The President's Daughter - Mariah Stewart [15]
“Do you feel you missed anything by living at school instead of in the White House? That had to have been a pretty exciting place.”
“Don’t forget we had lived in Washington for twelve years. I started at Beaumont Academy when I was in grade school. School was a mere forty-five minutes— that’s forty-five minutes in traffic—from Pennsylvania Avenue. I went back and forth whenever I wanted.”
“So you had the best of both worlds.”
“Exactly. I had a room there—after all, it was our family home—but really, when you live in the White House, everything happens around you.” Sarah grinned. “There, it was never about me, you understand. It was always about my dad, which is how it should have been, of course, since he was the President. But as a teenager, I wanted to be the center of attention, too, you know. I guess everyone does at that age, at least to some extent. At school, everyone knew me and accepted me for what I was . . . whatever that was back then. So I stayed at Beaumont during the week, but I spent almost every weekend with my folks and often brought a friend or five home with me.”
“I think I do recall reading something about slumber parties on the top floor of the White House.”
“Many slumber parties.” Sarah’s eyes danced. “Lots of loud music and having pizza delivered in the middle of the night. Lots of lectures from my mother the next morning. Just like any other teenager.”
“And from Beaumont you went to Brown?”
“What Hayward did not go to Brown? Other than Mother and Jen, of course, since it was still all men then. But our Emily, Dad, Gray, my grandfathers on both sides . . . how far back would you like me to go?” Sarah laughed softly.
“And your husband?”
“Julian’s dream had always been to go to Annapolis, but of course he is from a navy family. He and his father both were in Vietnam, and his grandfather served in the South Pacific during the Second World War.”
“How did you meet?”
“His younger sister, Carolyn, was a classmate of mine at Beaumont.”
“Ah, that’s nice. Did you know, when you graduated, that you’d be sisters-in-law someday?”
“Well, we didn’t exactly graduate together. She, they—Carolyn and the others from my class—graduated a year earlier than I, since I took a year off in high school.” Sarah hesitated slightly, then asked, “Had I mentioned that?”
“No.”
“Oh. Well, I traveled a lot with my parents during what would have been my senior year—my dad had a lot of visits and such scheduled that year in Europe and several in South America, so we decided that I’d take that whole year off so that I could go with them. That was the biggest concession I made to being First Daughter.”
She smiled somewhat wistfully. “Of course, by the time I got back to school in the fall, all of my closest friends had graduated. And after college, well, we all settled in different parts of the country. Got involved in our own lives, our careers, our children. It seems that the only time I ever see my old friends now is at weddings and funerals. The last time, happily, was a wedding.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Three or four years ago.” Sarah sighed. “It’s really a shame, but it seems that once your children hit a certain age, your life is no longer your own, between this activity and that. Although with Kirsten getting her driver’s license in another week, I will have a few hours each day when I won’t be on call.”
“Are you telling me that Sarah Hayward Decker, former First Daughter, is a soccer mom?”
“Lacrosse mom,” she corrected him good-naturedly. “This is Maryland, you know. We carry sticks down here.”
“I take it that both of your daughters play?”
“Every chance they get.”
“And what is your husband doing now that he’s retired?”
“Has Julian retired?” She feigned shock. “I hadn’t noticed.”
She laughed. “Actually, Julian has always been a bit of a secret scholar, so he volunteered to give a lecture class at the Academy this year. He’s loving it to death. And he’s busy writing, trying his hand at fiction. He’s writing a mystery set here