“Doesn’t matter,” Terry said. “They still go through the steps and will ship The Beast out there on a C-17 or C-5 ahead of your arrival.”

The Secret Service allowed Nick to ride only in the car it provided.

“That seems like a lot of work and expense for an anniversary trip,” Nick said, already anticipating what the press would make of it.

“The same effort went into it when you were VP,” Terry reminded him.

“I didn’t like it any better then, but I was under much less scrutiny than I am now.”

“Do you wish to change your plans, sir?” Terry asked.

Thinking of the many sacrifices Sam had made since he’d unexpectedly been launched into the Oval Office on Thanksgiving, he shook his head. “Sam is looking forward to it, and so am I.” They were going while Eli was on spring break, so he’d be home to help with Alden and Aubrey. Everything was planned, down to the Secret Service doing advance work, apparently.

He would take his lumps with the press to give his wife a memorable anniversary. In the two years they’d been married, their lives had changed dramatically due to his unprecedented rise through the political ranks to the top job. That same dizzying rise had led to claims of illegitimacy from political rivals, since he’d never been elected as vice president.

Rather, he’d been tapped to complete the term of ailing Vice President Gooding. Thankfully, there was precedent for his situation, dating back to when Gerald Ford replaced indicted Vice President Spiro Agnew and then ascended to the presidency when President Nixon resigned.

Nick’s communications team repeatedly referred to Ford when questions of illegitimacy surfaced almost daily in the press room.

“Back to the State of the Union,” Nick said. “We need to use this opportunity to reintroduce me to the American people and to state my intentions to work on behalf of everyone, not just the people who agree with me. I have some thoughts about how I’d like to do it that you might not like.”

“We look forward to your input, Mr. President,” Terry said. “I’ll let Will know to expect that you’ll be writing most of it yourself.”

“Please do.” Nick had been thinking a lot about what he wanted to say to the country in his first State of the Union and had declined to have it postponed when the Speaker of the House had inquired as to whether he’d like more time before the nationally televised address. He was ready to stand before a joint session of Congress and the American people and stake his claim to the job he’d told them he didn’t want shortly before it became his.

He had some work to do to prepare for that event, now just over a month away on the first of February, and he was ready to get down to it.