He nodded and clung to her. In that moment, Sam realized that while he might be growing up quickly, he was still a little boy in many ways and still in bad need of a mother. She was thrilled to fill that role for him.
“How about we get you back in bed?”
Shaking his head, he tightened his grip on her.
“I’ll stay with you.”
“You will?”
“Sure, I will. Come on. It’s cold out here.” She helped him up and got him tucked back into bed under the Red Sox comforter he’d chosen after much debate between sports and superheroes. The walls of his room were plastered with the posters he hadn’t been allowed to have in the state home. Nick had insisted on as many posters as the walls could hold. In the glow of the nightlight, Spider-Man stood watch over them from the ceiling. “Move it on over, mister. Here I come.”
He giggled as she made a big production out of getting in bed with him, “accidentally” hitting a few of his most ticklish spots in the process, which made him laugh some more. She much preferred the laughter to the tears that were so unlike him.
“Snuggle me,” she said. “I’m cold.”
He curled up to her, and Sam put her arms around him. Her cheek rested against his silky hair.
“Want to talk about it?” she asked.
“No.”
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re safe. You know that, right?”
“I know.”
“Was it about Willie?”
“Sort of...”
“I’m sorry you’re sad. What happened to Willie shouldn’t happen to anyone.”
“I don’t understand how someone could kill him for missing a ball.”
“I don’t get it either, but people are so invested in sports. They take it way too far and lose all perspective.”
“I read online that he has kids. Little kids.”
Sam winced. “Yes.”
“Did you meet them?”
“One of them. Miguel. He’s four.”
“It’s so sad that he won’t remember his dad. My mom and grandpa died when I was six, and I barely remember them. He’s only four.”
Moved by his compassion as much as his grief, Sam hugged him tighter. “I wish there was something I could say to make you feel better.”
“The snuggling makes me feel better.”
Sam smiled. “It makes me feel better too. You ought to try to get back to sleep so you’re not super-duper tired tomorrow.”
“Do you promise you won’t leave?”
“I promise. And I’ll let you in on a little secret.”
“What’s that?”
In a conspiratorial whisper, Sam said, “You’re a much better snuggler than Nick is.” In truth, no one did snuggling better than her husband, but Scotty didn’t need to know that.
He laughed, which she’d hoped he would.
“You can’t tell.”
“I won’t. Don’t worry.” As he relaxed into her embrace, Sam rubbed his back in small circles.
“Sam?”
“Hmm?”
“It’s really nice to have a mom again.”
Oh God, he was going to make her cry! “It’s the very best thing
ever
to have a son as sweet as you. I never knew how great sons could be.” She kissed the top of his head. “Love you, buddy. Try to go to sleep. I’ll be right here. I promise.”
She kept rubbing his back until long after he released a deep breath and fell asleep in her arms.
* * *
When Sam’s alarm went off at six, Nick realized he was in bed alone. Running his fingers through his hair, he stretched out the kinks and got up to find a pair of sweats before he went looking for his wife.
In the hallway, he noticed Scotty’s door propped open and peeked inside to make sure the boy hadn’t kicked off his covers the way he did most nights.
Nick was stunned to see Sam wrapped up in Scotty, both of them sound asleep. He stared at them for a long time, overwhelmed by the sight of her sleeping with the boy they both loved. As he ventured into the room, he wondered what he’d missed during the night.
He bent to kiss her cheek. “Sam.” When she didn’t rouse, he kissed her again. “Samantha.” He kept his voice down so he wouldn’t disturb Scotty.
“Mmm.”
“It’s six, babe,” he whispered.
“No, it isn’t.”
“Yes,” he said chuckling, “it is.” He smoothed her hair back. “What happened?”
“He had a bad dream. I heard him whimpering in the hallway. He didn’t want to come in and bother us.”
Scotty never stirred as they spoke in whispers.
“Oh, poor guy. He should’ve come in.”
“That’s what I told him too.”
“What time was this?”
“I have no idea. Maybe we should let him sleep in a bit this morning. Shelby can take him to school when he wakes up.”
