Smart Girls Think Twice Read Online Free PDF

know if it’s a boy or a girl?” Emma knew she was asking a lot of questions but she couldn’t help herself.
    Sue Ellen shook her head slightly. “No. Donny and I want to be surprised.”
    “You realize what this means, don’t you?” Emma said to Leena. “We’re going to be aunts.”
    Sue Ellen grinned. “Auntie Leena and Auntie Emma. Sounds cute.”
    “If it’s a girl, I can dress her in cute outfits,” Leena said.
    Sue Ellen’s smile turned dreamy. “They do have the cutest outfits for little girls. But there are some adorable ones for little boys too—like onesies with the Steelers logo. Donny is a big football fan.”
    “So Donny wants a son?” Emma asked.
    “He says he’ll be happy with either a son or a daughter.”
    “How do you think Mom is going to take this news?” was Emma’s next question. Her older sisters both eyed her suspiciously. “I’m not going to tell her,” she assured them.
    “You better not. Or Dad either. Oh no, what if I barf on my way down the aisle?” Sue Ellen demanded. She tipped over until she was semireclining on the couch, her hand dramatically draped over her forehead like a Victorian heroine.
    Leena wasn’t impressed. “I told you that you should have eloped like your friend Skye did with her fiance, Nathan.”
    Sue Ellen glared at her. “You only said that because you didn’t want me taking your spotlight.”
    “You were originally supposed to get married in the fall, not right before I get married,”
    Leena said.
    “Pregnancy issues changed that,” Sue Ellen said,
    “Pregnant!” Maxie stood in the doorway to the trailer. “Who’s pregnant? And before you answer, it better not be any of you!”

Chapter Three

    Uh-oh. Emma hurriedly stood up and headed straight for her suitcases. Time for her to leave. The faster the better.
    “Where do you think you’re going?” Maxie demanded.
    “I told you I was moving out,” Emma reminded her.
    “Not until we get this settled.” Maxie pointed to the couch. “Go sit down.”
    Emma wanted to rebel. She also wanted peace and an end to global warming, but it didn’t appear that any of those things were about to happen anytime soon.
    The sad truth was that she had very few rebel genes in her. Her older sisters had gotten them all.
    She sat on the couch.
    “What are you doing back here, Mom?” Leena asked. “I thought you were meeting somebody to pick out a dress.”
    “I forgot my cell phone. I left it here on the charger.” Maxie calmly unplugged the phone and put it in her large seashell purse. “What’s going on, girls?”
    “We’re not girls anymore,” Leena said. “Sue Ellen is thirty-six, and your baby Emma here is nearly thirty.”
    Stung, Emma said, “I’m only twenty-seven.”
    Leena shrugged. “Like I said, nearly thirty.”
    “You will always be girls to me,” Maxie stated firmly. “Now tell me what’s going on, and one of you had better start talking pronto.” She glared at Leena, who glared right back.
    Emma felt the situation slipping away from her and it drove her crazy. It was like waiting for a train wreck to happen. “Perhaps I should moderate this discussion,” she suggested.
    “Why do you do that?” Leena’s glare shifted from their mom to Emma. “You never use a little word when a big word will do. Is it to prove how smart you are? There’s no need. We already know you’re the one with the fancy degree. The one Mom likes best. The one who never messes up.”
    “Which means she’s not the one who’s pregnant,” Maxie said.
    “Hold on a second.” Emma held up her hand like a traffic cop. “I never said I don’t mess up.”
    Leena waved her words away. “You don’t have to say it. Mom says it all the time.”
    “Then get angry at her, not me,” Emma said.
    “If anyone has a right be angry around here, it’s me,” Maxie said. “My own daughter didn’t tell me she’s pregnant.”
    “You just said two seconds ago that none of us had better be