Yours, Mine & Ours Read Online Free PDF Page A

could put the lid on. “Okay. Your grandma’s coming in fifteen or twenty minutes, so we’ve got just enough time to get you cleaned up. But remember, we can’t look at the worms for at least two weeks.”
    â€œExcept for peeks.”
    â€œNo. No exceptions. No peeks. No looking at all. Light can hurt them. Okay? Promise.”
    â€œI promise with my whole life. I promise, hope to die.”
    While Mike was dunking Teddy in the tub and then getting him brushed and dressed, he took advantage to give his son the bigger worm picture. “Even though we have to wait two weeks to see the worms again, we have lots of good things to do in the meantime. Like building our water garden in the backyard.”
    â€œFor the frogs.” Teddy lifted his hands so Mike could thread a fresh T-shirt over his head.
    â€œYeah, for the frogs. The frogs are going to love those worms. And there’ll be extra worms for fishing. And we can even use the worms’ waste besides that.”
    â€œWhat waste?”
    â€œTheir castings and tea.” Mike should have known his son wouldn’t let him off that easy. “That’s their poop and urine. It works like a fertilizer. So we can dump that in another part of the yard, like where we plant bushes or trees… Hey, I hear the doorbell. That’ll be your Grandma Conroy.”
    â€œNo! Do I have to go, Dad? I want to stay with you.”
    His parents may have been unhappy about the divorce, but both were thrilled to have their one and only grandson suddenly within three miles of them. Barbara Conroy had always tended to dress on theformal side, but today she wore snug jeans and a long T-shirt—a perfect getup for surviving the day with a four-year-old. “Hey, you.” She snagged a kiss off him first, gave him a motherly look over. “You doing okay?”
    â€œCouldn’t be better.”
    She said something to him—but his attention was diverted when a car pulled up next door. It was a meeting of the Lexuses. His mom’s was lipstick-red, Amanda’s mom favored a custom-painted sapphire. Apparently it was a mutual grandma-pick-up-grandkid day.
    Both grandmothers looked alike—blondish hair, great bones, slim and both appearing energetic and younger than their years. They spotted each other, about the same time Molly skipped out the door and saw Teddy.
    Molly stuck out her tongue at Teddy. The insult was returned. Then Slugger started baying because the poodle next door started an excited-barking thing. The grandmothers started talking and laughing at the commotion, but for one whole, long second, all he saw was her.
    Amanda.
    The grandmas herded their respective grandkids into their respective Lexuses. Mike heard Amanda tell her mother, “Mom, please don’t call her princess” and then a minute later, “Mom, no buying hera million toys. Just be together, okay? Have a good time.”
    And her mom responded with a chant of “uh-huh, uh-huh” as if they’d had this conversation a zillion times before, and the whole while she was winking at her granddaughter. Molly appeared to need several suitcases to be gone for a few hours.
    Teddy just galloped to the car and climbed in. By the time the cars pulled out and all the noise disappeared—even the dogs quieted down—suddenly there were just the two of them with nothing more than a spare stretch of driveway separating them.
    Lightning arced between them, even though there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.
    â€œI owe you a big thanks,” she called out.
    â€œNo sweat.” He’d put her painting stuff on the back porch before daybreak, hoping he wouldn’t have to run into her. But now, the more he looked at her, the more he relaxed. Last night, there’d been something…off…between them. An intimacy, because of being alone at night, the dark, her not wearing much and then nothing while she was in the shower,