Ciro laughs. “Nowyou’re talking. She’ll love that. But she isn’t upset at you. She knows you aren’t close to your sister. She doesn’t blame you for it.”
“That brings me back to my original point,” I say. “Honestly. Are you all right with Stella attending the election watch party?”
“She’s your sister.”
“That’s not an answer. You’re my vice-president but you’re also my friend. I care way more about you and your family than I do my sister.”
Ciro sits back again. “If we leave orders for the detail to keep Stella away from Ily and our kids—and me—I’m fine with it. We’ll need to talk to Ily’s detail and ask them to keep Ily from charging over and kicking Stella’s ass.”
“I’d pay money for that show,” Casey-Marie mutters. “I’d paydamnedgood money, too.”
“So would I,” Ken says.
“My money’s on the Second Lady,” Jordan says.
“We could put it on pay-per-view and end world hunger,” Casey-Marie teases.
I turn to Jordan once again. “You’ll talk to the detail?”
“On it.” He makes more notes. “We’ll keep Stella out of the private suites upstairs. She can hang with the tertiary VIPs downstairs and strut her bullshit around them.”
“Ifanyone wants to talk to her,” I say. “What do we do about her private security detail?”
“They won’t be allowed inside the building,” Casey-Marie says to Jordan. “I want orders that this RSVP is for her alone. Once she’s on-site, her private security can hand her off to Secret Service at the front door and then hang around outside and wait for her until she’s humiliated herself enough for the evening. They don’t cross the threshold.”
Jordan looks to me for my approval and I nod. “What she said.” I think about it for a moment. “No, I have another requirement.” They all look to me, rightfully assuming this’ll be good. “Tell them Stella needs to call and talk to me personally before I’ll sign off on her being allowed to attend.”
Jordan grins as he takes notes. “Goody. That’ll piss her off.”
“Maybe we’ll be lucky enough she decides not to bother,” I say.
Casey-Marie snorts. “We’re notthatlucky. I have no confirmation yet but, from the rumors that have crossed my desk, maybe this is the start of her reputation rehabilitation tour.”
This is news to me. “You think maybe she and Ellis are about to divorce?” I can only hope if they do that perhaps there’s a remote chance I might get my little sister back.
Not that I really had her to start with.
Casey-Marie shrugs. “Maybe. Like I said, I have no confirmation. I don’t have any inroads into their private security detail.”
“Neither does Leo,” Jordan says. “They’re not former Secret Service. Most of them are former military or private contractors.”
“Have your parents changed their minds about attending the election night party?” Ciro asks me.
“I’m not pushing them. They said they wouldn’t mind a video chat but they’d rather not travel. Dad screwed up his knee a few weeks ago and he’s in a lot of pain. They promised to come to the inauguration and stay a few days longer than they did the last time.”
It’s a compromise I accept because I know it comes from their hearts. They feel badly about missing it but when I flew out to attend the early voting session and cast my ballot with them I saw how badly Dad was hurting.
Even though he didn’t say those magic words to me he hugged me long and hard and apologized that they won’t be with me on election night.
And he told me he loves me.
And that he voted for me again.
Maybe it’s not exactly what I really wanted to hear but I was grateful to hear him say it.
See? That’s progress. Right?
I mean, that’s what I keep telling myself.
