Waking Up in Charleston Read Online Free PDF Page A

manage,” Mary Louise insisted.
    Just then Larry, Jimmy and Susie raced in from the backyard demanding Amanda’s immediate attention. In Caleb’s opinion, their timing couldn’t have been better.
    “Mommy, they wouldn’t let me swing on the swing,” Susie said, tears rolling down her cheeks. She cast an accusing look at her big brothers. “They’re mean and I hate them!”
    “Susie!” Amanda said. “You do not hate your brothers.”
    “Do, too,” she said with a sniff.
    “She’s just a big ole baby,” Jimmy countered.
    “Am not,” Susie retorted.
    Before the battle could escalate, Amanda scooped up Susie, then directed a forbidding look at the boys. “Come with me,” she said.
    “I can take them,” Caleb offered.
    “Not this time,” Amanda said tersely, heading to the back of the house.
    “But it’s not fair,” Jimmy wailed just before one bedroom door slammed shut.
    “They were being mean,” Susie repeated, her voice thick with tears. “How come I have to go to my room?”
    Caleb couldn’t hear Amanda’s murmured reply, but then a second door closed. She came back, looking faintly harried.
    “Sorry. Where were we?” she asked Mary Louise.
    “I was telling you that Danny and I can figure all that out,” Mary Louise said, though her gaze seemed to bedrawn in the direction of the unmistakable sobs coming from down the hall. She looked shaken.
    “You’ll need to get used to that,” Amanda told her mildly. “Kids cry, especially babies. It’ll make it tough for Danny to study, at least at home. Next thing you know he’ll either have to drop out of school or spend all his free time in the library so he can keep up with his classes.”
    Mary Louise reacted with dismay. “It’s one little baby,” she protested.
    Amanda smiled. “You have no idea what a ruckus one little baby can create, especially if he or she happens to be colicky. Jimmy didn’t let me get a decent night’s sleep for months.”
    “Didn’t your husband help?”
    “Some, but he was working. He needed his sleep, just the way Danny will need his if he’s going to keep up with his studies.” Amanda’s expression turned sad. “Bobby and I fought all the time during those months.”
    “How come?” Mary Louise asked.
    “He thought I ought to be able to do something to stop the crying. It was like he was accusing me of being a bad mother. It tapped into every one of my insecurities, so I lashed back.”
    The memory still seemed to touch a raw nerve and Mary Louise seemed to get that. “How old were you when you got married?” she asked.
    “I was nineteen, just a year older than you,” Amanda told her.
    “But your husband wasn’t in college, right?” Mary Louise said, seizing on some slim difference between him and Danny. “He was working.”
    “Right. He was getting his business off the ground. He was gone all the time, so everything at home was up to me.”
    “If you were in love, though, I’ll bet it was worth it,” Mary Louise said, her expression hopeful.
    “In many ways, yes,” Amanda agreed. She exchanged a look with Caleb. “But I won’t lie to you, Mary Louise, the exhaustion and stress pretty much sucked the romance right out of it. Bobby and I were lucky, though. No matter how tough things got, no matter how many fights we had, we stuck together. We both knew we didn’t have anybody else to fall back on. We had to make it work. It might have been easier, though, if we’d waited.”
    “But Reverend Webb told me your husband died,” Mary Louise said. “What if you hadn’t had that time together? Aren’t you glad you had that?”
    Caleb saw the unmistakable sadness in Amanda’s eyes. It was always there when Bobby’s death was mentioned. It was always there, as well, when anyone mentioned her father. That loss ran just as deep.
    “Yes,” Amanda whispered. “I’m glad for every minute we had. No one can live their life, though, based on what-ifs. You have to be smart and base your