His smile fades. “This sounds serious. What happened?”
“Hannah. That aide who I think is attached to your comms shop here in the EW.”
“Yeah? I think she’s slated to go on the trip to California, shadowing Elliot’s comms staff. She’s hoping for a spot on his team after he runs.”
Well, shit.
I shake my head. “Strike her from the list, please. I’ll grab the roster and pull someone from Shae’s comms shop with more experience, one of the speechwriters. Hannah needs to be reassigned outside the White House and her free access restricted to just the EW. I don’t want her in trouble, and I would prefer a logical reason to reassign her. But she’s making Elliot uncomfortable with her incessant hovering. She always magically appears when he’s out and about. Yesterday, it indirectly caused a problem between him and me.”
Yes, I’ll to tell Chris the basics, because I know he’ll keep our secrets and he needs to understand the severity of this.
Considering his dynamic with Shae and Kev, he will grok why this is bad. “Elliot locked me out of his office yesterday and I didn’t understand why. Turns out it was because he didn’t want to deal with her. So I left the White House thinking he was upset with me when it turns out hereallyneeded me. For obvious reasons, he’s not interested in her. I don’t want this becoming an ‘incident’ of any kind, either. Can we please keep Elliot’s name out of it?”
Chris slowly nods. “Ah. Sorry about that. I’ll find somewhere else for her to work. I’m sure I can transfer her over to the EEOB. They were asking about increasing staff there just the other day, and I’ve got plenty of comms staff here.”
“That would be a great start.” Yes, bitchiness creeps into my tone. Even the butchest Dom’s allowed to let his petty inner queen off her leash every once in a while. “She’s never going to date Elliot, much less marry him, so she needs to get over herself and back the hell off.”
He leans back in his chair and levels his piercing green gaze at me. “How’s Jordan settling in back in Tallahassee?”
I hope he doesn’t notice how I’m digging the nails of my left hand into my palm to stave off my tears. “He’s fine, sir.”
Chris doesn’t speak for a moment. “Please tell him the kids say hi and miss him. So do we.”
I slowly nod. “I will, sir.”
“Ah.”
I don’t respond.
Chris finally sighs. “You want a few days off to go talk to him? Try to work it out?”
I shake my head. “I’m good, sir.”
“I disagree. You’re anythingbutgood right now, Leo. You haven’t been good for twoweeks.” He’s in shirtsleeves and crosses his arms over his chest. “Kind of odd that he suddenly decided after, what, nearly seven years, to go finish his master’s, isn’t it? Did something happen in my office I’m not aware of that made him uncomfortable?”
“No, sir,” I quietly say. “He loved working here and working for you and your office. It had nothing to do with that, or with you, or your family.”
Former United States Secret Service Special Agent Christopher Bruunt is a master of studying people. I feel that right now in the long pause before his next comment. “Will there be any…issues?”
I slowly shake my head. “It was his decision, not mine. It wasn’t under…” I suck in a breath. “It was amicable. I trust him not to burn us. Any of us. Even without the NDA.”
Another moment of quiet before he speaks again. “If you reconcile, and he wants to come back, I’ll be happy to—”
“Chris,” I whisper, “Ican’tdo this right now.Please.”
“Fair enough. I’m sorry.”
I nod. I’m pretty sure my nails are about to draw blood from my palm. “You didn’t know.”
“Istilldon’t know. I will, however, strike Hannah from the trip and make sure she’s transferred to across the street this week, before Elliot returns.”
“Thank you, sir.”
I move to rise when he speaks. “If you ever need an ear, you know how to find me. Day or night, seriously. I’m worried about you.”
I hesitate. “Not today, sir. I need to focus on the vice president. I want to make it through the trip and get back here. My parents don’t even know yet. But…I ask for your discretion, even with your immediate family. Please? I don’t need them knowing more and worrying about me. And I don’twantthem knowing more and worrying about me, either. This is for no one’s ears but yours.”
He slowly nods. “Understood. And absolutely.”
