Chapter 43
The reality that both families had to be properly met and informed of their serious romance could no longer be avoided. Not surprisingly, Rae Claire had a plan. To keep Nash away from Akron, and to keep her away from a small town in North Carolina, she made the arrangements.
Her sister, Sharon, and their mother visited D.C.
twice a year, once in the spring to enjoy the cherry blossoms and later in the fall to see the sights without the crowds.
Sharon was two years younger than Rae Claire and the sisters had grown apart.
As children, they had been close as they protected each other from their parents’ wars.
There was never a threat of physical or verbal abuse, but their home seethed in anticipation of the next outbreak.
Their parents should never have married, and after realizing that mistake, they should have divorced before having kids.
Instead, they fought for twenty years before finally surrendering.
When Sharon left for college and the nest was empty, they realized one of them might get hurt with no witnesses around.
Jenn, the mother, quickly moved out and declared independence.
Sharon knew there was a boy in the picture. Rae Claire had dropped enough hints that she was “seeing someone.” The first someone in years. There had been several glimpses of Stuart on social media. It was time for the introduction.
And so they met. Rae Claire selected the restaurant, even the table.
It was Friday night, and Nash arrived a few minutes late, still in suit and tie and claiming he’d come from the office.
The suit and tie were Rae Claire’s idea, first impressions being what they were.
The ladies started with wine and it was apparent that they were light drinkers.
Nash needed a martini and slugged down the first one.
The conversation didn’t exactly flow at first, primarily because two of the four were acting. Only when asked, Nash talked about his job at Justice and managed to make it sound just as dull as it actually was. He said as little as possible and was content to listen to the women.
Jenn and Sharon knew nothing about Rae Claire’s real work.
She had explained to Stuart more than once that it was not at all unusual for the families of CIA officers to be kept in the dark.
They asked about the books she was publishing and she carried the ball well.
They were, after all, real books that would find a place on someone’s coffee table.
Jenn was almost sixty and quite attractive, prettier than her daughters, in Stuart’s opinion.
She was also outgoing, which contrasted with the quiet nature of both daughters.
Nash figured she had sharpened her verbal skills through years of bickering with her husband.
He dwelled on these matters because he had to do something to survive the dinner.
It was bizarre looking at the three women, and feigning interest in whatever they were saying, when he knew that in less than a year they would no longer be a part of his life.
He liked them, though. All three were pleasant, but he knew the mother and sister were sizing him up.
He snickered to himself with the thought that he could certainly do worse in choosing a family to temporarily marry into.
Then the thought returned: I just hope I’m around in a year.
The women declined a second glass of wine. Nash was tempted to order a third martini, but Rae Claire had warned him. They ate like birds while he consumed a twelve-ounce sirloin.
Sharon would later comment on his “fitness” and his fine suit.
She was between romances and with no prospects, but that was not discussed at dinner.
Jenn, on the other hand, was plowing through men at a rate that her girls found troublesome.
She discarded them like last year’s shoes and enjoyed joking about her breakups.
Her current guy was a seventy-five-year-old billionaire who’d made his money in sawdust and loved to talk about it.
His awful children were monitoring the romance with great suspicion.
Over chocolate mousse and coffee, she laughed and said, “I’ll probably ditch him next month. ”
They left the restaurant and walked two blocks to an upscale bar. Along the way, the two lovebirds were careful to hold hands and cuddle a bit, just to be authentic. Sister and mother noticed and thought, How sweet.
—
One long meal was enough to satisfy Rae Claire’s plan. Stuart was not needed on Saturday and claimed to be headed to a college football game with some friends. He was getting quite good at creating fiction.
The girls visited the Smithsonian and spent a long day on their feet.
They had a late dinner in a hotel restaurant, over which Sharon and Jenn pressed Rae Claire about the relationship.
She admitted she was in love and things were getting serious.
Little did they know that in three weeks they would be shocked to get an invitation to a December wedding.
Riding back to her apartment, she was relieved to be alone.
She was also subdued. She had chosen a career in intelligence at the highest level, and she had done so with dreams of running operations in obscure places, of meeting exotic and dangerous people, all with the lofty idea of protecting the country.
Sharon was still in Akron, hanging out with friends from high school and college, and hoping to meet Mr. Wonderful.
Her career in finance was on track and she was making money, but she was still living in her hometown.
Rae Claire had always dreamed of seeing the world, probably because she spent her childhood hiding in her bedroom.
She was nearing the end of her third desk and it was a critical juncture in her career.
The world of intelligence had always been a man’s game, with women stuck in the offices and labs.
It was changing slowly, but not fast enough.
She’d had brief stints abroad, enough to whet her appetite and sustain her dreams, but she was fed up with files and paperwork.
She was not going to spend her career inside the fort at Langley, or in an office building in D.C. And she certainly wasn’t going home.
—
They sat together on the flight from Reagan National to Charlotte. They took a cab to Stuart’s fourth-floor condo in a modern building downtown and had lunch at an oyster bar.
To entice his parents to the city, he told them they needed to meet someone special.
His sister, Mindy, spent half her waking moments wasting time on social media and had quickly noticed the new girl in the occasional photos he posted.
Stuart didn’t exactly invite her to dinner but was not surprised when she included herself.
The family came from a small county an hour west of Charlotte.
Stuart’s grandfather owned half of it, though the acreage had never produced enough to create real wealth.
Like many old families, they were land rich and cash poor.
Stuart’s father cut and sold the timber and ran the only lumber company in the county.
His mother once taught math at the high school but retired early for health reasons.
Mindy was still living at home. An older brother had gone wild in his youth and lived somewhere in Oregon.
He was rarely mentioned. The small town was full of aunts, uncles, and cousins, and for that reason Stuart could not subject his fiancée to their scrutiny and nosiness.
Wisely, Rae Claire wanted no part of the place.
She had never been introduced to a prospective family before, and she was not excited about the occasion.
But it was part of the operation, the act, the project.
If she could survive two days in captivity with little food, she could certainly fake it through a two-hour dinner in a nice restaurant.
Stuart chose a great one. Angeline’s was upscale and reservations were difficult.
He pulled some strings and got a table for five.
He wanted to impress his family with his fancy new job in Washington.
Dinner was his treat, though he knew he would be reimbursed by Rae Claire, who had access to one of the innumerable CIA secret slush funds.
So far in their brief courtship, they were eating quite well.
Fortunately, Mindy was a chatterbox and carried the night.
She was genuinely excited that her big brother had found someone and embraced the new girl immediately.
Rae Claire had never been described as gregarious, but she managed to flip a switch and fake some personality.
Mindy chipped away at her background, family, college, work.
Mrs. Nash spoke when she got the chance and was curious about the books Potomac published.
Rae Claire practically gushed with enthusiasm when describing them.
Below that conversation, Mr. Nash managed to whisper a few comments to Stuart about college football.
He was a Clemson diehard and still feigned a grudge because his son went somewhere else.
Several times during the dinner, Stuart smiled to himself when he pondered the question: What if they knew she was really with the CIA?
And several times Rae Claire reminded herself: Nice people but thankfully our time together is limited.
To Stuart’s surprise, the dinner did not seem to drag. The food was exceptional and discussed around the table. Thanks to Mindy, there were no lapses in conversation. They said goodbyes with hugs and promises to meet again soon.
All in all, the acting was superb.