While She Was Sleeping... Read Online Free PDF

when Melanie was thirteen. But it still hurt.
    “Alana.” She held her head high, wishing she were wear ing jeans and a sweater instead of her revealing rumpled outfit from the night before. She’d been so tired when she got home around four, she’d dropped right into bed, and slept until Alana’s and Sawyer’s voices woke her. “You have twenty seconds to ex plain why when I told you I found a great guy, you drove straight up here and seduced him.”
    “That is not what happened.” She dropped the bedspread, grabbed a loose skirt and teal sweater from Melanie’s floor.
    “You did drive straight up here.”
    “Yes. I did.” She pulled on the skirt, which barely fit over the curvy hips Melanie wished she had, dragged the too-tight sweater over her generous boobs, ditto. “I was worried about you.”
    “So the phrases ‘I’ve changed’ and ‘this guy is different’…you thought I was lying? Or so stupid that I had no idea what I was talking about?”
    “What is so great about a guy who makes a move on your sister?”
    “I thought you said all that went on was sleeping.”
    Alana’s face went blank. She slumped against the wall and knocked off Melanie’s firefighters calendar. Mr. July was muscled enough to go bodysurfing on, but he fell without protest. “I wasn’t going to tell you.”
    “Why?”
    “Because what was the point of hurting you more?”
    She looked so miserable Melanie had to force herself tocalm down. She knew Sawyer wasn’t a player, but then Alana wasn’t, either. So…“What did happen?”
    “I was asleep. My doctor gave me new pills and then Sawyer…I thought I was dreaming.”
    “Come on. You slept through sex?”
    “We didn’t have sex. He just—”
    “Ew.” Melanie put her hands out. “I don’t want to know.”
    “But also, I had a headache and took one of the ibuprofen in the medicine cabinet. It didn’t look right, and I wondered if maybe I was so asleep because—”
    “Oh, gosh.” Melanie’s eyes widened. “I wondered where those were. That wasn’t ibuprofen, those were sleeping pills I borrowed from Joe.”
    “Whoa.” Alana’s eyebrows shot up. “I guess that’s how you sleep through sex.”
    “I thought you said—”
    “No.” She waggled her finger back and forth. “I meant it. No sex. But the guy is bad news, Melanie.”
    Here we go. Mommy Alana on a roll. “He didn’t know who you were.”
    “What was he doing making a pass at anyone if you’re dating seriously?”
    “Oh.” Melanie did everything she could not to look guilty. They weren’t exactly dating yet. But he’d shown interest moving in with her, hadn’t he? And with the two of them together so much, something would happen. He was perfect for the new her. But if she told Alana she’d asked Sawyer to move into their house when she’d only seen him four times briefly at Habitat for Humanity, Alana would stay for the rest of Melanie’s life. “Well…he was drunk. He didn’t know what he was doing.”
    “And this is an excuse why? For one thing, blacking-out drunk is serious. For another, alcohol doesn’t force you to cheat.”
    “Look. Just drop it, okay? Sawyer and I have worked thisout. He’s moving in today and that’s what we both want. I’ve never seen him drink too much before, this was probably a one-time overindulgence. And if not, I’ll keep an eye out and handle it, okay?”
    “No, not okay. I don’t want you getting involved with someone—”
    “Who you don’t know at all and who has a perfectly reasonable explanation for how he behaved? It’s actually more reasonable than yours.” She wanted to turn into a bear, growl and terrify Alana out of the house, then shred a tree or something. She couldn’t stand the fighting. It was all they did. “Tell you what. I’ll put him on probation for a month.”
    “Melanie, I can’t believe—”
    “One month.” She held up a finger. “Any signs of excessive drinking or, um, cheating on me again, and