by Marie Force
“Hey,” Sam said when she came into the kitchen, “you’re back! Are you feeling better?”
Staring at Sam’s egregiously bruised face, Shelby tried to find the words, but all she could manage was a small nod.
“What’s wrong?” Nick asked.
There could be no putting this off. She simply couldn’t move forward without talking to them about it. But first things first. “You’re doing okay?” she asked Sam. Her face was purple with bruises, but her startling blue eyes were clear and as sharply focused as ever.
“Better today, thanks.”
“You gave us one heck of a scare.”
“Sorry. We’ve missed you around here.”
“About that.” Shelby took a deep breath. “Could I talk to you guys about something?”
“Of course.” Nick stood and held a chair for her.
“Is it the baby?” Sam asked.
“You heard about that, huh?”
“I did and I’m so happy for you. I know how much you’ve wanted a child.”
“I do. I want him or her so much.”
Sam reached out and took her hand. “We owe you an apology.”
“We do?” Nick asked.
“Because of Avery,” Sam said.
Nick immediately went tense, and this time Shelby knew why. “What about him?” Nick asked. “Things are going well with you guys, right?”
“They were. Before I found out he had feelings for Sam that no one told me about.”
The silence between the three of them was as discomforting as anything Shelby had ever experienced.
“There was never anything between him and me,” Sam said, probably as much for Nick’s sake as Shelby’s.
His face was set in a stony expression Shelby had seen at other times when Avery was around or his name was mentioned.
“I’ve done nothing at all to encourage any feelings he might have for me,” Sam said.
“But you were aware he had them?”
Sam glanced at Nick, who still hadn’t blinked. “Yes.”
“Both of you knew. This is why Nick hates him, and I could never figure out why. I feel like such a fool that all of you knew this and I didn’t.”
“What would you have had us say?” Sam asked. “You were clearly taken with him, and I’d never do anything to ruin that for you. Whatever feelings he had for me were his alone. It had nothing to do with me.”
“You should’ve told me.”
“Shelby.” Sam waited until Shelby looked at her before she continued. “There has never been nor will there ever be anything between him and me other than collegiate friendship. I’m happily married, and he knows that. Why in the world would I want to ruin my friend’s happiness by telling her the guy she adores used to be into me?”
“I don’t think it’s as past tense as you’d like to believe.”
“What does that mean?” Nick asked.
“He’s not as over you as we’d all like him to be.”
“How do you know?” he asked. “Did he tell you that?”
“He didn’t have to. If you could’ve seen him when he got home from taking your statement, you’d know what I mean.”
“Son of a bitch,” Nick muttered.
“I love you guys,” Shelby said tearfully. “You’re more than my employers. You and Scotty are like family to me. It hurt me so much to know that you’d kept this from me.”
“We love you, Shelby, and I promise we never intended to hurt you,” Sam said. “It’s not something we like to talk about around here. His feelings have caused a few problems for us too.”
Shelby glanced at Nick. “When you encouraged me to go out with him it was to keep him away from Sam, not because you thought he’d be good for me.”
“I’m guilty as charged on that, and I apologize,” Nick said sincerely. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I know this is the worst possible timing with your new job starting and everything that happened this week, but I’d like to take some vacation days if that’s all right. I need to get out of town for a while and figure things out.”
“Of course,” Nick said. “Take as much time as you need.”
“You aren’t going to quit, are you?” Sam asked.
“No. I’m not going to quit, but I hope you understand why I needed to talk to you guys about this.”
“Yes, we understand,” Sam said as Nick nodded. “We were shitty friends to you on this issue, and we could’ve done better.”
Satisfied by their apologies and relieved to have cleared the air, Shelby got up and wrapped her fluffy pink scarf around her neck. “I’ll be back in a couple of weeks. You’ll let Scotty know that I’m on vacation and I’ll text him?”
“We will.” Sam got up, moving slower than usual, and hugged Shelby. “Let us know how you’re doing, okay?”
“You do the same. I’m sorry for all you went through this week. I hope they’re going to put that guy where he belongs this time.”
“He’s going away for a long time.”
“Good. I’ll see you soon.” Shelby left their house and walked to the corner to grab a cab home. She had a vacation to plan.
* * *
“I want that guy sent to Timbukfuckingtu,” Nick said the minute the front door closed behind Shelby.
“He’s not our problem,” Sam reminded him. “Whatever he thinks or feels, it has nothing to do with us.”
“How can you say that when she just basically told us she thinks he’s still in love with you?”
“I’d much rather focus on the fact that our actions—or our failure to act—hurt someone we care about.”
“It wasn’t like we set out to intentionally harm her. How were we supposed to broach that subject with her when she was gone over the guy?”
“I don’t know, but we should’ve tried.”
“Maybe so,” he conceded. “But I still want him out of our lives.”
