“I met the guy this morning. Scotty looks like him.” That news had Nick’s heart sinking. He enjoyed thinking that Scotty looked a little like him. “I told him I represented his adoptive parents and asked if he’d be willing to sign away his parental rights so that Scotty could be adopted by a loving family.”

Nick felt like his heart was going to stop while he waited for the other shoe to drop. “And?”

“He had no idea he has a son. His shock was quite genuine. He’d like to meet him before he signs anything.”

“Ugh,” Nick said with a groan. “And how do we do that without him finding out who Scotty’s adoptive parents are?”

“I believe the Secret Service detail might be a giveaway.”

“Damn it, Andy. What do we do? Can we offer him money?”

“You’re getting way ahead of the game worrying about that. And besides, no matter what happens, I wouldn’t do that. It can come back to bite you in the ass in a number of unpleasant ways.”

“If you’re talking politically, I don’t care about that.”

“I mean legally. The court frowns on money changing hands in custody situations.”

“Son of a bitch,” Nick whispered. “What if he doesn’t want to meet his real father?”

“I don’t think he has a choice if he wants the adoption to go through. The other option is to continue to be his legal guardian without formally adopting him. If his father doesn’t file for custody, then there’d be nothing preventing him from living with you until he’s legally an adult.”

“I don’t like that option. I want him to be my son legally and every other way. It’s what he wants too.”

“Then we have to go through the motions, I’m afraid.”

“I want to know everything there is to know about this guy.”

“My investigator is working on a report. I’ll get it to you as soon as I have it. In the meantime, why don’t you talk to Scotty and see what he has to say about it?”

The thought of talking to Scotty about this topic made Nick queasy. Just when the boy was starting to feel comfortable in his new home and life, this was going to rock the foundation of that new life. “I’ll do that and get back to you.”

“Sounds good. I know this is a tough situation, but if we do it by the book, we shouldn’t have any trouble.”

“I don’t like that word—shouldn’t.”

“There’re never any guarantees, but I’ll do everything I can to get you all the outcome you want.”

“Thanks, Andy. I’ll talk to you soon.” He ended the call and tossed his phone on the desk.

“That sounds worrisome,” Terry said.

“It is. His biological father didn’t know about him and wants to meet him before he’ll sign away his parental rights.”

“Damn.”

A knock on the door preceded Lauren, one of the receptionists from his Senate staff who had come with them to the White House. “Are you available for a Mr. Scott Cappuano, sir?”

“Always,” Nick said, his smile wide even though his heart ached from what he needed to tell Scotty. “Send him in.”

“This is so freaking cool,” Scotty said when he came into the office wearing his “work clothes,” as he referred to the navy blazer, light blue dress shirt and blue and red striped tie that matched Nick’s. The khaki pants were new since he’d grown out of the others.

“I believe ‘freaking’ is on Mrs. Littlefield’s swear list,” Nick said as he got up to hug his son.

“Sam says it’s not a swear.”

“Do not take her advice on swearing, buddy. You’ll end up in detention.”

Terry laughed. “I gotta say your dad makes a good point.”

“She does have a potty mouth,” Scotty said.

“Speaking of my lovely wife, is she with you?”

Scotty shook his head. “My detail brought me over.”

“So she wasn’t home yet when you left?”

“Nope.”

To Terry, Nick said, “Sam was worried about being able to get in here if she wasn’t able to come with Scotty and his detail. Is there someone we need to tell at the gate?”

“I’ll go check on that.”

“Thank you. Please tell them to make sure the second lady gets in when she arrives or there’ll be hell to pay.”

Smiling, Terry said, “Will do.” He left the office, closing the door behind him.

“I can’t believe you actually work here now,” Scotty said. “It’s so, so cool.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“The kids at school think so too. They treat me different now.”

Immediately on alert, Nick said, “Different how?”

“Like I’m super cool because my dad is the vice president. Don’t worry. It’s a good kind of different.”

“Oh,” Nick said, relieved to hear that. “Okay. You’d tell me if something bad was going on at school, right?”

“Sure, I would. But I don’t want to talk about school now. I want a tour of the White House! Can we walk around?”

“We can take a walk.” Amused by Scotty’s enthusiasm, Nick put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Before we do, though, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” He’d promised to be honest with Scotty about the adoption proceedings, so he knew he couldn’t delay in telling him the news.

“Is it bad?”

“It’s not bad so much as it’s kind of a weird situation.”

“What is?”

“So you know that as part of your adoption, we had to make an effort to find your biological father so he could sign away his rights to you.”

“Yeah. Did you find him?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. So what does that mean?”

“You know my friend Andy, who is handling the adoption for us?”

Scotty nodded.

“He went to New Jersey this week to meet him. Your father.”

“He’s not my father! You are. You’re the only father I’ve ever had and the only one I want.” Scotty’s chin trembled and his brown eyes glistened with unshed tears. “You can’t let him take me away from you and Sam. You can’t.”

Nick felt like he’d been sucker punched both by what Scotty had said and how undone he was. He hugged him.

Scotty wrapped his arms around Nick and held on tight.

Nick ran his hand over the boy’s back. “No one is going to take you away from us, buddy. No matter what happens, you’re old enough to tell a judge where you want to live, and that will matter more than anything, if it comes to that.”

“What do you mean, if it comes to that? What’s going to happen?”

Nick stepped back from Scotty, but kept a hand on his shoulder as he led him to one of the sofas that made up the small sitting area in his office. “He says he didn’t know about you. He wants to meet you before he signs the document we need that will relinquish his rights to you.”

“What does that word mean? Relinquish.”

“Give up.”

“How is it possible that he didn’t know about me?”

“Well, sometimes women don’t tell the father about a baby.”

“Why would they do that?”

“Sometimes it’s because they don’t want the man in their child’s life. Other times, the couple breaks up before they find out about the baby, and the mother chooses not to tell the father.”

“That doesn’t seem fair to the dad.”

“It’s not, but it happens.”

“He really wants to meet me?”

“He does. How do you feel about that?”

“I’ve always sort of wondered about him.”

“Of course you have. That’s totally normal.”

“Where is he?”

“In New Jersey. In a place called Atlantic City.”

“They have casinos there. I saw a commercial.”

“That’s right and there’s a really cool boardwalk that runs along the beach too.”

“Will we go there to meet him?”

“I think we’ll have to if we want him to sign the paper. Would you be okay with that?”

Scotty was quiet for a long moment as he thought about it. “If we went there, the Secret Service would have to go with us, right?”

“Where we go, they go. And just think, we’d have to ride on Air Force Two to get there.”

“That’d be cool,” Scotty said with an uncharacteristic lack of enthusiasm. “So he’d know who you are.”

“He’d probably figure it out. Yes.”