“Sorry, boy. I’d had some nice plans for us this morning.”
Even under this circumstance, my cock wants to stir. “No apologies needed, Sir. It’s kind of the gig.”
He sighs and I step out of the way so he can get under the water. “Yeah, I guess it is.”
We’re ready to go less than fifteen minutes later. Neither of us has shaved, and when we emerge from the suite the security team is ready, one of the officers holding the food and coffee I requested.
“Thank you,” I tell him, taking the receipt from him. As we walk down to the elevator, from my personal phone I use the app for the campaign’s bank account to reimburse him.
God, I love technology. Technically, we’re now in work mode, and the officer could’ve legally requested reimbursement through EPU. But this was specifically a campaign trip, so I choose to err on the side of caution. Doing so thus far has kept George’s campaign finances squeaky clean for years.
George and I are both on our phones as we’re ferried to the airport. George talks with Director Rudolph from TEMA, and me with Casey, coordinating the scheduling changes and notifying people. We have enough time we can arrange local surrogates to attend the events we’re going to miss, and probably even enough time to arrange for George to appear via video chat.
No one’s going to deny he’s needed back at the capital. The TEMP is the Tennessee Emergency Management Plan. Under Tennessee law, a state of emergency is triggered automatically when the State Emergency Operations Center, or SEOC, hits level 3. The ratings system is sort of backward, I know. 5 is green and hunky-dory, 1 is a literal catastrophe. It’d be a bigger PR hit if he was out at a campaign event when shit is going down and he’s not at work handling it.
“Why didn’t you call me?” I ask her once we get our initial business squared away.
I know from her tone she’s smirking. “You beat me to it by five minutes, counselor. I was so tired when I got home from work last night, I stupidly forgot my work phone downstairs on the kitchen counter. In their scramble to notify Paul and get staff inbound, SEOC forgot to try my personal cell until about fifteen minutes ago.”
“Ah. Sorry.”
“No, I’m glad to see Alpha Declan’s in the house and on top of things. And yes, I already chewed them out for not following their own phone tree diagram. How’s our boy doing with the weather?”
I know what she means. I drop my voice. “I haven’t had time to get a Xanax in him but I’m hoping he’s too distracted to think about the weather. He’s in command and control mode.” It’s not quite dawn yet. With the heavy cloud cover, it looks darker, and maybe that’ll help keep him calm. He always flies better at night than in the day.
“Good. Avoid it if you can. We don’t need a zombie at the noon presser.”
Fantastic. Noooo pressure.
But she continues. “Now I just have to figure out how the hell togetto work without calling EPU for a ride. There are a couple of streets with water in them between here and there.” She totally could call them, because of her critical staff position, but she hates doing that because of how it might look.
Then I have an idea. “Go grab my car from George’s, Ma’am. My SUV has higher clearance than your car. It’s all-wheel drive. My keys are on the kitchen counter.”
“Ahhh.” She laughs. “Sothat’swhy I keep you around. You’re not just good-looking, you’re smart, too.”
Finally, I can laugh this morning. “Yes, Ma’am. I try.”
“Thanks, sweetie. Do your best to keep him calm. Maybe try half a tablet if he gets too wound up. Longer you can keep him on the phone, the better. He’ll be distracted. Good luck.”
“Thanks. See you soon.”
Fortunately, George is too preoccupied with his phone calls and work and status updates to freak out about the weather until we’re on final approach to Nashville. His fingers clamp around my left hand as he closes his eyes and I whisper to him to breathe. I reach over with my right hand and keep it cupped over his thigh, squeezing, another distraction, a focus.
It works.
When we finally touch down, he takes several shaky breaths and, before I can stop him, he leans in and kisses me. Just a quick brush of his lips over mine, over before I can barely register he’s done it, but no one’s attention was on us.
Then he stands and steps around me, into the center aisle.
Still, as much asthatterrifies me…it also leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy. That I’m on his mind.
He glances back with a smile and winks at me, making me smile. Unfortunately, we don’t have the back of the SUV to ourselves. Director Rudolph has met us at the airport and gives George a thorough briefing as we head into town. We don’t take our usual route, either, thanks to flooding.
With several more days of rain forecasted, our situation will get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
Upon our return to the office, Casey already has the EO ready for his signature. The rest of the day is filled with briefings, meetings with state and emergency officials, putting together press releases, and shepherding George through press conferences.
By midnight, I’m about to fall asleep on my feet and both George and Casey order me to go home.
