Fires of Autumn (11 page)

“I’m going
upstairs to have lunch with my wife,” he told her. “I’ll be back in a couple of
hours.”

“Have a
good lunch,” Casey smiled.

He nodded,
looking rather pensive and solemn, as he left her office and headed over to the
White House through the West Colannade. Casey watched him go, noting that Chris
was already packing up for lunch now that the President was gone.  He slipped
out after Russ did, leaving Casey alone and Colt in the next office. The sudden
quiet was heavy and uncertain, at least for Casey.  She felt very bad for Colt.
Silently, she stood up and peered around the door of his office.

He was
seated in front of his computer, typing.  She came out from behind her desk and
went to the doorway leading into his office.

“You’re
not typing your letter of resignation, are you?” she asked.

Colt
glanced up from the screen. His gaze lingered on her a moment before motioning
her in.

“Sit
down,” he said softly.

Casey did
as she was asked, perching on the edge of the chair across from his desk.  Colt
folded his hands on his desk as he faced her.

“How long
have you worked for the President?” he asked.

“Six
months.”

“Have you
ever been a part of something like what happened back at GreenTopia?”

Casey
shook her head. “No, not like that. Why?”

He sighed
faintly, the brown eyes rather soft and glittery. “You know my job is to
protect the President.”

“Of course
I do.”

“You know
that I wouldn’t have left you behind intentionally.”

Her brow
furrowed. “It’s no big deal,” she assured him. “I took a taxi back. I’m a big
girl.”

He sat
back in his chair, looking rather torn. “I’m sorry you had to do it,” he said.
“My primary concern was getting the President to safety and I’m so sorry you
were left behind in the chaos.”

She smiled
at him. “Colt, I’m not upset about it in the least. You’re taking this harder
than I am and I’m sorry that Russ yelled at you for doing your job. He
shouldn’t have done that.”

He just
nodded, scratching at his head. “It’s not the first time I’ve been yelled at
and I’m sure it won’t be the last.  Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m
fine,” she waved him off.

“Will you
let me buy you lunch?”

She
shrugged. “I think you’d better let me buy
you
lunch.  You need somebody
to be nice to you today.”

He
grinned. “You already have been.”

“I haven’t
done anything except get you in trouble.”

He laughed
softly. “Tell you what,” he said. “You can buy lunch but you let me buy dinner,
okay?”

She cocked
her head. “Dinner?”

“And
drinks. Do you like sushi?”

She
wrinkled her nose. “No way. I like a good steak.”

His grin
broadened in approval. “A girl after my own heart,” he said. “I’m off at six. 
Where should I come and get you?”

Her smile
cooled and she cocked her head, appearing somewhat thoughtful. “Are you asking
me out on a date, Special Agent in Charge Sheridan?”

“And if I
was?”

“If you
were, then I’m not sure that’s a good idea. As much as it pains me to say it,
it’s never a good idea to date someone you work with.”

Colt
studied her carefully. “Why would it pain you to say that?”

“Huh?” she
wasn’t sure what he meant, but then remembered how she had phrased her answer.
“Well, because…because I guess I’d like to say yes but I’m not sure if it’s
appropriate.”

He nodded
in understanding, the brown eyes warm and liquid.  “Let’s talk about it over
those sandwiches I was going to buy.”

She
grinned, reluctantly, and he took it as a signal to move forward.  He waited
while she collected her purse and took her outside into the breezy October
sunshine. Casey thought they were heading to the White House mess but he ended
up walking her down the driveway to Pennsylvania Avenue where they crossed the
street to a sandwich shop about a block away.   They got their sandwiches and
sat by the sunny front window, watching the world pass by.

“Wow,”
Casey said, arranging her turkey sandwich. “This is such a treat. I usually
just eat at my desk.”

Colt had a
big roast beef sandwich and he took a healthy bite. “I usually eat on the run.”

Casey took
a dainty bite, watching him chew. “I’ll bet,” she said. “How long have you been
doing this crazy line of work?”

He grinned
as he swallowed. “
Too
long,” he took another bite. “Since I got out of
the Marines.  My first assignment was with Clinton in the last few months of
his term and then I was assigned to Bush in 2001, right before the terrorist
attacks in New York. I was with him in Florida when we received the news.”

Casey was
listening with interest as she ate her sandwich. “Where did you go to college?”

“United
States Naval Academy,” he told her. “Seriously, I had no choice about going
into the military.  Everybody in my family up through my great-great
grandfather was in the military. With a name like Philip Sheridan the Fifth, I
never had a chance. It was military or my family would disown me.”

Casey
giggled. “So why do they call you Colt?”

It was his
turn to grin. “Believe it or not, I was a skinny kid.  My dad said I was all
arms and legs, like a newborn colt. So they just started calling me ‘the colt’
and it stuck.”

Casey
continued to giggle. “I like it,” she insisted. “So where are you from?”

“San
Francisco,” he told her. “My dad was born there. My parents live in the Gold
Country.”

Casey
sipped at her soda. “That’s God’s country,” she said wistfully. “I was born in
Los Angeles and I can remember taking a few family trips up around there,
seeing the old mining towns. It’s gorgeous.”

He watched
her as he finished off one half of his sandwich. “Do you ever think you’ll go
back to California?”

She shook
her head and looked down at her food. “Not now,” she said. “I’ve been on the
East Coast for twelve years and my boys were born here. Their life is here.
Maybe I’ll retire to California, but I don’t see myself moving back there for
quite some time.”

He nodded
and went to work on the second half of his sandwich. “Tell me about your kids,”
he said. “What do they like to do?”

