First Lady (56 page)

Lauren smiled. “Hi, sugar. All done reading for the night?”

Ashley nodded as she approached the women. “It was a good one. Wanna borrow it?” She held out the book, and her gaze flicked back and forth between Dev and Lauren.

Dev wrinkled her nose. Science fiction was never her favorite genre.

But Lauren nodded, pleased that paperbacks were making a comeback. There was just something about holding a book in your hand, the scent and feel of the paper, that could never be replaced by reading from a screen. “Wayne says the author is really good.”

“Oh. My. God.” Suddenly, she looked as though she might burst. “Wayne knows the author?”

Lauren laughed. “Uh huh.”

“He’s wonderful,” Ashley gushed, the normally quiet face growing animated along with her voice. “He’s got a fabulous sense of pathos! I thought the subplot was just the tiniest bit thin. But in Chapter…”

Lauren got up to look at the book, and Dev watched in silence as her wife and daughter tilted their heads together as Ashley pointed out a section of text. Her heart swelled a little at the sight of their obvious bond and the affection that flowed freely between them.

Their words floated over Dev, and she yawned, feeling relaxed and comfortable. Her mind turned towards the many nights she’d be able to spend with her family in the coming months. It was a slightly heady feeling that filled her with excitement and a hint of apprehension. She’d been in public service her entire adult life. Logically she knew what it meant to be a private citizen, or as private a citizen as an ex-president could be, but actually living it was going to be another story.

Dev was just reaching for a cookie that had somehow escaped her earlier chocolate chip frenzy when she heard the buzz of conversation abruptly stop.

“Wow, Ash,” Lauren said, looking a little stunned. “I’m…” She blinked a few times then turned to Dev. “What do you think?”

Dev popped the entire cookie into her mouth and closed her eyes. “Wha-ew-I-fhink-bout-wha?”

“Ashley’s wants to go on a date.”

Dev inhaled the cookie and began choking wildly, sending both Ashley and Lauren over to the sofa to pat her back and generally make sure she didn’t die. After she gave a series of gasps and hacks, the cookie finally dislodged itself, the experience leaving Devlyn panting for breath.

“God, are you okay?” Lauren cupped Dev’s now-sweating cheeks and searched her face.

Dev nodded. “I’m fine.” She coughed a few times. “I just- I- I. A date?” she finally squealed.

“C’mon, Mom,” Ashley groaned, taking a seat next to Dev. “Don’t act so surprised.”

Lauren took the empty seat on Dev’s other side and patted her wife’s thigh, her eyes never leaving Ashley.

Dev scrubbed her face, a million questions running through her mind. But in typical fashion, she quickly distilled them into their simplest form. “Okay, Ash. Who? When? Where? And how?”

Lauren blinked as Ashley adopted her mother’s way of thinking in a flash of an eye and responded in kind. “Alexander. Seven o’clock. Next Friday’s Senate Democrat Christmas Gala at the Hay-Adams Hotel. He’ll pick me up here.”

Dev hands moved from her face to the back of her neck. “Alexander? Why does that sound familiar?” Dev turned to Lauren. “Wasn’t there someone named Alexander on America’s Most Wanted, The New Wave last week?”

“Mom!”

Lauren smothered a chuckle. “Yes, darlin’. But he was a 55-year-old embezzler from Utah. Ashley is talking about Ambassador Antoine Tremaine’s son.”

“Ooooh.” Dev visibly relaxed and gave her daughter a fond smile. “I remember that boy. We had dinner with his family once.” Her smile grew even larger when she remembered the boy’s placid nature and his endearingly geeky appearance. “He seemed harmles— err… I mean sweet. Has all those cute freckles like his mother.” She winked at Ashley. “Isn’t he kind of young for you, Moppet?”

“Devlyn,” Lauren interrupted, “We had dinner with them five years ago. By now the boy has to be…” she pinned Ashley with a serious look that warned her to tell the entire truth, “how old, Ash?”

Ashley winced, and her voice dropped to barely a whisper. Her gaze dropped to the rug. “Seventeen.”

