“I’m fine.” Grimacing as he moved, he started the car, cranked the heat and turned to her. “Speak. What’s this thing you think you’ve got on me?”

“Oh, I know I’ve got something, and it’s good. In fact, it’s so good, I get a free pass to keep things from you for a year after this.”

“Samantha, you’re trying my patience. Will you stop playing games and spit out whatever it is?”

“Do the words ‘Mr. Vice President’ mean anything to you?”

His face went totally blank, and his mouth opened and then closed.

“Aha! So it’s true! When did this happen, and why didn’t you tell me?”

“How did you hear about it?”

“I asked first.”

He kept his gaze fixed on the windshield. In the orangey glow of the parking lot lights, she could see he was tired and in pain. “It came up on the trip to Afghanistan. Gooding has a brain tumor, and he’s going to resign. Nelson was looking for a replacement. He mentioned it to me. That’s all there was to it.”

“That’s all there was to it? Then why did my source tell me you were—and are—his first and only choice?”

“Who’s your source?”

“I’m not divulging.”

“Is it someone who has the wherewithal to blab it all over Washington?”

“Perhaps.”

“Fabulous.”

Sam wanted all the details. “What did you say when Nelson asked you?”

“I told him the truth. It’s not a good time for us to make a move like that. We’ve just brought Scotty into our home, and your job and everything with your dad. We’ve got enough on our plates.”

“Nick, he’s basically setting you up to run in four years. Why would you say no to that?”

He gave her that side-eye look that usually meant carnal pleasures were in her immediate future. “You really have to ask?”

“Because of me?”

“Samantha, be honest with me and with yourself. You’d hate that life, surrounded by Secret Service all the time, unable to say what you really think about anything, living at the Naval Observatory, unable to work at the job you love. The whole thing would be a nightmare for you.”

She squirmed a bit at the accuracy of that last part. “Still...I don’t want to be the reason you turn down amazing opportunities. You could be vice president, Nick, and maybe even president someday. I mean... Jesus.”

He laughed and took her hand. “I have everything I’ve ever wanted and then some now that I have you and Scotty and an amazing job and our incredible life. What more could I want that I don’t have besides a little more time alone with my gorgeous wife?”

“You could be vice president.”