No Ordinary Day Read Online Free PDF

over the seat. “I ask myself that every day, Sarah.” She unbuckled the little girl from her car seat and put her hands out to her.
    Sarah reached out and climbed over the front seat into her mother’s arms.
    “You don’t have to sit between them,” she said moodily.
    Sue kissed her daughter and hugged her tight.
    “You’re such a wonderful big sister,” she whispered. “I know it’s not easy.”
    The passenger side door opened, and a handsome man’s head crowned with dirty-blond hair the same color as his daughter’s popped into the car.
    “There’s my girl!” Dave Windsor, owner of Windsor Gardens, called rowdily. “C’mere, you! Where’s my hug?”
    “Daddy,” Sarah said indignantly, “shhhh! You’ll wake the baobabs.”
    Dave’s tone quieted immediately.
    “Ooops, sorry,” he whispered, pulling Sarah out of the car and into a hug. “Let me get a kiss from Mommy, and we can go water your plant.”
    “Plant s , Daddy,” Sarah reminded him as he carried her around the front of the station wagon on his way to the driver’s side door. “Blythe and Bonnie need they’s plants watered, too.”
    “You got it, Sweet Pea.” Dave crouched down in front of Sue, a fresh-faced brunette who had worked as an art teacher before the birth of the twins, and planted a warm kiss on her lips. “How was your day, Beautiful?”
    “Not bad. The babies didn’t sleep much, so if you and Sarah are going to water the plants, I’m gonna take a quick nap with them in the car.”
    “OK. We’ll be back in a while.” He kissed her again, then locked and closed the door quietly.
    Susan watched them walk away across the parking lot, smiling. Then she turned the radio on. Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit screamed out of the speakers; Susan quickly hit the second station button, switching away from a song she really liked but did not want disturbing the twins.
    On the second channel, Whitney Houston’s All the Man That I Need was playing softly. She settled back against the seat’s upholstery and closed her eyes, singing along softly to an intermittently wailing saxophone.
    How appropriate, she thought dreamily as she drifted off, her head drifting to the same side as both her baby daughters. She might just as well be singing about you, Dave.
    She was asleep before the second verse.
    “How was your day?” Dave inquired of Sarah as she took his hand and trailed along with him back to the open gardens where the rare plants, trees, and vines stood, light drops of rain falling as they walked.
    The kindergartner regaled him with all the events of her school day as they traveled across the wet garden center to the place where a small flowering vine was growing up against a trellis.
    Dave snatched the watering hose and brought it to Sarah’s hand.
    “There you are, my love,” he said as he wrapped her small palm around the trigger. “Give ’er a nice drink.”
    Sarah looked doubtfully into the sky.
    “I think the rain did that already,” she said.
    “Yes, but when you water her, it’s special,” Dave said. “You and she have the same name—at least the same middle name—and so you’re special to her. Go ahead, give her a splash.”
    Sarah smiled and turned the hose on the plant, spraying it generously.
    “She’s little,” she said as she let up on the hose. “Is she going to get bigger?”
    “Oh yes. She will be high as the sky in a few years. Just as I suspect you will be. Come on, let’s water the plants for the baobabs.”
    A few rows away were the plants that belonged to the baby twins.
    “Daddy,” Sarah said as they pointed the hose at the pots and carefully added water, “why’s Blythe and Bonnie’s plants different? Aren’t they s’posed to be the same?”
    “Nope,” said Dave, shaking water from the leaves. “Each of you has a different middle name, even the twins, and the plant’s name is the same as the middle name. Each girl has a different plant that’s special to her.”
    The