Moments later, she was there beside him, and all the work he had done reeling in his feelings crumbled. She was wearing jeans and a Windbreaker as she had when they first met, and just as then, she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.

“I figured you came to my house last night,” she said. “The least I could do was come to yours.”

The summons to attend a critical meeting at the White House had come from Martin Mallory’s chief of staff, Leonard Santoro. Lou was ushered into the Cabinet room, where most of the Cabinet, as well as the vice president and Speaker of the House questioned him politely about what they called the Chester Affair. The president showed up toward the end of Lou’s testimony, and the First Lady arrived just as Lou was about to leave. Aside from shaking his hand, and a moment of eye contact, there was no obvious connection between them. When the session was over for him, Lou was escorted without comment to his car. He drove home with the strong sense that Mallory’s presidency was about to come to an end.

“I like your place,” Darlene said, taking a spot on the couch without waiting for Lou to offer her one.

He took the other end, knee on a cushion, hands folded in his lap. “Thanks,” he said. “Next to some other places I’ve lived, it’s the Taj Mahal. Emily likes it here, and that’s what really counts, and I love being right across the street from the gym. Do you want something? Milk? Juice? Cookies?”

Darlene shook her head. “I won’t stay long. Is Emily okay?”

“Doing fine. Hopefully she’ll never know how close she came to being fatherless.”

“I know. Martin and I listened to your testimony last night from his office. What you and your friends went through was so damn horrible. You were terrific, by the way.”

“Thanks. I probably wouldn’t have been able to speak if I had known you were listening.”

“You do know that sending in the Rangers was Martin’s idea, yes?”

Lou nodded. “His man Santoro told me. Santoro didn’t say so, and maybe he didn’t know, but I was pretty sure you had something to do with it.”