Chapter 9
Eighteen Years Later
Dallas looked out the front window and saw the lines of people just waiting to get into the White House.
He would have to make himself scarce on those tours so that he didn’t have to have his security team scramble to keep him safe.
He sometimes wished that he could take the tour with his people, but they said that it wasn’t safe.
Being the President of the United States did have its perks and fails.
“Weren’t you told not to stand in front of that window? I know you have at least five times, Daddy.” Anna gave him a hug and moved him away from the beautiful window. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Just tolerate me, I guess. What are you off to today? I hope it’s something fun.
You’ve been spending too much time behind closed doors, and I worry about you, too.
” Anna was his pride and joy. She had two younger brothers who would give him a good run for his money, but she, his first child, made him proud.
“I’m to have lunch with the Committee Against Child Labor.
Apparently, that sort of thing is still going on. ”
“Not so much here but in other countries.” She told him all about the laws. “I’m going to see if I can sneak in and meet some of the people that you’re with. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, not at all. Your mom can’t make it.
She’s going to be at another meeting. I don’t think she’s any too happy to be going to something else, but she is a good person.
” He thought of his Amy and how she’d been by his side since the beginning of his time in the White House.
“I’ll make arrangements for you to be by my side.
Nothing like having a beautiful woman at my side to make me feel better about my job. ”
“You just want someone to get you out of remembering names. You never were very good at that.” He was getting better.
After five years in the White House, he’d better.
“I’d love it if you could make that happen.
I could help you out, and you could help me get to meet some people that I admire.
Thank you.” He pulled out his notepad and wrote down what he wanted to do.
“I have to write things down now, or I forget them. It’s not because I’m old, it’s just that a lot of times I get sidetracked, and without the notes that I make, I’m lost. Your mother has been doing the same thing.
But we don’t do it in front of people. I believe the press would have a heyday with it.
” Anna told him she thought it was brilliant of him.
“You’ve always been my biggest supporter.
But as soon as I find—never mind. There they are now.
This isn’t going to go over well, I don’t think. ”
After talking to the caterer about the luncheon, he did disappoint the man about adding one more for the meal, he got his way.
They wanted to keep him happy, or they might well have told him to fuck off.
Not really, but sometimes he’d bet there were people around him that wanted to tell him that to his face.
At least he hoped not too many of them. Marking it off his list of things that he’d done, he made his way to the upper floors to see what Anna was up to. She was with their boys.
At sixteen and fifteen each, they were a handful.
Nothing like he’d been at that age, but enough where they had to be kept an eye on all the time.
Anna just behaved all the time, but the boys were forever testing his patients.
Apparently, today they had tested their moms right to the limit.
They were grounded until the weekend, when they were going to go to their grandmother’s home for a time away from all the structure of the White House.
Mom would spoil them, and they’d get to hang out with their uncles and aunts.
He wished sometimes that someone would make him go home again.
He’d sometimes need a break away from the structure himself.
But he had a job to do, and he was going to do it to the best of his abilities.
He looked at Amy when she was finished with the boys.
“I swear they’re testing my temper. I’ve been really good for the past five years and not taken it out on anyone, but I swear to you, they want me to look bad on the front page of the paper.” He said they probably did. “You think so?”
“Yes, they’d think it was funny that you were on the front page.
Or cool. I’m not sure how they would say it.
Anna is going to the luncheon with me today.
She wants to be able to talk to some of the people on the committee.
” She pouted. “I’m sorry. Did you want to ask her to come with you?
I can change things, though I think the caterer will have my head.
He wasn’t too thrilled that I changed things around at the last minute anyway. ”
“She’d hate what I was doing. I’m meeting with the women who are on the ornament committee.
I guess they’re going to be looking for ideas for the Christmas Ornament for next year.
This year is already done, and I’ve seen it.
It’s beautiful.” He asked her if he’d seen it.
“Yes, you have. You loved it as well. I’m going to have to insist that they do something with the trees this year.
I would love to see all the ornaments for all the past years put on a single tree. Or several if that’s what it takes.”
Everything had to be done so far in advance that it boggled his mind that they were looking at ornaments for a year and a half from now.
He supposed it was a good idea to get it done, but by the time Christmas rolled around, he was ready for the next holiday.
It was something that he had to get used to living here.
“I was wondering if the boys were coming home this weekend for sure.” Always happy to hear from his mom, he told her that they were, but they were grounded. “I’ll only enforce that if they’ve done something truly bad. What have they done?”
“I don’t know, to be honest, but they pissed off Amy.” She said that it was more than likely something terrible and that she’d enforce her rules. “What would you have said if they had pissed me off?”
“You’re too soft on them, and they wouldn’t have been grounded.
They love you to pieces, but they rule you like they have you wrapped around their little finger.
And everyone knows it. They more than likely did do something about you, and Amy caught them before it became front page news.
” He said that wasn’t fair; he disciplines them.
“Not really. You say things, but let them off the hook before their time is up. I love you so much, son, but you’re just too soft.
Amy rules them, and that’s the way it has to be. ”
He thought about all the times that he’d had to be the heavy in something and realized that his mom was right. Changing the subject to something else, he asked her what her plans were for the weekend. He and Amy were going to be flying to New York to do some school shopping for the boys.
“We’re going to the zoo. Did Amy hear that her calendars have sold out again?
This is the third run of them that they’ve had to do so that they can keep selling them.
I guess they’re for next year, but that’s all right.
I have my copies right where I can change them out when it’s time.
” He said that she’s been doing them for the local zoo, too.
“Oh, good. They’ll make so much money off of them that they’ll be able to afford new things for the animals, like the local zoo has.
I so love that she continues to do that for them. ”
It’s where he met Amy. She’d been hired to take pictures of the zoo animals for an idea to sell calendars for the upcoming year.
They’d done so well that other zoos around the country had wanted the same thing done for them.
She didn’t have as much time to do them as she had before becoming first lady, but he was glad that she did work in his zoo at home.
After talking to his mom for a bit more, they closed the connection.
It made his day to be able to just reach out to one of his family members and talk to them.
He didn’t know how he’d be able to do his job if not for the way they all supported him.
Dallas was a family man, and he’d been one since the first time he laid eyes on his Amy.
Going to his office, he knew that it was still early enough that there would be few people in his domain.
There were a couple of people who knew that he was an early riser and that he got to work early, too.
While he was reading over his notes for his luncheon, he realized that he really didn’t know a great deal about the people who were coming for lunch.
Deciding to dig a little deeper, he pulled out his laptop and started doing research on the committee so that he’d have a bit more information in the event they asked him something.
Usually, they just wanted to have a meal with him and talk a little bit while pictures were being taken.
But he knew that his daughter would require more from him, so he was still digging when his secretary came in with a sheath of papers on the very subject he was looking into.
“I thought that’s what you’d be doing. I heard that Anna was going to be eating with you and knew you’d want more information.
That woman has a good head on her shoulders, and I see her taking your place when your term is up.
She’d make a great president, too.” He agreed with her and set to work on the things she’d been able to unearth for him.
“Don’t forget that tomorrow is your anniversary.
I know you understand that, but I can let you know. ”