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“Enter,” he called.
In walked two of his closest friends—Derek Kavanaugh and Dr. Harry Flynn. Derek served as his deputy chief of staff and Harry as his White House medical director.
“They told us we might find you in here,” Derek said.
“What’s up, guys?”
“Nothing much,” Harry said in a breezy tone. “We just stopped by to say hello.”
Nick laughed. If anyone knew what happened to him when his mother crawled out from under her rock, they did. They’d seen the worst of it over the years and had brought him home in a drunken stupor many times in the past after his mother had resurfaced to fuck with him once again. “It’s okay to say why you’re really here.”
“We’re just checking on our friend,” Derek said.
“And I appreciate it. I’m okay.”
Harry looked around the room. “No sign of open bottles of whiskey,” he said. “That’s a good sign.”
“I’d like to think I’ve proven repeatedly over the years that whiskey doesn’t fix anything,” Nick said. “It only makes it worse.”
“For what it’s worth, we’re sorry you’re dealing with her—again—and we wish she’d go away and never come back,” Harry said.
“From your lips to God’s ears,” Nick said. “But I’ll never get that lucky.”
“I liked Christina’s briefing,” Derek said. “It was spot-on.”
“Yes, it was.”
Nick glanced at the TV to see how things were going in the briefing room. Despite Christina’s blunt recitation of the facts, reporters were still grilling her about his mother’s arrest and how he felt about it. “Shit,” Nick said. “Do I need to go in there and shut this down?”
“You’d only add gas to the fire,” Derek said.
“Don’t put yourself through it,” Harry said. “Let her speak for you. She’s holding her own with them.”
Christina kept referring to their earlier statement and her opening comments when asked about his mother. She never deviated from that response during half an hour of intense questioning. “Moving on to other matters, the president had a productive meeting with his gun control task force. The group will soon issue its first report to include a list of action items that can quickly be adopted to make the public safer while protecting Second Amendment rights for gun owners.”
As she took a few questions on that subject, Nick breathed a sigh of relief that they’d moved on from asking about his mother. Not that he thought they were done with the topic. The prime-time news shows would focus on all the salacious details, rehashing every interview she’d ever given and every word she’d ever said publicly about her son, the president.
It made him sick.
“What the fuck was she thinking?” Harry asked. “An escort service? Really? She’s the ultimate cliché.”
“What’s that they say about sex selling?” Nick asked.
“Still… It’s ridiculous.”
Harry’s outrage touched Nick deeply. These were his ride-or-die friends, the ones who’d been there for him when he’d been a lowly staffer to a congressman and would be with him to the end. They’d been through everything together.
“Let’s talk about something else.”
“I’m seeing Roni,” Derek said.
Startled, Harry and Nick glanced at each other and then at Derek.
“This is big news,” Harry said. “How’re you feeling about it?”
“Pretty good,” Derek said with a grin. “She’s awesome.”
“Yes, she is,” Nick said. “Sam thinks the world of her.”
