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How the hell a, I’m here to make sure that never happens

I tip my hat back and deflect "Will you?"

Her smile is shy, like she’s about to reveal a secret "When I was little"

"When was that?" I tease "Last year?"

She pushes my shoulder playfully "Nooowhen I was littlelike five or six I used to wish on the stars before I went to bed After Momma tucked me in, I’d climb out, look out theand I’d wish for you to cohter, until I can barely breathe past it

"Or that you’d take me and Momma with you to DC and we’d stay thereforever"

Jenny and I are good parents, I don’t doubt thatbut it’s hard to hear that you’ve let your child down To know they wished fervently for soivebut you just didn’t

"I didn’t know you did that, Presley" I avert rass "Do you still wish that?"

"No" She sighs thoughtfully "You’re happy there You have your office and the White Houseand you have Jake And Momma’s happy here And now she has JD to keep her corouch What’s wrong with this picture?

Then she perks up even ht ht And pull her into irl"

She wraps her arht "I love you too"

13

Sofia

Presley Shaas everything I’d pictured she’d be, froraphs that fill Stanton’s apartment Vivacious, sweet, with a mischievous shine in her eyes that reminds me of her father

I continued to work after Stanton popped in to tellher back to Jenny’s parents’ I was still drafting a brief as the sunlight outside faded and the orange fireball in the sky slipped lower on the horizon

I put my laptop away only when Mrs Shaw came to collect me for dinner The table was set, with Marshall, Mary, and Carter Shaw Sr, Stanton’s dad, already seated--it seeularly set time Mr Shaw is a tall, burly man with a handso, silent type He’s older than his wife by about ten years, I’d guess, but there’s a tenderness in the way he looks at her and a devotion in her voice that tells e

I was the center of attention, answering questions abouttheans In between bites of delicious pot roast and potatoes, they told lories, an adolescent prank that al when he was five ju off the roof because he was sure his Superive him the power to fly