Dev shot to her feet. “Seventeen!”

Ashley shot to her feet as well and stood toe to toe with her mother. “I have to start dating sometime. And he’s only two years older than I am!” She crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. “It’s just the mustache that makes him look older.”

Dev gaped. “He- he- he has a mustache?”
 
She turned to Lauren with an incredulous look on her face. “A mustache?”

Lauren dropped her face into her hands. “Oh, boy,” she mumbled to herself.

*
 
*
 
*

“Why are we in the snow-filled Rose Garden in the middle of the night?” Lauren asked, pulling the lapels of her coat together at the neck. She was slowly walking, her arm entwined with Dev’s, her breath coming in small clouds that disappeared into the night sky as she spoke.

Dev shrugged and led them over to a small granite bench. She brushed it free of snow then spread out the throw blanket she’d snagged from their residence on the way out the door. “I thought it would be pretty tonight. And I wanted the time alone with you.” She sat down, feeling Lauren snuggle up close to her. “Is this okay?”

“Mmm…” Lauren nodded. “Sure. I mean, it is freezing. But I’m fine next to you.”

Dev smiled and wrapped her arm around Lauren, pulling her close and sighing when the blonde head rested itself against her shoulder.
 
It didn’t take long for Devlyn to speak. “You think we should let Ashley go, don’t you?”

Lauren was quiet for a long time before she answered. She knew what she wanted and what Devlyn would prefer. But then there was Ashley. “I think that she’s a smart, funny, beautiful young lady who is going to have most of the boys,” the corner of her mouth quirked, “and some of the girls, buzzing around her for a long time to come.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Lauren let out a slow breath. “Exactly.”

Dev whimpered a little. “She’s my baby, Lauren. She’s not ready to have people with mustaches trying to kiss her.”

Lauren chuckled softly. “You’re not ready to have people with mustaches try to kiss her.”

Dev snorted. “And you are? I saw the look on your face tonight.”

Lauren shifted uncomfortably, well aware of how she felt. “No. I guess I’m not what you’d call ‘ready.’ But whether we’re ready isn’t the point.” She took Dev’s hand, and tried to warm it in her own. “By the way, how come when I said the boys were too young to go snowmobiling, I was being silly. But when Ashley wants to go on a date, she’s your baby? Hmm?”

“I’m fairly confident the boys aren’t going to get pregnant while snowmobiling.”

“Devlyn Marlowe!” Lauren smacked Dev’s mid-section. “She’s not going to get pregnant on her first date. Ashley’s not like that. For God’s sake, we’re going to be at that party ourselves!”

Dev’s frowned. “I know,” she admitted, aware she was overreacting but helpless to stop herself. She turned beseeching eyes on Lauren. “I can’t believe I even said that. I sound like a lunatic. My parents were totally calm. Why aren’t I calm? What did your parents say when you first asked?”

“Mama was in her room asleep and so I only went to Daddy.” Lauren tried not to smile. “He looked up from his newspaper, said for me to be back by midnight, no drinking, and if I got pregnant he’d disown me. Then he went back to reading the sports section.”

“Oh, God,” Dev moaned, throwing her hands into the air. “I’m as bad as your father was."

Lauren’s gaze softened. “You’re not that bad.”

“She’s just a girl.” A look of total dismay swept across Dev’s face. “When she starts dating is when someone is going to break her heart. She’s so trusting and sweet, and there is going to be some asshole out there who is going make her feel bad about herself, and make her cry.” She let out a frustrated breath and lowered her voice. “How can I protect her from that if I let her go?”

Lauren nodded and tried for the millionth time to look past the haze caused by the city lights and see stars. “I’d give anything to protect all the kids forever. But we can’t, honey. We all get our hearts broken.”

Without her permission, tears filled Dev’s eyes. “I know. But I love her so much I can’t bear the thought.”

