Chapter 3

As Mac got out of the tub and dried off, she thought how glad she was that the trial was over and out of the way. Luna and Shawn had been through so much, but now they could concentrate on good times to come. The wedding was only two days away and as Mac chose what she would wear to dinner with her Uncle Joe she ran her hand over the lovely dress that she would wear as Luna's attendant. She had been so honored when Luna had asked her. Mac couldn't remember ever seeing the Admiral as happy as he had been since his retirement. However, she and Harriett had both been sure that he couldn't stay inactive for long and they were right. They had just learned that when Luna and he returned from their honeymoon, AJ would be taking up the position of Little League Coach for McLean.

Dressing quickly, Mac thought how everyone's lives were progressing and moving forward, everyone but hers it seemed. With a sigh she slid into strappy sandals that went well with her 'little black dress' and ran a brush through her hair. With a squirt of her favorite perfume she was ready to go just as the doorbell rang. Opening the door to her Uncle Joe she gave him a fierce hug. She had known and loved this man since she was a teen.

"Well, that was some welcome, sweetie pie!" Joe boomed as he hugged her back and placed a kiss on the top of her head. As tall as Mac was, Joseph Leland was over a foot taller than she. He was an imposing figure of a man. A full head of silver hair topped his square face. He was a bear of a man with twinkling blue eyes that made you want to trust him right away. Mac could tell that even though he spent most of his time behind a desk these days, and his sixtieth birthday was fast approaching, he still kept in shape.

Mac had often wondered why he had never married and one night on a camping trip had gotten up the courage to ask him that very question. Joe told her that with his job he simply couldn't put a wife through the anxiety of marriage to him. At the time, he had been an Agent guarding the first family. Now that he was the director of the agents she wondered if that might change.

"So what was so important that we had to meet so quickly Uncle Joe?" Mac asked and he took her arm and guided her out of the apartment.

"You can wait till we are seated at the restaurant to find that out young lady. Why don't you tell me how your career is going these days, we have some time to catch up on."

So Mac spent the drive telling him how, although she still loved the Marines and being a lawyer, she just couldn't seem to find the right rhythm with General Creswell. "He thinks that I got soft working under a Navy man all those years. He's harder on me because I'm a Marine than he is on the others in the office and I don't really mind that, but it just seems no matter how hard I work I can't please him."

"Well, to be honest I'm both sorry and glad to hear that," Joe replied.

"What do you mean?"

They had arrived at the restaurant and were seated; Joe indicated that he wanted to finish ordering dinner before answering that question. When the waiter had left them alone, he leaned across the table and said, "I'm sorry that you're not completely happy where you are now, my dear, but the reason I'm glad as well, is that your dissatisfaction with the General might work to my benefit."

"How so?" Mac demanded.

"How would you like to come and work for me?"

"What?" she gasped.

"Our President is a former Marine and who better to guard him than another?"

"Let me get this straight…you're asking me to become a Secret Service Agent and my first assignment will be to guard the President of the United States?!"

To be continued…..