Mirror Image

won’t recognize me.”
    “We don’t want to change you, Tate,” Dirk said expansively. “Only make you better.”
    He clapped Tate on the shoulder. Tate shrugged off his hand. “Gentlemen, I’d like to speak to my family in private, please.”
    “If there’s something to discuss—”
    Tate held up his hand to ward off their objections. “Please.” They moved toward the door reluctantly. Dirk shot Eddy a telling glance before they went out.
    “Carole, would you pour me a cup of that coffee, please?”
    “Certainly.” As she rose to do so, Tate dropped into an easy chair. She brought the requested cup of coffee and sat down on the upholstered arm of his chair. Tate took the coffee with one hand and casually draped his other over her knee.
    Eddy said, “Well, that was quite a speech.”
    “I tried it your way, Eddy. Against my better judgment, I let you hire them.” His gaze was direct and so was his statement. “I don’t like them.”
    “I’ll talk to them, tell them to back off a little.”
    “Wait,” Tate said, as Eddy headed for the door. “That’s not good enough. They don’t listen.”
    “Okay, I’ll tell them that by the end of this tour we want to see drastic improvements in the polls or else.”
    “Still not good enough.”
    “Then what do you suggest?”
    Tate looked at everyone in the room before saying, “Give them their walking papers.”
    “Fire them?” Jack exclaimed. “We can’t do that.”
    “Why not? We hired them, didn’t we?”
    “You just don’t shrug off a company like Wakely and Foster. You’ll never be able to use them again.”
    “I don’t consider that any great loss.”
    “You can’t do it,” Jack said stubbornly.
    Eddy pleaded, “Tate, I beg you to think about this carefully.”
    “I have. I don’t like them. I don’t like what they’re trying to do.”
    “Which is?” Jack’s tone was snide, his stance belligerent.
    “Which is to mold me into what they think I should be, not what I am. Okay, maybe I need some grooming. I could use some coaching, some finesse. But I don’t like things to be mandated. I sure as hell don’t like words put in my mouth when I don’t even agree with them.”
    “You’re only being stubborn,” Jack said. “Just like when you were a kid. If I told you you couldn’t do something, that’s exactly what you became damned and determined to do just to show me up.”
    Tate expelled a long breath. “Jack, I’ve listened to your advice, and it’s always been sound. I don’t want to second-guess you on this decision—”
    “But that’s what you’re doing, isn’t it?”
    “It was my decision, too,” Tate said, raising his voice. “Now I’m changing my mind.”
    “Just like that?” Eddy said, snapping his fingers. “With the election only a few weeks away, you want to switch horses in the middle of the stream?”
    “No, dammit, that’s what they were trying to do!” He shot out of his chair and pointed toward the door through which the two under discussion had passed.
    “They wanted to bend and shape me until I wouldn’t be recognizable to the voters who have backed me from the beginning. I’d be selling out. I’d be no better than Dekker. Slicker than owl shit. Two-faced. Double-dealing.” He was met with a wall of silent opposition from Eddy and his brother.
    He turned to Nelson. “Dad? Help me out here.”
    “Why ask for my help now? You’ve already let your temper get the best of you. Don’t ever get mad, Tate. Get even.”
    “How?”
    “Win.”
    “By keeping my mouth shut and taking their advice?”
    “Unless you feel that you’re being compromised.”
    “Well, that’s exactly where I am. I’d rather lose the election being myself than win and know I’ve had to compromise on everything I stand for. I’m sorry if none of you agrees.”
    “I’m on Eddy’s side,” Fancy said, “if anybody’s interested in my opinion.”
    “Nobody is,” Jack said to her.
    “Carole?”
    She had refrained from entering the verbal melee. Until Tate asked for her opinion, she intended to withhold it. Now that he had, she raised her head and looked up at him with newly formed intimacy and the wordless communication of lovers.
    “Whatever you decide is all right with me, Tate. I’m with you all the way.”
    “Oh, yeah? Since when?” Jack rounded on Tate. “You talk about compromises. Sleeping with her again is the biggest compromise you ever made, little brother.”
    “That’s enough,