lips before she could speak. “Don’t worry, it won’t change anything the girls are doing there. They probably won’t even notice a difference. And until we know how this all happened, I’d feel better knowing you had one or two more suits at your side.”
“So I don’t get to run free outside of official events?”
“Not for the time being.”
Caroline didn’t want to divulge that she felt safer that way. Expressing her fears would probably make him more uneasy than anything else that had happened. She had complained about her security constantly since they moved to Harrisburg. She even sneaked out of the mansion unescorted a couple of times at first, to taste freedom. Jack had gotten so upset about it that she agreed to compromise: she wouldn’t need to take her troopers with her if it was personal business. And she’d always let Jack or one of her staffers know where she was going. One of the many aspects of being high profile that she hated. She never realized how much she enjoyed basic tasks like running to the grocery store or taking a random painting class before. Now that her husband was governor all eyes were on her, even more so than before. Her privacy had slowly been chipped away since her last eighteen months in Congress.
“What about you?” she asked him.
“My detail will increase as well.”
Caroline ran her hands up and down his arms. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me. We’re merely taking precautions. There’s nothing to indicate that this was anything other than an isolated incident.”
“Against the President of the United States,” she said. “That’s a pretty big incident.”
He kissed her forehead. “You have nothing to worry about.”
Caroline wrapped her arms around his neck. The fear that had grown during the past few hours came crashing down on her. “I can’t lose you, Jack. I-” She started crying again.
“It’s okay,” he whispered.
He’d dealt with her seesaw emotions before. Past losses tended to come back to her whenever tragedy occurred. She didn’t want to think about burying another husband. “I can’t live without you. I mean it. I’m not that strong.”
He wrapped her in his arms. “Nothing is going to happen to me. Or you. Or our children, or our friends, or anyone else we care about. I will never leave you.”
An empty promise, though he’d try his damndest to keep it. Even the most controlling of men couldn’t cheat death. “Hendricks was only a few years older than you. Anything can happen.”
One of Jack’s good friends from Wharton, Bill Neumann, suffered a heart attack and passed away during the gubernatorial campaign, and it affected Jack deeply. He’d been a few years younger than Jack, who responded by working out more, checking in with his doctor more regularly, and doting on Caroline even more often than he had before. At times it made her feel claustrophobic but she knew he meant well. And he’d managed to keep it up for the past three years.
“I’ll be fine,” Jack said quietly. “I’m in good health, I have an elite security team, and nothing is going to take me away from you.”
But Caroline knew from his tone of voice that he remembered what had happened to Bill, and the question of his own mortality had crossed his mind. He wouldn’t have talked to the troopers if it hadn’t. Maybe that was why he was so eager to prove himself in bed night after night. To show her he was young, virile, fully alive. He’d always had a blessedly high sex drive but she noticed a change in him ever since he turned fifty, right after he’d been sworn in as governor.
Caroline sniffled. She needed to take a step back. “I feel like such a codependent freak. You can’t make those kinds of promises, Jack. I know better than that.”
“I don’t want you to worry about this,” Jack said. “You have enough on your mind as it is. And you’re not codependent. You get attached. You live passionately. You believe in mutually supportive relationships, in the give and take between people. You lavish people with your kindness and affection even if you don’t know them. And you’re smart enough to appreciate what you have. It’s part of the reason I find you irresistible.” He grinned. “In other words, you’re a woman who loves too much.”
She wiped her eyes. He always knew how to make her laugh. “That last line sounds like something out of a