Page 99 of Dignity

“I do.”

She snuggles against me. “Because youaremy prophet. I’m no idiot. Maybe I would have won the nomination without you, but it wouldn’t have been by such a large margin, and it would’ve been a nail-biter the wholeway. I might not have made it through the dang debates without your advice. You and Chris are the only people I can truly trust to give me unvarnished advice, even if I don’t want to hear it.”

I nuzzle the top of her head. “I had to explain Portia and Priest to him.”

“I thought of the names for you two first and needed aPname to match.”

“Yes, I suppose the protection detail would have hada hard time keeping straight faces overPussyorPet.”

She softly giggles, and I know I’m privileged enough to be one of only two people on the face of the earth who get to hear that sound from her. “I thought aboutPineapple, except I knew the three of us would crack up every time we heard it, and I didn’t want to risk that.”

“True. That was wise.”

Her smile fades. “I thought about callingyou ‘Phoenix,’ but they nixed that one because it’s the city and might cause confusion.”

I didn’t need her to draw me a map to her line of thinking. “Did I regain my dignity, do you think?”

“You did withme, Sir.” She sighs. “This is it. The homestretch.”

I nod. “It is. You can do this.”

She probably will do this, if our poll numbers hold.

But it’s early. Damned early. All it takes is onefucking half-assed rumor or Russian troll-farm meme to gain traction and chip away at our comfortable lead.

We can’t get lazy, or sloppy.

We have to hit the ground running every morning. Once it’s seven p.m. Eastern time on Election Day, then we can take a deep breath and know it’s out of our hands.

Until then, we have no other speed except foot-to-the-floor.

For better or worse, I’m not justalong for the ride, but I’m in charge of the steering wheel.

That scares the fuck out of me.