah. Is there a terrorist part of the résumé you forget to tell me about?”
    “No. Of course not.”
    “Harrison,” Noelle whispered. “We really need to get inside.”
    Harrison said goodbye to Wallace, tucked his phone in his pocket, and turned back toward Noelle, who stood there with her clipboards and her two phones and the pencil tucked in the bun of blond hair at the back of her head. She was an impenetrable wall of efficiency.
    “Lead the way.” Harrison’s attempt at charm was met with blinking pale gray eyes.
    “Your mother would like me to remind you not to bring up the education scandal,” Noelle said as they walked back into the mansion. The first floor was a showcase used primarily for entertaining and tours. All the furnishings were a part of a historical federal collection and were hugely uncomfortable. Upstairs were his parents’ quarters, and they were only slightly less formal. But they did have a couch that wasn’t made out of horsehair, and the chairs when he sat on them didn’t creak.
    “Education reform is a major part of my platform because of the Atlanta corruption.”
    “Exactly.”
    “You’re joking, right?”
    “It looks bad on your father.”
    “It is bad on my father.”
    Noelle pushed her glasses up farther on her nose, her gray eyes steely, and he wondered, briefly, if there wasn’t more to his mother’s