Certainly Sensible Read Online Free PDF Page B

door dressed in her workout clothes: black calf-length capris, sleeveless t-shirt, and worn athletic shoes, her hair pushed back from her face with a headband.
    “Megan? I’m back!” she called out. “Fresh from the gym!” She laughed at herself. Well, okay, not so fresh .
    After the tension she’d built up this morning before her interview, a workout had been just what she needed. Susan never felt like she fit in with those suburban moms at the gym, but she should have. She had everything they had: good looks, a wealthy and influential husband, a large home in the right neighborhood, gifted children. When she and Daniel had first moved to Belford, she’d tried to make friends with the other moms, but Susan just couldn’t stand the incessant chattering about clothes, money, the country club, the latest parties, and the vicious innuendoes about each other. So she began spending more and more time with her old friend Emily Martin, who was then living in Indianapolis.
    Megan was sprawled on the living room sofa, watching TV and munching popcorn. She was long out of her school uniform, lounging in shorts with her bare feet propped on the coffee table.
    Susan walked over and tousled her daughter’s hair. “Hey, Megs. I have some news.” She waited for a response, which didn’t come. “I don’t suppose I had any phone calls?”
    “ Mom! You’re in the way!” Megan never took her eyes off the television but shifted her position to regain a clear view of the program, some rerun of a reality dating show . “No one ever calls you anyway, except Caroline or Emily.”
    “Gee thanks.” Disappointed at not getting the important conversation started about her job, Susan went back into the kitchen to wait till her oldest and most mature daughter got home. Caroline will care .
    ****
    Caroline pulled her year-old Kia, a birthday gift from her dad, into the garage right next to Susan’s five-year-old Jeep Cherokee, hit the garage door closer, and walked in the back door. She dropped her handbag on the kitchen counter, tossed her jacket on a chair, and went to the refrigerator for a bottled water.
    “How did the job interview go, Mom?” Caroline twisted open the bottle and took a swallow.
    Susan looked up from the stir fry on the stove and smiled. “Well, I was nervous at first, but Mrs. Renfrow put me at ease. I really liked her, and I also felt very comfortable inside the school itself. You know, it has a fabulous history.” Susan paused and a sly grin spread across her face. “Anyway, it turns out being a substitute teacher was pretty good experience after all—that and all my volunteer work…”
    “So?”
    “So— I got the job! ”
    “That’s great!” Caroline gave her mom a big hug and then called out, “Hey, Megan, did you hear that? Mom got that teaching job!”
    Megan slowly got up off the sofa and ambled over to the kitchen island, popcorn bowl in hand. “What kinds of kids are you going to be teaching there anyway?” she asked. “Aren’t all inner-city kids, like, losers?”
    Susan shot her daughter a withering look. Megan shrugged her shoulders and went back to the sofa.
    Susan frowned but turned back to Caroline. “I report to work sometime in the middle of August, and school starts about a week later. Your mom has officially joined the working world! Well, almost.”
    “Congratulations, Mom.” Caroline reached into the fridge for another bottle of water, opened it, and handed it to her mother. The two of them clinked the plastic bottles together in a toast.
    Susan motioned for Caroline to follow her into the living room. “There’s one more thing.” Susan approached Megan on the living room sofa. “I drove around Rosslyn Village after the interview and wrote down some addresses of houses for sale near the school. Emily’s coming down from Chicago tomorrow, and we have an appointment with a realtor.”
    No one said a word.
    Finally Megan spoke up. “Rosslyn Village? What are you talking