After Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page B

coffee,” he said absently. “You’re an overpaid public official with administrative duties. If you bring me coffee, secretarial unions will storm the office and sacrifice me on the White House lawn.”
    She knew this speech by heart. She just smiled. “Cream and sugar?”
    â€œYes, please,” he replied with a grin.
    She went out to get it, laughing at his irrepressible overreaction. He always made her laugh. She couldn’t resist going with him to political rallies where he was scheduled to speak, because she enjoyed him so much. He was in constant demand as an after-dinner speaker.
    â€œHere you go,” she said a minute later, reappearing with two steaming cups. She put hers down and sat in the chair beside his desk with her pad and pen in hand.
    â€œThanks.” He was studying another piece of legislation on which a vote would shortly be taken. “New stuff on the agenda today, Derrie. I’ll need you to direct one of the interns to do some legwork for me.”
    â€œIs that the lumbering bill?” she asked, eyeing the paper in his lean hands.
    â€œYes,” he said, mildly surprised. “Why?”
    â€œYou’re not going to vote for it, are you?”
    He scowled as he lifted his cup of coffee, fixed with cream just as he liked it, and looked at her while he sipped it gingerly. “Yes, I am,” he replied slowly.
    She glared at him. “It will set the environment back ten years.”
    â€œIt will open up jobs for people who can’t get any work.”
    â€œIt’s an old forest,” she persisted. “One of the oldest untouched forests in the world.”
    â€œWe can’t afford to leave it in its pristine condition,” he said, exasperated. “Listen, why don’t you meet with all those lobbyists who represent the starving mothers and children of lumbermen out west? Maybe you can explain your position to them better than I could. Hungry kids really get to me.”
    â€œHow do you know they were really starving and not just short a hot lunch?”
    â€œYou cynic!” he exclaimed. He sat forward in his chair. “Hasn’t anybody ever explained basic economics to you? Ecology is wonderful, I’m all for it. In fact, I have a very enviable record in South Carolina for my stand against toxic waste dumps and industrial polluters. However, this is another issue entirely. People are asking us to set aside thousands of acres of viable timber to savean owl, when people are jobless and homeless and facing the prospect of going on the welfare rolls—which is, by the way, going to impact taxpayers all the way from Oregon to D.C.”
    â€œI know all that,” she grumbled. “But we’re cutting down all the trees we have and we’re not replacing them fast enough. In fact, how can you replace something that old?”
    â€œYou can’t replace it,” he agreed. “You can’t replace people, either, Derrie.”
    â€œThere are things you’re overlooking,” she persisted. “Have you read all the background literature on that bill?”
    â€œWhen I have time?” he exploded. “My God, you of all people should know how fast they throw legislation at me! If I read every word of every bill…”
    â€œI can read it for you. If you’ll listen I’ll tell you why the bill is a bad idea.”
    â€œI have legislative counsel to advise me,” he said tersely, glaring at her. “My executive legislative counsel is a Harvard graduate.”
    Derrie knew that. She also liked Mary Tanner, an elegant African American woman whose Harvard law degree often surprised people who mistook her for a model. Mary was beautiful.
    â€œAnd Mary is very good,” she agreed. “But you don’t always listen to your advisors.”
    â€œThe people elected me, not my staff,” he reminded her with a cold stare.
    She almost challenged that look. But