“Nick, I’m telling you right now, if you fuck with his career, I’ll withhold sex for a year.”
“You wouldn’t last a week,” he said dismissively.
“Wanna make a bet?” She stared at him until he blinked.
“No, not really.”
“Promise me you won’t do anything to mess with him.”
He replied with the stony look he got whenever Hill’s name came up.
“Nick.”
“Fine! I promise. Are you satisfied?”
“Yes, extremely, and you will be too over the next year. Now let’s change the subject.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
“Since I missed the reception the other day, I’d like to see your new office. Can we do that today?”
“I don’t know about going over there today when they’re all hot on this issue of you having protection.”
“I’m not worried about that. My husband threatened to quit his job if they push that subject, so there’s no reason to stay away.”
“You really want to go to the White House?”
“Well, no, not really, but I’d love to see your new office.”
He smiled at her reply and said, “All right then. That’s what we’ll do.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
She turned his picture frames upside down and knocked the neat stacks of files on his desk out of alignment. On the paper calendar he kept on the desktop, she drew little hearts around the words Sam loves Nick.
He stood back and let her have her fun, the way she always did whenever she got a chance to mess with what she called his anal-retentive freakazoidisms. After the events of this past week, he didn’t care if she made a total disaster of the place. As long as she was alive and able to mess with him, that was all that mattered.
“Seen enough yet?”
“What’s in there?” she asked, pointing to a door.
“A bathroom.”
“You’ve got your own bathroom?”
“I’m the vice president, babe. I have my own plane.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t let it go to your head, big shot.” Getting up from his desk, she wandered over to take a look at the bathroom. “Wow, you’ve even got a shower in there, so when I come over for nooners, we can clean up after. Good to know.”
“Samantha...”
His low growl had her turning to smile innocently at him. “Yes?”
“How am I supposed to work here when all I’ll be thinking about is bending you over my desk?”
She returned to the desk, placed her palms in the center and gave him a come-hither look. “Why imagine it when you can have the real thing?”
“That’s not happening here.” He pointed to the camera in the corner of the room.
“Oh, snap. That could’ve been embarrassing.”
“You think?” he asked with a bark of laughter. “You’re a danger to my career.”
“As I recall, I tried to tell you that way back when you were talking me into ‘just a year’ in the Senate to complete John’s term. And look at us now.”
“Indeed. Look at us now.” He held out a hand to her and she came around the desk to take it. “Let’s get out of here before they make me work today when I told them I was taking the day off to take care of my injured wife.”
“My injuries do require your constant care.”
“Mmm, I feel a nap coming on before the boy gets home from school.”
Sam grabbed her purse from the desk. “Let’s go.”
They were on their way to a clean getaway when the president’s chief of staff, Tom Hanigan, stopped them. “Mr. Vice President, Mrs. Cappuano, it’s good to see you. You’re looking well.”
“No, I’m really not,” Sam said with a laugh, “but it’s nice of you to say that.”
“We’re glad you’re all right.”
“Did you need something, Tom?” Nick asked.
“The president would like a word if you have a minute.”
“Do we have a minute?” Nick asked Sam.
“I suppose we could make some time for the president.” The sheer lunacy of the statement wasn’t lost on her.
“Oh, um, he was hoping for a minute alone with you, sir. I could see Mrs. Cappuano back to your office if you’d like.”
“Since we both know he wants to talk to me about her, there’s no reason she can’t be there.”
“As you wish, sir.”
As they followed him through the halls of the West Wing, Sam looked up at Nick and mouthed the word hot, rubbing her knuckles over her chest.
He mouthed the word stop, pointing again to cameras mounted in the hallway.
Sam muffled a laugh with her hand over her mouth while he shook his head at her irreverence.
Tom went straight to the Oval Office and knocked on the door before continuing inside.
Sam’s eyes got very big as she followed both men into the most famous office in the world.
Nelson stood and came around his desk to greet them. “Nick, it’s so good to see you, and Mrs. Cappuano.”
“Please call me Sam, and don’t bother to say I look well, sir. We all know that’s a lie.”
Nelson laughed at her cheekiness. “We’re happy to see you alive. That’s all that matters.”
“Indeed,” Sam said as she tried to take in—and memorize—every detail of the Oval Office. She wanted to pinch herself to believe she was actually standing in the room she’d heard about all her life.
“Have a seat,” Nelson said, gesturing to the gathering of chairs and love seats in the middle of the room.
Sam and Nick sat together on one of the love seats, while Nelson and Hanigan took easy chairs.
“I understand you spoke to Ambrose yesterday,” Nelson said, cutting to the chase.
“I did.” Nick hesitated for a moment before he continued. “I want you to know, sir, that I appreciate the amazing opportunity you’ve given me. However, my wife and family will always come first. I cannot and I will not ask her to be anything other than who and what she is.”
