Page 79 of False Evidence

If they were lucky, they’d have a dining room table in a week. A finish carpenter had been hired to build custom shelving for the living room and Alexandra’s home office after the New Year.

JT had returned late this morning, and the first thing they did was go out and buy a Christmas tree, which was now set up but not decorated in the living room. They’d been on a tight schedule to make it to the fundraiser to play Santa and elf once again.

Now she took JT’s hand, and they slipped out the back so they could remove their costumes. They’d agreed to stay for one drink to appease Joe and Lisa, and then they would leave.

Alexandra helped JT remove the beard, not wanting to spend a minute more than she had to mingling without him. She and Senator Talon had gotten off to a bumpy start, but after two years, the tension between them had eased. She was genuinely fond of him when they weren’t at political or charitable events, where he viewed her as a prop—an extension of JT.

At private family gatherings, he relaxed and was genuine. He was warm to his wife and sons. She got along well with Lisa, who’d told her this evening how excited she was that she and JT were finally moving in together.

But by far Alexandra’s favorite member of the Talon family—outside of JT—wasn’t a Talon at all. Lee Scott was the brother she’d always wanted. They were just a year apart in age, and he had a wicked, dry sense of humor. She’d tried to fix him up with Kendall—before she knew she was secretly still seeing Brent—and had been so disappointed when it didn’t work out.

He was a fine man who would make some woman very lucky one of these days.

In the last two years, he’d started his own consulting business providing computer and cell phone security. In DC, businesses and individuals who needed tight security from hackers were in abundance, and a few months ago, he’d purchased a three-bedroom condo at the Watergate.

The night Alexandra arrived home to find her roommate screwing her enemy on the couch, JT had been sent on a last-minute business trip to Brazil. Alexandra had called Lee, who arrived thirty minutes later to help her pack up and vacate the apartment she’d lived in for four years.

She’d moved into the guest bedroom in Lee’s condo until JT signed the papers and she was given keys to the townhouse.

Lee had her eternal gratitude. She couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have met two amazing men the night she would need them most.

Fate was looking out for her.

She’d donned a designer dress for the cocktail reception, having accepted in the months after she and JT started dating that dressing the part of a politically ambitious millionaire’s girlfriend was nonnegotiable. So while she wouldn’t let him subsidize her living expenses when she lived with Kendall, she did let him buy her clothes.

She now had quite a wardrobe and an even bigger jewelry collection. JT loved buying her jewels. That first Christmas, he’d given her an emerald necklace and earrings that had to cost more than her car.

She hadn’t been able to afford a gift for him that year, so she’d baked him a pie. She’d made the crust from scratch and the pumpkin puree had been homemade, but still, it was a small gift.

He’d loved the pie and assured her it was a perfect present for a man who could buy himself whatever he wanted, the one exception being her time and attention.

And so that was how their gift giving continued. He bought her jewelry, and she gave him treats made with love. The first item she’d baked in the townhouse had been the chocolate cheesecake she would give him tonight.

And then she’d go down on him in front of the Christmas tree, wearing nothing but whatever jewelry he planned to give her tonight.

She smiled as she fixed his tie, making sure it had the perfect dimple. “Are you sure we have to mingle before we can go home?”

“God, I love the sound ofhomecoming from your lips. But yeah. One drink.”

She huffed out a sigh. “I suppose it’s a good cause.” The kids had been adorable tonight, and this time, the only tears had been happy ones. One nine-year-old got an adorable rescue puppy and would receive lessons on how to train it because they were finally moving into an apartment that allowed pets.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when the boy met his new dog and immediately got a face bath from the puppy.

“You love this event,” JT said.

“I love the kids. I wish they could all have puppies.”

“I do too. But that was a special case. The bicycles were fun this year.”

Two kids had gotten bicycles, a gift that, like a puppy, was hard to disguise so they couldn’t wait for morning. There was something to be said for getting to watch the kids open their gifts—which wasn’t something they usually got to do.

Alexandra looked forward to when she’d have her own kids and could savor the moment of watching them open gifts on Christmas.

ChapterTwenty-Nine

Catoctin Mountain, Maryland

Present

---