All Fall Down Read Online Free PDF

sweet.”
    The little boy’s name was Happy. Liesel had misunderstood at first, thought the girl said the boy was happy. She’d laughed when she saw Sunny meant it was his name. The baby sleeping in her arms she’d called Bliss, and the toddler sacked out on the leather couch in the family room was named Peace. Liesel wasn’t a fan of trendy, strange names—if she ever had a baby, she intended to go with something classic. Maybe Ava for a girl. Edward for a boy.
    “Babe,” Christopher said. He leaned against the counter with an empty bottle in one hand, looking as if he wished it were a bottle of whiskey. “Can you get me another beer?”
    Liesel opened the fridge and handed him one, then focused on her husband’s daughter. His grandchildren …bitterness rose in her throat, but she swallowed it. Hard.
    Happy sipped cautiously at the milk. He touched the tip of his tongue to the milk, then looked up at his mother. She smiled at him.
    “Is it good, my sweetheart?” Sunny asked.
    He nodded with a grin, then tipped the cup to his mouth and drank. When he took it away, he left a creamy brown mustache behind. His mother leaned forward to wipe it clean with her thumb, which she then licked. Liesel’s mother had done the same thing to her as a child. Liesel had always been repulsed, but knew she’d probably have done the same if it were her son.
    “Mmm,” Sunny murmured. “It is sweet.”
    Liesel found her voice again. Too bright, too shiny. Her mouth tasted metallic from it. “Happy, would you like to watch some cartoons while your mommy talks to me and Christopher?”
    The little boy looked to his mother for confirmation. She bit her lower lip and pushed her waist-length braid over her shoulder. “We don’t watch television,” Sunny said.
    Liesel shot Christopher a look. No television? She ran a hand over Happy’s hair, blond and long like his mother’s, though his hung in thick curls just past his shoulders. Her husband ran a hand over his own hair, grown a little longer in the front than his usual style. It kept getting in his eyes.
    Christopher’s daughter drew in a breath. “But I guess it would be okay. Go ahead, my sweetheart. Mama will be right over here.”
    Liesel took the little boy by the hand, the cup of chocolate milk in the other, and led him over to the television in the family room. She set it to the cartoon station. Sunny twisted on the bar stool to watch them, but seemed satisfied enough that her son was safe to turn back to look at Christopher. Her father, Liesel thought as she heard Sunny talking. Christopher was her father.
    “He’ll probably fall asleep like Peace did. We’re all very tired.”
    Christopher drank deeply from his bottle of beer. Probably one too many for him. Liesel didn’t like it when he drank too much. He started telling jokes, thinking he was funny. Getting frisky and fumble-handed, but his kisses were always sour.
    “I made up the guest bedroom for them,” Liesel said when he didn’t speak. “Sunny, maybe you want to take a shower or something? I have some clothes that will fit you. I don’t have anything for the kids—”
    “I brought some things for them. Just a few. We didn’t have much time.” Sunny’s voice cracked, and for the first time the cool mask of her expression crumpled. She put a hand over her eyes and drew in a few hitching breaths.
    Liesel looked at her husband again, trying to tell him something without saying it out loud. Like that ever worked. When he didn’t say anything, she rolled her eyes and turned to Sunny.
    “Shh. Don’t worry about it. The guest room has a queen bed. You’ll be okay until we can make other arrangements.” Liesel squeezed Sunny’s shoulder again, waiting until the girl took her hand from her eyes to look at her. “Sunny. Everything’s going to be okay.”
    Sunny blinked rapidly, her eyes large and so, so blue. The shape of her eyes was different than Christopher’s, but the color was the same. An