Bachelor Number Four Read Online Free PDF Page A

want one! I don’t have any boobs!”
    “Breasts,” Maeve corrected and earned a scornful look from Aislin.
    “Maeve,” Arden said gently, “don’t tease. Aislin, does Brittney need a bra?”
    “No.” Aislin giggled. “She doesn’t have boobs either.”
    “Maybe it make her feel more grown-up to have one,” Arden offered.
    Aislin snorted. “That’s so dumb. Besides, she just wants to get one so the boys can snap her straps. She thinks that means the boys like you when they do that, but that’s dumb, too. Like I would ever want a boy to snap my straps!” She made such a face of disgust Arden stifled a laugh.
    “That means they want to do sex!” cried Maeve importantly.
    Arden’s laugh cut off. “Maeve, who told you that?”
    “I saw it on TV.”
    “Ah.” What to say now? They’d already had the talk about the birds and the bees, how women’s bodies worked, how babies were made. The girls both knew about eggs and sperm, and if they weren’t quite clear on the exact details of how the two combined, Arden was okay with them not understanding for a little while. But this…
    “Kids our age don’t do sex, Maeve.” Aislin unbuckled her belt and gathered her things. “You have to be a grown-up.”
    And that was the end of that, Arden thought as she followed them into the house and supervised their night’s routine. She was wrong. As she bent to kiss Aislin good night, her daughter said, “Mom, you did sex with Daddy, right?”
    Arden sat on the edge of the bed and took Aislin’s hand. “Yes, honey. To make you and Maeve.”
    “But didn’t you do it other times, too?”
    Arden squeezed Aislin’s fingers. “Yes, Aislin. That’s what men and women do when they’re married.”
    She braced herself for the next question, not sure how’d she’d continue to answer, but certain she wanted to give her kids a healthy view of sex.
    “But you don’t do it now?”
    She smiled and shook her head, glad the answer was an easy one. “No, honey.”
    Aislin’s eyes were serious. “But will you ever do it again, do you think?”
    A few different answers whirled in Arden’s brain before she said, “I don’t know, Aislin. Sex is something that’s very special and is better when it’s shared with someone you really care about.”
    “Like you cared about Daddy.”
    Arden took a deep breath, not wanting to cry. “Yes. Like Daddy.”
    “I don’t ever want to do it. It sounds disgusting to me.” Aislin turned on her side and pulled her hand from Arden’s.
    “Good night, sweet pea.” Arden bent and kissed Aislin’s forehead, tucked the covers around her, and went downstairs.
    Another milestone covered, she thought as she went to the computer. The sex talk. It only got more complicated from there.
    She adjusted the keyboard and clicked the mouse to stop the swirling screen saver. “Hello, handsome.”
    The photo of Keanu filled her screen, marred only by a few icons on her desktop. Idly, she arranged them so they lined up along the side of the screen and no longer blocked his distinctive features. She leaned back and stared at his perfect face, then peeked at the clock. It was already almost ten. The girls would both have a hard time getting up in the morning since they’d gone to bed so late past their normal bedtime. She should get some sleep, too.
    Just a quick note to Lida, she thought as she opened her email program. She wanted to let her friend know about the disaster date.
    She clicked the compose button and started typing as the program collected her incoming messages. A small red number five appeared on top of her email icon.
    She paused in typing her note to Lida to see what had come in. “Junk, junk, junk…oh!” The gasp tumbled from her lips and made her feel foolish, and her hand jerked so the mouse no longer highlighted the fourth message.
    It was from Shane.
    She took a deep breath to calm herself, then clicked through to her Connex account to read the message.
     
    Hey, nice to hear