She Loves Me Not Read Online Free PDF Page A

scent of salt and seaweed hangs heavy in the air on warmer days.
    Ben said he wouldn’t mind the commute to his midtown accounting firm—two hours each way. And he doesn’t seem to mind.
    Christine is the one who minds.
    She sighs. Another evening stretches ahead, long and lonely. Ben won’t be home until almost nine. She’s become a suburban housewife cliché. Nothing to do but watch the news, daydream about babies, and spy on the neighbors through a crack in the curtains.
    â€œM ommy, can I lick the beaters?” Jenna asks, hovering at Rose’s elbow as she turns on the mixer. Her long hair, precisely the glossy dark shade of the devil’s food cake batter, hangs perilously close to the bowl.
    Rose tucks the wayward silky-straight strands back over her daughter’s shoulders, saying firmly, “No, you can’t lick the beaters. There’s raw egg in there.”
    â€œI like raw egg.”
    â€œIt’s not good for you, Jenna. You can get sick from it.” Rose checks the back of the Duncan Hines box to see how long she’s supposed to mix the batter.
    â€œYou used to let me lick the beaters,” Jenna grumbles.
    â€œThat was before I read that raw eggs aren’t good for children.” Oops. She was supposed to be mixing it on medium speed, not low. She hurriedly adjusts the dial.
    Too high.
    A chocolate shower spatters all over the tan Formica counters, the knotty pine cabinets, the green striped wallpaper.
    â€œMommy! “Jenna shrieks.
    â€œShh!” Rose hurriedly turns off the mixer. “You’ll wake up—”
    Leo’s frightened cry drifts down from the second floor.
    â€œâ€”your brother,” she finishes lamely.
    Just what she needs.
    It took her a half hour to get Leo down the first time. Now he’ll want her to sit with him again until he drifts back to sleep. At this rate, she’s not going to finish the cupcakes till midnight—at which point, she’ll have to start writing out valentines for Leo’s classmates, and praying he’ll miraculously sleep through until morning.
    He used to do that, but for the past few weeks, he stirs at every little sound. At first she thought he might be coming down with the flu that’s been going around, but he’s been healthy. And he’s long past the teething stage.
    â€œWow, what a mess.” Jenna’s brown eyes are more enormous than usual as Rose surveys the kitchen in despair. “There’s cake mix everywhere, Mommy—even up in the sky.”
    Rose looks up just as devil’s food raindrops fall from the ceiling, landing in her eye.
    It stings, and dammit, Leo is howling up there.
    It’s all Rose can do to keep from joining in.
    â€œI’m going to go up and calm him down,” she tells Jenna as she hurriedly splashes water in the sink, trying to flush her eye. “Don’t you dare touch the mixer.”
    â€œBut I can finish—”
    â€œNo!” Rose’s tone is sharp. “You could get your fingers cut off in the beaters. It’s dangerous.”
    â€œYou think everything is dangerous,”Jenna mutters, idly picking up Rose’s electronic pager from the kitchen table.
    â€œAnd don’t touch my pager, either,” Rose admonishes.
    â€œIt’s Daddy’s pager, not yours,” Jenna snaps at her, tossing the pager back on the table.
    Rose’s breath catches in her throat. Jenna’s right. It is Sam’s pager. Rather, it was. But she’s been using it ever since she started working again, carrying it just in case one of the kids’ schools needs to reach her in an emergency. It’s cheaper than buying a cell phone . . . and anyway, it makes her feel closer to Sam. He always had the pager hanging from his belt loop when he left the house.
    She chooses to ignore Jenna’s comment, saying only, “Did you finish your math worksheet?”
    â€œYup.” Jenna