“Couldn’t be better.”

“I’m happy for you, Eli. Truly.”

“Thanks. It’s been so great to be back together with her and to find that nothing has changed for either of us.”

“Did Nick lecture you about keeping your eye on the ball at school?”

Laughing, Eli said, “He did, and I am. I’m calling you as a favor to a friend.”

“How so?”

“You know that Nate is the lead agent on my detail, right?”

“I do.” He’d been one of her favorites when he worked at the Ninth Street house. “What about him?”

“We were talking the other day, and he mentioned he’s struck up a friendship of sorts with Brooke.”

“My Brooke?”

“Yep.”

“Do tell.”

“I guess she babysat for you guys, and they got to talking. He said they’ve never stopped talking since then.”

Sam was truly shocked to hear this news. She hadn’t heard a single rumbling about that from Brooke or her mother, Tracy.

“Nate said he likes her a lot, but he feels like it’s gotten to the point where he needs to have a conversation with you before it goes any further.”

“How old is he?”

“Around twenty-seven, I think.”

“That makes him seven years older than her.”

“Would you object?”

Sam thought about that for a second. In the past, she might’ve had something to say about it, but after Brooke had overcome a violent attack at a party where multiple kids had been killed, her niece was not an average twenty-year-old. “That’s not up to me. As much as I still think of her as a little kid, Brooke is a grown woman. I don’t have any say over who she dates.”

“I believe Nate’s primary concern is one of propriety due to how he met her.”

“I understand, but you can assure him there’ll be no pushback from me or Nick. We think the world of him, and we’d only ask that he be kind to our niece.”

“That’ll mean a lot to him, Sam. Thank you. And he’d also want me to tell you he was absolutely cringing at the thought of me discussing this with you because it was so unprofessional.”

Sam laughed. “I can imagine, but it was courteous of him to be concerned about what I’d think of it.” She couldn’t wait to call Tracy with this bombshell. “When do we get to meet Candace?”

“We’ll be home soon.”

“We’ll look forward to that.”

They said their goodbyes, and Sam immediately put through a call to Tracy.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“That’s what I’m calling to ask. Anything new or exciting over there?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Interesting.”

“What, Sam? You sound like the cat that swallowed the canary.”