Page 95 of The Baller

I leaned over the island and kissed her. “Thank you. We’ll pick a bad movie and make out in the back row.”

“Sounds perfect,” she grinned as I went back to cleaning. “Hey, what’s this?”

I turned to find Radley holding up an envelope which she’d taken from the old baseball mitt we kept stuff in. An envelope with her name on.Oops. In my defense, Radley was entirely distracting.

“I was supposed to give it to you. It’s from Holiday.”

“Oh,” she replied, ripping it open while I finished tidying the kitchen. By the time I was done, she was holding something small in her hand, turning it over and over.

“What’s that?”

She held it out to me; a tiny gold four leaf clover ringed with emeralds hanging from a gold chain.

“This is cute…” I replied, “and kind of her. But what’s it for?”

She picked up the note Holiday had left with it. “She said it would bring me luck and strength.”

I placed it back in her open palm. “I think you’re strong enough all by yourself, and I’ve never seen anything to convince me otherwise.”

Her fist curled around the clover, and she hopped off her stool. “A little more never hurt anyone.”

“Very true.” I threw the dish towel in the sink. “Now, you have options. There’s ice cream and popcorn, a movie on the big screen where we can practice making out, or we can make out in bed.”

“What movie?”

“Your choice.” I nodded to the couch where she’d find the remote, and she wandered off.

I was pulling out a third tub of ice cream when my screen flashed up with a new message. Three missed calls and one voicemail all from Lowe Slater, the New York Lions head of communications. And a text.

Lowe: Lux, call me back, I’m sure you know what this is about… thx.

Icould take a guess.

If Lowe was calling, it meant our secret wasreallyout, and I couldn’t give less of a shit.

Radley was still flicking through movie options as I dropped a scoop of each flavor in a bowl, and grabbed the popcorn.

Lowe could wait until tomorrow.

I had more important things to do.

NINETEEN

RADLEY

Thanksgivingat the White House is full-on. Like, a lot.

Given this was the first Thanksgiving we’d had here, I hadn’t been entirely sure how chaotic it would be. But, based on the amount of times I’d been assured that tomorrow would be much,muchquieter, I was going with very chaotic. Everyone was rushing around to get their work done before the holiday break. Twice I’d seen members of staff hurrying around a corner, crash into each other, and send papers flying.

I could only imagine how Christmas was going to go.

In the twenty-four hours since I’d touched down on the South Lawn, I think I’d spoken to everyone who’d walked through the doors of the West Wing. I’d been paraded out to meet various chiefs of this and heads of that, made small talk with old political friends of my parents, changed clothes three times, and watched as my mom pardoned two Thanksgiving turkeys in the snow. Yup. Snow.

I’d been expecting the parade; Ihadn’texpected to do it alone. My brothers were supposed to be here too. Ben should have been with Millie and me on the flight down from New York, but conveniently missed it, and Henry hadn’t bothered to turn up at all.

Even today, I’d been swept up as part of my mom’s entourage to attend a Women of the Arts Breakfast – which I guess hadn’t been so bad – but I’d escaped at the first opportunity and run away as quickly as one was allowed to run in The White House. I was now safe in the Residence, sitting in the kitchen with a bowl of cereal for my lunch, while I cursed out my brothers.

The only upside to the chaos? Neither of my parents had been able to corner me about Lux. Because there was a ninety-nine percent chance they knew.

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