She
nibbled at her chips. “My oldest, Hunter, is as tall as I am and loves playing
his guitar and playing baseball.  Brody, my youngest, is kind of a beatnik in
the making. He does everything but sleep with his damn skateboard, likes to
goof off and play video games, but he’s the best student out of the two. He
gets straight “A”’s without even trying. He’s a lazy genius.”

Colt
grinned as he chewed his sandwich. “My brother and I were polar opposites,
too.  Ken was always in trouble as a kid, kind of a misfit, but he grew up to
start his own company and become a very successful businessman.  He recycles
junk, makes a fortune, married a model and has four kids.”

Casey
smiled, finishing off her meal. “And you?” she asked. “Any kids?

He shook
his head. “None,” he said. “I was married years ago to my high school
girlfriend, but that lasted about four years. We were divorced while I was on
one of my marine rotations.  I haven’t seen her since.”

“Oh,”
Casey said softly. “I’m sorry about that.”

He
shrugged those enormous shoulders. “I’m not,” he said. Then he glanced at her,
noting her rather shocked expression. “I don’t mean to sound callous, but she
wasn’t ready for marriage. I found out she’d been cheating like crazy when I
was overseas, so I divorced her. I’m kind of thankful we didn’t have any kids.
I wouldn’t want to put them through that.”

Casey
nodded in agreement, wrapping up what was left of her sandwich.

“Then we
have something in common,” she said quietly. “My ex-husband is a very nice man,
but he didn’t think a wedding ring should stop him from having relationships
with other women. When the count got to six, I called it quits. That was enough
for me.”

Colt had
finished his sandwich. He was staring at her as she spoke, shaking his head
after a moment. 

“No
offense, but the guy’s an idiot,” he said quietly.  “If I had you to come home
to every night, all other women in the world would cease to exist for me. What
a moron.”

Casey was
deeply flattered. It was such a sweet thing to say.  With an enchantingly bashful
smile, she took her eyes off of him long enough to look around for a trash can,
mostly because she wasn’t sure how to respond. He had managed to compliment her
into silence.  Colt saw looking for a trash can and took her rubbish from her,
using his very long arm to dump it in the nearest can.

“So,” he
said, folding his hands on the table and looking her squarely in the eye. 
“Let’s talk about dinner tonight.”

Casey
fought off a grin, folding her hands just as he had folded his.  She faced him
just as squarely. “Yes. Let’s”

“You
wanted to know if I was asking you out on a date.”

“Yes.”

He thought
carefully on his reply. “I am, probably more than anyone you’ll ever meet,
focused on appropriate behavior and protocol,” he said quietly. “That’s why
I’ve gotten where I am so quickly.  I know what’s right, and what’s wrong, and
I don’t make bad decisions. People’s lives are in my hand and they depend on my
judgment. So I am acutely aware of what is, and what is not, appropriate in any
environment. That is, at least I thought I was until I met you.”

Casey was
watching him carefully. With his last sentence, her eyebrows rose. “What do you
mean?”

He sighed
faintly. Then, a big hand reached out and grasped the hands she had resting on
the tabletop.  His grip was very warm and very strong.

“This,” he
nodded his head in the direction of her their hands, “can be construed as
sexual harassment.”

She looked
down at their hands. “I know.”

“If it’s
unwelcome, you only need to tell me once. It will never happen again.”

Casey was
staring at his big hand as it covered hers. After a moment, she looked up at
him. “Are you coming on to me?”

“Not
unless you’re receptive to it.”

She gave
him a half-grin. “That’s a very politically correct answer.”

He nodded,
slowly, his dark eyes riveted to her. “The day we met, I knew I wanted to get
to know you better. One look at you and… hell, I don’t know. I’m not very good
with words or really expressing how I’m feeling, so I probably shouldn’t even
be saying all of this to you.   All I know is that when I look at you, I see
something beyond the White House. I see the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen
and she’s intelligent and funny and… oh, man, I’m doing it again. I shouldn’t
be saying all of this. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Casey
pulled a hand free from his grasp, putting her soft fingers over his lips to
silence him.

“You talk
too much, you know that?” she murmured with a grin.

He nodded,
somewhat miserably, with her fingers still over his mouth.   Casey grinned and
removed her hand.

“Listen to
me,” she said softly. “If I didn’t want your attention, I would have slugged
you when you put your coat around me in Carmen Hennderson’s office or punched
you in the face when you wanted to dance to The Eagles.  But I didn’t do either
of those things, did I?”

He shook
his head. “No.”

“So I
guess it must mean that I find you very attractive also.  In fact, I’ve thought
a lot about you since I met you, mostly because I was hoping I hadn’t given you
a bad first impression.”

He
grinned. “You mean with the ‘who the hell are you’ question?”

She
stiffened, although it was in good humor. “You deserved it, ripping that
envelope out of my hand like you did.”

He laughed
softly. “I know, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. “

“It had
better not.”

“So will
you go out with me?”

Her violet
eyes were glimmering at him.  After a moment, she nodded. “I will,” she said
softly. “But we should probably keep it just between us. Not that I’m ashamed
of it, but office romances are really frowned upon.”

He nodded.
“I agree completely.  Not a word to anyone. Whatever happens between us is our
business only.  And along those lines, if we date a couple of times and decide
we just want to be friends, then I promise that I’ll be completely
professionally with you at the office. No weirdness. I’ll just consider you a
friend made.”

“Me, too.”

“But I
have to say at this point, if that happened, I’d be really disappointed.”

She
smiled. “So would I,” she said softly.  Then she looked thoughtful. “Let’s say
we go the other direction - let’s say you and I go out a few times and get
serious. We’re crazy about each other, madly in love and all that. Just for
hypothetical purposes, of course.”