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“All right. Still going to blindside your parents with it?”

“At least this way they’ll be right there,” I reason. “They’ll find out at the same time everyone else does.”

“And Stellis? Do we let them attend?”

My sister’s already requested two tickets to both the swearing in and the first ball of the night.

“Yeah,” I say. “But I want Mom holding the Bible for me this time for the swearing in.”

“If you propose to Leo before then he can hold it for you.”

“That’s a good point,” I admit. “I could still ask him to hold it for me, though.”

He gives metheeyebrow. “Seriously, Elliot?” Yes, we’re alone. “You know damned well he won’t unless you’re already publicly an item.”

“Also a good point.” I mull it over. “I’ll get back to you on that. But the proposal will happen on inauguration day. In public. Not like I’ll be upstaging anyone but myself.”

He bobs his head back and forth. Now that I think about it I realize Casey-Marie’s likely picked up the gesture from him. “True.”

There’s a knock on the Oval Office door, the one to my outer office. “Come.”

Suzanne, my administrative assistant, pokes her head in. “Your next meeting is here, Mister President.”

Saved by the bell, so to speak.

Jordan and I both stand and I pull on my blazer. “Thanks, Suzanne. Send them in, please.”

CHAPTERFORTY-FIVE

What cementsmy decision to wait until inauguration day is that once I propose, Leo won’t be able to work for Shae any longer. I mean he can, but the security logistics will turn insanely complex if he does.

Over the next several weeks I mull my options regarding the exact time to propose on inauguration day—at the first ball or at the swearing-in ceremony. There is definitely something very tempting about proposing during a moment where everything I say and do will literally be beamed live across the entire world.

Maybe thatisa little overkill.

Leo isn’t able to spend many nights with us at the White House. Other than the week of Christmas, Shae and Kev are on the move and making frequent appearances both locally and across the country and Leo travels with them. Then Chris asks Leo to accompany Shae and Kev on yet another two-week speaking tour right after New Year’s. Yes Shae has Secret Service protection, but Chris is overly protective and the kids are in school. That means he needs to stay home with them and can’t travel.

Meaning Chris wants Leo to help keep his precious pets safe.

They will return to Washington the day before the inauguration because Shae, Chris, Kev, the kids—and Leo, of course—are attending my swearing in and other festivities.

Including the first ball of the evening.

Where I’m proposing.

Hopefully.

Barring any stupid interruptions from the little fucker in North Korea, or some other psychopathic asshole in a distant, despotic regime, or an attack by a terrorist.

It also means I can’t send Leo and Jordan out alone on one final date night but I hope Leo doesn’t mind.

I don’t think he will.

Shae and her family—and Leo—will spend inauguration eve in Blair House. The logistical complication is that my parents are spending two nights in DC. Casey-Marie suggested she take point on that one and handled it for me at Christmas, warning them in advance that since they’re flying in the evening before, and that there would be a lot of logistical stuff and maintenance happening at the White House over those forty-eight hours, and since I was going to be out late anyway that night with the balls going on, they’d be staying at Blair House.

That was one-hundred-percent bullshit but it’s not likeIlied to them, and they don’t know any better.

Plus she reassured them that Stella and Ellis are staying in their DC townhouse and not at Blair House, since they’re local.