Wanting to give him absolutely everything he’d ever been denied, but satisfied for now to hear him laugh, Sam closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his neck. “I love you, too.”

Chapter 36

The cab came to a stop in front of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, two blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

“The O’Connors reserved the ballroom, and the food here is amazing,” Nick said, hoping to convince her to stay for a while.

“I really need to get to work.”

“I know. I’m just being selfish wanting you with me.”

Sam studied him. “Let me check in with HQ. Maybe I can stay for a few minutes.”

Nick watched her while she talked on the phone and wished he could take her home to decorate the Christmas tree he planned to buy. He’d never bothered with a tree before, but this year he wanted the bother. This year, everything was different.

“I’ll be there shortly,” Sam said as she ended the call. “I’m only a couple of blocks away at the Willard.”

“So you can come in?” Nick asked when she had returned her phone to her coat pocket.

She hesitated, but only for a second. “Sure. There’s not much else I can do until we get a sighting of one of them.”

Before they entered the hotel, Sam rested her hand on his arm to stop him. “You know it’s going to be like this, right?”

“Like what?”

“I’ll want to be with you, especially on a day like this, but I’ll need to be somewhere else a lot of the time.”

Nick smiled, touched by the hint of vulnerability he detected. “I know what I’m signing on for, babe.”

“Do you? Do you really?”

Something in her tone and the expression on her face told him this too had been a problem in her marriage. He leaned in to kiss her. “I really do. I’m sorry you can’t spend the day with me, but I understand you have a job to do, and in this case, I have a vested interest in you getting it done.”

“Okay,” she said with a sigh of relief.

“I’m never going to hassle you over your work, Sam,” he said as he guided her inside with an arm around her shoulders.

“Never say never. It has a way of screwing up plans, vacations, meals, sleep…”

“I’ll do my best to understand, but I’ll always be sorry to see you go.”

She looked up at him, a small smile illuminating her beautiful face. “I want to be with you today.”

“I know, and that counts for a lot.”

They checked their coats and wandered into the elegant ballroom where Graham and Laine greeted each guest as they entered the room.

Nick embraced them both.

“You did a beautiful job, Nick,” Laine said, grasping his hands.