“Sounds like a good idea. You need to get going to your meeting.”
“I promised him I wouldn’t leave.”
“I’ll tell him you stayed until you had to leave for work. He knows you’ve got a job to do.”
Seeming reluctant, Sam disentangled from Scotty and got up. She resettled the covers over him and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “At times like this, I hate that I have a job that requires so much of my time.”
In the hallway, he hugged her. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—I always hate your job.”
“I know, I know.” She went up on tiptoes to kiss him. “Gotta hit the shower.”
“Want some company?”
She smiled at the perfectly innocent expression he attempted to pull off. “Are we talking about you, or do you have someone else you’re going to send in?”
“Very funny, Samantha.” He gave her a swat on the rear and steered her into the bathroom where he pushed the lock on the door—just in case. “Speaking of ‘someone else,’” he said as he watched her remove the robe while he dropped his sweats onto a pile on the floor. “I saw your pal Hill last night after he brought you home.”
“He’s not my ‘pal.’ He’s my colleague.” She leaned into the shower to turn on the water, giving him a spectacular view of her spectacular ass. “And he brought me home because I was too tired to drive safely. Nothing more to it than that.”
“For you anyway.”
She turned to him, nude and furious and absolutely gorgeous. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He went to her, put his arms around her and yanked her in tight against him. “It means I do not like that guy, as you well know.”
“And as you well know, I have no control over who Director Hamilton puts in charge of his criminal investigation unit.”
“You don’t, but I could probably do something about that.”
Her mouth fell open, and her eyes narrowed with rage, which he’d fully expected. “Don’t you
dare
mess with his career! That’s beneath you.”
It wasn’t beneath him in this case, but he wisely chose not to share that thought with his wife when he’d already managed to piss her off. Nick scowled at her back as he followed her into the shower. “I hate when you ruin my fun.”
“I hate when you act like a jealous fool over nothing. And P.S. he’s interested in Shelby, not me.”
“He’s interested in
you
and going out with her because she’s close to
you
.”
“Please, for the love of God, don’t tell her that. I think she genuinely likes him.”
“Someone’s gotta.”
“You’re an ass hat, you know that?” She raised her hands to his chest, tweaked his nipples and tugged on his chest hair, bringing tears to his eyes.
“Ow. That hurt!”
“Good. Who am I naked in the shower with? Him or you?”
“You’d better not be naked in the shower with him.”
“Ugh, you are driving me crazy! Stop acting like a jealous ass. I can’t stand it.”
“I can’t stand the idea of some other guy lusting after you. That drives me crazy.”
“I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again and again and again until you
hear
it, you big lughead—he’s
nothing
to me. Stop manufacturing trouble where there is none and make love to your wife before you say something else that’s going to get you into a shit ton of trouble.”
“I don’t want to make love to my wife. She’s mean and calls me names.”
She rolled her gorgeous blue eyes to high heaven. “Is that a challenge?”
“Take it any way you want to,” he said with feigned disinterest. He loved goading her and making her mad. He filled his hands with soap and closed his eyes to wash his face. And then her lips made contact with his shaft and he swallowed a mouthful of soapy water that made him gag and cough. Blinking the soap out of his eyes, he found her on her knees. “Holy shit! What the hell?”
“All that talk of blow jobs last night gave me ideas.”
“Sam, wait...”
“Shut up. You had your chance to do it your way, but you said you didn’t want to, so now I’m in charge.”
“Sam...” Oh God, she was seriously good at that with just the right amount of suction and tongue and hand action. Christ, she was totally making him her bitch
again
, one tug of her lips at a time, and that was before she opened her throat and took him deep. “
Fuck
,” he muttered, clinging to control by a hair.
She cupped his balls and squeezed, sending him into orbit. After she licked him clean, she stood and eyed him triumphantly. “Wasn’t much of a challenge. You might want to fight a little harder next time.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, still breathing hard as she conditioned her hair and finished getting washed.
“Gotta get to it, Senator. Have a good day.”
“Sam.”
“What?”
