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to have to come to terms with. It’s the only way.”
    Peter’s steel-gray eyes danced around the elegant crowd. Most of the people in the room were at least his parents’ age if not older. He felt positively young though Generation X politicians were slowly making headway.
    “Listen,” he began in a quiet voice. “I have enough to deal with. Everyone is going to grill me about my age as it is. I’m one of the youngest mayors and governors in modern history and although I’m over thirty-five, it is virtually unheard of for a candidate to run for the office of President before the age of forty. Hell, Nyongo-Rice is still quite young and at fifty, she’s only six years younger than my mother. There’s a good chance I won’t make it anyway but I still want to try.”
    Kylie smiled in his direction though it never reached her pale green eyes. “Then you need to explain that to your wife, not me. Chances are she may or may not ever be First Lady but the probability of it happening in the next two years is doubtful. If another Democrat wins then that puts you out of the running until twenty-twenty-four unless something life changing happens between twenty sixteen and twenty-twenty. As it is, you have pointed out the obvious. You will only be thirty-nine were you to win the Democrat ticket and run for President a year and a half from now.”
    He shook his head. “I need a cigarette—”
    “I thought you told me you quit.”
    “Get off my back, Kylie. You’re just as bad as my wife.”
    Peter walked off and joined a handful of senators, representatives and various other professional law-makers on an elaborate set up in one of the White House gardens. He lit a Marlboro, pacing back and forth as he dragged on his cigarette.
    He wasn’t a fool. His life had always been relatively easy when compared to ninety-nine percent of the rest of the world but for once he wondered if he should have questioned his parents’ decision. Maybe Elizabeth wasn’t the woman for him. How the hell did he get out of his marriage without costing himself the whole election, his dignity and pride?
    The more he thought about it, the more his brain seemed to go around in circles. If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t know what to do and didn’t have a clue how to go about changing anything in his life.
    Peter’s thoughts drifted off to Sigourney and he smiled, albeit reluctantly. She knew the score, and maybe she could help him figure out his situation, if only to give him some much needed advice.
    There were problems with that scenario though. She was a good girl, the type who might not be attracted to someone who had a wife and children. He’d never taken his relationship status into consideration when thinking about his attraction to her but this was a mistake on his part.
    Not only was there a vast age difference between them but it might not seem very professional for a politician to be courting a woman who was so much younger than him. She’d barely graduated from Harvard at the ripe age of twenty-six. What the hell had taken her so long? What kind of demons was she hiding? Was she the gold digging type only looking for a man to marry her? He wondered if this was the reason why she wanted the campaign aide job so badly.
    Women like Sigourney were dangerous for a reason. She made Peter feel young and inspired him to long for a future that might not have any part of his life. Perhaps he should wonder what his chances were with the two ambitions that clouded his judgment: the Presidential race and risking it all for a one night with one of his campaign aides.

 

     
    Chapter Five

     
    Sigourney
     
    A djusting to my new position of campaign aide was easier than I thought it would be. I was lucky because at least I was older than the average age of the people who worked around me and I also had a very good friend in Andrea.
    I didn’t see much of Governor Coburn the first few weeks I worked in the office due to him spending