Chapter 39
1976 Words
Chapter 39
Earlier this morning, Emily’s SOAR team had flown the President and Frank Adams back to McChord, just over an hour round trip and no one the wiser. Apparently President Peter Matthews had spent the day aboard Air Force One with a head cold.
With the President gone, Kim Jong-un had collapsed into a deep armchair, making no more pretense of how exhausting the meeting had been. Whatever work they’d done, it had been hard on both men. Good work often was.
The Majors had fought their way back through the storm as if it were a quiet summer’s day and merely a routine flight.
On their return, Emily had handed Daniel a FedEx package.
Alice saw that it had been addressed to Daniel, in care of Major Beale at McChord. Beale had looked at Daniel strangely as he tucked it under his arm. Alice barely saw that the return address was Tennessee before it was out of sight.
When she’d looked up, she came under the penetrating inspection of Major Emily Beale, and she’d be damned if she knew why. Alice felt like a bug facing a windshield.
Then, a moment later, Alice stood at the door of the island house, waving politely to Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un’s back. He merely huddled against the sleet, the umbrella she’d provided to his bodyguard remained useless in the chaotic winds shooting over the sea cliff to swirl wildly between the house and trees.
He had thanked her most politely upon learning she was the analyst who had made this all happen. But now that he was out the door, he clearly just wanted to be out of the weather, into the Black Hawk, and homeward bound.
Which was fine with her.
She closed the front door and leaned back against it with a gasp of relief.
Despite the horrid weather, the crew was departing to head out to the carrier parked off the coast. There they’d board the Gulfstream jet back to the Sea of Japan and deliver the North Koreans home. They’d left in the middle of one night and would be returning in the middle of another two days later.
Daniel had offered to accompany them on the return flight into Korea, but Emily had vetoed it. The weather was bad enough that they didn’t want to risk the extra weight of Daniel and Alice aboard the helicopter. That had meant only two passengers to McChord for the return trip to D.C. and only two out to the aircraft carrier where a passenger jet waited on the flight deck for the return trip to Korea.
Finding some reservoir of energy Alice couldn’t tap to save her life, Daniel had swept through the house stripping beds, turning off lights, tossing dirty dishes into the dishwasher.
Alone.
They were alone in the house.
She and Daniel.
And would be for at least one day and more likely two until the Majors returned from their second flight into the Korean night or the storm broke enough for Captain Nathaniel Smith to fly out from Vancouver and fetch them.
Marooned on a Canadian island with Daniel.
She could think of many things that she did and didn’t want to do with Daniel. She wanted to curl up against that beautiful chest and just weep with exhaustion. Ever since she’d seen that first message out of North Korea that had sent her scrambling to the White House, she’d barely slept. And assuming that the Majors flew as safely as they always did, it had all worked.
Another part of her wanted to make love to Daniel until she was too exhausted to either weep or laugh.
And there was the problem.
“Make love to.”
She’d never “made love to” anyone. s*x. Sure. Amend that. With Daniel? Mind-bogglingly good s*x. Who knew her body could even feel that good?
Alice reached deep and tried to wake her analyst’s mind, but wasn’t having a lot of luck with that. Instead, she leaned against the closed front door, and did her best not to think.
Finally at a stop, her body took over and noticed the smell that had come slowly wafting out into the living room. Burgers. Food. Her stomach loudly reminded her of its empty state; none of them had done more than nibble at their lunches during the meeting. And everyone else had left before dinner.
She trailed her way into the kitchen. In some ways not so different from the kitchen in the third-floor Residence of the White House. A little more country kitchen than elegant interior decor, but both were small enough to create a cozy, intimate feel.
Daniel had set two plates on the counter. Full service with folded napkins, silverware, water and wine glasses. He’d even scared up a few Christmas decorations now that the North Koreans were gone. A small family of elves and reindeer sat at the far end of the island. Daniel had set them up with tiny plates and their own six-inch tall Christmas tree.
For the humans at the table, he’d made a delicate salad in wooden bowls. And on the plate rested toasted burger buns and a pile of golden-brown French fries.
“Will you—” Alice clamped her teeth down on her tongue in a hurry. She’d almost jokingly asked if he’d marry her. It would be funny in any other situation when a man cooked something that smelled this good. She would have said it if Emily Beale hadn’t stood right where Daniel now flipped burgers and asked Alice what she was going to do about Daniel being in love with her.
What was she going to do?
She didn’t want her mother’s past. Or her father’s. Trapped in a life neither of them understood. They’d started out happy. She’d seen the photos. The video of the wedding. Listened to them laugh, actually laugh together, as they filmed their only daughter’s first steps. A joy between them that had long since passed into the realm of impossible. So far gone that it was now unimaginable despite the evidence caught on tape.
Whatever they’d had was long dead.
Alice had sworn she’d never make that mistake.
But would she?
Was she capable of making that mistake, of letting love die?
