opened the door and guided her inside, where her staff was assembled waiting for her. They started clapping. The gesture was sincere if a bit overdone, and Caroline barely refrained from rolling her eyes.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” she said. “Stop that.” She gave every one of them one-armed hugs until she reached Jen and Kathleen.
“Hi,” Jen said softly. There were tears in her eyes.
Caroline couldn’t handle that. Not first thing in the morning. “Don’t you dare cry. I mean it.”
“Sorry,” she whispered.
She looked so upset that Caroline leaned in for an extra hard hug. “Don’t be sorry. I’m going to be fine. I wouldn’t have come back to work if I wasn’t ready.”
Jen sniffled, pulling herself back together. “I know.”
“Hiya, boss.” Kathleen threw her arm around her. “We have much to talk about. Starting with your new jewelry.”
Caroline gave Jack a hangdog look. She hated kicking him out but he had a job to do as well, including a pile of delayed work waiting in his office. “I think this is the part where they monopolize my time for a while.”
He gave her a kiss. “May I escort you to the House floor later, my lady?”
“Of course,” she said. “I know how much you love the media spotlight.”
Jack chuckled. “I’ll be back in a bit.” He gave Jen and Kathleen his most devastating smile, then winked at Caroline. “Enjoy yourselves.”
Kathleen pushed Jen and Caroline into Caroline’s private office and shut the door behind them. She grasped Caroline’s left hand firmly, leaning in for a closer look at her engagement ring. “Okay, okay. Let’s see this thing.”
“Be careful.” Jen wiped her eyes. “She’s still injured.”
Caroline laughed. “It’s fine.”
Kathleen’s eyes bugged out. “Holy Christ. You made out like a fucking bandit.”
“Kathleen,” Jen admonished. “Honestly.”
“I’m serious. Take a look at it.”
Caroline shifted over to Jen. The ring was a three carat round cut diamond solitaire, set in a Tiffany style six prong setting and surrounded by small round sapphires. Having people stare at it still made her a little uncomfortable. Some blogger asserted it had set Jack back more than a hundred grand, and Caroline had no desire to ask her fiancé whether the claim was accurate. She thought that was a ludicrous amount to spend on a piece of jewelry.
“Wow,” Jen said, clearly at a loss. “That’s pretty impressive.”
Kathleen gave Caroline a playful grin. “You must put out like every night.”
Caroline grinned back at her. “I can’t wait to see what he gives me for my birthday.”
“Or what you’ll have to do in return.”
Jen frowned at them. “Can you maybe behave professionally for just a minute?”
Caroline looked down at the ring. “Do you think it’s too big? I think it’s a bit much.” She’d been obsessing over it ever since Jack had given it to her. It still looked out of place on her finger. Not because she felt she didn’t deserve it, but she wasn’t sure she needed it.
“It’s chump change for him,” Kathleen said. “Enjoy it. No sense in having that kind of wealth without taking some steps to indulge in it a little.”
“I just don’t want to take it, or him, for granted.”
Her press secretary’s grin would probably be permanently attached for most of the day. She and Caroline hadn’t been face to face in over a month and had some catching up to do. Especially as it pertained to their prank pulling. “I get the distinct feeling that you will never do either of those things. Shall we sit down?”
Caroline sank into her office chair and let out a deep breath. “It’s good to be here.”
Kathleen cocked an eyebrow at her. “Really?”
Caroline gave her a hard look. “You know what I mean.”
Jen glanced back and forth between them, following Kathleen’s lead and taking a chair across from Caroline. “I think I’m the only one in the room who has no idea what you’re talking about. Why is that?”
“Because you’re the only one in the room who has no idea what we’re talking about,” Kathleen said.
Caroline cleared her throat. “Okay, Katie. Let’s bring it down a little. I wanted to talk to you two before I went out to face the rest of the world. I have to assume that the throng of reporters is only going to increase as I go over to the House floor. Right?”
“That would be an affirmative,” Jen said.
Caroline stared down at her desk. This was hard. Harder than she thought it would be. The two women sitting in front of her were two