Crazy Little Thing Read Online Free PDF Page A

bastard.”
    “I’m waiting for a phone call. Can’t you please just come in?” He whined, which meant he was lying. Actually I knew he was lying because he was talking.
    “Nope. Come and get ’em.”
    His sigh was prom-queen dramatic. “Oh, fine!”
    He came out the door in minutes, a broad smile on his face for Paige and Jordan. My breath caught when I saw him. He was tan, and his blond hair was the lightest I’ve ever seen it. It made his brown eyes seem even darker, deeper. Those eyes always reminded me of chocolate, another thing I once loved but had given up for my own good.
    “Hey, guys! Come on! Give your pop a hug!” He threw his arms out wide.
    I helped them out of the car and they ran to him like puppies to a biscuit. My heart twisted. Seeing Richard with our kids could still make me melt. It reminded me of all the reasons I’d fallen for him in the first place. But he was my kryptonite. I needed to get away from there, and fast. I pulled the overnight bags from the SUV and all but threw them in Richard’s direction.
    “Here’s their stuff. Where do you want me to pick them up?”
    “How about the Waffle Castle at nine o’clock? We can have breakfast together.” His voice sounded hopeful, the idiot.
    Saturday mornings at the Waffle Castle had been our family ritual. He was too dense to realize his own insensitivity, his stubborn refusal to admit our lives had drastically changed from what they had once been.
    “No, this is your time with them.” I felt my lips pursing into a prim spinster-quality line.
    Richard leaned forward, whispering. “My therapist says we should have friendly family time together. For the kids.”
    For a split second I felt remorse. Maybe he wasn’t dense. Maybe he wanted to recreate that ritual for the kids.
    “Your therapist?” I asked.
    “Yeah, well, she’s not technically my therapist. Just a friend.” He shrugged.
    My internal fluttering of optimism turned to churning acidic certainty. He was screwing her.
    “I’ll pass on breakfast.”
    Richard shook his head and picked up the kids’ bags. “Suit yourself. Come on, kids.”
    I scrambled to kiss Paige on the cheek, already overwhelmed with the heaviness of missing them. Jordan was out of my reach, clinging to Richard’s hand and not giving me a second glance. They were so excited to see their father I had become invisible.
    “OK, well, have fun,” I called after them. No one turned around.
    During the drive to Glenville I had worried my kids would miss me too much this weekend.
    Now I was terrified they wouldn’t miss me at all.

    I climbed back in my car, knowing the obligatory visit to my mother’s house came next. That did not make me feel better. I hadn’t told her I was coming to town, but some supernatural ability enabled her to discover everything I didn’t want her to know. If I didn’t stop by for a visit, I’d be in trouble. Just one more thing for her to add to the list of my shortcomings.
    She hadn’t forgiven me for divorcing Richard, which made no sense to me at all considering she’d divorced my dad with no regrets when I was eleven. Penny and I had come home from a sleepover at my cousin’s house to discover he was gone. No note. No phone call. Just my mom saying she’d told him to leave. No one ever came right out and told us there was another woman, but all the signs were there.
    He got remarried a year later, and I only saw him a dozen more times before he died. That was almost fifteen years ago. Eventually the constant ache of missing him became background noise I hardly ever noticed, an ever-present hum, but not so loud it was distracting. Unless I listened for it, as I had when there was no one to walk me down the aisle or on the days my kids were born.
    Arriving at my mother’s house, I knocked lightly on the screen door even though I could see her standing in the kitchen. “Hi, Mom.” I stepped inside and automatically wiped my feet on the doormat.
    She wore a crisp