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know.”
    “And you’ll check in with him soon?”
    “I told him I’d check back with him when I got back to town.”
    The Judge nodded and stood up and extended his hand. “Mac, that is all I could have asked for and more. Thank you.”
    “I’m sorry about your loss, Judge. I’m glad you asked for my help.”
    “Thank you, Michael.” Then the Judge shifted gears back to political mode. “Tonight will be fun, I think. It’ll be good to be back in Minnesota. We’ll see a lot of friendly faces.”
    “At least
you
will, Judge. Me?” Mac shook his head. “Other than Sally, probably not my type of crowd—not many people I’ll know, or to be honest, really care to know.”
    “You never can tell,” the Judge said lightly—and then with a mischievous tone, “You might be surprised.”
    • • •
     
    Mac adjusted his black bow tie in the mirror, making sure it was evenly tied and level. One of his first purchases once he arrived in Washington, after the brownstone, was a tuxedo. Sally said he’d need one for events if he intended to escort her. “Of course, if you don’t want to, I’m sure I could find someone else.” That was not going to happen, so a tux it was, and while he’d never admit it to Sally, he kind of liked wearing it.
    “Do you need any help with your tie?” Sally asked from the bathroom.
    “No, I think I have it this time,” Mac answered, lightly adjusting the bow tie, leveling it out one more time, assessing how he looked in the tuxedo perfectly sized to his wiry, athletic six-foot-one body. He looked good.
    “What do you think?” Sally asked from behind him.
    He turned to look. “Wow! Just … wow!”
    “Yeah?” Sally blushed, twirling around for him.
    “You look … amazing,” Mac answered. She was wearing a long dark-plum dress hugging tightly to her shapely body, with a long slit that revealed her slender, toned left leg. The neckline plunged just low enough to tastefully display her breasts. “Are you trying to impress someone tonight?” She always looked good at these kinds of events, but tonight she’d taken it to a whole new level with a dose of serious glamour.
    Sally smiled, walked up, and pecked him lightly on the lips, “Just you, babe. Just you.”
    “Mission accomplished, then. You look like you’re going to walk the red carpet at the Oscars.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    “I kind of thought so too,” Sally answered playfully, walking over to her shoulder bag and pulling out some papers. “I have another reason for going the extra mile tonight.”
    “Oh? What’s that?” Mac asked warily, noticing the playful yet warning tone in her voice.
    “Take a look at the guest list. There is someone coming that you should know about.”
    Mac took the list from her and started scanning down it, and then he saw it. “Seriously?”
    Twenty minutes later, Mac was quiet as he and Sally rode the elevator down.
    Meredith.
    It all came flooding back.
    Mac met Meredith Hilary at a hockey party his junior year at the University of Minnesota. She was hauntingly attractive, with dark green eyes, a bright smile, and long legs to match her long, black, wavy hair. And she was smart—studying to go to law school, which Mac had been giving thought to as well, rather than going into the family business, the St. Paul Police Department. He had a new girlfriend at the time, but Meredith was unattached, and once she met him, she pursued him. Mac didn’t really fight it—he let her catch him.
    He was in love and thought she was too.
    They married in a lavish wedding ceremony after their second year of law school. Life seemed set. Mac had a six-figure job lined up post-law school, which meshed well with her similar job offer from the Williams, Charles & Boylan firm.
    Meredith was happy, their life on a trajectory of success, much like the life of her parents—her father, a retired General Mills executive and her mother, a renowned vascular surgeon. They’d provided Meredith a