Mending Fences Read Online Free PDF

depends on whether one of those is meant just for me,” Emily told her, not entirely in jest.
    Marcie grinned. “I’ll bake three. We’ll share the third one over coffee when we get together afterward to dissect the party.”
    “Let me retrieve my kids and I’ll get out of your hair,” Emily told her.
    “Oh, let them stay, please,” Marcie said. “I’ll walk them home later, say around four.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Positive.”
    Grateful to have a reprieve so she could grade papers in total silence, she seized the offer. “If they give you any trouble at all, just call me or bring them home.” She jotted down her phone number and address for Marcie, who immediately stuck the paper onto a bulletin board by her phone.
    “They’ll be fine,” Marcie assured her.
    “Then I’ll say a quick goodbye and remind them to be on their best behavior.” When she returned from speaking to Dani and Josh, she impulsively gave Marcie a hug. “I’ll have peace and quiet to grade papers. I can get it done in half the time it usually takes. You have no idea what a miracle that is! I’ll call you with the details about next Saturday.”
    “Don’t be a stranger, okay? Promise me.”
    “You bake. You offer to watch my kids,” Emily said. “Are you kidding? I’m ready to adopt you.”
     
    The Saturday-night barbecue to introduce the Carters to their neighbors was the first of many occasions the two families shared during that winter and spring. For the first time in her marriage, Marcie actually felt as if she were a part of the community around her. She liked knowing everyone on her block and the next, being able to exchange greetings with people and ask about their families and jobs, rather than living in isolation the way they had in their old neighborhood.
    She’d never told anyone, not even Emily who would surely understand, about the early financial struggles she and Ken had had in their marriage. She felt as if it would be a betrayal of her husband. Ken had worked hard to rise above their past. They’d scraped by and saved until they could afford an impressive house in a well-to-do area, but even before they’d moved, he’d insisted they strive for a certain image. Sometimes he worried more about the image than the substance of their lives, but Marcie understood. She knew he wanted only the best for her and their kids. He was single-minded about it. If he was impatient with her when she tried to get him to slow down or questioned his priorities, well, he’d earned the right to have things his way. She’d long since reconciled herself to that.
    Oddly, though she and Emily had become extremely close, Derek and Ken didn’t get along all that well. She didn’t understand it. Derek was a great guy. He was warm and funny, the kind of dad who showed a real interest in all of the kids and actually listened when they spoke to him. He and Ken should have had a thousand things in common, but there was a wariness between them that sometimes cast a pall over their get-togethers. If they’d been a couple of kids, she would have described it as some kind of rivalry, but they were both mature adults.
    Still, it was plain that Ken was always trying too hard to impress Derek and Derek knew it. It was happening again tonight as they ate by the pool at her house.
    “You should have seen it,” Ken boasted. “I had those guys eating out of the palm of my hand. The best wine. Steaks so tender you could cut ’em with a butter knife. Then Marcie here has to go and ruin it all by bringing inthese little cups of pudding.” He rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what she was thinking.”
    “It was chocolate mousse with shaved white chocolate on top, not pudding,” she said defensively. “And in case you didn’t notice, they ate every bite and asked for seconds, so I’d have to say it was a hit.”
    “They ate it to be polite,” Ken scoffed.
    “I’m sure it was delicious,” Emily said loyally. “Marcie knows more