The Senator's Wife

Chapter One

From her perch in the middle of the backseat, Meri surveys the two in front-her husband, Nathan, and Sheila, the real estate agent. There is something generally vulnerable about the back of the head and the neck she thinks. Nathan, for instance, looks a bit schoolboyish and sad from the back-his ears in particular-probably because of the haircut he had before they started out on this house-hunting trip. They've been at it for two days. Meri has occupied the backseat the whole time-at first because that's just how it happened when they all got in the car, and then by choice. She finds she likes the sense of distance. She likes the view she gets of their faces as they turn to speak to each other or to her-the profiles, the three-quarter angles. She feels she's learning something new about Nathan, watching him this way, hearing him ask his real estate questions. He has so many! Questions about heating costs, about taxes, about the age of appliances, about insulation and school districts. Why hasn't she thought about any of this? Because. Because the other ... read full excerpt from The Senator's Wife ebook