Page 72 of Kissing Kayley

I did the calculations in my head. “Okay. When do you need me there?”

“Where are you? How soon can you get to the VPOTUS residence?”

Shit.

I turned to sit on the edge of the bed. “I’m at the White House. Residence.”

“Oh. I didn’t have you listed as on duty there.”

“I’m… not on duty. It’s a personal visit.”

He hesitated. “Oh. OH! I forgot Bookworm’s still here. Okay. So you can grab a ride with one of the guys?”

I silently grumbled. “Yeah. I’ll get moving.”

“Thanks.”

And he hung up.

Kayley was sitting up now, the covers pulled around her.

“I’m sorry, baby.”

She nodded. “I heard.”

Ireealllyhated leaving it like this. “Kayley?—”

“You should get moving. You don’t want to keep them waiting.”

Fuck.

I stood, turned, and leaned in for a kiss. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

She smiled, and I hated that it looked forced. “I get it, Vic. I know the gig, remember? I’m going to roll over and go back to sleep for a little bit.”

I jumped into the shower just long enough to freshen up and quickly shave. When I emerged, Kayley lay on her side facing away from the bathroom, and I wasn’t sure if she was really asleep or not. When I rounded the bed, her eyes were closed.

Dammit.

With a sigh, I grabbed my go-bag and my phone and headed downstairs.

How long would she keep putting up with this?

Hopefully for a little bit longer. Ideally, I’d put in my retirement papers after the election. Sometime in the next few months between now and November, I needed to carve out a weekend and hammer this out once and for all with her.

CHAPTER 25

Kayley

The next several months evolved into a tragi-comedy of missed connections. Vic took two days off four weeks after Stella’s funeral, but a storm system blew in and tornadoes smashed radar equipment which grounded all air traffic out of DC for over twenty-four hours.

Two weeks later, I planned to fly to DC, but me and half my department ended up with food poisoning from a potluck birthday party celebration for one of the TAs. The only place I went was to huddle on my bathroom floor next to my toilet.

Four weeks later, Vic actually made it as far as Houston before his plane was grounded after a stopover there because a ground vehicle ran into it while it sat at the gate being loaded with luggage, and there were no other available flights to LA that would get him there in time.

I mean, he would have arrived literally three hours before he had to get back on a plane to DC.

I flew out to DC for the Fourth of July, but Vic and several other agents were pulled in at the last minute to work theSecretary of State’s detail for an overseas trip to the UK because a few of the original agents tested positive for measles after one of the agent’s kids caught it from an unvaccinated kid at daycare, and then that agent proceeded to pass it to fellow agents.