Chapter Thirty-Nine
Tuesday isn’t much better, in terms of scheduling. We start out at the Senate, and then head to the West Wing from there, followed by a couple of hours at campaign headquarters. The president—with Leo—is out of town for the day, giving a speech in New Mexico before she presides over an award ceremony at an Air Force base there, and then returns to DC.
Angel’snot scheduled to touch down until after ten p.m. our time.
Terrific.
Meanwhile, I haven’t texted anymore with Leo, even though I’ve kept my personal cell on, because he never texted me back after theGDtext.
That was always our protocol before. If he sent me aGD, then it meant he’d let me know when he was back in touch. Unless it was a literal emergency, I was to wait to hear from him. In a literal emergency, I could try calling him on his work cell from my work cell.
He still hasn’t texted me back yet.
Which is starting to piss me off, because he’s damn sure texting practically nonstop with Elliot on the burner.
Okay, fine. He wants to be that way? I’ll let him. I’d honestly hoped to have our talk by now, but it’s clear that’s not happening.
In the car Tuesday evening, on our way to the campaign headquarters, Elliot’s smiling as he reads a text before sliding the burner into his pocket.
I pretend I’m reading e-mails.
“Sir?”
I suck in a deep breath and force a smile I don’t feel, because I willnottake this out on my boy. “Yeah?”
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, boy.” I’m also won’t drag him into this and use him as a go-between. He’s the vice president, for fuck’s sake.
I feel him watching me, studying me, and I finally look up and force myself to keep my voice gentle. “What is it?”
“Do you want to talk?”
I know what he means. “It’s fine.” He stares at me, waiting me out, until I finally add, “Leo’s just awfully chatty with you, and he’s gone full radio silence with me.”
He scowls. “He hasn’t said anything about that.”
“He hasn’t said anything aboutanything,” I mutter before realizing I actually said it out loud.
Dammit. I need to be more careful, because Elliot’s scowling again. “Jordan—”
“Stop,” I whisper. “I’ll handle it when or if he decides to finally stop ignoring me. Went from one damn extreme to the other with him.”
Yeah, okay, it fucking stings. It feels like we’re back to me being out there all alone.
“He’s ignoring you?”
“Yeah. I guess telling him I wanted space pissed him off. He wentGDon me the other night and that was it. Now, he’s even ignoring me at work when I’ve tried to get his attention. So… Yeah. He went from practically crawling up my asshole to ghosting me.”
His scowl turns into a full-fledged frown, and he reaches for the burner.
I hold out my hand, snapping my fingers. “Give it.Now. I willnothave you mediating this. In fact, you are under ordersnotto mediate this.”
He hesitates, staring at me.
I drop my voice into Dom tone. “Boy, you’d bettergiveme that phone.Now. You’ll get it back once we’re home. You won’t have time for it, anyway.”
There’s a slightly sulky expression on his face. I’ll have to spank that out him later, but he passes me the phone.
