'Kelly? No, I haven't, not yet. You know Nick, he keeps his cards very close to his chest.' She gave me one of those strange looks couples give each other when they're talking about one thing, but thinking about something else.
'I have spoken to her, though.' She was keeping the lies close to the truth.
It was always the best way.
Josh said, 'She's a really good kid, you'll like her a lot. Maybe ifGeri was here Kelly would have come to live with us and the kids. It's been really hard for her.'
Sarah looked at me to carry on the story. I began to think she was liking this, finding out about me.
'Yeah, but me and her, it's all right,' I mumbled.
Sarah reached out and grasped my hand.
Josh broke the silence.
'Ah .. . you sure you two don't want to be alone?'
We all started laughing. I looked at Josh and remembered that I had a job to do, and now was the time to do it.
'Mate, I've just had a brilliant idea. Well, good for us, but maybe hard for you to sort out.'
He sat back and took a sip of wine.
'Yesss ... and what could that be?'
He suddenly sounded like my dad.
'Well, if there was any chance of a trip around the White House for us you know, like the time you took me around before? Sarah would love me forever.' I smiled at her.
She picked up the ball, blushed and her eyes lit up.
'That would be absolutely brilliant. Can you really fix that, Josh?'
Josh wasn't looking too sure.
'Well.. .'
I decided to jump in and keep it all upbeat. Looking at Sarah, whose face now resembled that of a child at a fun fair I said, 'This boy is the greatest.
He took me around the White House last year. He was running the vice-presidential protection team.'
'Oh, I'd love that. That would be fantastic!' She was making all the right noises.
I said, 'There's a bowling alley in the basement so Bill can go and have a bit of a practice, and some of the stonework still has scorch marks from when the Brits tried to burn it down in eighteen hundred and something or other.'
She turned to Josh.
'Is he bullshitting me?'
He shook his head as he took another sip of wine.
'No, the Brits came to Washington and burned the lot down. It was eighteen fourteen.'
I said, 'Come on then, mate, what do you say? I'll even buy a crap tie to make me look like Secret Service if you want. What do you say?' I always took the piss out of the way they dressed. The White House team's uniform seemed to be either a gray suit, or a blue blazer and dark gray trousers. The only thing they were allowed to have choice over, it seemed, was their ties. I had never seen so many Daffy Ducks and Mickey Mouses in one place, apart from the window of Tie Rack. Josh had an impressive display of sheep jumping over gates and Bugs Bunny eating carrots.
It was time for him to insult me in return.
'Lard-ass, you will never look like an agent. No matter how hard you try.'
Sarah stood up.
'This is way over my head,' she grinned.
'So I'm going to pop upstairs again.' She knew it was time to leave us alone. She raised an eyebrow at Josh.
'I'll shut the door this time, so you won't be embarrassed if I make a noise.'
Josh rocked back on his chair and started laughing as the door closed behind her. He looked at me.
'She's cool, man, real cool.' I could see his smile tighten; I was sure he was thinking about Geri and how much he missed her. I felt sorry for him, but I didn't want to let him off the hook.
'What do you reckon then, mate? Any chance? It would be great for her, and on top of that I'd score an unbelievable number of Brownie points, if you know what I mean?'
He sat back in his chair, holding his arms up in mock surrender.
'Whoa, man, chill. Chill out on trying to sell it to me. I got it.' He put his arms back down and got serious.
'I'll try, but I can't say for sure,' he said.
'I'll phone up in the morning. What's your cutoff time?'
'It's got to be three at the latest. We're on the six-something flight from Dulles to Newark.'
He held up his hands again.
'OK, OK, I'll see what I can do. Tomorrow's a big deal up there, but maybe we can go in the morning. Nothing's going to kick off until around midday, and the kids won't be doing their thing until one.'
He put his glass down, filled it up again and offered me some. I nodded and passed mine over. He hadn't noticed that I was only sipping while he was knocking it back.
Josh held up his glass.
'It's really good to see you, man.'
I raised mine.
'And you, lard-ass.'
Sarah walked back in, probably having listened behind the door the whole time. I gave her a big smile as she sat down.
'Josh says we might be able to get in tomorrow before we go back to New York. He's going to see what he can do.'
She gave him the sort of look that would have made a blind man's heart beat faster.
His face lit up.
'Hey, you know what? I have a neat idea. If I can't take you in myself, I could probably get you onto one of the tours. You could always come back and go around with me another time.'
Sarah carried on looking excited, but I knew that she'd be flapping inside.
Josh continued.
'I could organize tickets for you both without much trouble. You won't see the bowling alley or the pool, just the main building reception rooms, but hey' he looked straight at Sarah 'the important thing is you get to see the State Dining Room, and that's the only part left that Jackie 0 furnished. It's the room in the picture you showed me.'
Sarah reached across and touched his hand. I could see she wished she'd never mentioned the woman.
'Thank you, that would be great. I just hope that we'll be able to do it with you; it would be much more fun.'
Josh just about melted.
'Yeah, I know what you mean, it would be kinda cool to show you around. I promise I'll call in the morning; that's all I can do, man.'
'It's going to happen, believe me,' I said to Sarah.
'I told him, if it didn't, I'd tell the White House about the rubber duck.'
'The what?'
Josh looked at me with an embarrassed smile.
I said, 'There's this yellow rubber duck that gets passed around all the different sections in the Secret Service and the Unit.'
She cut in.
'The Unit?'
She was well aware of what I was referring to, but she knew Josh would expect her not to be.
'Delta Force,' I explained.
'Sort of the American SAS. Anyway, the big thing is to have a picture taken with the duck in the most unusual
