There were crackles in the sky, and they both looked up to see the first explosion of white stars over their heads. She laughed and clapped.

“I love fireworks so much,” she said.

He kissed her cheek.

“So do I.”

They watched the bursts and shooting stars light up the sky, her head on his shoulder, their fingers intertwined. After a while she looked up at him and saw the red and white lights of the fireworks dance across his face.

“I’m really happy,” she said.

He looked at her for a long moment.

“I am, too. It was really good to have you with me tonight, you know.” He brushed an invisible hair off her face. “We make a good team.”

She looked into his eyes and smiled.

“We sure do,” she said. “And speaking of that: I thought we were going to eat at that party, but all I had was two glasses of wine, and I’m starving. Can we get burgers on the way home?”

He laughed.

“Absolutely.”

Chapter Seventeen

Two weeks later, Max was in his office in DC, reading briefing materials for his afternoon committee meeting, when Kara walked into his office with barely a knock and shut the door.

“Excuse me, Senator? We have a situation.”

He dropped his papers on his desk. Whenever Kara used those words and that tone, it wasn’t good.

“What’s up?”

Her mouth was in a tight line.

“I just got a call from someone at Politico, wanting to know if we had a comment about the story they’re going to run about Olivia Monroe’s arrest as a teenager.”

He made a fist and then forced himself to flex his hand. Shit. This was bad. He had to call Olivia.

“What did you tell them?”

Kara narrowed her eyes at him.

“I told him I would get back to him in ten minutes. Before I can do that, I have two questions for you. The first is, did you know about this before I walked into your office just now?”

He put his hand flat on his desk.

“I can’t see how that’s any of your business.”

She walked closer to his desk.

“Oh, really? You can’t? Because you are my business, everything about you is. I can only be as good at my job as you allow me to be. Did you know about this?”

Oh shit, this was what Kara looked like when she was mad. He’d forgotten that. She was usually so calm and collected.

“Yeah, I knew. She told me early on.”

Kara nodded, opened her mouth, closed it, and nodded again.