Page 165 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

They were concerned about sending the wrong message after the tragedy in Des Moines.

“We did everything we could, and we’ll be confiscating cell phones until everyone is in their rooms. Even though we can totally trust everyone who’s coming, people get excited about being at the White House and forget they’re not supposed to post anything.”

Sam yawned. “Yeah, that’s a good call.” The next thing she knew, sunlight was streaming into the room, and through the monitor on the bedside table, she could hear Elijah talking to the twins as he got them up and dressed for a Christmas visit with their former nanny. They’d invited Milagros, who remained faithfully devoted to the children, to the White House for lunch with the kids.

She checked her phone for messages and found nothing from Andy, the one person she most wanted to hear from. The only thing she and Nick wanted for Christmas was confirmation that the twins would remain in their custody. Yawning, she put through a call to Gonzo to check in at work.

“Morning,” he said. “Merry Christmas.”

“Same to you. How’re you doing?”

“I’m better now that it’s over and done with.”

“I remember that feeling from after I testified against Stahl. It’s such a huge relief to know you never again have to lay eyes on the son of a bitch.”

“For sure. That was the worst part. Having to actually look at him.”

“You were great up there. You did everything you could for Arnold and his family. We’re all so proud of you.”

“I still feel like I don’t deserve that, but I’m doing better at accepting that it was his time to go, not mine.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that. How’s everything going there?”

“All good. We’ve got the reports finished for the Thorn and Tappen investigations, and everyone has been arraigned. Josie Ouellette is still raising hell and threatening lawsuits, but there’s nothing she can do. We’ve got the evidence we need that this was all Grace’s idea and that she pressured Lucas relentlessly to hold up his end of the bargain they made. Grace threatened to come for him and the rest of his family if he didn’t do his part."

“If only he’d come to us rather than kill Mark,” Sam said with a sigh.

“We’ve all been saying that,” Gonzo said. “Why not just come clean to us rather than make it worse by killing Mark?”

“I’ll never believe a couple of high school kids were behind this.”

“Charity is asking for a psych eval for Grace. She seems almost devoid of emotion and doesn’t seem to understand the magnitude of the charges she’s facing. Jeannie thinks that’s an act, that she knows exactly what she did and would do it again if she had it to do over.”

“I tend to side with Jeannie on that, but the psych eval will be telling. Thanks for taking this one over the finish line.”

“No problem. I’ll see you tonight.”

“Can’t wait.”

Sam ended the call, pleased to hear that everything at work was covered in her absence. Before she’d had a family of her own, she would’ve wanted to be smack in the middle of it all, but now she had other things she wanted to do, such as spending the rest of the day with her kids. That was her idea of a perfect day now.

Much later, she was putting the finishing touches on the outfit Marcus had put together for their Christmas Eve party when Nick came into the bedroom and stopped short at the sight of her standing before a full-length mirror, marveling at the miracle brought about by the White House glam squad, as she called the in-house hair, nail and makeup team. Having them at her disposal was another major perk of being the first lady—as well as sharing them with her mother, stepmother, sisters, nieces and Aubrey, who’d loved the mani-pedi she’d received earlier.

“Holy bombshell.” Nick made a spinning gesture with his finger. “Let me see the rest.”

She made a slow, sultry turn so he could see the back, which featured more skin than red silk.

“My first lady is one hot mama.” He came up behind her, put his arms around her and placed a kiss on the base of her neck that made her shiver in anticipation of being alone with him later.

“You know what the very best part of a night like this is?” she asked, gazing at him in the mirror.

“Time with our closest friends and family?”

“That’s going to be great, but the very best part is at the end of the night when I get to go to bed with you.”

“I’m already counting the hours.”

“Me, too. Everything all right in the free world?”