Step-Ball-Change Read Online Free PDF

huge surprise when we found out George was coming, five years after Tom and I had closed up shop on having children. I still felt guilty to think how much I did not want another baby, but, of course, there was no way of knowing then that the baby would be George. He was the best of Tom and the best of me, which made him a much better person than either of us.
    “Morning, Mother. Morning, Woodrow.” He stopped, put his forehead against the refrigerator, and closed his eyes for a minute.
    “Late night?” Woodrow said.
    “A very late night,” George said, his eyes still closed.
    “Were you studying?” I asked him.
    “Do I ever do anything else?” George yawned.
    “You’re like my daughter Erica. I had no idea a person could study that much.”
    “I hope she’s not in law school. I can’t take any more competition.”
    “Erica’s in nursing school,” Woodrow said.
    “Maybe I’ll chase an ambulance to her hospital someday.”
    “Woodrow brought bagels,” I said.
    George blinked. “That might help.” He swung by the coffeemaker and then padded to the table with his cup full.
    “So you missed all the excitement,” Woodrow said.
    “Don’t tell me.” George rifled through the bag to find a salt bagel. “You found termites. No, better than termites. The house is built on ancient Indian burial grounds and has to be moved to Durham. Except it can’t be moved because now the place is possessed.”
    “No, it’s still just the foundation,” Woodrow said.
    “Kay is marrying Trey Bennett.”
    George sat the bagel on top of his coffee cup. He looked like I had just told him a very funny joke. “Bennett as in the Bennett library and the Bennett outpatient surgical wing and the Bennett watercooler in junior high?”
    “That’s the one.”
    “I’ll be damned.”
    Woodrow pushed my glasses up the bridge of his nose and looked at the two of us sternly. “You people could stand to muster up a little enthusiasm here. For one thing, you might need to have a rich son-in-law to help you pay for all the work I’m doing on your house.”
    “The Bennett Foundation foundation,” George said. “They could sponsor a charity ball where everyone wore hard hats andblack tie.” He took a bite of bagel and chewed it thoughtfully. “Or a foundation fox hunt. I hear that old Sport Bennett loves a good fox hunt.”
    “Except you can never get the little hard hats to stay on the foxes,” I said.
    “Glue,” George said. George was such a pragmatist.
    Woodrow pushed up from the table. “Okay, that’s enough. You people have problems. I’m going to get to work.” No sooner had he said the words than we heard his crew pull up in the driveway.
    “But there’s another piece of news,” I said, suddenly remembering it myself. “My sister is coming.”
    “I didn’t know you had a sister,” Woodrow said.
    “A younger, prettier sister,” I said.
    “Aunt Taffy is coming?”
    “There isn’t any chance you’ll be finished by this afternoon, is there? I’d love to get the place cleaned up.” I said it as a joke and Woodrow stood by the door and laughed. I’ve always had a weakness for people who got my jokes.
    “I didn’t make your problems, that’s what you’ve got to remember. I’m only here to fix them.”
    “Thanks for the breakfast,” George said, and waved before Woodrow closed the door. “It’s a shame Kay isn’t marrying Woodrow so that we could keep him in the family.”
    “Woodrow is thirty years older than your sister, and besides, I don’t think he’s ever going to leave.”
    “So which piece of news is more alarming, that Kay is going to be Mrs. Bennett or that Aunt Taffy is coming to see us?”
    “It’s a toss-up.”
    George took a long sip of coffee and then stared into his cup for a while, trying to come up with a true likeness of himself. “I wonder if Kay plans to stop sleeping with Jack now that she’s engaged or if she’s going to wait until after she gets married to do