The First Gardener by Denise Hildreth Jones

him.
    “Amen.”
    “You’re not supposed to joke when you pray.”
    He stood. “You don’t think God laughs at my jokes?”
    She walked toward the door. “I didn’t say that. I just said when you’re praying.”
    He draped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close as they walked down the hall. “Good answer.”
    When they got to their bedroom, Mack slipped away from him and stepped into the bathroom to start her nightly routine.
    “How much stuff do you have in there?” He peered into her drawer full of creams and cleansers as he reached for his toothbrush.
    “As much as I need, thank you very much.” She patted the washcloth on her face.
    He wiped his mouth. “I’m going to run downstairs and look over a few things real quick.”
    She turned quickly. “Gray, no. Honestly, every night last week you said that, and you didn’t get to bed until past midnight. I’m tired of us not going to bed together. And the longer you’re in office, the worse it gets.”
    He hated this argument. He glanced out at his nightstand. The marriage book Love & War was staring back at him, a reminder of the fine line between the two in a relationship. “I promised Kurt I’d read through this lawsuit before I went to the office tomorrow.”
    “Some days it’s like you’re married to Kurt,” she snapped. “And what do your clerks do anyway?”
    “Whatever I tell them to do. Right now we have more on our agenda than we’ve ever had, and it isn’t even a legislative session. I just need a little grace.”
    “Gray, you know I give you grace. I hardly ever say anything about this. Last week when you were working late, I didn’t say a single thing. When phone calls interrupt dinner, I rarely say anything. When Sunday afternoons are interrupted, I do my best to let you do what you need to do. But you don’t always look ahead. And right now, do you know what I see ahead of us? In just a few months the reelection campaign will start in earnest. Now that Maddie is in school, we can’t take her with us when you campaign. And I’m not leaving her. So I’m going to be here, and you’re going to be traveling all the time. And that means the time we have together now is that much more valuable.”
    “Mack, you know I value our time.”
    She turned back toward the mirror, picked up a skinny tube, and started dotting some sort of fragrant cream beneath her eyes. But even if she smelled like a garden by the time she came to bed, that temper of hers could make her as thorny as a rose. “I wasn’t saying you don’t value our time. I was saying that when we do have the opportunity to be together, we need to do it. But if you really need to read that lawsuit, then go. I’m a big girl. I can tuck myself in.”
    He walked forward and gave her a kiss. “I promise I won’t be long. You’ll still be watching the Food Network by the time I get back.” Though he knew she wouldn’t. She could fall asleep more quickly than anyone he knew.
    “Yeah, yeah.” She left the bathroom and disappeared into the closet.
    He headed down the hallway toward the stairwell. She was right. The longer he had been here in the governor’s mansion, the more consuming he had let the job become. Now time together was a rare commodity for them. They even had tour groups walking through their home on a regular basis. Virtually their only haven was inside the four walls of their bedroom. And Mackenzie did grant him a lot of grace. He shouldn’t have said that. But the tug of his responsibilities could be so strong.
    He turned the light on in his office and immediately caught sight of a huge stack of papers on his desk. The tug gripped his chest. He stood in the doorway for a moment, trying to resist. But the pressure wouldn’t leave. He really needed to make some headway on that stack.
    He clicked the light off, tiptoed upstairs again, and opened their bedroom door. The light of the television filled the bed and illuminated Mack’s sleeping face.
    He