Page 145 of State of Affairs (First Family 1)

“I already am! You’re here, aren’t you?”

He chuckled as he closed her door.

Sheesh! How accommodating was she supposed to be, anyway? On the way out of the neighborhood, she drove by Clarissa’s home and groaned at what a waste of time it was to have this stupid meeting at the White House when she also needed to speak with D’Andre.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

By the time she arrived at her new home, Sam had worked up a steaming head of pissed off.

At the checkpoint, the young agent on duty did a double take when he realized the first lady was driving her own car. Or maybe it was the steam coming out of her ears that had the young man taking a step backward as he waved her through.

Lilia was waiting for her inside the door, looking prim and proper and put together, right down to the elegant strand of pearls and the leather portfolio she carried. She looked the way a first lady ought to, whereas Sam resembled something the cat had dragged through the mud.

They walked through the red-carpeted hallways from the East Wing to the West. Only the fact that she’d get to see Nick in the next few minutes kept her from completely losing her shit. “It’s too bad we can’t pass you off for me. You’d be much better at this than I’ll ever be.”

“Pardon me?”

“You heard me. What would it take for you to play the role of the first lady during the day around here? I’ll handle the nighttime shift, so there’d be no sex involved for you. Just interviews and public appearances and freaking meetings. What do you say?”

“Uh, have you had a stroke or something?”

“No, but I’m about to. I’ve got threads to pull everywhere I look on a fifteen-year-old cold case, and where am I right now?”

Lilia glanced at her as if uncertain whether the question required a response.

“I’ll tell you where I am. About to sit through a pointless meeting where a bunch of gray-haired dudes are gonna mansplain to me why I need a full detail and to be driven everywhere I go.”

“Ah, I see now.”

“What do you see?”

“You’re irritated because of the meeting.”

“Irritated,” Sam said with a huff of laughter. “That’s one way to put it. I agreed to let Vernon and Jimmy stalk me and to be accommodating as possible to them. What more do they want from me? Why do we need a freaking meeting in the middle of my workday? I have to take annual leave for this.”

As they traversed the corridors, various staffers nodded to her with murmurs of “Afternoon, Mrs. Cappuano.”

Sam was still getting used to the fact that everyone in the world knew who she was, which made her yearn for the anonymity she’d once taken for granted. What she wouldn’t give… But that would mean not being with Nick, and since that wasn’t an option she cared to entertain, she would suck it up and deal with the dreaded fame that came with being one-half of the most famous couple in the world. But she didn’t have to like it.

Thankfully, Lilia knew the White House campus inside and out, because Sam would’ve taken a right when Lilia hooked a left and delivered her right to the Oval Office. She filed away the information for the next time she needed it.

To the woman working the desk outside the Oval Office, Lilia said, “Mrs. Cappuano is here to see the president.”

“He said to send her right in,” the woman said with a smile for Sam.

In a low voice, Sam said to Lilia, “I thought he had his vice presidential staff coming over here to work with him.”

“Eventually. They’re trying to find other jobs in government for Nelson’s staff. Many were with him for more than twenty years.”

“Ah, I see.” It was another reminder that many lives had been upended by David Nelson’s untimely death.

“Go ahead in and see your husband. I’ll wait out here until the others arrive.”

“Thanks for letting me vent. I’m sorry to be a miserable cow.”

“You’re not, and I get it. Most people have months to prepare for the possibility of this happening and then the reality of it. You had a matter of minutes. It’s only natural you’d need some time to adjust.”

“You’re too kind, and I am a miserable cow. I promise not to take it out on you too often.”