Chapter 10
Jake’s Birthday party was a rousing success, as all of Donna’s parties were, but there was
another layer of happiness to this celebration. Josh and Donna had met with the special
education assessment team the day before where they had been told that Jacob was not on
the autism spectrum.
It had lifted a weight that had been hanging on them for a long time and made Jake’s fourth
Birthday more special than it might have been ordinarily. Still, Donna stuck to their rule of a
few friends and family for the party.
“Where’s the Birthday boy?” Billy Fernandez asked coming in with his wife Jennifer and their
2 year old daughter Paige.
“Trying to get his hands on the cake.” Donna welcomed them. “Ally, will you take Paige into
the playroom?”
“Sure. Come on, Paige.” Ally took Paige by the hand. Since the Lyman and Fernandez
families were so close, Paige was almost another sister.
“There are adult treats and beverages in the dining room.” Donna told them.
“Is the boss in the dining room?” Billy asked.
“If, by boss you mean Josh, then yes he is.” Donna drawled.
“Thanks Donna.” Billy smiled and abandoned his wife to find Josh.
“Fred!” Josh called to him. “You can have one beer and then I’m enlisting your services to
put together a gift that laughingly claims only SOME assembly is required.”
“Those projects usually go better when you, you know, read the directions.”
“Please. Where’s the challenge in that?” Josh teased.
“I know now isn’t the time, but maybe after everyone leaves we could talk about Minnesota
for a few minutes?” Billy posed.
Josh sighed. “Yeah…I got Brian’s report this morning.”
“That’s another thing we need to discuss.” Billy noted.
“Brian’s having trouble?” Josh asked in surprise. Brian had always been a dependable
member of the team.
“Not so much with the campaign as with the candidate.” Billy hedged.
“He’s not getting along with Julie?” Josh’s volume went up and it got Ben’s attention. Ben
moved closer to his father.
“No, it’s…” Billy trailed off when he caught sight of Ben. “Hey Tiger!”
“How was Minnesota?” Ben asked.
“Cold.” Billy quipped. “People really shouldn’t live in a place that cold. Oh, Julie gave me
something to pass on to you.” Billy searched his jacket pockets until he came up with a
folded manila envelope and handed it to Ben. Ben turned the mangled thing over in his
hands a couple times before looking skeptically at Billy. “Hey, I’m not the postal service and
she assured me there wasn’t anything fragile inside.”
“Thanks.” Ben muttered. He was torn between wanting to know what was in the envelope and
wanting to hear what Billy had to say about Julie’s campaign. Finally, curiosity won out and
Ben escaped to his room to examine the contents of the envelope privately. Once he was
out of earshot, Billy continued his conversation with Josh.
“Brian gets along great with Julie. My concern is that he gets along a little too well with Julie.”
Billy waited for the implication to set in and it didn’t take long.
“Fred…” Josh whined. “Tell me straight. Do I need to make a staffing change?”
“That depends. Am I next on the list to be sent to Siberia if you pull him out?” Billy asked.
“Billy…”
“Not at this point. But someone needs to keep a close eye on things. Holly is on it right now,
but if his judgment gets clouded, she doesn’t have the clout to call him on it.”
“Right. Okay. Any more great news for me, young Jedi?” Josh deadpanned.
“Nope. That’s it.” Billy smiled. “Great news about Jake.”
“Yeah…” Josh went quiet. “It’s been tense around here for a few weeks. It feels good to have
this worry off our chests. Tonight, it’s cake for all. We’ll have Paige juiced up on such a
sugar high you’ll need to have her de-toxed.”
“This is retribution for taking Jake to the Circus isn’t it?”
“You know it.” Josh agreed. “There’s the man of the hour.” Josh picked up his son and spun
him in the air to the delight of everyone.
“Happy Birthday, Jake.” Billy told him.
“Where’s the present?” Jake asked.
“Jacob Lyman!” Donna chastised him from her spot at the other end of the table. “Sorry,
Billy, he got his manners from his father.”
“Hey!” Josh protested.
“Now that everyone is here, how about we sing Happy Birthday and blow out your candles?”
Donna suggested.
“Yeah!” Jake clapped his hands.
“Josh, where’s Ben?”
“He went upstairs.”
“Will you go get him and see if you can coax Tori down too?”
“I’ll try.”
Josh got Tori to come down with a promise that she could make a list of all the presents each
guest had brought to the party. When he opened Ben’s door, he found his son lying on his
bed reading something.
