Loving Miss Libby Read Online Free

hey, kids,” Libby said, “I’m sure you’ll both
do a great job decorating your cupcakes.  What do you plan to do, Kate?”
    Libby had divided the frosting between small bowls
and added drops of food coloring to each.  The kids had a rainbow of colors to
choose from.
    “I’m going to put little hearts on my cupcakes,”
Kate declared.
    “Well, I think dinosaurs and hearts are both great
ideas,” Libby said.  She sat down at the kitchen island and watched them. 
    “Hearts are stupid,” Marky muttered, and Kate
slugged him in the arm.  For a split second, he looked as if he might
retaliate, but fortunately, seemed too interested in his cupcake at the moment.
    She bit back a laugh.  Wow, siblings could really go
at it.  These two certainly could, but then, she’d witnessed a good deal of
sibling love between them too.  Kate could step as easily into the mother role
to her brother as her sister role. 
    Libby noted the little girl constantly checked the
stove clock.  She suspected she was worried about both her father and
grandfather.  She wished she could do something to ease her fears.  She knew
what it was like to carry around a lot of worry.  Her mother often told her
she’d been born with the weight of the world on her shoulders, and then when
her father had died suddenly in a car accident when she was eight, her
anxiousness had only intensified. 
    “I wonder when Daddy is going to get home,” Kate
said from out of the blue, interrupting Libby’s thoughts.
    “Does he often work late?” Libby asked.
    Kate nodded.  “He’s a traffic homicide investigator,
so he has to carry a pager.  He gets called out all the time.”
    Marky’s eyed widened, as he pinned them on Libby. 
“Daddy goes to wrecks and has to figure out how they happened.  Sometimes …” 
He let the word hang in the air and leaned closer to Libby, as if sharing a
secret.  “Sometimes, the people who are dead are still in the car when he gets
there…”
    Libby was taken aback.  If that was true, how awful
for him to have to see death on an ongoing basis, but how had Marky been privy
to this information?  It seemed a bit too scary for a little boy to handle.
    “Honey, how do you know that?” she asked.
    “Well, sometimes when our phone rings, I pick it up
upstairs when Daddy answers it downstairs.  Anyway, I heard somebody tell him
that the…”  He swallowed hard and his eyes grew even wider.  “…That the body hadn’t been removed yet.”
    “You’re not supposed to answer the phone, Marky!”
Kate scolded, and whacked him hard on the arm.  “You know Dad doesn’t want you
hearing that stuff!  It gives you nightmares.”
    “Nuh uh.  You’re the one who has nightmares!  You’re
the one who screams in your sleep.”
    “I do … not,” she said weakly.
    Libby searched the little girl’s face.  It appeared
she was about to cry, but she bit her lower lip and fixed a stalwart expression
on her face.  Libby reached out and patted her arm.
    “Everybody has nightmares,” she said.
    “Do you, Miss Libby?” Marky asked.
    “I do,” she said.  “And when I do, I try to remember
I’m safe in my warm bed, that God is watching out for me, and that there’s
nothing to worry about.”
    “There’s lots to worry about,” Kate said weakly.
    “Well, we’re not going to worry right now,” Libby
said.  “You know, I think I’ll frost a cupcake too.  I’m going to put a happy
face on mine.”
    “Me too!” Marky cried.
    The threesome continued frosting cupcakes until all
were done.  “This is my favorite,” Kate said, holding up one on which she had
drawn and filled in a large heart.  The heart was pink against white frosting.
    “Kate, that is beautiful,” Libby gushed.  “You’re an
artist.”
    The little girl beamed at the compliment.
    “What do you think of mine, Miss Libby?  Am I an
artist too?” Marky asked.
    “Absolutely,” she said, admiring his rendition of a
green dinosaur on