First Lady (49 page)

This time Dev’s smile was more relaxed. They hadn’t discussed it yet, but she desperately wanted to go to Ohio for the holiday. Not only could she use the time to regroup among the people who loved her most, but she had a feeling that both Lauren and Howard Strayer would be more comfortable there anyway. “Great.”

“Will you kill me if I ask you to do one more thing?” Lauren gave Dev a beseeching look. “It’s something good, I promise.”

Dev’s eyes widened. “One more thing? Do you want me to stand and give a press conference that starts with the words, ‘My name is Devlyn Marlowe and I’m a workaholic?’ Because I will. I’ve been worn into submission.” She was mostly teasing, but Lauren caught a kernel of truth in her words.

“No.” Lauren chuckled lightly. “I want you to come to the mall today with me and your children.”

Dev’s face fell.

Lauren sighed. “It’s not what you think, Devlyn.”

“What I think is that they don’t want me to come. They told me themselves!”

Lauren gave her a sympathetic look. “No, honey, they don’t want you to say you’ll come and then cancel and cause them to postpone their trip. That’s all. They’d give their little collective black souls for you to come. In fact, they wanted me to ask you to come, even if it meant you might back out and delay the trip.”

She looked at Lauren from behind dark lashes. “They really want me to come?”

“Jesus, Devlyn,” she gave the older woman a firm poke. “Of course!”

Dev shrugged one shoulder, looking incredibly sheepish. “It sounded like fun and… well… I didn’t want you to go without me.”

“So come and give everyone what they want.” Lauren patted Dev’s arm, then pushed herself off the bed, on her way to the bathroom. Her appetite was back, her head didn’t hurt, and she had a feeling today was going to turn out to be a great day. “You can’t stay with me every second. But we can nag each other about that tomorrow, okay? For today we can both stand a little, no a lot, of togetherness.” Her gaze softened. “I know I could.”

A surprise burst of laughter escaped Dev. “Okay.” Blue eyes sparked with added mischief.
 
“Have you ever thought of getting something else pierced? You could do it with Ashley today.”

Lauren gave her a droll look over her shoulder as she padded toward the shower. One look in the mirror on her way to brush her teeth had made it clear that her hair wouldn’t be tamed with anything less. “Never.”

“I think navel rings are sexy as hell,” Dev tried again, nearly jumping out of bed to follow Lauren and feeling more positive and hopeful than she had in weeks.

“Then you should definitely get one,” Lauren shot back, feeling her face stretch into a genuine smile.

Dev pouted. “But it would look sexy on you.”

Lauren laughed softly and disappeared into the bathroom, but left the door open so her voice would carry. “I guess that’s possible, darlin’, but the answer is still no.”

Devlyn’s pout shifted into a questioning look as she stopped outside the bathroom and stripped off her sweats and underwear. She still wanted to be close to Lauren. When she was naked again, she said, “Hey, Lauren?”

A naked arm appeared from behind the door and a single finger curled to beckon Devlyn inside.

*
 
*
 
*

PILLOWS AND LIGHT blankets littered the family room floor at the President’s private residence. The same could be said for most of the First Family. Dev was lazing on the floor, with Ashley curled up against her. The little girl was sound asleep. Aaron had his head pillowed on Dev’s belly, and she was just beginning to feel the cool moisture of the drool that trailed from his mouth to her T-shirt. Christopher was sprawled asleep on the sofa behind them, next to Lauren, who was taking this moment of rare household peace and quiet to give her fat pug a good scratching behind his ears. Though she had to continually shush Gremlin as he growled out his pleasure, his back legs twitching rhythmically with every good scratch.

With a contented smile, Lauren watched as Devlyn shut off the movie that they’d decided would be perfect for a family birthday celebration. Michael Oaks and Press Secretary Allen had pushed hard for a well-publicized and elaborate 40
^th
birthday bash, but after the events of the past few weeks, simple and quiet was more the order of the day. And for that, Lauren was truly grateful.

