Page 79 of Incisive

“Nope. It makes you a sane human to not want to subject yourself to her bullshit in your own house.”

“Well, technically notmyhouse.”

He laughs. “Yourresidence, Mister President.”

We finish and dry off and are settled in bed shortly after. I’ll still take my PDB every morning while my parents are here but other than the Christmas Eve mass, I’m not putting on a suit until after New Year’s unless I have to appear on camera in an official capacity. I want to spend as much time as I can in the residence with Mom and Dad. Although I know Jordan did order a couple of movies to show in the little private theater we have here in the White House.

Frankly, I’m just as happy watching them on TV upstairs but it is kind of fun to have an entire theater at your disposal, the popcorn machine—the whole experience.

And I’m looking forward to letting my parents try out the bowling alley, too.

We kind of have our own mini, self-contained theme park. I know Jordan’s also arranged for one of the White House historians to eat dinner with us one evening and then take Mom and Dad on a private tour of the building to go over all the interesting facts that I don’t even know about it.

These are the things I never thought about before I ran for office. I was so focused on achieving thatonebig goal that it blinded me to all the mundane ways I can still connect with Mom and Dad.

Yeah, I have more than a few regrets.

At least Jordan bought small presents for everyone to unwrap Christmas morning, so that’ll be fun. He also made several batches of Dad’s favorite cookies for them to take back with them. Plus we’re all going to attend the Christmas Eve mass at the National Cathedral. Not that I’m religious but it’s one of those really cool things to be able to experience. Mom and Dad will appreciate that, I’m sure.

Not having Stella and Ellis around to sour the mood is a fricking bonus.

And it’s more than a little sad that I now look at my relationship with Stella in that light.

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

THEN — END OF APRIL

I thinkit’s ironic that I’m enjoying high job performance ratings during my first one hundred days and Stella’s apparently miserable during her preparations for her wedding, which is happening this Saturday, three days from now.

I mean, I don’t even have to guess about that. I get that information second-hand via Jordan, Casey-Marie…and my own mother.

“Really, El, you’d think she’d be happy about her wedding.” Mom sounds exasperated. “But every time I talk to her she sounds grouchier than the last time. I know some of our friends have talked about girls turning into Bridezillas but this is absolutely ridiculous.” She sighs. “Honestly? If she wasn’t our daughter I would skip the whole thing.”

Wow. I’m surprised Mom’s talking like that about Stella. At least Stella isn’t trying to guilt my parents into paying any portion of the expenses. If she’d tried that I would have had words with her about it. My parents are in no position to shell out a ton of money they can’t afford just to stroke my sister’s inflated ego.

“Did she ever ask you for help picking stuff out?” I ask.

“No. Frankly, I’m glad she didn’t. If she’s this bad over the phone I can only imagine how insane she’s acting in person. Let her so-called ‘friends’ help her. It’s obvious she doesn’t want my input.”

Oof. That’s more than a little bitterness seeping into Mom’s tone. “At least you don’t have to stay down there,” I remind her. “You give me the high sign, and we’ll bounce as soon as you’re ready to leave. Perk of the rank, you know. Let me take the heat since I’m your ride.”

Finally, I get a soft laugh from her. “I won’t deny that’s a good thing. I have a feeling your father and Ellis will be getting into it before the end of the evening. He is definitelynothappy she’s marrying that man.”

Well, considering my sister’s fiancé is only a couple of years younger than Dad, I guess it might bother him at least a little.

Mom’s not done, either. “Ellis certainly isn’t my favorite person, that’s for sure. Acting like he’s doing us a favor by spending time with us. Flaunting his money all over but not bothering to ask how we’re doing. Not that we’re looking for a hand-out,” she quickly adds. “That’s not what I meant at all—”

“Mom, it’s okay,” I gently say. “I get it. He’s rich and that’s about the only thing he’s got going for him. Believe me, you’re being far more charitable to him than many of his co-workers over on the Hill.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He’s not a nice guy at work.” If this wasn’t my mother I wouldn’t be going here, but fuck it. I’m tired of keeping my mouth shut. “He has a pretty high staffing turnover rate and he’s only been in office a couple of months.”

“That’s not surprising,” she says. “I can imagine that. I feel sorry for anyone who has to work with him. He’s so rude. Are we sure he didn’t drug Stella to make her agree to marry him? She didn’t say anything about him before a couple of months ago. Once you were elected, all of a sudden she’s engaged and planning a wedding.”

This is one topic I won’t discuss with my mother because I don’t want her to waste her time or energy worrying about Stella when my sister has already proven herself to be a fairly skilled predator in DC.

“Who knows?” I say. “Maybe she knew the attention would be all on me and didn’t want to share the spotlight with me.”