A Trade For Good Read Online Free PDF

before you do, I like my coffee strong and black
with no sugar or cream.”
    As he turned, Jeff saw his business
partner and his two employees had gone back to their offices and
back to their work. He might be wrong, but he thought he noticed a
look of respect when they looked his way. Sometimes it paid to lay
the law and let them know who was boss in this place. Nope, this
Monday hadn't been as horrible as he thought it would be after
all.
    Feeling quite proud of himself, he
decided to take off for a bite to eat and let everyone cool down a
bit before he began training Sera. He was about to leave and
suddenly remembered something. A little hesitantly, he went back to
where Sera was stacking up papers and separating them in
piles.
    "One more thing, before I go," he
added while trying to keep his voice down so the others wouldn't
hear, “I forgot about your kids. Does this work for you? If not let
me know if we need to make some other arrangements." Mitch had just
walked in and rolled his eyes, and Todd and Alan could be heard
chuckling from the other rooms.
    So much for gaining their
respect.

C hapter 4
     
    Sera waited until it was almost noon
before she called her sister-in- law Deb. In the two hours that
followed from the time Sera was hired to her new job, to finally
sitting down to make the call, Sera had already filled an entire
cabinet drawer with alphabetized statements and was starting
another. Right now however, her number one priority was to call Deb
and let her know what was going on.
    Sera punched in the number from memory
and waited several rings with no success. They could be outside,
but she knew Deb had to be home unless there had been an accident.
Another possibility was that Deb hadn't heard the phone ring. Sera
looked at her watch and shook her head. Emma's colic attacks hit
pretty much on target every day, but she still had some time left
before she slept it off and re-energized for another screeching
fit.
    The doctor's had explained that colic
was still a mystery in many ways, but the good news is that
children outgrow it, the bad news is that Emma should have outgrown
it by now, so now she qualified as one of those 'special' cases.
UGH!
    Emma's colic had started at exactly
two weeks of age, which was pretty typical. Her episodes were
predictable in length and times, as most cases are, and at this
point, Sera had it down to a science. Mothers of colicky children
plan their lives around these times, they know when to sleep, when
to make a phone call, and when to go out without putting all within
listening distance at risk. For the past six and a half months,
Sera’s life had revolved around Emma’s screeching schedule and
trying to keep the family finances from completely
disappearing.
    When the colic had first started, Sera
had been terrified. P.D. had been such a quiet, calm and smiley
little boy. Melle had been a little more active, but still, a very
easy baby over all, and Charlie was incredibly sweet and giggly,
but none of them had ever wailed like this or thrown fits. Emma on
the other hand, let’s just say she wasn’t the type of baby most
people wanted anywhere near them.
    Emma was beautiful, and
would have been the perfect poster child for all the reasons to
encourage birth control. Sera had had her checked out by more than
one pediatrician, and they all concluded it was colic, a pretty
nasty Colic, but simply colic . The best they could do for her
– for the mother, that is - was to give her a mild sedative to calm
her nerves when things got out of hand, but with four kids, who
could afford to take a sedative no matter how tempting it
was.
    Peter hadn't been terrified when it
all started like Sera was, that something might be really wrong
with their baby; he was just annoyed. If it was suggested that
Peter might have stayed longer if it hadn't been for Emma, all Sera
could say was 'thank you Emma'. She would make sure not to burden
the poor baby with guilt for something her stupid