Page 6 of New Tradition

“Well, if that’s all, I need to get out of here and work on a real case.”

“I’m hurt. I’m paying you.”

Jax laughed swatted a hand at him. “Whatever. I’m leaving. But a piece of advice, she'll probably be fine with whatever you pick for her so just buy her a damn ring and propose.”

Samuel gave him a mock salute and thanked him for the advice.

4

Tuesday, December 11th

Erin

Erin sat at her desk in Senator-Elect Anette Ware’s temporary office space, finishing up a meeting with her boss.

“We’ll get access to the offices the day after Christmas, but the previous occupant is moving out today so I’ll do a walk-through before anything gets changed. They have a staff in there ready to move any furniture out we don’t want and bring new stuff in. Once I walk the space, we’ll figure out where everyone’s offices should be and how we want to use everything. I have an appointment with the woman in charge of all that on the twenty-sixth.”

Anette nodded. “Sounds good. Do you need me there for that?”

Erin frowned. “Why wouldn’t you be there for that?”

The woman laughed. “I’m thinking of going back to Colorado for the holidays to spend some time with my parents before the swearing in. They’re too elderly to travel much anymore, and I can work with Janelle on getting our Colorado offices in order.”

Erin felt her eyes go wide and did her best to control her expression. She’d been planning to spend the days surrounding Christmas getting her boss some meetings with senior members of the senate. One such member was the Senate majority leader, and he definitely played favorites. A good time to get into his good graces was over the Christmas break. The man was basically scrooge and worked the entire holiday. Erin enjoyed Christmas and would take time off, but she was hoping to earn Anette some influence during her first term as a senator.

“I’m sure I can handle the walk-through. I was going to set us up a meeting with Senator Hirschman on the twenty-first or the twenty-sixth.”

Anette frowned. “I’m sure you can take the meeting. It’s not that I don’t want to meet with him. I just need to spend this time with my parents. I hope you understand. We can meet with him after the twenty-seventh if you want me there. That’s when I’ll be back. I leave the Thursday before Christmas. But I really would rather them talk with you so you get solidified as my go-between.”

Erin sighed. That was going to complicate things for her and Samuel. If her boss was leaving town, there was no way she wanted to. Not this close to the swearing in when there were so many conversations to be had.

Anette stood to leave, and Erin stood with her. “I’ll make it all work. Thanks for the talk. We’ll head to the Givens baby shower tomorrow at two?”

Anette nodded. “That sounds perfect. I’ll be ready. If that poor girl doesn’t go into labor before then.”

For the next few hours, she returned phone calls and visited with staffers who came through her office. The job of chief of staff differed from running a campaign in that she wasn’t on the road constantly, but it was still a time-consuming job. She ran her boss’s day-to-day calendar and managed a staff of close to a hundred by the time she took everyone into account. Of course she had a team and could delegate a lot, but she was a perfectionist and often took on more than she needed to.

Her phone rang while she was reviewing a document regarding swearing in protocol for January third.

“This is Erin,” she answered.

“Hey girl. It’s Dakota. I’m calling to see if you’ll be here for the Christmas party.”

Erin frowned. She was sure she’d talked about the Christmas party with Samuel at some point, but couldn’t remember any of the details.

“I’ll have to look. When is it again?”

“The twenty-second.”

She winced. “Yikes. That’s a tough day for me. I’m trying to be in town when my boss isn’t, and she flies home on the twentieth. Let me see what I can work out. Maybe we’ll show up this weekend instead.”

Dakota sounded disappointed when she said, “OK. I was just checking. I feel like we haven’t seen y’all in forever.”

It hadn’t been that long since they were there. Then again, Samuel went every weekend he wasn’t out-of-town so staying home to keep up with her schedule had to be different for her. They’d been talking about joining the club in D.C., but she wasn’t sure how she felt about that given her job. Of course, that was before she found out that a former president’s son- and daughter-in-law were members along with a chief in the metro police department, a D.C. city council member, and a former secret service agent. Her new friends all assured her it would be safe and her identity would be protected, but it felt safer to attend parties at the exclusive club in Colorado.

“I promise, Dakota, I’ll bring him home soon. I know it’s him you really miss.”

Now Dakota sounded offended. “Give yourself some credit, girl. You’re one of us now and we miss you too and we would really love it if you came for the Christmas party.”

---