The Dollhouse Read Online Free PDF

comforting.
    Griff’s murmurs were unintelligible. She wandered to the kitchen and gave the risotto an idle stir before adding salt and pepper.
    â€œCan we talk for a moment?”
    He was suddenly beside her, looking serious.
    â€œOf course.”
    He led her back into the living room and they sat back down. As he reached into his pocket, she gripped her palms tightly together, trying to remain calm. The time had come. He was so anxious, her heart went out to him.
    He pulled out his cell phone and turned it off.
    Griff never turned off his phone. He’d put it on vibrate, maybe. But not off.
    â€œYou’ve been so good to me,” he said.
    â€œOf course. And you’ve been good to me.” Her words came out robotic, an automatic response.
    â€œRose, I love you so much.”
    Her mouth went dry. She was reminded of the first time she’d ever presented the news: the countdown to going on air, the fear of doing something stupid or saying the wrong words. Like then, she reminded herself to breathe and loosened her shoulders, letting the tension flow out of her. She hoped he’d get to the point quickly, put her out of her misery, proposal or no.
    â€œTalk to me, Griff.”
    â€œI’ve been speaking with Connie lately, about the girls, and we’ve been really worried, particularly about Miranda.”
    Not the response she was expecting. And the use of
we
was troubling. Not
we
as in Rose and Griff, but the prior
we
.
    He continued, one jean-clad leg jiggling furiously. “I do want to get married. I do.”
    The sentence should have been a simple declaration. But the two words tagged on at the end changed everything, acted as a hinge, a doorway to a different meaning entirely. She waited for the next part of the phrase, the one that would turn it on its head.
    â€œI think I have to go back to them.”
    Her head swarmed with confusion, her thoughts like bees whose hive has been destroyed. “Go back to Connie?”
    â€œNot Connie, exactly. The girls. I realize what I’ve done to you is a terrible, terrible thing. I love you and I always will.”
    She held perfectly still and scrutinized his face. His eyes were wide, innocent, an open book. But his pupils dilated with fear, dark wheels barely encircled with green.
    â€œAnd I love you.” She continued to play by the script, waiting until she had surer footing.
    â€œBut my family needs me right now. The girls are a mess. Miranda’s been suspended from school again. Connie can’t handle her alone. “
    â€œI’m so sorry, but maybe you shouldn’t make any impulsive decisions right now. Let’s furnish this apartment so you can spend more time with the kids here. I’ll help. You don’t have to go there every weekend.”
    Every weekend. He’d told Rose that Connie stayed with friends when he went to the house in Litchfield to spend time with the girls. But maybe she’d been there as well, luring him back, sleeping with him, making him miss the comforts of home and hearth. While Rose had been left sitting in a half-empty, three-bedroom condo, playing the patient girlfriend when she wasn’t putting in ten-hour workdays.
    She’d taken a huge cut in salary to join WordMerge. How was shegoing to pay for her father’s care now? Her despair simmered into a dull anger.
    The smell of burning rice snapped her to attention.
    In the kitchen, she yanked the pot off the burner and turned off the gas. The bottom of the risotto was burned, and the pot would have to be tossed. How would she be able to buy a new one, never mind an entirely new set of cutlery, dishes, furniture? The list went on and on.
    Griff came up behind her and rested his hands lightly on her shoulders. The pressure was soothing. Maybe this was temporary insanity.
    She turned around and his hands slid to her hips.
    â€œDo you think that maybe you’re panicking here?” she asked. He dropped his