To Have and to Kill Read Online Free PDF

vibrant direction in my color schemes, when I thought things looked the same as usual, that I realized something was really wrong. And, as for the decorating, I’ve been trying to compensate by tilting my head so I can see with my peripheral vision. But that’s not cutting it anymore. It’s getting harder and harder to make the flowers and borders and anything else that requires detail work. It’s getting impossible to do my job.”
    The enormity of what Terri was telling her washed over Cathy. Decorating cakes wasn’t just Terri’s profession, it was her passion. Tears welled up in Cathy’s eyes.
    “Oh, Terri, I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice breaking.
    “Hey, none of that,” said Terri. “I need you to help me, not feel sorry for me.”
    “How did Vin take it when you told him?” asked Cathy, as she wiped at the corner of her eye.
    “Not well, at first. You know him, such a worrywart. He’s always afraid the sky is falling.”
    “Well, it is this time,” said Cathy.
    “Only if I let it.”
    “And Piper? Have you told her?” asked Cathy.
    “No. She’s had enough on her plate and I don’t want her to feel trapped.”
    “What do you mean?” asked Cathy.
    “It’s enough of a trauma for Piper that she’s moving home. I don’t want her feeling that she has to adapt her life to help me,” said Terri. “I’m going to keep it from her as long as I can. But I’m afraid she is starting to suspect something. You know Piper: she notices everything.”

Chapter 7
    “Y ou want to see if the spaghetti’s done?”
    Piper snared a single strand from the boiling water and dangled it carefully into her mouth. “It needs another minute or two,” she said. “We want it al dente, but this is still hard in the center.”
    Jack concentrated on the frying pan in front of him, moving the bits of pancetta around, making sure that each tiny cube of pork got browned. “It’s not too late, you know,” he said. “You don’t have to leave.”
    “Yes, I do,” said Piper, as she began breaking eggs into a small bowl, whisking them into a nice froth. “Giving up my apartment is really the least of it. I can find another place—”
    “Or move in with a friend for a while,” Jack interrupted. “I’ve told you before, that couch in the living room opens up. I’d even sleep on it and you could have my bed.”
    Piper set the the bowl of beaten eggs on the counter and took two wineglasses out of the cupboard above the sink. She walked over to the bistro table just outside the kitchen, arranging the glasses at their places as she considered Jack’s offer. For several reasons, she doubted the arrangement would work for very long.
    “No, it’s done,” she said, raising her voice so Jack could hear her from the kitchen. “My parents are practically foaming at the mouth, they’re so excited about it. I’d ruin their Christmas if I didn’t come home.”
    “Who says you can’t still be with them for Christmas?” Jack called back. “Not good enough, Pipe.”
    Pouring some Pinot Grigio into their glasses, Piper took a swallow and nodded. “I know. You’re right. It’s sad. It’s like Little Women. I’m going back to Orchard House after the city’s had its way with me. Except there’s no dying sister waiting. It’s the coward’s way out.”
    “Wow. That’s exactly how I would have described it.”
    She could hear the smirk in Jack’s voice.
    Piper returned to the kitchen, grabbed the pot holders, and lifted the heavy pot of pasta, being careful to keep her face away from the scalding steam as she emptied the spaghetti and boiling water into the colander she’d settled into the sink.
    “I’m not the first one to go home for a while, Jack.”
    “Yeah, but you’re the last one I’d have expected to do it.”
    “Me, too. But what can I say? It just is what it is right now. Let’s drop it, all right?”
    “Fine,” Jack said coolly.
    The two of them had made spaghetti alla carbonara so