Claws and Effect Read Online Free

Claws and Effect
Book: Claws and Effect Read Online Free
Author: Rita Mae Brown
Pages:
Go to
we’re doing.”
    â€œDon’t get technical.”
    â€œAll right. All right. We were keeping to our Wednesday-night dates until now. We’re having fun.” She shrugged. “I don’t know if lightning can strike twice.”
    â€œMe either.”
    â€œI get so sick of people trying to get us back together. We’ve been divorced for four years. The first year was hell—”
    Susan interrupted. “I remember.”
    â€œI don’t know if time heals all wounds or if you just get smarter about yourself. Get more realistic about your expectations of other people and yourself.”
    â€œGod, Harry, that sounds like the beginnings of maturity.” Susan faked a gasp.
    â€œScary, isn’t it?” She stood up. “Want more of your hot chocolate?”
    â€œYeah, let’s finish off the lot.” Susan stood up.
    â€œSit down.”
    â€œNo, let me bring the cup to you. Easier to pour over the sink.”
    â€œYeah, I guess you’re right.” Harry picked up the pan and carefully poured hot chocolate into Susan’s cup and then refilled her own. “The weatherman says it’s going to warm up to fifty degrees tomorrow.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t know it now. I don’t mind snow but ice plucks my last nerve. Especially with the kids out driving in it. I know they have good reflexes but I also know they haven’t experienced as much as we have and I wonder what they’ll do in that first spinout. What if another car is coming in the opposite lane?”
    â€œSusan, they’ll learn and you can’t protect them anyway.”
    â€œYeah. Still.”
    â€œAren’t you amazed that Miranda has kept to her diet in the dead of winter?”
    â€œStill baking things for the store and her friends. I never realized she had such discipline.”
    â€œShows what love will do.”
    Miranda had lost her husband over ten years ago. By all accounts it was a happy marriage and when George Hogendobber passed away, Miranda consoled herself with food. Ten years of consoling takes a long time to remove. The incentive was the return of her high-school boyfriend, now a widower, for their high-school reunion. Sparks flew, and as Miranda described it, they were “keeping company.”
    â€œThe football team.”
    â€œWhat?” Harry, accustomed to abrupt shifts in subject from her old friend—indeed she was often guilty of them herself—couldn’t follow this one.
    â€œI bet that’s why Sam Mahanes is mad at Bruce Buxton. Because Bruce operates on all the football players, and didn’t he just get a big write-up in the paper for his work on the safety? You know that kid that everyone thinks will make All-American next year if his knee comes back. And Isabelle Otey, the girls’ basketball star. He gets all the stars. Jealousy?”
    â€œBuxton’s always gotten good press. Deserved, I guess. Being in Sam’s position as director of the hospital I’d think he’d want Bruce to be celebrated, wouldn’t you?” Harry asked.
    â€œYou’ve got a point there. Funny, every town, city, has closed little worlds where ego, jealousy, illicit love collide. Even the Crozet Preservation Society can be a tempestuous hotbed. Good God, all those old ladies and not one will forgive the other for some dreaded misdeed from 1952 or whenever.”
    â€œSex, drugs and rock and roll.”
Mrs. Murphy climbed back up on the chair to join the kitchen discussion.
    â€œWhat, pussycat?” Harry reached over, stroking the sleek head.
    â€œPeople get mad at other people over juicy stuff.”
    â€œMoney. You forgot money.”
Tucker tidied up the floor, picking up her Milk-Bone debris.
    â€œA little bit around here wouldn’t hurt,”
Pewter, ever conscious of her need for luxury, suggested.
    â€œWell?”
Mrs. Murphy pulled forward one side of her whiskers.
    â€œWell
Go to

Readers choose