Campaigning for Love novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Daddy's Girl

My father crossed the warehouse with a bouquet.

Donors stepped out of his way.

A woman holding a shrimp skewer said "Orrin!" and he said "Not now, I found my kid."

He reached the check-in table, dropped the roses on the name tags, and picked me up out of my chair.

I am five foot six, and my feet left the floor.

"Dad," I said into his lapel. "Dad, put me down."

"I haven't seen you in three weeks. I'll put you down when I'm done."

"People are looking."

"Good! Let 'em look!"

He set me down and held me at arm's length, beaming, with his eyes wet.

"You look like your mother when she was your age," he said.

"You look tired. Are they feeding you?"

"Why are you sitting at a card table? Who put my daughter at a card table?"

"Dad."

"Because I will say a word to that man."

"Dad, please."

I looked around.

The nearest circle of donors had gone silent, glasses halfway to their mouths.

Fifteen feet away, Constance Hubbell stood perfectly still.

I watched her face do arithmetic.

She saw the orange HALLAM FREIGHT banner, the man who owned it, the woman he was holding.

The name tag that read CORA DUNN, INTERN.

Her hand closed slowly around her glass.

"Everybody!" my father boomed.

He turned toward the crowd, one arm around my shoulders.

"This is my daughter, Cora Hallam. Graduated from Iowa State in May. Smartest person in this building."

"She's never taken a nickel from me, and she's working for this campaign, and I didn't even know about it until this second."

A ripple of applause went through the warehouse.

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