Take Me Home Read Online Free PDF Page B

her sister, turning to wrap her in a gentle hug. “Oh, Holly, sweetheart, I’m so sorry. I’m so very sorry.”
    “Frank told me to make sure we were alone today. I thought he wanted...well, you know.” Holly fingered the filmy fabric brushing her thigh. “That’s why I’m wearing this stupid nightgown. Instead, he wanted—”
    An ugly moan tore out of her mouth, and Claire hugged her sister tighter. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked softly. “You don’t have to.”
    “No. Yes. I don’t know. Oh God, what am I going to do?” Holly’s sobs shook the bed they sat on.
    “You’re going to get through this tough time and come out stronger on the other side.” Claire restrained herself from calling Frank all the names she wanted to. She’d learned the hard way that sometimes people changed their minds before a divorce was final. Then they remembered your unkind comments about their almost ex-spouses, which made things awkward.
    “He actually looked disgusted when I walked out wearing this, like he hated the sight of me. He
gave
me this on our last anniversary. He said I looked like a Vegas showgirl in it, and it made him hot for me. Not anymore.”
    “You look fantastic in it,” Claire said, remembering how insecure she felt when her marriage disintegrated. “Like a Victoria’s Secret model.”
    “Not unless I was a foot taller.”
    “If you can joke about that, it proves you’re going to make it through this.”
    Her sister gently shrugged out of Claire’s embrace and sat up straight. “Maybe, but I don’t know what to do now.”
    “Well, some people go to a marriage counselor to see if they can fix things.” Claire had believed in that once.
    “No,” Holly said with a finality that surprised Claire. “There are things that...Well, it has to end.”
    Claire didn’t push her to explain, but her sister suddenly slumped over again. “Frank says we have to sell the house. He needs the money to buy an airplane.”
    “What the hell does he need an airplane for?”
    “He says he’ll be able to cover more territory and make more money for alimony and child support. But I don’t want to sell the house.” Holly looked around her daughter’s tiny room, decorated with brightly colored fantasy creatures. “I stenciled every one of these pictures on Brianna’s walls. I did the ones in Kayleigh’s room too. This is my family’s
home
, and I made it, not Frank.”
    Claire remembered how excited Holly had been when she and Frank bought the brand-new ranch house, built in a subdivision that had once been a cornfield. It was small and looked like every other house on its treeless street, but Holly was thrilled that Brianna and Kayleigh would have their own rooms, a luxury Claire and Holly hadn’t had. Almost as important had been the mantel where Holly could display the treasured Royal Doulton figurines.
    “We’ll figure something out,” Claire said with sudden fierceness as she thought of her sister’s carefully arranged china statuettes. “I promise you. We’ll buy out his half of the house.”
    Claire’s comment set Holly off again, and the day’s events tumbled forth piecemeal between bouts of crying. It wasn’t an unusual story, Claire thought grimly. His wife was ill, and Frank didn’t have the guts or the decency to go through it with her.
    Of course, what he’d said to Holly was they’d married too young, had children too young, and now he wanted some freedom to “be himself.” Claire suspected he wanted to be himself with other women—and in fact, would bet he already had—but she didn’t share the conviction with her sister.
    According to Holly, Frank had made his speech and then bolted out of the house. She didn’t know where he had gone.
    Claire made sympathetic comments and let Holly cry. God knew she could empathize. The day Milo told her he wanted out of their marriage, Claire had felt like a mule had kicked her in the belly.
    When Holly flopped back on the