Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library
University of Texas, Austin
Thursday, February 21st 2008 7pm
Carol was waiting for her at the entrance.
"Woah!" CJ said as they walked inside.
There was no room to move inside the lobby and they had to fight their way through.
"This is going to be standing room only. We need to get in there and take our seats before they let people in. This way .."
Carol whispered something to the man standing at the auditorium doors. He smiled and nodded curtly at CJ before letting them through.
"Why is the Secret Service here?"
"You're not the only person surprising Danny tonight. Abbey's here."
"He doesn't know?"
"The only people who know are the organizers and her security detail."
"So all those people out there .."
"Are here to see Danny," Carol replied with pride in her voice as she led her down the left aisle to a seat in the seventh row. "This is what you wanted, right?"
"Yes. I don't want to be close enough for him to see me."
"You know he's going to .. smell you or something, right?"
"I've learned that lesson. Not wearing his favourite perfume tonight."
"It'll be something else. You'll be on his radar in five minutes."
"Not with Abbey here to distract him. And anyway, as far as he knows I'm not coming back from Nairobi for a couple more days."
Carol angled her head as she considered that.
"We'll see."
CJ was looking around, wondering how the renovations slated for 2010 would change the look and feel of the place, when the sound of people shuffling into the auditorium drew their attention to the back of the room.
"You weren't kidding .."
"I think every student and every alum of the School of Journalism is here. Not to mention faculty. There's probably quite a few members of the public, too. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I saw Katie Witt and Mark O'Donnell in the crowd. I think they're an item now."
"Really?"
"Would it be weird to go on a double date with them?"
"I have no i-"
"Here we go," Carol said, tapping CJ's knee excitedly as the lights over the seats dimmed slightly and the ones over the stage rose.
CJ felt a flutter of nervous excitement in her belly as Danny walked out on the stage, preceded by the Director of UT's School of Journalism.
He looked a little stunned when he heard mention of a special guest - but it was nothing compared to the awed surprise on his face when Abbey Bartlett walked out onto the stage.
The people in the auditorium hung on her every word as she explained why holding this event in the Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium had been important to Danny and to her on so many levels.
"I didn't know that," Carol whispered when Abbey went on to tie in the fact that not only had the former First Lady graduated in journalism summa cum laude from the University of Texas, her goal had been to become a reporter.
The audience cheered - and then laughed heartily when Danny interjected to let slip the fact that Lady Bird Johnson sharing a name with his partner may or may not have tipped the scales in favour of the venue.
"He knows," Carol said, looking at her watch. "And that's .. three minutes and forty-seven seconds."
"No way."
"Watch him. He's looking for you. Aaaaaaaaand .. he's seen you," she said as she picked CJ's hand up and waved it at Danny. "Aww .. look at him light up. Okay, now he's just showing off for you."
"Will you be quiet and let me enjoy the moment?" CJ hissed as she settled in to enjoy the lecture.
The line for the book signing was impossibly long, and CJ was starting to feel the strain of twenty hours of travel.
"CJ!"
"Abbey!"
"Jed sends his love. Made me pinky promise to invite you up to the farm for a week. Now that the book is done he's concerned we'll never see you - or Danny - again."
"Not much chance of that, I'd say."
"He's so very proud of the work you're doing, you know. " She looked her up and down and added, "when's the last time you slept?"
"I just got off a plane a few hours ago."
"The Gulfstream, I hope."
"Yes, but I was too nervous about tonight to really settle."
"You were nervous about tonight? He did great. Look at him - lapping it all up like a pro. He has them eating right out of his hand. Sales are going great tonight!"
They looked over to the signing together where the nth woman of the night was getting her copy personalized.
"Will you join us for dinner?" CJ asked.
"God, I'd love to, but we're getting on the road to Houston in a few minutes."
"What's in Houston?"
"I'm visiting the health clinics that the city opened when Matt Santos was Mayor."
CJ looked at her watch as she said "that's, what, a three hour drive?"
"Better now than tomorrow morning." Abbey kissed her on the cheek. "Call Jed? He wants to know how the Zimbabwe projects are going, and he's a nervous nellie every time he knows you're out there."
"Okay."
"I'd suggest you go nap in the auditorium. It's going to be a few hours before you can get your man out of the clutches of the ladies."
CJ laughed and gave Abbey one last hug before turning to assess the size of the line one more time.
A nap was starting to sound like a really good idea so she floated the idea past Carol - who agreed.
She snuck back into the auditorium and curled into a seat at the back, planning to get some shut eye for twenty or so minutes.
"CJ .."
The feel of someone calling her name shook her out of sleep.
"Hey .."
Danny was kneeling in the aisle, running his hand over hers.
"Hi .." she breathed as she reached for him and clutched him tightly.
