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“Sweetie, you can’t pull the wool over my eyes—I’ve known you too long. I could see it in the way that boy looked at you the other evening, the way you’ve been searching for his face every five minutes since you got here tonight.”
“Aunt Helen…”
“You’re not subtle. You might want to work on that since you have to be around your mother for the next couple of days.”
Jamie blinked at her. “You’re not going to give me hell over this?”
“What would be the point? All I want is for you to be happy, honey. And he’s a good guy—nothing like the last one. But Christopher is going to find himself in a hellhole on the other side of the country if your mother finds out.”
“I’m going to talk to her,” Jamie said. “As soon as we’re back to DC, we’re going to ask for Chris’s old job back, get me some new security. We’re going to do this properly; I just need a little time.”
“Then I suggest you stop eye-fucking your boyfriend from across the room and drink till you’re sick. Otherwise your mother is going to be suspicious.”
Jamie hugged her. “I love you, Aunt Helen.”
“Of course you do,” she replied with amusement. “I’m the only person who ever gives it to you straight. Which is ironic, seeing you’re as straight as a paperclip!”
Jamie almost choked on his martini as an involuntary laugh bubbled through him. Helen grinned wickedly at him and moved away as he tried to dab up the martini that has spilled from his lips. Then his phone beeped in his pocket.
After digging it out, he looked at the message and his mirth halted in its tracks.
Chris: Natalie knows.
Jamie looked wildly about the room, but Chris was nowhere to be seen. Quickly, he typed a one-handed reply.
Jamie: So does Aunt Helen. Don’t worry, neither of them will say anything.
A moment went by before he received a response:
Chris: You sure?
Jamie sighed and knocked back the rest of his drink.
Jamie: I promise. Now I apologise—I’m about to get very fucking drunk.
He swiped a fresh glass of something from another passing tray and headed over to a group of old friends. His phone beeped again.
Chris: Enjoy.
Jamie took a deep breath. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Chapter 17
Chris did have to carry Jamie home that night. Between them, Chris and Natalie managed to get him into a Secret Service car at around two in the morning, so drunk he could barely stand, and he passed out in the back. Chris had to put Jamie over his shoulder to carry him up the stairs once they got back to the Hamptons house and dumped him onto the bed. He started to undo the buttons on Jamie’s suit jacket when Natalie put her hand on his and shook her head.
“Don’t do that,” she said quietly.
“He’s wearing a suit that costs more than two months of my salary,” Chris protested.
Natalie just shook her head again. “And he can afford to get another one if he ruins it.”
Chris frowned but released his hold on the button he’d been about to unfasten. Boomer bounced past them both and onto the bed, curling up near Jamie’s waist on top of the covers. Jamie himself was out for the count, mouth open and slack, lips swollen and reddened from constant biting. Chris smoothed an errant lock of hair back from Jamie’s forehead, smiling at how beautiful he was, even when passed out and snoring.
Jamie had got drunk because it was what people had expected of him, not what he had really wanted to do. Chris had got the feeling that Jamie would have been quite happy drinking until he was on the edge of being too drunk, then going home. The president had been escorted home hours earlier by Secret Service, leaving Chris and Natalie in charge of seeing her son home safely. The party had got a little wilder after the hurried text conversation that revealed both Natalie’s knowledge of their relationship and Aunt Helen’s. The latter hadn’t surprised Chris as much as it might have, considering what had happened in the car after the Met incident—she’d already known then, possibly even known from the first time Chris had met her.
Natalie broke into his train of thought when she placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look up from the unconscious Jamie.
“Can we talk?” she asked.