Would Daniel even let her screw it up that badly? This was a man who loved family. A grown man who had his family’s and his big sister’s photos on his dresser. He’d probably find some way to make her happier with each passing year. It poured out of him, straight from his heart. The question was, could she do the same for him?
Hadn’t she answered her own question last night when she’d left the light on and the door open? His mere presence had unnerved her since Beale’s question, but Alice was a better person, far better and far happier with Daniel beside her than when they were apart. And Daniel had chosen to accept the invitation and sleep beside her. She wished she’d had hours to just lie there and watch him sleep.
Daniel served up the burgers, drowned them in sautéed mushrooms, and sat down across the chopping block island from her. He lit two candles and turned off the lights.
Damn, he was turning even a simple dinner into an occasion. A very romantic occasion. Marooned together on a wild but homey island. He looked exhausted, and absolutely, positively stunning. Not just the handsome man who sat across from her. She also saw the man who both helped a President rule and made her feel as if she had a home she’d never imagined. And he made both look effortless.
Comfort food. Daniel had made them comfort food.
“What’s for dessert?”
He tapped the Advent calendar that was sitting on the corner of the island counter.
“We missed last night, too.”
“Gimme!”
Daniel laughed that rolling chuckle of his that made her think of hillsides in the sun.
“Don’t you want to eat first?”
“Gimme now!” she pushed aside her plate, folded her arms across her chest, and did her best to pout.
Daniel considered her for a long moment. That smile hiding something. Shifting for just a moment into the White House Chief of Staff mode, despite wearing a turtleneck shirt rather than a suit and tie. But then he shifted back to merely being amused. As if he’d had to adjust some thinking, tweak some master plan. She had to remember that for every molecule of her being that was a supreme analyst, he was a master strategist.
“Here’s last night’s.” He opened a little door at the base of the pictured tree, down among the unwrapped presents. And extracted a pair of dark chocolates. So dark that they looked black under the candlelight.
She didn’t raise her hands, but rather leaned forward and took one directly with her teeth, leaving a small nibble on his fingertips in her wake. The chocolate flowed warm, lush, creamy, rich. “That may be the best chocolate I’ve ever had.” She felt as if her body melted into a gentler version of herself along with the chocolate.
He nodded, looking a little dazed himself.
“You,” his voice caught. “You can open the last window.”
She pulled over the Advent calendar.
Once again she looked at the magnificent final image.
“It’s us,” Daniel had texted when he saw it. The two young kittens were peeking out from the wrapping paper under the tree, deep in a game of hide-and-pounce. Crinkly balls, feather toys, catnip mice, and more spread far and wide from the tree and across the living room floor.
On a deep, embroidered pillow, before the crackling fire, the mama and papa cat curled together. It was impossible to tell quite where one began and the other ended. Painted so finely that she wanted to stroke their fur.
That Daniel saw the two of them that way had actually made her heart hurt. She had to cover it again with her hand to keep it in place.
She checked the number on the door that had hidden the dark chocolate. Twenty-three. The next one opened into the side of the pillow on which the two cats curled together.
“The last one. Twenty-four,” her voice such a soft whisper even she could barely hear it.
“Christmas eve,” Daniel answered little louder.
Alice looked up at Daniel. But his eyes were hidden in candlelit shadows. She wished she could see what was going on in those deep blue eyes of his, but his thoughts remained hidden.
It was always her most important holiday of the year. She’d always loved Christmas, even though she’d usually celebrated alone. But the last weeks had become so frantic that she’d lost all track of time. She hadn’t even finished the snowflake mittens she’d been knitting as a surprise for Daniel.
She’d barely started her special project. She’d missed her favorite season of the year. A small price, she supposed, for making the world a safer place.
“Tomorrow we’ll be spending Christmas together.” Alice realized. “Just us.” There was a bright side. She could think of no one else she’d rather spend it with.
He nodded toward the calendar with a “go ahead” gesture.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled open the last door.
“It was my grandmother’s. I had my sister send it. I texted her right before we went into North Korea.”
The FedEx package from Tennessee. From Daniel’s home.
She pulled the circle of gold from the recess. A trio of small diamonds in a simple band. Not posh. Not gaudy. Absolutely elegant. Absolutely Daniel.
Alice looked at it sparkle in the candlelight.
Daniel was anchored in the past. Family. Tradition. Honor. Love.
Her past… Well, she wouldn’t be anchored by it. Not any longer. She would cut that cable.
“Here,” she handed the ring to Daniel.
He took it tentatively. His brief look of worry cleared as she held out her left hand.
She had cut the cable and was now flying free.
Daniel slid the warm gold over her ring finger and anchored it in place with a kiss.
Alice and Daniel.
They’d soar straight up into the night sky.
“Tomorrow,” she told the man still holding her hand so tightly, “we’ll be spending our first of many Christmases together.”
END NOTE
Yes, the stone house exists. Years ago I sailed around this steep island deep in the heart of the Cana
- Writer