Sam’s heart swelled with love for him, and despite her intense dislike of PDA, she took hold of his hand and linked their fingers.
“We understand where you’re coming from, Nick. We really do. However, this is a much bigger issue now. You have to know that.”
“I do. We both do.” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat, betraying his true feelings even as he stuck to his guns with the president. “And it’s a risk we’re willing to take so Sam can continue the career she loves. I won’t ask her to give that up, and we all know she’d have to if she had protection.”
“I have to be honest with you,” Nelson said. “It makes me extremely uncomfortable that the whole world now knows the vice president’s wife is unprotected.”
“I understand. Trust me, it makes me extremely uncomfortable too.”
“But you’re unwilling to bend on this?”
Nick glanced at Sam before he replied. “I’m unwilling to bend. If you’d like me to resign, say the word and you’ll have my letter by the end of the day.”
“That’s the last thing any of us want.”
“Then I’m afraid we’re at an impasse.”
“So it seems, but I do appreciate your candor. I’d like to consult with my national security team before we make any decisions. Mrs. Cappuano... Sam. I hope you know our concerns are in no way a reflection of you or your abilities as a police officer.”
“I understand.” In their shoes, she’d be doing the same thing.
Nelson stood to signal the conversation was over. He shook hands with both of them. “Tom will see you out. Thanks for coming by and I hope you feel back to normal very soon.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Holding hands, Sam and Nick walked out of the White House to the SUV the Secret Service had waiting for them.
“Thank you for that,” she said when they were in the car.
Nick leaned over to kiss her. “Anything for you.”
Epilogue
Shelby chose Bermuda because it was a short plane ride and because it was beautiful and tranquil and one of her friends had a house there that she was happy to lend to Shelby on short notice.
Her vacation came together rather well given that she hadn’t planned it months in advance the way she always planned everything. For all the good that had done her. Wearing a pink floral maxi-dress, she walked along the water’s edge at sunset on her fourth day in paradise, her hand curved protectively over her abdomen.
She couldn’t wait to be fat and round with pregnancy. She’d be forty-three when the baby was born, and she felt like she’d waited a lifetime for this moment. Nothing, not even the possible end to a promising romance, could detract from her joy at realizing her long-held dream of becoming a mother.
If it were just going to be the two of them, they’d be the happiest twosome in the history of the world. She’d take her baby with her everywhere she went, and she’d devote her life to giving her son or daughter the best possible childhood. Just knowing the baby was growing inside her made Shelby feel less alone.
She walked until the sun began to dip beneath the horizon and then turned back. Trudging along the water’s edge, she enjoyed the gentle lap of the water against her feet and ankles.
With the darkness descending quicker than she’d expected, she picked up the pace and was breathing hard by the time she cut up the beach to the stairs that led to her friend’s beachfront home.
As she approached the stairs, she stopped short, gasping at the
sight of a broad-shouldered man sitting on the stairs.
“Is this beach taken?” he asked in that honeyed Southern accent that had made her weak-kneed from the first time she ever heard it.
When she recovered her breath, she said, “What’re you doing here?”
“I came for you.”
I came for you. Do not swoon, Shelby Lynn. Do. Not.
“How did you find me?”
He scoffed. “I’m an FBI special agent, darlin’. I find things—and people—for a living.”
“What do you mean, you came for me?”
“Just what I said. The second you walked away, I knew I’d made a huge mistake letting you leave.” He reached out and took hold of her hand, drawing her down to the step next to him. “I love what we have together, Shelby. I love who I am with you and how I want to be worthy of you and your baby. Our baby.”
“It might not be our baby.”
“I want that baby to be ours, and I don’t care in the least if I actually fathered him or her.”
“You don’t? Really?”
“I don’t care. All I care about is that you and the baby are healthy and safe and in my life to stay.”
“The other day, when you came home...”
“I was messed up after having to hear what that bastard Stahl put my friend Sam through during a hellacious afternoon and evening. I was upset and concerned and sad that it had happened to her. I’m sorry if I didn’t properly convey that to you. For what it’s worth, I was looking forward to going home to you, knowing you were waiting for me.”
Damn hormones had her teary-eyed as his sweet words seeped into her broken heart, filling the cracks and mending the wounds. “Don’t say all this if you don’t really mean it.”
“I never would.”
“I have to ask, because I’d like to believe I’m not a total fool. What about Sam?”
His lips tightened with what might’ve been displeasure, but Shelby refused to back down from the question that needed an answer. “Sam is my colleague and my friend. I probably don’t have to tell you that she’s a pretty amazing person. I admire her, and I’m more than a little intimidated by her at times, but please don’t tell her I said that. She’ll be insufferable. I’ll never deny I was dazzled by her and at times I continue to be dazzled by the way she does her job, but I’m not in love with her.”