Her Secret Service (Jane Roe 1)
Page 20
“What happened?” Singh asked, pausing as if she really cared. Jane wished she had a more exciting answer.
“Puberty. Developing some curves has dashed the dreams of many a promising young runner. I can still move my feet well enough, but my trophy days are long gone.”
Jane took the trophy with its little running ponytail figure and set it on an empty shelf, which suddenly didn’t look so empty. They stood together looking at it.
“There,” Singh said. “One step closer to making this room your own. You’ll have plenty of time to figure the rest out, but don’t forget there’s a state dinner tonight with the Mexican president. I’m sure Alex will want you to be there. We’ll find something for you to wear. He’s hated doing those things alone.”
Singh was already on her way out of the room, leaving Jane to contend with managing something she’d never imagined herself doing. Sit and eat? It couldn’t be that simple. There was a lot she’d have to figure out fast, and as she moved to the chair behind what people were telling her was her desk she realized most of the navigating would still need to be done on her own.
The stillness was overwhelming. In this busy White House with so many important people doing all sort of important things, she was sitting alone with no staff, no advisers, and no idea how the phones even worked.
She’d unpacked roughly half of her boxes when someone came to the door and nudged it open. Jane had wondered when one of the aides would check in one her and let her know what she’d be expected to know for the state dinner, but to her surprise it was her boss, Harold Vale, who as far as Jane knew never left the comfort of Secret Service Headquarters.
He looked a bit like a lost tourist.
“Not bad in here. Beats my office,” he said.
“I think I’ve got room to spare if you need some extra space,” Jane said, glad for a little bit of company.
“When I said we should find a better fit for you, this isn’t what I imagined,” he said, feigning gruffness. She could tell he couldn’t hold it against her though, even if he didn’t come in farther than the doorway.
“From what I gather I’ll just be another pair of eyes looking after the safety of the president, albeit in a different role.”
Vale raised his bushy eyebrows.
“That’s a new one,” he said, pausing for a moment. “But it also begs the question, how long until you need your own Secret Service detail?”
He gave her a funny look before pulling his head out of the doorway and disappearing before she could begin to conjure an answer. The point he left with was disquieting. She’d spent a lot of time worrying about Alex’s safety, and Arundhati Singh had gone in-depth about how Jane might need to put herself in the line of fire, but no one had brought up that in this new position she might herself be a target.
The realization left her with an uncomfortable feeling that stretched throughout the day, only giving way to other qualms as cracks in her confidence began to appear. Maybe she’d finally bit off more than she could chew. Without hearing from Alex at all that afternoon, she started second-guessing his commitment to giving her a place. There was a chance she’d only be called upon to appear when they needed a woman present.
It wasn’t until an hour before the state dinner that one of Alex’s aides appeared with a gown for her to wear and some words that in the future they’d get some more assistants together to help with things like hair and makeup for events. The dress was a shimmery magenta that caught Jane’s eye and fit like a glove.
Once she was ready, the aide escorted her through the building toward the dining room, and when she turned a corner into a small ante-chamber Alex was there in a black suit that was mesmerizing. Only the smile on his face and the way he looked at her managed to dispel some of the gloomy doubts that had taken over.
“Are you ready?” he asked as they were about to step through the doors. It felt like she was crossing into a fairytale, and she gave the right answer, even if she couldn’t put as much conviction behind it as she would’ve liked.
“Sure am.”
They were soon far from alone, with the Mexican president, his wife, and other dignitaries all around them. Journalists were lurking as well, and Alex mentioned that he expected to get asked about her when the joint press conference portion began after the meal. But for now Jane smiled and did her best to correctly pronounce all of the names.
If meeting these people was surreal, being expected to act like it was normal for her to be with Alex in such an elegant setting was more so. When they all sat down at the table and she looked around at the faces in her midst, she’d never felt more out of place in her life. This wasn’t where small-town girls from Colorado usually ended up.
But even if she didn’t feel like she’d gotten the hang of such an affair quite yet, at least she could take comfort that she wasn’t the only one. Jane smirked as Alex made five separate attempts to pick up the right spoon to eat his soup with. He laughed when, completely giving up, he picked up all three spoons and, nesting them against one another, used them all at the same time.
More than anything that told her that they were really on the same page. She’d made the right choice, and they’d figure out how to do things their way together.
The End
Don’t miss the second book in the Her Secret Service series, Her Secret Crisis!
About the Author
Jason Letts is an emerging author of historical romance. This is Jason’s third book. If you enjoyed what you read, it would mean the world if you left a review on Amazon. That makes such a difference and is greatly appreciated.
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Copyright © 2021 by Jason Letts
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This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
About the Author