She pushed the pug over to his own cushion and slid from the couch to crawl next to her partner. As the credits rolled on the movie, she ran the tip of her finger over the ridge of Dev's ear. "You think we should haul the kids to bed? They’re toast."

Dev glanced at the bodies covering her own. "Yeah, I think they're done."

"It was that pizza and the swimming. That gets them every time. I think Beth had to wake David to get him out of one of the lounge chairs.”

“It was nice, though, right?" She gave Lauren a questioning look and was gratified to see her instant nod.

“It was great. So much better than a fancy party.”

“Mmm…” She smiled. "It was my best birthday ever.” Her smile grew. “Thanks.”

Charmed by the rare look of comfortable, nearly blissful happiness on her partner’s face, Lauren couldn’t help but smile back. “I had fun, too.” With a slight groan, she hefted Aaron. “Jesus, Devlyn. He’s getting big.” She fought to get to her feet, realizing that the days of being able to move the children around like sacks of flour were fast disappearing.

Dev sighed. “I know. I can’t believe Ashley is 9 today.”

“Nine going on 21,” Lauren murmured affectionately.

“Bite your tongue,” Dev shot back.

Lauren began walking towards Aaron’s room, the boy’s arms and legs swaying limply as she carried him to bed.

Carefully, Dev rolled to one side and disentangled herself from Ashley, giving her a little shake. “Hey, Moppet. It’s bedtime.” Dev moved over to the sofa and picked up Chris, smiling when he immediately snuggled into her arms and laid his head against her shoulder, his glasses going slightly askew.

On wobbly legs and with one eye still closed, Ashley stood up and grabbed onto the back of her mother’s T-shirt as Devlyn guided her back towards the children’s rooms.

"I'll never understand how you sleep through this," Lauren whispered to an oblivious Aaron, as she pulled a blanket up over him and tucked it around his chest.

Once the children were safely in their beds, Dev began making her way back to the family room, turning off lights as she went and settling heavily on the sofa. She paid close attention to Gremlin’s location, in case the pooch decided that her defenses were low at this time of evening and she was ripe for a sneak attack. But the dog, along with his Pomeranian mate, was curled up in front of the fireplace, snoring louder than Dev would have believed possible.

Lauren returned and settled on the couch, laughing softly when Dev patted her own lap invitingly. Like she would say no to that. She spun sideways and reclined, letting loose a happy sigh when long fingers sank into her hair and began rubbing her scalp. “Ugh. Feel free to continue doing that for the next five years or so.”

Dev chuckled, keeping up her ministrations with one hand as she grabbed the television remote with the other. She’d learned long ago that using the TV’s voice control features was asking for trouble with a house full of kids. When she turned to the cartoon channel, Lauren looked up at her in surprise.

Seeing the confusion, Dev said, "I know I usually watch about 20 different news channels, but my doctor recommends I don’t watch anything that remotely resembles the news after 10 p.m. That way local and world events won’t be the last thing on my mind at night before I go to bed."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Lauren smiled gently and turned her head to kiss Devlyn’s belly. She hadn’t missed the small changes her partner had instituted since starting therapy and she wasn’t about to make a fuss over this. But Dev was trying, and she couldn’t help but feel good about that. Though Lauren wasn’t really a believer in unshakeable faith, what she felt for Devlyn, her belief in best friend, came darn close. "Bugs Bunny is good."

"A classic," Dev agreed. "I like my new doctor,” she continued unprompted, surprising Lauren again.

Lauren’s eyes closed as she relaxed under Dev's touch. "I'm glad."

"At first I thought three times a week was a little much, but I’m finding more than enough to talk about, so I guess it wasn’t too much after all.” She glanced up as Bugs Bunny began trying to escape Elmer Fudd’s hunting rifle. “You wouldn’t believe what I heard myself say the other day.”

“Mmm?”

"That the only people I really need to be a hero for are you and the kids."

Lauren opened her eyes, blinking slowly. “Do you really believe that, Natasha?”

