Crazy Little Thing Read Online Free PDF Page B

minutes later. She and her husband lived in a beige brick ranch that looked exactly like every other beige brick ranch on the street. I always had to count mailboxes from the corner to make sure I was at the right place.
    “Hey, Sade! I’ve missed you! Come see my new kitchen.”
    Penny tugged at my shirt and pulled me inside with an easy smile. The relationship with my sister was opposite of what I had with my mother. It was open, sometimes too open. In fact, she’d told me things about her husband, Jeff, that would make a sex therapist blush.
    Penny’s newly decorated kitchen was black and white, with red accents. Everywhere I looked there were ladybugs. A ladybug cookie jar, ladybug seat cushions, and ladybug throw rugs.
    Perspiration prickled on my skin. “What the hell?”
    “Isn’t it darling? I was bored without you in town so I redecorated.”
    I didn’t even want to set my purse down.
    Penny bubbled with laughter. “Oh my God, I forgot about your ladybug thing. You’re such a freak.”
    “I’m not a freak. But we had, like, a thousand of them in our garage that one year, remember?” I shivered and flipped over her ladybug placemats before sitting down at the table.
    “Whatever. Do you want some wine or tea or something?” She pulled glasses from the cupboard.
    “I was just at Mom’s.”
    She met my eyes. “Wine it is, then.”
    She poured a goblet of white for me, then iced tea for herself and sat down.
    “You’re not having any?”
    My little sister shrugged. “Not right now. So are you going crazy in Podunk? Have they put in a traffic light yet?”
    I sipped my wine, but only because gulping it would be tacky.
    “Yes, last year. Apparently it was cause for a parade.” I filled her in on my time at Dody’s, even confessing my voyeuristic observations of Running Man. This was the sort of thing she usually loved, but today she was acting weird, toying with the iced-tea glass and all but avoiding eye contact. Finally I could take no more suspense.
    “All right. What the hell’s up with you? You’re a bigger drunk than I am so why no wine?”
    Penny flushed a lovely shade of pink and glanced around the kitchen as if CIA operatives were about to pounce.
    I looked over my own shoulder, expecting to see Secret Service agents guarding the door. None appeared.
    “Jeff and I are trying to get pregnant.” Her whisper was hoarse with excitement.
    “It’s about time!” I thumped my hand on the table, almost upending my drink. “Thank goodness. Paige and Jordan would be teenagers if you took any longer.” I’d been pestering my sister for years to reproduce. My kids needed cousins. Plus I wanted her to understand the unique joys of parenthood so I could give back all the great advice she’d given me over the years. Because no one is more qualified to give a new mother advice than a twenty-two-year-old coed with no children of her own.
    “Jeff is so excited. He keeps talking about one of his swimmers making captain of the fallopian swim team. And the other day I was ovulating so I sexted him a filthy message about coming home for a conjugal visit. He’s all about the baby making. But don’t tell Mom, OK?”
    “That you’re texting filthy messages to your husband?”
    “No. That we’re trying to get pregnant. I don’t need her nagging me.”
    “But if she knew about you, maybe she’d get off my back about Richard.”
    Penny pointed at me. “Seriously, do not rat me out on this one. I’ll tell people when I’m ready. OK? Jeff’s family will drive us crazy if they hear about this, so he wants to keep it quiet too.”
    “Of course. I get it. I promise to keep your dirty little secret.”
    Penny smiled again, lifting her glass for a toast. “Thank you. In that case, I won’t tell Mom you’re fantasizing over some shirtless jogger from the beach. Deal?”
    “Deal.”
    “Good. And since your kids are with Richard for the next two days, you can stay here and help me plan the