Блейк Пирс - Waiting

And Riley realized something …

I really resent that.

Riley chose her words carefully, trying not to say the wrong thing …

“Ryan, you know, making a better life for us isn’t just up to you. It’s up to both of us. I’m going to have something to do with it. I’m going to have a career of my own.”

Ryan looked away with a frown.

Riley fought down a sigh as she realized …

I said the wrong thing after all .

She’d almost forgotten that Ryan didn’t really approve of her summer internship. She’d reminded him that it was only ten weeks and it wasn’t physical training. She was just going to be watching agents at work, mostly indoors. Besides, she thought it might even lead to an office job right there in the FBI headquarters.

He’d become more agreeable about it, but he certainly wasn’t enthusiastic.

But then, Riley really didn’t know what he might prefer for her.

Did he maybe want her to be a stay-at-home mother? If so, he was going to be disappointed sooner or later.

But now was no time to get into all this.

Don’t spoil this moment, Riley told herself.

She looked at her ring again and then at Ryan.

“This is beautiful,” she said. “I’m really happy. Thank you.”

Ryan smiled and squeezed her hand.

Then Riley said, “So who are we going to share the news with?”

Ryan shrugged. “I don’t know. We don’t really have any friends yet here in DC. I guess I could get in touch with some of my old friends from law school. Maybe you could call your dad.”

Riley frowned at the idea. Her last visit to her father hadn’t been pleasant. Their relationship had always been deeply troubled.

And besides …

“He doesn’t have a phone, remember?” Riley said. “He lives all alone up in the mountains.”

“Oh, yeah,” Ryan said.

“What about your parents?” Riley asked.

Ryan’s smile faded a little.

“I’ll write to them about it,” he said.

Riley had to stop herself from asking …

Why not give them a call?

Maybe then I could actually talk to them.

She’d never met Ryan’s parents, who lived in the small town of Munny, Virginia.

Riley knew that Ryan had grown up among working-class people, and he was very anxious to put that kind of life behind him.

She wondered if he was embarrassed by them or …

Is he embarrassed by me?

Do they even know we’re living together?

Would they approve?

But before Riley could think of how to broach the subject to him, the phone rang.

“Maybe we could just let the machine take that,” Ryan said.

Riley thought about it for a moment as the phone kept ringing.

“It might be something important,” she said. She went to the phone and took the call.

A cheerful, professional-sounding male voice said, “May I speak with Riley Sweeney?”

“This is she,” Riley said.

“This is Hoke Gilmer, your supervisor for the FBI training program. I just wanted to remind you—”

Riley said excitedly, “Yes, I know! I’ll be there bright and early at seven o’clock tomorrow morning!”

“Great!” Hoke replied. “I look forward to meeting you.”

Riley hung up the phone and looked at Ryan. He had a wistful look in his eye.

“Wow,” he said. “Everything’s getting real, isn’t it?”

Riley understood how he felt. Ever since the move from Lanton, they’d seldom been away from one another.

And now, tomorrow, they were both off to their new jobs.

Riley said, “Maybe we need to do something special together.”

“Good idea,” Ryan said. “Maybe go to a movie and find a nice restaurant and …”

Riley laughed as she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him to his feet.

“I’ve got a better idea,” she said.

She pulled him into the bedroom, where they both fell laughing onto the bed.

Riley felt her breath and heartbeat quicken as she walked from the metro stop toward the massive white J. Edgar Hoover Building.

Why am I so nervous? she asked herself. After all, she had managed her first solo trip on a metro through a larger city than she had even visited before moving here.

She tried to convince herself that this wasn’t such a big change—that she was just going to school again, the same as she’d done in Lanton.

But she couldn’t help feeling awed and daunted. For one thing, the building was on Pennsylvania Avenue, right between the White House and the Capitol. She and Ryan had driven past the building earlier this week, but the reality was only now hitting her that she was going to be coming here to learn and work for the next ten weeks.

It seemed almost like a dream.

She walked through the front entrance and passed on through the lobby to the security gate. The guard on duty found her name on a list of visitors and gave her a clip-on identification card. He told her to take an elevator three floors down to a small auditorium.

When Riley found the auditorium and went inside, she was handed a packet of rules, regulations, and information that she was supposed to read later. She sat down among about twenty other interns who appeared to be in her general age range. She knew that some, like her, were recent college graduates; others were undergraduates who would be returning to college in the fall.

Most of the other interns were male, and all of them were well dressed. She felt a little insecure about her own pantsuit, which she’d bought at a thrift shop in Lanton. It was the best business-type outfit she had, and she hoped she looked sufficiently respectable.

Soon a clean-cut, middle-aged man stepped in front of the seated interns.

He said, “I’m Assistant Director Marion Connor, and I’m in charge of the FBI Honors Internship Summer Program. You should all be very proud to be here today. You are a very select and exceptional group, chosen from thousands of applicants …”

Riley gulped hard as he continued congratulating the group.

Thousands of applicants!

How strange it seemed. The truth was, she hadn’t put in an application at all. She’d simply been chosen for the program straight out of college.

Do I really belong here? she wondered.

Assistant Director Connor introduced the group to a younger agent—Hoke Gilmer, the training supervisor who had called Riley yesterday. Gilmer instructed the interns to stand and raise their right hands to take the FBI oath of office.

Riley felt herself choke up as she began to speak the words …

“I, Riley Sweeney, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic …”

She had to blink back a tear as she continued.

This is real, she told herself. This is really happening.

She had no idea what awaited her from this moment on.

But she felt sure that her life would never be the same.

After the ceremony, Hoke Gilmer took the students on a long tour of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. Riley grew more and more amazed at the size and complexity of the building, and at all the different activities that took place here. There were various exercise rooms, a basketball court, a medical clinic, a printing shop, many kinds of labs and computer rooms, a firing range, and even a morgue and a car repair shop.

It all boggled her mind.

When the tour was over, the group was taken to the cafeteria on the eighth floor. Riley felt exhausted as she put food on her tray—not so much from the miles of walking she’d done, but at everything she’d seen and tried to absorb.