"Hi." He drew back and looked at her for a long moment before drawing her in for a kiss. "God, I missed you."
"Take me back to the hotel and show me how much?"
"I can't. At least not yet. I have to get back out there, and then I have dinner plans with my agent and the organizers. I wasn't expecting you. Do you and Carol want to go with us, or do you want to go out to dinner by yourselves and then I'll see you back at the hotel?"
"I'd rather go with you."
"Okay. I'll let Barbara know."
"How long have I been out?"
"About an hour."
"And there are still people out there?"
"It's a zoo. I said I needed a bathroom break, but I have to get back to the table. Maybe another hour of this and then dinner. Actually , you know what, why don't I cancel dinner. I can meet them tomorrow morning for breakfast. They'll understand, and you'll be too jet lagged in the morning to even realize I'm not there."
"Don't cancel."
"I'm cancelling. You look exhausted. And if you really want to go to dinner when I'm done, it will be just the two of us."
"Okay."
As he stood to leave she grabbed the sleeve on his jacket.
"Danny?"
"Yeah?"
"What gave it away?
"You laughed."
"Everybody in the auditorium laughed."
"Yeah well, I can pick your voice out anywhere, anytime. It just took me a moment to locate your actual position."
He pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"I'll get this wrapped up as soon as I can. Get some more sleep."
She stepped out of the auditorium around fifty minutes later, feeling a little more human.
The lobby had emptied out, and Danny was now standing in the middle of a group of women.
She recognized Barbara, his agent, and the director of the School of Journalism, but the other three were unknown to her. Danny was holding court in that easy way that was second nature to him, and the women around him were responding as women always did.
Curling their hair behind their ears a little self-consciously, flashing shy smiles at him, preening just a little, and then throwing their heads back and laughing at one of his jokes.
"Ms. Cregg?"
The man standing at her elbow introduced himself as the university Provost, and shook her hand with enthusiasm.
"I'm sorry I didn't realize earlier that you'd be in the audience tonight."
CJ could feel a request coming on, so she simply shook his hand and waited.
She didn't have to wait long.
"I do hope we can tempt you to give a talk to our students sometime."
She was trying to come up with a diplomatic answer when she felt Danny's eyes on her.
He winked at her from across the room and excused himself before walking over to her side.
"Ready to go?" he asked as he put a hand on the small of her back.
"Yes. I'll just call for the car?"
"Sounds good. Thank you," he said as he extended a hand to the Provost.
"Thank you. Please tell me you'll think about my request," the man said to CJ before shaking her hand again.
"I will. Good night," she said as she pulled a phone out of her coat pocket and placed a call.
A few moments later they were sitting in the back of a town car and she relaxed into Danny.
"Well that was fun to watch," he teased.
"What?"
"I love it when men look at you with awe in their eyes."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's - don't worry about it."
"No, I'm serious."
Danny shrugged.
"Men like it when other men admire their women?"
"Why? Because they like it when other men's women admire them? Like your little gaggle tonight?"
Danny laughed.
"What can I say? Women want me."
"I recall you saying that once before."
Danny suddenly had the acute sensation that he'd walked into a minefield.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing."
"That didn't sound like nothing."
"I'm overtired and I'm saying nonsense. Let's just drop it, please?"
"Okay."
Danny waited till the end of dinner to bring the subject up again.
"What's bothering you?" he asked as he reached across the table for her hand.
"I don't know."
"I think you do."
"It's stupid. It usually doesn't bother me."
"What doesn't usually bother you?"
"Watching women fawn over you."
"They weren't fawning over me. They were flirting with me."
"And you were flirting back."
"If you consider paying them a few compliments, accepting theirs and teasing them a little, flirting back, then sure. I'm sorry it bothered you."
"I don't know why it did."
"I don't know either. It felt like you were gone longer than usual this time, even if you weren't. Maybe you felt it, too. Maybe it's because date night got botched by the telephone debacle. Loved the story, by the way. It read like one of the romances my sister would stash under her mattress."
"Now you're making fun of me."
"If you're feeling up to it, we can try it when we get back to the hotel."
"It isn't Sunday."
"So it's Thursday, sue me," he said as he signalled the waiter to bring the bill. "If we can't improvise once in a while, we'll grow into crusty old people."
"Actually .."
Something in her tone made Danny look up from his wallet.
"Yeah?"
"I'd like to introduce something new into the list."
"O-kay?"
"It's a memory from a conversation that didn't happen with you."
"I don't follow .."
He listened as she explained, and his eyes sparkled in amusement.
"I'll cut you a deal," he said. "We'll do yours if we can tie it in with another one of ours."
She listened to what he was proposing and all the grumpiness fled.
"What do you think?" he asked, after she'd had time to consider.
"I'd say you've got yourself a deal."