The Secret Service agent at the door nodded to her and let her in. “Morning.”

“Morning,” she said.

With Scotty long gone to school, she found Sam and Nick in the kitchen, enjoying a leisurely breakfast and the morning paper that was full of headlines about her abduction and the controversy over her lack of protection. Shelby had already read it while she waited for Avery to come home.

“Hey,” Sam said when she came into the kitchen, “you’re back! Are you feeling better?”

Staring at Sam’s egregiously bruised face, Shelby tried to find the words, but all she could manage was a small nod.

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked.

There could be no putting this off. She simply couldn’t move forward without talking to them about it. But first things first. “You’re doing okay?” she asked Sam. Her face was purple with bruises, but her startling blue eyes were clear and as sharply focused as ever.

“Better today, thanks.”

“You gave us one heck of a scare.”

“Sorry. We’ve missed you around here.”

“About that.” Shelby took a deep breath. “Could I talk to you guys about something?”

“Of course.” Nick stood and held a chair for her.

“Is it the baby?” Sam asked.

“You heard about that, huh?”

“I did and I’m so happy for you. I know how much you’ve wanted a child.”

“I do. I want him or her so much.”

Sam reached out and took her hand. “We owe you an apology.”

“We do?” Nick asked.

“Because of Avery,” Sam said.

Nick immediately went tense, and this time Shelby knew why. “What about him?” Nick asked. “Things are going well with you guys, right?”

“They were. Before I found out he had feelings for Sam that no one told me about.”

The silence between the three of them was as discomforting as anything Shelby had ever experienced.

“There was never anything between him and me,” Sam said, probably as much for Nick’s sake as Shelby’s.

His face was set in a stony expression Shelby had seen at other times when Avery was around or his name was mentioned.

“I’ve done nothing at all to encourage any feelings he might have for me,” Sam said.

“But you were aware he had them?”

Sam glanced at Nick, who still hadn’t blinked. “Yes.”

“Both of you knew. This is why Nick hates him, and I could never figure out why. I feel like such a fool that all of you knew this and I didn’t.”

“What would you have had us say?” Sam asked. “You were clearly taken with him, and I’d never do anything to ruin that for you. Whatever feelings he had for me were his alone. It had nothing to do with me.”

“You should’ve told me.”

“Shelby.” Sam waited until Shelby looked at her before she continued. “There has never been nor will there ever be anything between him and me other than collegiate friendship. I’m happily married, and he knows that. Why in the world would I want to ruin my friend’s happiness by telling her the guy she adores used to be into me?”

“I don’t think it’s as past tense as you’d like to believe.”

“What does that mean?” Nick asked.

“He’s not as over you as we’d all like him to be.”

“How do you know?” he asked. “Did he tell you that?”

“He didn’t have to. If you could’ve seen him when he got home from taking your statement, you’d know what I mean.”

“Son of a bitch,” Nick muttered.

“I love you guys,” Shelby said tearfully. “You’re more than my employers. You and Scotty are like family to me. It hurt me so much to know that you’d kept this from me.”

“We love you, Shelby, and I promise we never intended to hurt you,” Sam said. “It’s not something we like to talk about around here. His feelings have caused a few problems for us too.”

Shelby glanced at Nick. “When you encouraged me to go out with him it was to keep him away from Sam, not because you thought he’d be good for me.”

“I’m guilty as charged on that, and I apologize,” Nick said sincerely. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“I know this is the worst possible timing with your new job starting and everything that happened this week, but I’d like to take some vacation days if that’s all right. I need to get out of town for a while and figure things out.”

“Of course,” Nick said. “Take as much time as you need.”

“You aren’t going to quit, are you?” Sam asked.

“No. I’m not going to quit, but I hope you understand why I needed to talk to you guys about this.”

“Yes, we understand,” Sam said as Nick nodded. “We were shitty friends to you on this issue, and we could’ve done better.”

Satisfied by their apologies and relieved to have cleared the air, Shelby got up and wrapped her fluffy pink scarf around her neck. “I’ll be back in a couple of weeks. You’ll let Scotty know that I’m on vacation and I’ll text him?”

“We will.” Sam got up, moving slower than usual, and hugged Shelby. “Let us know how you’re doing, okay?”

“You do the same. I’m sorry for all you went through this week. I hope they’re going to put that guy where he belongs this time.”

“He’s going away for a long time.”

“Good. I’ll see you soon.” Shelby left their house and walked to the corner to grab a cab home. She had a vacation to plan.

* * *

“I want that guy sent to Timbukfuckingtu,” Nick said the minute the front door closed behind Shelby.

“He’s not our problem,” Sam reminded him. “Whatever he thinks or feels, it has nothing to do with us.”

“How can you say that when she just basically told us she thinks he’s still in love with you?”

“I’d much rather focus on the fact that our actions—or our failure to act—hurt someone we care about.”

“It wasn’t like we set out to intentionally harm her. How were we supposed to broach that subject with her when she was gone over the guy?”

“I don’t know, but we should’ve tried.”

“Maybe so,” he conceded. “But I still want him out of our lives.”

“Nick, I’m telling you right now, if you fuck with his career, I’ll withhold sex for a year.”

“You wouldn’t last a week,” he said dismissively.

“Wanna make a bet?” She stared at him until he blinked.

“No, not really.”

“Promise me you won’t do anything to mess with him.”

He replied with the stony look he got whenever Hill’s name came up.

“Nick.”

“Fine! I promise. Are you satisfied?”

“Yes, extremely, and you will be too over the next year. Now let’s change the subject.”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“Since I missed the reception the other day, I’d like to see your new office. Can we do that today?”

“I don’t know about going over there today when they’re all hot on this issue of you having protection.”

“I’m not worried about that. My husband threatened to quit his job if they push that subject, so there’s no reason to stay away.”

“You really want to go to the White House?”

“Well, no, not really, but I’d love to see your new office.”

He smiled at her reply and said, “All right then. That’s what we’ll do.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

She turned his picture frames upside down and knocked the neat stacks of files on his desk out of alignment. On the paper calendar he kept on the desktop, she drew little hearts around the words Sam loves Nick.

He stood back and let her have her fun, the way she always did whenever she got a chance to mess with what she called his anal-retentive freakazoidisms. After the events of this past week, he didn’t care if she made a total disaster of the place. As long as she was alive and able to mess with him, that was all that mattered.

“Seen enough yet?”

“What’s in there?” she asked, pointing to a door.

“A bathroom.”

“You’ve got your own bathroom?”

“I’m the vice president, babe. I have my own plane.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t let it go to your head, big shot.” Getting up from his desk, she wandered over to take a look at the bathroom. “Wow, you’ve even got a shower in there, so when I come over for nooners, we can clean up after. Good to know.”