Page 102 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

“Maybe a little, but I’d never flatten your tires or burst your spleen if you told me you didn’t want to be with me anymore.”

“Well, since I no longer have a spleen, that’s good to know.”

Smiling, he reached up to caress her face. “I’d never hurt any part of you, no matter what you said you wanted—or didn’t want.”

“Same. I don’t have puncturing tires in me, in case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t, but that’s good to know.”

“Can we get back to kissing now?”

Smiling wider now, he said, “If we must.”

“We must. We absolutely must.”

When Sam got home to the residence, she had to go looking for the kids, who were in the third-floor conservatory playing a game of Jenga with Eli.

“You’re still here,” Sam said to him as she hugged Aubrey and Alden and messed with Scotty’s hair. “I thought you had to go back to Princeton.”

“Tomorrow. The one class I had today was canceled, so I decided to stay. Celia got invited out to dinner with her sisters, so I told her I’d hold down the fort here.”

“We’re glad to have you, and I bet these guys are, too.”

“I’m so happy Lijah is here,” Aubrey said. “He gets to come for a whole month next week.”

“That’s going to be so much fun,” Sam said, smoothing her fingers over the little girl’s damp hair. “Thanks for overseeing baths.”

“My pleasure,” Eli said. “I wish I could do it more often.”

“You’ll have a whole month together very soon.”

“I can’t wait.”

“No sign of Dad yet?”

“We heard he got called to the Situation Room around seven,” Scotty said.

“Ugh,” Sam said. “What now?” She’d already grown to hate the Situation Room and everything that went on there.

“Mom, wait until you see how high Eli can get the Jenga,” Scotty said.

Sam hung with them for an hour, heard everything that’d happened that day, was impressed by Eli’s Jenga skills and delighted by the squeals of laughter from the twins when the tower collapsed with a huge crash. She and Eli wrangled the Littles into bed around nine.

“Three more school nights, and then you’re on vacation,” she told them as she tucked them in after one quick story from their big brother.

“Will you be here in the morning, Lijah?” Alden asked.

“I certainly will. I’ll see you before school, and then I’ll be back this weekend.” He gave them both noisy kisses that made them giggle before leaving them to sleep. “They’re so damned cute.”

“They certainly are.”

He ran a hand over the back of his neck, his expression tense. “I hate having this custody thing hanging over us with Christmas coming.”

“Hopefully, the judge will agree to hear the case this week. If there’s any benefit to living here, it’s that when the president asks for something, people tend to listen.”

“I sure hope so. I’ve got some work to do for class tomorrow.”

Sam gave him a quick hug. “I’ll see you in the morning. Keep reminding yourself what Andy said about having the advantage in this situation because your dad and Cleo were very specific about what they wanted for the kids.”

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