“Whatcha got there?” Josh plopped down on the bed next to his son and looked at the
contents of Julie’s mysterious envelope.
“Julie sent me stuff from the Winter Carnival. They had this ice palace and everything.” Ben
showed his dad the pictures and a small souvenir booklet about the Minnesota tradition.
“That looks pretty cool.” Josh looked it over. “It looks like I’ll be making a trip out there in the
next couple weeks. You want to come with me?”
Ben sat up in his excitement. “Seriously? Yes, when are we going?”
“I’ll have to look at my schedule and figure something out.”
“Is there a problem with the campaign?” Ben asked.
“What?” Josh stalled for time. “Ummm…not that I know of. I just think if someone hires Lyman
consulting they should see an actual Lyman or two once in awhile.”
“Okay.” Ben accepted the excuse although he was going to be keeping his eyes and ears
open. Tori wasn’t the only one in the family that could pick up information.
“Come down and have come cake before your brother gets his hands on it.” Josh advised
and met Tori in the hall with her pencil and notebook. She was doing pretty well with this
gathering since she knew everyone very well and she could easily escape to her room when
she needed a break. She even stayed in the room during the singing and while Jacob blew
out his candles. Josh watched his son blow out the candles on his cake and wondered what
Jake wished for. Looking around this gathering, Josh realized that personally, he couldn’t
wish for anything more than this kind of happiness.
But Josh also knew, through painful personal experience, that this kind of happiness was
very tenuous.
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“Over here.” Brian called to Josh and Ben. He wasn’t sure what was behind this impromptu
visit to Minnesota, but Josh didn’t do anything just for the hell of it; there WAS a reason.
“You didn’t have to meet us.” Josh told him when they got close enough to converse. “We
could have taken a cab.”
“It wasn’t a problem. We have a thing in the cities tonight anyway, so I just came up early.
Hey, Ben. How was the flight?”
“Boring.” Ben rolled his eyes in a way that reminded Brian of Josh. “Where’s Julie?”
“She’s having lunch with her dad. She’ll join us a little later.” Brian explained. “Did you have
luggage?”
“Nope, just these.” Josh said. “Lead the way.”
When they got on the road, Brian tried to subtly get some information from his boss about
the trip.
“I was surprised you made the trip over here right now with the gubernatorial race in Illinois
heating up.”
“It’s under control.” Josh assured him. “How are things going here?”
“We’ve had some nice write-ups, but we haven’t been able to move the needle much. I’m
hoping that the debates will-“
“That was all in the report. What’s not in the report?” Josh asked.
“I…don’t know what you mean.” Brian stammered a bit. Was he in trouble here? Josh had
told him when he took this assignment it was going to be a long shot. Maybe something had
changed?
“How’s the team here working together?”
“Holly and Julie have become thick as thieves. We’ve got a pretty good group at both offices
considering the budget we’re on. I thought things were going pretty well with everyone. Has
there been a complaint?”
“No, no, nothing like that.” Josh shook his head. “It’s just that reports are dry; numbers,
clippings, that kind of thing. I was looking for some color commentary.”
Ben watched the back and forth between the two men in the front seat. He’d put his IPOD
ear buds in his ears, pretending to be listening to his music in the hopes of picking up more
information, but Brian seemed to be as clueless about the reasons for this trip as Ben was.
“It’s a tight ship. Julie sets a great tone and she’s already earned a lot of loyalty from the
staff and volunteers.
“She’s not pulling the reins out of your hands at all?” Josh asked.
“No, at least not in public.” Brian laughed. “Though she does have some pointed questions
about ad buys I’d be happy to have you address.”
“What are you hearing from Taylor’s camp about the debate?” Josh asked.
“Very little. They’re pretending we’re invisible.” Brian told him.
“Poor strategy. They won’t be able to do that on the debate stage.” Josh commented.
“He might try it.” Brian stated. “I haven’t seen someone this arrogant on the stump for a long
time.”
“But when the quantities are unknown, sometimes arrogance is mistaken for confidence. He
sure tried that in my office.” Josh rebutted. “Julie’s wide-eyed innocent thing won’t work in the
debate either.”
“I know. We’re prepping for it. She’ll be confident without straying into the cocky territory.”
Brian assured him.
Ben wasn’t sure what his dad meant by the wide-eyed innocent thing, but he didn’t like the
way it sounded. How could somebody who loved hockey be wide-eyed and innocent?