Protecting Freedom

Chapter One

Honor

I lean up against the door to my father’s office, staring at his secretary. I’ve become close to her over the years since we spend a lot of time together. Mostly during times like this, when I’m waiting outside his office to get a moment with him.

She’s given me advice in a motherly way, and I know she views me as more than just her boss’s daughter. In fact, I’m pretty sure she and my dad are in love. Neither of them has said a word to me, and I don’t ask. But they must have finally given in to their attraction because my dad doesn’t seem as grumpy. Though I think July might have been the one to have made him grumpy to begin with. I hope they stop hiding their love soon. Though who knows if they are hiding it from me or the rest of the world. Maybe both.

“How’s the mood in there?” I point to the door, and she laughs. She can read him better than anyone.

“He seemed in pretty good spirits. Why? Are you going to mess that up?” She gives me a teasing smile.

I worry my bottom lip between my teeth. Maybe. I don’t want to, but I know we are going to disagree—something that seems to be happening a lot lately. He says I’ve started to rebel, but I don’t see it that way. I see it as making my own choices about what I want to do with my life.

If it were up to him he would plan my entire life, but come tomorrow I’ll be eighteen and the choices will be all mine. Sort of. I’ll still be the president’s daughter, just like I have been since I was eleven. Life completely changed the day he was elected. It was a lot to take in, but it would have been that way for anyone. But now after two terms, his presidency is coming to an end.

I shrug at July, but she looks at me with sympathy. “It’s only a few more months,” she reminds me. “Then you’ll be off to college.”

“I don’t want to.” It’s hard to keep the anger I’m feeling out of my voice. I’m being unreasonable and I know it. I don’t want to go to college for two reasons. For one, college was never something I longed for, even though I do extremely well in school. And two, I’ll never really know if the Ivy League colleges are begging to have me because of my dad or because of my own hard work. I shouldn’t care why they want me, because I don’t want them.

I want a different life than the one my dad wants for me. It’s been hard trying to get him to understand I’m not his little girl anymore. He might have had dreams of politics for himself, but all I ever wanted was a house full of kids and a husband who was home every night for dinner. I don’t want someone too busy for me. I want the house with the white picket fence, not the White House.

I’ve got my own future mapped out in my mind, and the only thing I can see is Washington. But it’s not the one my dad wants me to go after. If I leave the White House, then I won’t see him again. From what I know about him he’s the lead agent in my dad’s security detail. In every fantasy I have, he’s the shining star. And he might also be the reason I’m waiting outside my dad’s office.

“Who’s he in with?” I ask July, praying she says his name.

She smiles brightly at me and I have a suspicion she’s on to me. I feel my cheeks burn. Who am I kidding, it’s not like I’m stealthy enough to hide my crush on him. She notices everything. Though he doesn’t even know I exist. He’s polite when he greets me, but nothing more. No matter how hard I try and engage him, he always has that same straight face. I have no idea why I find it so sexy, but everything about him is.

He’s nothing like the boys I went to high school with. Everyone was so proper and stuck up. Everyone was considered well bred, and it only made me yearn for a simple life free from that. I wanted the life I grew up with as a young girl living in Tennessee. Before my dad became governor and then began his race for president.

I try to imagine where Washington lives and if he has a girlfriend. My stomach rolls at the idea. He doesn’t wear a ring on his finger, but I guess he could still be married. I think July would have told me if he were. The first time I saw him I was fifteen and he walked into my dad’s office. I was leaving at the same time and I passed right by him. My knees become weak when he turned his dark green eyes on me.