Dev blushed. “Not yet, Boris. But with a little help, I think I can.”

"I know you can, darlin’,” Lauren drawled softly, unable to remember a moment where she was prouder of her spouse.

Dev’s eyes took on a sudden seductive gleam. “You know,” she paused to give Lauren a sexy grin. “I’ve been very good all year and I think I deserve a reward.”

“That’s Christmas, Devlyn. Not your birthday.”

“Oh.” She frowned momentarily, but wouldn’t be deterred. “Well, how about if I say that you’ve been good and deserve a reward?”

Lauren chuckled wickedly. "I am good." She sat up and placed a lingering kiss on Dev's throat, her words tickling sensitive skin. "And if you'd like to accompany me to our bedroom, I'll show you just how good."

A smile stretched Dev’s lips as she sang a happy tune. "Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to meeeeeeeee."

L
AUREN JOINED THE REST of the audience in a hearty round of applause as Wayne Evenocheck, her agent, stepped away from the podium.
 
It was Starlight’s 20
^th
Annual Writers’ Convention, something Lauren had managed to attend several times during her time with the publishing house. This year, she’d been invited as a speaker and not just another writer, and to everyone’s surprise, but most especially Wayne’s, she’d accepted the invitation and made the short trip to Baltimore’s Pier 5 Hotel for this year’s convention.

She was one of Starlight’s best-selling writers, though her fiction titles written under a well-guarded pen name had always outsold her biographies by a margin of six to one. Lauren Strayer, however, was not the writer that the paparazzi were interested in on this trip. To her utter delight, her presence had been almost entirely eclipsed by a swarthy mystery writer whose novel had been turned into a play and whose private life had been streaking across tabloid headlines since he began a love affair with the play’s blonde and very buxom leading lady — who also happened to be a soap opera diva.
 
Though it was clear she would never again be treated as just another writer, Lauren had to admit it that felt good to let her guard down a bit, and talk freely with her colleagues about subjects that sparked her interest and fed her passion, all while the press hounded some other poor slob.

The atmosphere was one in which she could completely immerse herself: dozens of buzzing conversations, the crunch of snack foods, and the quiet hum of the laptops of those who couldn’t stop work, even for a moment.

Wayne stepped off the stage and took a seat next to Lauren in the second row of the large conference room, wiggling his fingers at several Secret Service agents who were doing their best to look unobtrusive as they stood along the wall. “Hiya, sweetheart,” he said in his typical, nasal New York accent. “I’m sorry I didn’t catch you before you spoke this morning. But umm…” He preened a little. “How’d I do?”

Lauren smiled broadly. “You did great.” She leaned to the side and bumped shoulders with her long-time friend and her gray eyes danced with mischief.
 
“Didn’t you hear that applause?”

He sniffed and brushed an imaginary piece of lint from his shoulder. “Oh, I uh, I didn’t notice.”

A slender, pale eyebrow arched. “I can see that.” She glanced around at the milling crowd, recognizing most of the faces. “So how’d you get so popular all of a sudden, and wasn’t your goatee mostly gray at my wedding?”

Wayne clutched his chest in mock distress. “I’ve always been popular. Hell, I out-right discovered a third of these writers myself or rescued them from other rotten agents and brought them to Starlight. And that includes you.”

This, Lauren knew, was the absolute truth. Despite being a little old-fashioned in the way he did business, Wayne was the real deal and had gone the extra mile for her more than once.

“And my new girlfriend thought a brighter color beard would look dashing on me.”

“I’m crushed,” she said dryly. “And here I thought you were saving yourself for me.”

The heavyset man sighed and pulled a piece of peppermint candy from his slightly too-tight suit coat pocket. “That was before you married the hottie with an army and legs that go on for days.” He unwrapped the mint and began crunching loudly, wishing he was sucking on a lovely nicotine-loaded cigarette instead. “Now I’m too afraid to do anything other than bury my timeless, unrequited love.”