The Senator's Wife

OceanofPDF.com Contents Title page Copyright Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-Six Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Chapter Thirty-Nine Chapter Forty Chapter Forty-One Chapter Forty-Two Chapter Forty-Three Chapter Forty-Four Chapter Forty-Five Chapter Forty-Six Chapter Forty-Seven Chapter Forty-Eight Chapter Forty-Nine Chapter Fifty Chapter Fifty-One Chapter Fifty-Two Chapter Fifty-Three Chapter Fifty-Four Chapter Fifty-Five Chapter Fifty-Six Guide Contents Start of Content OceanofPDF.com The Senator's Wife JEN LYON OceanofPDF.com The Senator’s Wife First Published in January 2023 Copyright © 2023 Jen Lyon ISBN: 979-8-9877320-1-4 (eBook) All rights reserved. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and supporting independent authors. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. This book contains content that may be considered sensitive in nature to certain readers, including mature situations and adult themes. Published by Doss About Publishing Cover design by Jen Lyon OceanofPDF.com For Donna; my Catharine. OceanofPDF.com CHAPTER ONE “YOU’RE THE ONLY person I know who can find themselves miserable on vacation, A.” Caleb dragged his toes through the hot sand, drawing a set of parallel lines in front of the rock he was sprawled on, before destroying the design with a sweep of his foot. He was fielding an imaginary soccer ball to Alex, a game that usually roused her from her stupors, but today she hardly noticed. Instead, she remained staring out over the beach in front of them, her knees drawn up to her chin, her mind far from the coarse sand shoreline of the little island wedged between the coast of Savannah and Hilton Head. She forced herself to smile, a halfhearted lifting of the corners of her mouth, the action never reaching her eyes. Her gaze remained trained on the ocean in front of them. “A.” The blonde-haired boy—young man, really, Alex realized, as he’d turned twenty-eight the week before and was no longer qualified to be considered a boy, regardless that she always thought of him as one—probed again, seeking her attention. “Alex!” His use of her name stirred her from her daydreams. He never called her Alex. It was always “A.” Or “A-Bomb.” Or “Grey”—her last name; some variation of playful pet words that could be strung together. She flicked her eyes to him, brow lifted in question. “Where were you?” Caleb inquired. She had barely spoken twenty words since they’d arrived the night before, which was quiet, even for her. “Just thinking.” She shrugged, drawing in a breath, savoring the warm humid air, allowing herself to return to the present. A wry smile touched her lips. “I’m a miserable travel companion, aren’t I?” “Pretty much.” Returning her smile, he popped to his feet. “We’re supposed to be here to relax. Have fun. I doubt that idea’s ever crossed your mind.” He kicked sand at her, teasing. “Come on! Let the game go for a little while. It’ll be there when we get back. How about a swim?” He extended a tanned hand in her direction. Caleb was her best friend. More than that. He was her confidant, her champion, her protector—her brother, in a way—brother of no relation. They’d met in an after-school therapy class vaguely disguised as a sports program, both enrolled before either had reached their teens. He’d been an overly energetic twelve-year-old who’d been shuffled back and forth from foster home to foster home, always finding himself back where he started in the South Carolina Union Way Home for Boys. Four times he’d been placed with families, but his enthusiastic spirit proved to be too much for any one household to tolerate indefinitely. Alex had been assigned to the program after her parents were killed in a small plane crash while on vacation in Alaska. She had been a wispy, shy ten-year-old girl—the only child of the prosperous, eccentric architect, Alexander Grey, and his wife, Martha. Grey was renowned for his brilliant, original, and exorbitant designs for many of the Lutheran and Baptist churches all over the globe. The couple's death had been a heavy blow to the tight-knit Southern religious community. After their death, Alex had been placed with her mother’s brother and sister-in-law: her uncle, a respected pastor in Union County, and her aunt, a Sunday school teacher at the local Baptist church in Carlisle. But they were a childless couple—their eyes turned only to God—so Alex, a reserved, quiet child, found herself lost and alone in her ten-year-old year, becoming more withdrawn and empty than her uncle and aunt knew how to handle. And so, the two despondent children had bonded in their after-school program, though they could not have been more different in nature. Wild and confident, Caleb had never met a stranger. He was outgoing and full of energy he didn’t know how to expel. The “sports therapy,” really no more than an afternoon babysitting group, gave Caleb the outlet he needed to harness his vigor, and it offered Alex a goal; something to work toward and practice, where her focus could be on improving and excelling, mastering activities she had never been exposed to. Both were natural athletes, despite their differences. And both had found solace in each other. Alex helped Caleb with his schoolwork. She prepped and encouraged him for tests, spent hours forcing him to memorize spelling, grammar, basic arithmetic, history lessons, and periodic tables. In turn, he pushed her to her athletic limits—treated her like one of the boys; taught her to pass, shoot, kick, dribble, swing, and