Best Laid Plans Read Online Free PDF

sweet girl, childlike in many ways, and Mike adored her but she was of a dreamy nature and if she did have a child she would have to grow up quickly. She was also hopeless with money, poor darling, but that was a little secret between them and Christine was pleased she was able to help out. They went shopping regularly and she always bought Monique something from that little vintage shop she was fond of, as well as treating them to lunch, of course. Monique’s parents were divorced, her father re-married and the mother’s whereabouts were vague to say the least, which was so sad and made Christine even more determined to look after the girl. She had taken on the role of mother-substitute with a vengeance.
    ‘Why doesn’t Amy have friends, Frank?’ she persisted, the thought troubling her greatly. ‘She’s pretty enough and successful but she never talks about any friends and we haven’t seen any around when we’ve been over. I wishshe’d find herself a nice man and settle down.’
    ‘By that you mean you want her to get herself married and start a family – that’s what settling down means to you. Don’t bring that up at Christmas. We don’t want an atmosphere like last year.’
    ‘That wasn’t my fault. There are so many subjects we can’t mention. She can be touchy.’
    ‘And so can you.’
    She glanced at him, irritated because in his eyes his daughter could do no wrong. Never mind that she had let him down badly, never mind that she had destroyed his dreams of joining him in the family business; she was still his favourite child.
    ‘She has to lead her own life, Christine,’ he continued, quiet and earnest now. ‘She’s going places in her job and just because she’s decided that marriage and kids is not for her you accuse her of being abnormal.’
    ‘I didn’t say that,’ she said hotly. ‘I never said that.’
    ‘Just think before you speak and don’t mention her lack of friends. It’s no big deal. I don’t have many friends, either.’
    ‘But you’re a man. It’s different.’
    ‘I’m not getting into that. Look.…’ he glanced at his watch. ‘Would you mind if I popped into the office for an hour? I just have a few things to settle.’
    ‘I thought things were tailing off,’ she said, trying to hide her irritation, for she knew damned well what an hour meant. She also wondered if Shirley would still be there but she quickly put that thought out of her head. ‘Who on earth wants to move house at Christmas?’
    ‘You know as well as I do that people do. We have three moves on next week and one is a long trek so the lads will have to get the stuff down to Kent, stay over and unpack next day. It’s going to take forever because it’s a full unpacking set-up and I’ve told the lads they can play it by ear and put the Christmas tree up as well if they have time, even though, strictly speaking, it’s outside ourbrief.’
    ‘Off you go, then, but do be back in time for Amy.’ She bit her lip, stopping herself from mentioning the smoking because it really was up to him. He knew the score as well as she did and nagging had never worked with Frank.
    ‘Stop worrying. You have a rest while I’m out. You look tired out, sweetheart.’ He came over and dropped a gentle kiss on the top of her head and just for a minute it was the old Frank and she remembered why she had married him. She was just twenty-one and far too young to get married, upsetting everybody in the process although, seeing she was beaten her mother had rallied round and the wedding itself had been the stuff of dreams with the cream of the Lancashire county set invited.
    It sometimes occurred to her that, if her parents had been more supportive of Frank, had liked him a little more, that it might have tailed off but their very opposition, their desire for her to marry into another wealthy local family had made her all the more determined to marry him. Frank was new money if you were talking old values, a little rough