“That was when I only pictured sharing this house with you. I knew we could make this space work with no problem, but I didn’t see her coming.”
A soft smile curves his lips as he tucks the hem of his shirt into his pants, and I fasten my belt, shaking my head. “Neither did I.”
“Of course you didn’t, Beckham. You didn’t see me coming either.”
Although I agree with his statement, I find myself flipping him off as I sit on the edge of the bed to put on my shoes. “Go to hell, Drake.”
“We should probably look for something with more square footage,” he says, ignoring me. “Four or five bedrooms so we’ll have space for guests. An office so Selene can work from home. A big kitchen for holidays.”
I straighten, studying the happiness that’s written itself into his features. “You want to host holidays?”
His brows furrow. “Well, yeah, I thought it’d be nice to have everyone together. Hunter, Rae, Riley and—” He hesitates over my mother-in-law’s name. “—and Erin. Unless, you were planning on keeping things separate.”
Any significant holiday is months away, and yet, I can see the wheels in Cal’s mind churning, trying to sort out what a holiday apart will look like when we’ve made so many strides towards building a real life together. Strides that included having a conversation with his younger brother, Hunter, who laughed and told us he already knew we were more than best friends, and Diana’s mom, Erin, who tore me a new one for thinking my love for Cal somehow canceled out my love for her daughter. With everything out in the open, there’s no reason for us to be considering anything but shared holidays and a house full of our favorite people, so I don’t let him sit with the thought a second longer.
“No, of course not.”
Relief settles over him immediately and then he narrows his eyes at me. “Then why would you ask me that dumb ass question, Beckham?!”
“I was just curious! Plus, we’re talking about holidays in a home that would belong to someone besides us. We don’t know what Selene would be comfortable with.”
“She might get a bit overwhelmed, but I think she’d mostly enjoy it. Can’t you just see her with Riley? Nerding out over some science shit while we all try to keep up?”
The image leaves me with no choice but to smile. I have no doubt Selene and Riley would adore each other, that she’d fit perfectly into our families the way she fits seamlessly with us.
“We’d have to tell them who she is to us,” I say, heart beating a little faster at the thought of claiming her publicly even as the fear of being judged for our non-traditional dynamic trickles down my spine.
Cal huffs his amusement at my worry. “They’ll know exactly who she is to us the moment they see how you look at her.”
The entire driveinto work is spent arguing about who has the worst case of heart eyes when it comes to Selene. I get the last word, whispering ‘you’ to Cal just before we walk through the doors of the situation room we reserved for the multi-team meeting we always have before large events like the State Dinner happening tonight.
Most of the people in the room are from our team and Agent Shaw’s team, but we also have Lee, the head of Singapore’s Presidential Guard, and representatives from the security details of a few key Cabinet members. Lee is a quiet, observant man who has enough respect for the authority Cal and I hold to let us run through our plan for the night without so much as a grunt. Agent Shaw and her team are just as respectful, but the same can’t be said for the other assholes in the room who don’t understand what it means to be seen and not heard.
Chief among the poorly behaved mongrels is none other than Daniel fucking Hicks. Our former team lead who managedto turn his numerous failures on the campaign trail into a promotion, though not the one he wanted. Instead of guarding Aubrey, he’s stuck leading Cordelia’s detail, and by leading I mean staying in the cushy office they gave him at Headquarters while his subordinates do all the work and only coming into the field when it suits him.
Unfortunately for us, today is one of those days.
“Your intervals are all wrong,” Hicks mutters, interrupting Cal who went over the page he’s currently staring at five minutes ago.
“We’ll have uniformed agents at the gate,” Cal continues, cutting an eye at Hicks but still addressing the rest of the room. “Any questions?”
Of course, Hicks raises his hand, speaking before anyone has called his name. “Yeah, I want to know why you’ve got the uniformed officers doing perimeter sweeps at fifteen minute intervals. That seems excessive. I would suggest once every hour.”
He looks around the room for support, but I’m the only one who meets his eye. “No one asked for your suggestion, Dan.”
“But I’ve got decades of experience?—”
“Remind me, how much of that experience was gained guarding Presidents?”
Red creeps up his neck and into his cheeks. Satisfaction sweeps through me just as fast. Having the power to not only dismiss Hicks but to make him feel as small as he tried to make us feel when we worked under him, makes this one of the few times I’ve felt grateful for this position.
I tilt my head to the side. “Well, Dan, we’re all waiting. Please share with the class how many years you’ve spent coordinating security for State Dinners at the White House.”
“None,” he grits through clenched teeth.
“Exactly.” I nod. “So please do us all a favor and save your comments for discussions where the topics are within your limited realm of expertise.”
If we weren’t in mixed company, I’d get a little more specific, directing him to update his charge on proper security protocol so she never makes the mistake of bringing perfect strangers into what was supposed to be a secure space. I swallow that urge though, turning the meeting back over to Cal with a smirk. We wrap up minutes later, and Hicks storms out of the room before anyone else can leave their seats.
