Page 108 of State of Alert

“Soooo lucky.”

His huff of laughter made her smile. Whatever she could do to give him some relief from the stress.

Sam changed into a tank and pajama pants and joined him to brush her teeth at side-by-side sinks, thankful that she got to begin and end every day with him. No matter what those days brought—and it was always something crazy for both of them—having this time together when the day was done made it all bearable.

She crawled into bed and straight into his warm embrace. With her head on his bare chest and his arms tight around her, she exhaled, letting go of the stress, aggravation and anxiety that accompanied her days.

“Are you really okay or are you just saying it?” she asked him after a long period of silence.

“I really am. I keep telling myself that none of this is my fault. I just need to keep showing up, doing the job and powering through while the circus swirls around me. Any time it gets to be too much, I picture you and the kids and our life together, and that calms me. All I have to do to feel better is think of you and us.”

“I love that, and it’s the same for me. When my day is going sideways, I take a little mental side trip to visit you and instantly feel better. I used to do that during the years after we first met. I’d think about one perfect night with the most amazing man and wish for everything I have now.”

“Ugh, all those years we missed out on infuriate me.”

“We’ve got the rest of our lives to make up for lost time.”

She needed to tell him about the call from Worthy and Scotty’s problems in social studies class, but that stuff would keep for now.

He’d had more than enough for one day—and so had she.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

When she strolled into her first lady office suite in the East Wing at seven the next morning, both Roni and Lilia were waiting for her. Every strand of Lilia’s dark hair was perfectly in place, along with her trademark pearls. She wore a sharp lavender suit with a matching silk blouse. Roni wore a navy maternity suit with a patterned silk blouse. Her dark hair was in a ponytail, and Sam noticed her cheeks had gotten fuller as her pregnancy progressed.

“How do you two pull off the pressed-and-polished look at seven a.m. when I look like roadkill?”

Both women laughed.

“You do not look like roadkill,” Lilia said.

“Next to you, I always do.”

“Not true.”

“We all look like roadkill next to Lilia,” Roni said, earning a playful scowl from her boss as Lilia led them into the conference room.

“I took the liberty of ordering breakfast for us,” Lilia said.

Sam saw omelets, fresh fruit and coffee waiting for them. “My God, I love you and don’t deserve you.”

“Stop,” Lilia said, laughing. “Just doing my job.”

“You’re the best at it. Both of you… I so appreciate everything you do to make me look good. Freddie shows me the Instagram and Facebook posts. They’re brilliant and make me sound like the perfect first lady when I’m anything but.”

“We hear every day how much people admire you for holding down a job outside the White House,” Lilia said, “when most people would’ve stepped away from that to be a full-time first lady.”

“That’s what I probably should’ve done.”

“Nah, it’s all good,” Roni said. “You’re making it work. I did a bunch of research yesterday and took a first cut on your speech for Tom, figuring you could add some personal anecdotes.” She handed over a clipped pile of pages. “It’s very rough.”

As she sipped her coffee, Sam read through the draft. “How can you say this is rough? It’s outstanding and just the tone I was hoping to strike. I was so worried about getting it right, but I can see now I shouldn’t have been.”

“Oh good,” Roni said. “I’m so glad it works for you.”

“It’s perfect.”

“Great, then I’ll send it to your work email so you can make any tweaks. When you’re done, send it back to me, and I’ll print it out for you and make sure it gets put on the teleprompter at the cathedral tomorrow.”

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