No Ordinary Day Read Online Free PDF Page A

slipped her mind. Lucy’s fair-skinned face had gone completely red with rage, and she needed to go into the teacher’s restroom and splash water on it, cursing quietly under her breath, trying to cool her Irish temper, without much success, before she returned to the Playroom.
    “I’ve sent her three invitations now, but still have received nothing back,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm. “At least with Devin she sent a response in. Garrett insists he’s given the invitations to her, and reminded her to RSVP, but to no avail. Their answering machine is full. I swear if she misses the Tea by going to the bank, or Hardware Heaven, or the liquor store again like she did two years ago, I’m going down there and drag her back here by her hair. I can’t bear to watch another one of her sons sob through the Tea. It’ll kill me.”
    “Understood,” said Mrs. Cox. “I think I’ll call Mr. Grimes at the hardware store and Chris Weiler, the owner of the liquor store, and ask them both to keep a lookout for her. They would be willing to remind her what she’s missing quietly and non-judgmentally if she shows up there.”
    “That’s it? What if she goes somewhere else?”
    The principal looked levelly at her.
    “There’s only so much we can do, Lucy,” she said sensibly. “I’ll ponder the situation and see if I can come up with some other preventive action. But, while I appreciate you being so devoted to and protective of your students, there are some lines we just can’t cross. No hair-dragging. The school doesn’t need the lawsuit.”
    Lucy sighed. “All right. I guess I’ll just send a fourth invitation home tomorrow.”
    “Not a bad idea. Anything else I can do for you?”
    “No,” the young teacher said as she rose from her chair. “Unless you want to stand in for me at my dinner date with Glen Daniels in an hour. That would put me in your debt forever.”
    Mrs. Cox winced. “Yeah. Uh, no. Sorry.”
    “You can’t blame a girl for trying. Aw, c’mon—he’s treating—I think. Is your husband perhaps working late? You like Lebanese food, don’t you, Mrs. Cox?”
    “Mr. Daniels is actually quite a nice man, Lucy,” Mrs. Cox said. “You really should give him a chance—”
    She stopped and broke into laughter at the sight of Lucy’s face.
    “All right,” she said. “I won’t even try.”
    “Yeah, it’s a waste of your time,” Lucy said as she took hold of the door handle. “Thanks. I know he’s nice, and nice looking. I just, well, I just can’t—”
    She shook her head and walked out the door, Mrs. Cox’s amused snort following her.

Chapter 4
    ‡
    3:31 PM
    Windsor Gardens nursery, near the center of town
    S usan Windsor maneuvered her station wagon around the other cars in the small parking lot of her family’s garden center, careful to avoid the customers who were loading large bags of mulch or heavy potted plants into the back end of their own vehicles.
    The rain that had been tormenting the town all spring had been especially heavy for the last week. At this moment, however, it had quieted into a mild shower, so all the power gardeners were out, trying to make up for lost time.
    She pulled into a parking space near the little shop in front of the greenhouse, turned off the engine, leaving the auxiliary power on, and unbuckled her seat belt. Then she turned around and looked into the back seat at her three favorite things in the world.
    Two of which were asleep.
    Her oldest daughter, Sarah, a five-year-old kindergartner, was sitting between her two ten-month-old twin sisters in their car seats with a skeptical look on her little face that made Sue Windsor burst into laughter.
    “What’s the matter, honey?”
    Sarah sighed. “How come they can cry at the same time, be hungry at the same time, sleep at the same time, but every time you change one, the other one poops when we’s in the car?” She raised her little hands in a grown-up gesture of surrender.
    Sue leaned