Shadow Creek Read Online Free PDF

me now, Val thought, following after her. “Who’s Sasha?”
    “My friend who works at Lululemon. You met her a few weeks ago. Honestly, Mom. You never remember any of my friends.”
    Val was about to protest when she realized Brianne was right. She couldn’t keep track of her daughter’s friends, who seemed to change as often as her moods. One day Kelly was her best friend; the next day it was Tanya, then Paulette, then Stacey. And now this Sasha person who worked at Lululemon. Val vaguely remembered a pretty girl with waist-length blond hair waiting on them a few weeks ago when they went shopping in Manhattan for exercise clothes. What was she doing here now? “What’s she doing here now?” Val heard herself ask.
    “Returning my BlackBerry.”
    “What’s she doing with your BlackBerry?”
    “I left it at the store the other day.”
    “What were you doing in Manhattan?”
    “Just trying on some stuff.”
    “And you left your BlackBerry? Do you know how expensive those things are? You can’t be so careless.”
    “What’s the big deal? I left it; Sasha found it. And she very nicely volunteered to bring it over on her way to work.” Brianne pulled open the front door, effectively silencing further discussion.
    The first thing Val thought when she saw Sasha was that the girl was both prettier and older than she remembered. She was wearing a lime-green T-shirt and a pair of black workout pants that emphasized her considerable curves. At least eighteen, maybe even closer to twenty, Val estimated. Why would she want to be friends with someone who’d just turned sixteen?
    “Come on in,” Brianne said, ushering her inside. “Wow. Is that your car?” She motioned toward the bright orange 1964 Mustang that was parked so far from the curb it looked as if it had been abandoned in the middle of the road.
    “Isn’t it great?”
    “It’s totally great. I love the color.”
    “Maybe you should park it a little closer to the curb,” Val suggested.
    “It’s fine where it is,” Brianne said. Then, with an exaggerated sigh, “You remember my mother.”
    “Hi, Valerie,” Sasha said with a toss of her long blond hair.
    Val had to bite down on her lower lip to keep from saying, “I prefer to be called Mrs. Rowe, thank you.” She reminded herself that she wouldn’t be Mrs. Rowe for much longer, followed by an even more disconcerting thought: Who
would
she be? “Hello, Sasha. Nice to see you again.”
    “How are you enjoying those outfits you bought? Aren’t they the greatest?”
    “Yes, they’re …”
    But Sasha had already returned her full attention to Brianne. “Would you just get a load of you,” she was saying. “What a great little body you have.”
    “No,” Brianne demurred. “I have to lose five pounds.”
    “What?” Val said.
    “Not to mention I’m getting my nose done.”
    “You’re not doing anything to that nose,” Val said with more vehemence than she’d intended. How many times had Melissa cautioned it was best to let such pronouncements slide?
    “It’s too long. It doesn’t go with my face.” Brianne motioned to Sasha to follow her up the stairs.
    “There is absolutely nothing wrong with your nose!” Val shouted after them.
    “It’s too long and too wide. I’m getting it fixed,” Brianne insisted without turning around.
    Val stood motionless at the bottom of the stairs, listening to Brianne’s bedroom door close and fighting the urge to burst into tears. Who was putting these stupid ideas in her daughter’s head?
    Probably the same woman with whom her daughter was going to be spending the next three days, camping in the Adirondacks.
    Well, not camping exactly. The Lodge at Shadow Creek was hardly anybody’s idea of roughing it. Val sighed, remembering the times she and Evan had stayed there, the morning she’d unexpectedly dropped to her knees and asked for happily ever after.
    “It’ll be strange,” Evan had said earlier, “being there without you. Not