Free Look to the Rainbow by Lynn Murphy

I’ll see if Ross has heard from Evan.”
     
         Tara left just after George and said, “I’m going in to the office for a few hours. If you hear anything let me know.”
     
         Molly waited until the front door closed and said “She’s in love with him.”
     
         Lily smiled. “Yes, she is.”
     
         “Do you think he’s interested in her?”
     
         Lily said, “Come with me.” She led Molly to the sunroom where three exquisite bouquets of flowers from Kel still sat. “He sends one every couple of days.”
     
         Molly said, “Well now that’s interesting.”
     
         “Yes,” Lily said. “Isn’t it?”
     
     
     
         “What exactly do you think you are doing, John, expecting him to keep up with that kind of schedule?” Evan asked.
     
         “It isn’t that way every day. I’ll take responsibility for yesterday of you need someone to blame Evan.”
     
         “I’m not blaming anyone, but this isn’t an easy proposition for anybody. For Kel, however, you of all people should know what he’s capable of handling.”
     
         John sighed. “He wants to be President of the United States, Evan. What do you want me to do? Sometimes that is just going to require sixteen hour days.”
     
         “I want you to do your best to keep sixteen hour days to a minimum. He’s already shaking hands with hundreds of people every day, it’s not surprising he’s bound to catch something.  I’m putting him on antibiotics since the fever indicates an infection and his lungs sound a little congested. I think we caught this before it turns into anything serious but you need to have him check his sugar level several times a day until its back to an acceptable level. Is there anything you can cancel for the next day or two without raising a lot of questions?”
     
         “Not really but there isn’t as much scheduled for today and only two stops tomorrow before we head to Atlanta.”
     
         “Every newspaper I pick up has some article about his diabetes. I get three or four calls a day from reporters wanting me to verify that he’s healthy enough to be President.”
     
         “What do you tell them?”
     
         Evan said, “I tell them he is, but he won’t be if you let him continue like this until the election. Don’t give them any reason to write about his medical needs if it’s an issue in the campaign.”
     
         Kel entered the room, tying his tie. “Are the two of you done arguing?”
     
         John said, “We aren’t arguing. Evan is reaming me out for not doing a better job taking care of you and I’m accepting the abuse.”
     
         Kel laughed. “Well, good. I’d hate to think the two of you were breaking up because of me.”
     
          Evan said, “If I go home now, will everyone agree to do a better job?”
     
         John rolled his eyes. “You mean you aren’t going to follow us around for the next several days?”
     
        “If I need to, I will.”
     
         “You don’t,” Kel assured him, “But have lunch with us before you go.”
     
     
     
               
     
         Tara took her story to Bobby’s office. He looked up when she knocked on his door. “Come in. I wanted to see you before you went to Atlanta. Obviously we need to do our own story on Kel being a diabetic. If you could get him to talk to you about it I’d like to run that next and I really think we need to do a story about his single status. If people realize that he hasn’t remarried because he lost the love of his life, they may be more receptive of him as a potentially single President.”
     
         The love of his life? “You want me to do a story on Alise.”         “No, a story about how much Kel loved Alise. Explain why he’s never remarried.”
     
         Tara thought about what Mary Katherine had said about Alise. “Do you really think he’ll want