Lauren’s chest felt heavy, the thought of Ashley being hurt making her sick as well. “Neither can I. But, baby, I don’t think it’s something we can realistically stop.” Tenderly, she wiped the moisture away from the corner of Dev’s eyes. “It’s part of growing up.”

Dev swallowed a few times. “So you think we should let her go?”

“I think we should consider it,” Lauren corrected gently. “She is awfully young, and she hasn’t exactly had your normal childhood, Devlyn.” She lifted her hand to forestall the complaint that was poised on Dev’s lips. “I know we’ve tried. But the girl can’t go to Dairy Queen without the Secret Service coming along. She’s never babysat, or delivered a newspaper or a lot of the things that teach kids responsibility on the way to becoming an adult.”

Miserably, Dev nodded, reminded once again of what her choice of careers had cost her family.

“So if it were another boy from a family we didn’t know or the date was going to be someplace where we couldn’t keep an eye on her, then I wouldn’t even consider it. Not until she’s just a little bit older.” Lauren drew in a deep breath. “But—”

“But we can at least make sure she’s safe this time,” Dev acknowledged. A light bulb suddenly popped on in her head. “Is this the boy she was going on and on about a few weeks ago?”

Lauren couldn’t help but smile. She wistfully recalled the memory of her first crush and the nervous boy trying to give her a kiss in the corner of the school playground. “He’s the one. Apparently, he’s quishy.”

“That had better not be contagious.”

Gray eyes rolled. “It means ‘cute,’ Devlyn.”

“How do you know what it means?” Dev demanded. “You’re not cooler than I am!”

Lauren snorted. “Am too. But… umm…” she paused and picked a little at Dev’s coat, her fingers quickly finding the gap between buttons resting against the warm flannel. “I looked it up after I heard the kids saying it.”

Dev let out a disgusted breath. “Figures the boy would be quishy.” She tilted her head back, letting it rest against the high back of the stone bench. “Why would she want to start a relationship with someone here in Washington when we’re moving to Ohio next month?”

“I don’t think it’s a relationship, Devlyn. It’s just a Christmas party.”

“Lauri?”

The blonde peered up until their eyes met.

“What about the fact that he’s French? They invented doing things with their tongues.” She hissed the last word as though it were a curse and then used the muscle in question to lick all around Lauren’s mouth, causing the younger woman to burst into giggles.

The licking soon turned into soft but passionate kissing, and for a long while on that cold December night they lost track of the time as they necked in the Rose Garden.

Finally, Dev pulled away, her body tingling all over, every bit of the chill chased away by her ardor. “Is she ready?”

Lauren easily picked up the thread of their prior conversation. “Not for what we were just doing, no.” She ran her knuckles across Dev’s cheek, reveling in the feeling of soft, flushed skin.
 
“But to dip her toe in the dating pool…”

“All right.” Dev sighed. “But only because we’re going to be there.”

Lauren nodded. “And only if she drives to and from the Hay-Adams with us.”

Dev smiled. “Good one.” Feeling better, she yawned. “I’ll have the FBI run the boy’s background and do a profile on him tomorrow.”

Chuckling, Lauren rose to her feet, tugging the President along with her. “I’m going to pretend you’re joking.”

“Of course I’m joking.”

“Devlyn—”

“Heh.”

*
 
*
 
*

DEV SAT BEHIND her desk; her palms were flat against the shiny surface as she just looked at the room. The door to David’s office opened and he wandered through just as he was finishing a phone call. He expertly clipped the phone onto his belt and regarded his boss. “You’re not working?”

She shrugged and leaned back in her chair. “I was just thinking. And to be honest, there’s only a few weeks left and not a hell of a lot going on. Geoff’s transition team has been working like crazy.” She shook her head a little. “It feels weird to be in here without anybody running around like a chicken without his head. ”

“Yeah.” David thought about the subdued mood of the entire White House. “I guess they do usually.”

Dev ran her fingertips over the polished desktop again. “What do you suppose the chances are that I can keep this?”

“Slim to none.”

“I figured.” She got up and moved to the couches and gestured for David to join her. “Anything exciting I should know about?”