He reached for her. “Come back.”
With a quizzical expression, she moved closer to him. “Why?”
He bent his head and kissed her softly. “I love you.”
“I know you do. I love you too, even when you’re being an ass hat lughead.”
“I don’t give a shit about Hill, and I know you don’t either.”
“Then why do you insist on pushing my buttons where he’s concerned?”
“Because pushing your buttons is always fun.” He waggled his brows for emphasis.
Her mouth fell open in disbelief. “So wait, did you just totally play me here?”
Smiling, Nick shrugged. “Now, babe, that’d be awfully devious of me, wouldn’t it?”
Her eyes narrowed into a glare as she poked him in the belly and stepped out of the shower. “This means war,” she called over her shoulder.
“I’ll look forward to that.”
* * *
Well into his tenth month of sobriety, Terry O’Connor cherished his new routine. He’d all but moved into the Adams Morgan home of his girlfriend, Dr. Lindsey McNamara. He loved nothing more than waking up to her gorgeous face on the pillow next to his. Some mornings, like today, they lingered in bed for as long as they could, laughing, talking and making slow, sweet morning love that left him completely sated but with no time for the AA meeting he attended most days before work.
He’d catch the noon meeting on the Hill or another after work if he got tied up in the office. Terry tried to make a meeting every day, but because of his crazy schedule during the campaign, he occasionally missed a day. Not many of them, though.
His hard-won sobriety was one of the most important things in a new life that was so much better than his worthless old life there wasn’t even a word to describe how different it was. The relationship with Lindsey was by far the best part, with his job as Nick Cappuano’s deputy chief of staff ranking a very close second.
After a shower and shave, he found a bag from the dry cleaner in the closet Lindsey had cleared out to make room for his suits. Though he still had an apartment of his own, he went there rarely these days to water a couple of lonely plants, pick up the mail and pay the bills.
He was knotting a red silk tie when she came into the bedroom bearing coffee fixed just the way he liked it—dark with a hint of sugar. “Thanks, hon, and thanks for picking up the dry cleaning. You’re too good to me.”
She patted his cheek and kissed him. “You’re just as good to me,” she said with a wink that was a not-so-subtle reminder of the bonus orgasm he’d treated her to before he let her out of bed.
“Did the papers come?” He’d had his subscriptions to all the major papers moved to her house, since he spent most mornings there.
“They’re on the kitchen table. What’s up later?”
“We’ve got a campaign meet and greet in Arlington after work. I shouldn’t be too late if you want to grab dinner.”
“That sounds good. Byron is on the early shift this morning, so I’m working until seven anyway.”
“Perfect.” He took her by surprise when he looped an arm around her waist and pulled her in close so her back was snug against his chest. He nibbled on her neck and made her tremble. “Have I told you yet today that I love you?”
“Only a couple of times.”
“I’m slacking off.”
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”
Terry had never been in a relationship like this one. They talked and laughed and poked fun at each other. They made mad, passionate love and even laughed in bed too. Underneath it all was a foundation of respect and mutual admiration that humbled him. Every day he tried to make sure he deserved her. The thought of losing her respect or her love kept him sober. It was that simple.
She turned in his arms and raised her hands to his face. “I love you too.”
Looking down at her, he took note of her bright green eyes, the dusting of freckles across her nose and the pink lips that were slightly swollen from his kisses. He fisted her long red hair and gave a gentle tug to position her for another kiss. “When I think about the way I was living a year ago... I had no idea life could be this sweet.”
“My life was perfectly fine before, but this is
so
much better than perfectly fine.”
They shared a warm smile that nearly made him forget all about the day of meetings and campaign business to attend to. “After the election, I want to get out of town for a week or so. Would you be game for that?”
“Yes, please. I haven’t had a vacation in so long that I forget when the last one was.”
“Let’s get something booked ASAP. I’ll look into it.” He released her hair and let it flow through his fingers as she reached for his hand and led him to the kitchen. “Any preference on where we go?”
“Hot sand. Umbrella drinks. Very clear blue water.”