Castles in the Sand Read Online Free PDF Page A

I could.” He no longer lived under her roof.
    The day of his announcement she had exhausted her anger outdoors so as not to alarm the younger children. Walking round and round the high school’s track, she fussed and fumed. How could her son have been so stupid? He knew not to play with fire. He knew .
    That night her husband held her tightly and they consoled each other. Their Aidan understood his choices made his future more difficult than it needed to be, but he was a good kid. Not perfect as in angelic. He was too much a chip off the old block to be anything but just plain human.
    Make that a chip off two old blocks. Pepper and Mick weren’t exactly sainthood material. Not even close.
    She laid the last fork in the drawer and closed it. “So what about coffee tomorrow?”
    “I think I’m busy.”
    “Chicken.” She hung the damp towel on the oven door’s handle. “I’m going to make sure the little ones aren’t terrorizing Kenzie. It’s way too quiet back there.”
    She walked through the modest house, sidestepped a laundry basket overflowing with clean towels, and wondered what Susan Starr’s five-bedroom home looked like. Kenzie had mentioned the size once and said the extra rooms weren’t used much for guests. Maybe Pepper could rent space and ship the younger girls over there. They’d love not having to share a bedroom.
    She found Kenzie in the middle of a twin bed, six-year-old Davita curled up on one side of her, three-year-old Mickey Junior on the other, both fast asleep. Kenzie’s lids were shut as well.
    Pepper paused in the doorway. A corner of her mind still wished to condemn the young woman as a blasphemous tramp who had ruined her son’s life. It was so much easier to blame someone else’s kid instead of one’s own flesh and blood.
    But that someone else’s kid now carried Pepper’s own flesh and blood.
    She walked to the bed, and Kenzie’s eyes fluttered open.
    The girl smiled and shut a storybook propped on her lap. “Hi.”
    “Hi, yourself. How did you do this? Pj’s, no less.”
    “Your kids are so sweet.” She yawned.
    “Occasionally, but you bring it out in them.” She sat on the edge of the bed. “You are a natural with children.”
    “Nope. I’m just a PK.” Kenzie often referred to herself as a Preacher’s Kid. “I did not attend Sunday school. I always taught it. I think I was about a year old when I stood up in the nursery crib and exposited to the other kids about this dude named Moses telling the Red Sea to split.”
    Pepper chuckled as much at Kenzie’s humor as at her delightful face. Whenever she poked fun at herself, her chin rose slightly so the tip of her nose appeared conspicuous. Its upward tilt made Pepper think that God had lifted His paintbrush just a millisecond too soon. But of course He didn’t make mistakes. The nose fit just so.
    And the baby fit just so as well.
    “Kenzie, you are going to be an excellent mother.” She patted her leg. “Now I want to ask this one more time. Are you sure you want me to meet your mom tomorrow without you?”
    She nodded. Her eyes sparkled with tears. “I’m not ready. Please, just tell her I miss her.”
    Pepper blinked at her own tears and felt again squeezed in the middle of someone else’s life. Her son owed her for this one. He owed her big time.

Four
    Natalie Starr blew out an exasperated sigh. “Rex,” she addressed her husband across the dining room table. “Why do you have to be such a man about this whole thing?”
    His brows rose a notch as he sipped his after-dinner coffee. “You’re emoting enough angst over Susan for the two of us.”
    “She’s all alone down there!”
    “She’ll be fine. She’s stronger than she looks. Or sounds.”
    “Oh! I have to tell someone else besides you!”
    Rex set down his cup. “Nat.”
    She made a growling noise. “Don’t talk lawyer to me.”
    “What’d I say?”
    “You don’t have to say a thing. It’s your tone. All business and practical