Together Alone Read Online Free PDF Page B

Besides, things will be different with Jill gone. For the first time in years, weekends will be just Doug and me. Good quality time, fun , like the old days, just the two of us.” The prospect gave her hope.
    Kay sighed. “I’m envious. John knows nothing about fun.”
    “John is wonderful,” Emily argued.
    “He’s a cop. Life is one long investigation.”
    “He is decent, upstanding, and honest.”
    “Oh yes,” Kay granted. “He’s also a master worry-wart. He sees the underside of a lettuce leaf. Why do you think I pour myself into my work? If I listened to half of what he says, I’d be basket case. I don’t even have Marilee to distract me now. I’d die without a job.” She focused on Emily. “You need one.”
    “Doug doesn’t want me to work.”
    “If he isn’t here, what difference does it make?” Celeste asked. “If he isn’t here, you can do what you want.”
    “But I respect his feelings. We’ve discussed it. I’ve offered, but he says no. It’s a matter of pride.”
    “Pride? Hah! He feels threatened.”
    Emily laughed. “He does not.”
    “He’s worried that if you get a job, you might succeed at it and eclipse him. It was that way with the book.”
    “No, it wasn’t. I did that book as a favor to John. It was never intended to be anything big.”
    “You wrote a book,” Celeste argued, “and it was published. That’s one hell of an accomplishment.”
    But Emily didn’t see it that way. “I ghost-wrote it. Sam and Donnie were the ones who did the police work. They told me their story. All I did was take down their words and neaten them up.”
    Kay started to speak, stopped when their food arrived, resumed the minute the waitress left. “You did more than that, Emily. John knows it, Sam and Donnie know it, and I’d warrant Doug does, too. You listened to Sam and Donnie’s ideas, you interviewed people and verified facts, then you put everything together. You were the only one who sat at that typewriter, night after night, after Jill was in bed. It always bothered me that your name wasn’t on the cover.”
    “I didn’t need it on the cover,” Emily protested, laughing again. She picked up her spoon. “It was inside. That was enough.”
    Celeste stared at her. “If it was me, I’d have milked being a published author for everything it was worth.”
    “But the work meant something to me. I didn’t do it for the money or the acclaim. Believe me, I was perfectly happy with the mention I got. I don’t aspire to be in the limelight.”
    “You may not,” Celeste said, “but I do.” She raised a piece of English muffin and held it daintily, though she wasn’t first and foremost a dainty woman. She was tall and slim, with a direct gaze and a fresh mouth. She rarely wore makeup, couldn’t bother with much more than a French braid, and made so little attempt to attract men that they were invariably attracted. While Kay leaned toward blouses and skirts and Emily toward tunics and leggings, Celeste was more comfortable in jeans and a simple white shirt. “Ladies,” she declared now, “my time has come.”
    Emily exchanged a bemused look with Kay. “Your time for what?”
    Celeste set down her muffin. “Living. Without Dawn to nag, I have undirected energy.”
    “She just left ,” Kay said, as Celeste had moments before, but Celeste ignored her.
    “I’ve been looking at my life, really looking, turning it inside out and looking at it that way, too. I’ve been waking up with the sun, in a stone-gray empty house, thinking about what I want to do. For starters, I’m getting my nose fixed.”
    Kay’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding.”
    “But why? ” Emily asked.
    “Look at this nose. It’s an ugly nose.”
    “But you’ve had it forever. It’s part of who you are.”
    “Not anymore. As of Thursday morning, it’ll be narrowed and shaped, along with this.”
    Emily couldn’t see what she was pointing at. “What’s that?”
    “My double chin.”
    “I