Tending Roses Read Online Free PDF Page A

shortly after birth, or that I’d had to take an extra month of unpaid leave to care for him, or that we were still grappling with the insurance company over deductibles and coverage limits, or that there were no guarantees Joshua wouldn’t need further heart surgery. All she cared about was whether we could send two hundred fifty dollars by the middle of December. Merry Christmas.
    By the time I got off the phone, my hands were shaking and my nerves were stretched like fiddle strings. Upstairs, Josh had started to cry in his crib. After sticking the bill back in the envelope, I buried it under the stack of mail and went to rescue my son.
    The phone rang as I was coming downstairs again, and I answered, bouncing Joshua on my shoulder to quiet him.
    “Hello?” I said, wondering if the bill collector from the hospital was calling back to give me more bad news.
    “Hi . . . Kate, is that you?”
    “Liz?” There is nothing like hearing your best friend’s voice on the other end of the phone when you’re in a moment of crisis.
    “Yes, is something wrong? I hear the baby crying.”
    “No, he’s all right. He just woke up and he doesn’t think I got to the crib fast enough.”
    I was only half joking, but Liz laughed on the other end of the line. Not having any children of her own, she thought all the trials of motherhood were pretty funny.
    “I just called to see how the trip went and how your grandmother’s doing.”
    “What . . . I . . . Just a second, Liz. The baby just spit up on my shoulder. Oh, yuck.”
    “Sounds like you have your hands full.” Liz laughed again as I wiped away the mess, then repositioned Joshua so that he could look out the window. Finally, he quieted down and I could hear myself think.
    “So, how was the trip and how is your grandmother?” Liz repeated.
    “The trip was fine,” I said. “Josh slept most of the way in the car, so it was a nice drive. No snowstorms, so we made good time. My grandmother seems to be doing pretty well, but wow, is the utility room a mess. There’s smoke damage all around the window and the outside doorframe and a big burned-out hole where the ironing board used to be. She acts like it’s not there.”
    “Hmmm. That doesn’t seem good,” Liz said, sounding as if she were analyzing one of her legal cases for the Harrison Foundation. “Well, have you tried confronting her about it?”
    “No,” I admitted. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen her, I hated to come in here and get her upset. I think I’ll try to keep things calm until the rest of the family gets here for Christmas.”
    “Oh, well. I don’t blame you. Sounds like kind of a mess.”
    “It’ll work out all right.” I couldn’t imagine how, but I didn’t feel like talking about it anymore. “Anyway, how’s the town house?” Liz was between apartments, so she had agreed to house-sit for us while we were away.
    “The house is great. I was lounging on your balcony just this morning, watching people play golf and feeling pretty suburban.”
    That made me laugh. Liz had lived in an apartment downtown for the seven years I had known her. “So, you like it, then? I told you you would. It’s nice to be out where there’s a tree or two to look at. You know, the town house next to us is for sale.”
    “You’re not sneakily trying to suggest that I become your next-door neighbor?” she quipped.
    “We could commute together,” I said, thinking of how nice it would be to have company on the ride into the city. “Play golf on the weekends . . .”
    “Neither of us plays golf, and besides, every weekend we’re in the city for some kind of fund-raiser or something.”
    “Well, we could golf between fund-raisers.” A twinge of nervous adrenaline shot through me at the thought of the office. “So . . . I hate to ask, but what’s going on with the audit?”
    Shortly after I had left for maternity leave, my boss found out that the foundation was going to be audited, which was no big