"If it isn't Noah Lyman," someone called out from behind him. He
turned, recognizing the voice but unable to determine who was speaking
to him. "Are you still all gungho for education reform?"
"Um..." he stammered, completely unable to remember the name of the blonde woman who was standing before him. "I am, actually. I have been doing some work with the Congressional Education Commission."
"You don't remember me, do you?" the woman chuckled. "I'm Hillary Hoffman. I was one of Jack McCosham's aides for a while when he was with Clift."
Noah blushed red with the memory. "It's nice to see you again," Noah said, extending his hand to her. "I'm surprised that you still remember me."
She
lauhed again. "How could I forget? I took out one passage
on education reform and you couldn't hardly concentrate on your
dessert. It was the first and only time that I've seen a
twelve-year-old more excited about school than chocolate cake."
"Are you awake?" Alex asked softly, slipping back into bed next to Jack.
"I am now," he answered irritably, scrubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Nick must be back to sleep again. What do you want to talk about tonight?" he demanded, flipping over to face her. In the months since their youngest child had been born, this had become something of a nightly ritual. But it didn't necessarily mean that he enjoyed it.
"Do you regret leaving Milbrandt?" she asked quietly.
"Can't we talk about this in the morning?" he grumbled, pulling himself up into a sitting position and looking sleepily down at her. Although he appreciated the one-on-one time he got to talk to Alex, sometimes he wished that she could just go quietly back to sleep after she'd fed Nick. He was looking forward to the time when the baby would sleep through the night.
"Go back to sleep," she told him, putting a hand on his chest to push him back down to the mattress.
"It's okay. I'm up now." He yawned and scratched his head. "Do I regret leaving?" he repeated. "Maybe sometimes, but I don't like to think about it that way."
"How do you like to think about it?" she inquired, sliding sideways so that she could lay with her head in his lap.
"I'd rather think about the fact that I get to stay home and spend time with our kids. And you get to pursue your dreams."
"But what about yours?"
"I've already accomplished some of them," he answered, running his fingers through her hair. "And there'll be time for the others later," he assured her.
"You gave up a lot to marry me," she murmured, drifting off to sleep.
"All I gave up was a job with a convicted felon," he reminded her.
He waited for her to give some quick retort. When none came, he looked down to find that she was fast asleep.
-
"Well, how do you like that?"
-
"I think that I'd like it more if it were covered in chocolate," CJ commented.
"You like everything more when it's covered in chocolate," Toby retorted. "But somehow I think that little fetish is beside the point."
Sam's face instantly flushed red. "You guys, uh, want me to leave the room or something?"
Toby turned to glare at him. "I don't know what half-baked notion you've got in your head, but whatever it is, forget it. Now."
"So, you're not denying it?" he mumbled, unable to resist and unable to keep the picture out of his head.
"I will hurt you, Sam," CJ warned.
"And when she's finished, it'll be my turn," Toby growled. "There was no innuendo present. There is nothing to insinuate. There was nothing meant by the statement aside from the face value."
Sam held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, I'm personally a fan of whipped cream." He refrained from mentioning that Toby had said the same thing three times.
Toby gave him a very definite warning look and took a menacing step in Sam's direction. "Come on," Sam protested. "It comes in the little cans and you can spray it directly in your mouth. I love any food that comes in aerosol cans. Except for maybe that fake cheesy stuff."
CJ sighed and shook her head. "Aside from whipped cream, I think that cheese stuff is the only other thing that comes in aerosol cans."
"Before this conversation deviates any further from its intended purpose," Toby broke in, "let's try to get through the rest of this speech. Or have you run out of ways to mangle the rules of English sentence construction and punctuation?"
"It's not really a speech, Toby," Sam corrected, an impish look in his eyes. "And we're not really even sure if we're ever going to wind up needing it. Has anyone thought to ask Alex in the last little while if she's still planning on running? We could just all be wasting our time trying to position her for an election she doesn't intend to run in."
Toby rolled his eyes. "You don't think that they would tell us if she decided that she wasn't going to run?"
Sam shrugged innocently. "I'm just saying. When's the last time that you got confirmation that she was still decidedly in this thing? In fact, when have you ever had her tell you that she was going to be running? I know that she's never told me explicitly."
"I think that Jack quitting is a fairly big indication that they're still in this thing," CJ pointed out. "I know that Alex considered dropping out when she found out that she was pregnant."
"She did what?" Toby exploded. "I can't believe that no one told us that our candidate was thinking of dropping out!"
"See what I'm saying?" Sam interrupted. "When's the last time that you confirmed that she was actually going to run? In fact, when have you ever had her tell you straight out that she is going to run for the nomination in three years?"
"It's understood that she's going to be running in three years. Josh and I have been making plans. We've been doing groundwork in Iowa. Jack's started looking at fundraising," Toby declared. "Someone would have told us if she wasn't going to run. Right?"
Sam shrugged. "I don't know, but it seems like the only person not involved in this campaign yet is Alex. That is, if we even have a campaign." This was way too easy. Toby was usually much harder to crack; he must be getting soft in his old age.
Without another word, Toby stepped away, reaching for his cell phone. As soon as the older man's back had turned, Sam broke out in a wide grin, leaving CJ staring at him.
"Impressive, Sparky," she told him. "I thought that it would take you longer to crack him."
"Thank you," he answered proudly.
"Alex put you up to it, didn't she?" CJ demanded.
Sam sidestepped the question. "So, chocolate, eh?"
Despite her best efforts, CJ couldn't stop her face from turning red as Toby's voice carried over to them.
-
"Are you in this thing or not?"
-
"In what thing?" Alex replied sweetly, cradling the phone between her neck and her shoulder so that she could continue braiding Becky's hair.
"You know what thing I'm talking about," Toby said irritably. "Are you running or not?"
"Well, at the moment, I'm not running anywhere. I'm standing in one spot and braiding my daughter's hair," Alex responded, enjoying this moment a little too much. "And Jack's the serious jogger in the family, not me."
Toby sighed heavily. "How am I going to have to phrase this question to get a straight answer?" he asked, thoroughly exasperated.
"You could just ask me if I was planning to make a run for the White House in three years," she proposed. "Or you could continue to ask ambiguous questions that I, of course, will refuse to answer the way you want me to."
"Are you planning on making a run for the White House in three years?" Toby questioned obediently, obviously annoyed with the whole conversation. "Or have you just been misleading us as to your intentions?"
"You know what?" Alex retorted. "I don't think I'm going to answer that question either. But Becky has something that she wants to tell you."
"Alex!"
His yell was too late because the phone had already been passed over. "Nuh-uh, Uncle Toby," Becky laughed. "It's not Mommy."
"Could I talk to your mommy?" he asked, trying to not vent his anger on the little girl. "It's very important."
Becky looked up at Alex, holding the phone out to her. Alex shook her head no. "She says no."
"You had something that you wanted to tell me?" He had resigned himself to his not knowing, and resolved to make Sam pay for this somehow.
"Mommy said to say that she's not gonna run. She says that she's gonna win." Becky paused for a second. "How do you run for a house, Uncle Toby?"
