Page 61 of State of Affairs (First Family 1)

“Thanks. I’ll see you Monday, if not before.”

“Are you still on call for any homicides?”

“You bet your ass I am.”

“That’s okay. Elin likes my ass. Not willing to risk it.”

“Shut up and go away.”

He hung up laughing, pleased with himself and his stupid joke.

“Insubordinate fool,” she muttered as she crossed the 14th Street Bridge that took her from Northern Virginia back into the District where she belonged. The thought had her longing for her dad, who always hated to leave the District for any reason. “Ah, Skippy. Where are you when I need you? Nick is the freaking president. Can you even believe it? I can’t wrap my head around everything that’s happened in the last forty-eight hours.” Her eyes filled with tears that she couldn’t give in to. If she started crying, she might never stop. “I sure do miss you, Dad. I could use your calm voice right now, telling me how to handle this unexpected detour. You’d know just what I should do.”

In a spontaneous moment, Sam decided to take the exit to her favorite place in the capital city. She parallel parked on 23rd Street, found an MPD ball cap in her trunk and tugged it down over her eyes in the hope that she wouldn’t be recognized. She jogged toward the Lincoln Memorial, which had always been the place she’d been drawn to when life became too much for her. On the white marble steps, she nodded to the guard on duty, who didn’t seem to realize he was greeting the new first lady.

She landed on her preferred side of the monument that paid tribute to the Gettysburg Address and slid down the wall to sit on the cold marble floor. Just that quickly, she felt a sense of peace come over her as she took the first deep breath she’d been able to manage since Nick got The Call, as it would forever be known.

Looking up at Mr. Lincoln from Springfield, Illinois, she wondered what he’d have to say about the new president. Would he approve of Nick Cappuano from Lowell, Massachusetts? Though they were of different political parties, Sam had to believe that Lincoln would recognize the fundamental honor and decency that Nick brought to everything he did.

“I don’t want to be first lady, Abe,” she whispered. “I really, really don’t. But I love him so much. So, so much. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him. Even this.” She wiped tears from her face that made her angry. Under normal circumstances, she wasn’t a weepy kind of woman, but the sheer magnitude of what’d happened had her emotions all over the place as she tried to accommodate this massive change in their lives.

They’d have to move. Granted, it would only be across town, but it might as well be overseas for the changes that move would bring. They’d be in the glare of the most relentless spotlight on earth, their every word and action critiqued by people who’d never meet them or really know them. Their already high profile would become even more so, which spiked anxiety the likes of which she hadn’t felt this acutely since Stahl wrapped her in razor wire and threatened to set her on fire.

And then she was laughing at the sheer madness of comparing being first lady to being wrapped in razor wire. That was worse. For sure. But this…

It was a lot on top of a lot, and it would take a minute to figure out how she was supposed to react, to behave, to go forward from here. Her phone rang, and she checked the caller ID to make sure it wasn’t Eli or Scotty looking for her. She decided to take the call from her new friend Roni Connolly.

“Hey.”

“I was planning the voice mail I was going to leave. I didn’t expect you to actually answer.”

“Well, here I am.” She’d met Roni after her young husband, Patrick, was killed by a stray bullet.

“How are you?” Roni asked.

“Is that a rhetorical question?”

Roni laughed. “It wasn’t supposed to be.”

“I’m currently sitting at my favorite place in the District, staring up at Lincoln and asking him how in the hell I’m supposed to do this.”

“Are you there by yourself?”

“Yep.”

“How’d you pull that off?”

“I walked out of my house to deal with a hostage situation that involved the family of one of my detectives.”

“Is the family okay?”

“They are now.”

“Cripes, your life is too crazy.”

“And getting more so by the minute.”

“Can I do anything for you as your newest friend?”