Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing Read Online Free Page B

the fame and fortune you desire.”
    A surge of pride came over Scarlet. “Like I’ve been sayingfor the past two years, all I want is to make a living doing what makes me happy.”
    Manny sighed and pushed his chair away from the table. “Have you ever heard the quote by Eleanor Roosevelt? ‘Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.’ Put that through your serger and see what comes out.” He stood up and was about to leave the room when Nana Eleanor stood up too.
    “
That
Eleanor is long gone,” she said, wagging her crooked finger. “However, this one is still alive, and she says with or without your blessing, our Scarlet is going to find her happy.”

2
     

     
    M ary Theresa knew of eleven steps to avoid headaches. Today she’d had time to complete only ten.
    She had barely inserted the key into the lock of the front door of her two-story Chandler home when her first brain throb of the evening hit. Her six-year-old twins, Rocky and Lucy, who had the ears of night bats with hearing aids, sensed her arrival. Even through the thick, white wood door, Mary Theresa heard them shriek in unison as they pounded their fists against it in excitement.
    While the rest of the country enjoyed their Thanksgiving feast, for her, the evening merely marked the close of another ten-hour day in software-design hell. She would have given anything to enter her contemporary castle, slink past her family, and crawl into bed with her new issue of
PC World,
but she didn’t dare. The thirty-five-year-old would instead burst into the house and express her undying gratitude to her husband and twins, because that’s what devoted mothers did.
    Mary Theresa didn’t notice the gorgeous November air, or the glittery fall wreath her children had created for the mailbox. She was too busy clenching her teeth, pasting on a fake smile as she opened the door, just in time for a heavy whiff of pumpkin pie. She couldn’t decipher if it was the gourmet candle she had askedher husband, Hadley not to light, or an actual pumpkin pie. As exhausted as she felt, either one would do.
    “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! We’ve been waiting for you!” the kids sang out.
    She had barely loosened the grip on her rolling briefcase before they attempted to leap on her. She adored her children, but at forty-three pounds each, Mary Theresa couldn’t afford to lift them and throw her back out again. She politely blocked their advances and offered kisses as a substitute.
    “Mommy, we missed you,” Lucy said with a heavy lisp due to two missing front teeth. “It’s Thanksgiving. Everyone left already. Why didn’t you come home?”
    Rocky interceded. “Daddy said it’s ’cause the world’ll stop spinning if she doesn’t work for a day.”
    She couldn’t believe her husband had made such a rude comment about her to their children! She was also appalled at what the kids were wearing. Rocky hopped around in Lucy’s Easter Bunny costume, and Lucy crawled on all fours in Rocky’s red reindeer flannel pajamas, pretending to be Rudolph.
    At the same time, Hadley’s favorite spastic John Coltrane LP blasted throughout the house, but it was no match for Mary Theresa’s vocal cords. Especially as fired up as she was.
    “Oh my God, Hadley, is this how the children were dressed in front of your family today? I spent eighty-five dollars on new outfits. Didn’t you see them laid out on the dresser this morning? Must I do everything?”
    Hadley exited the kitchen and approached her in the foyer. A twinkle danced in his eye as he handed her a goblet of white wine. In order to keep the peace, she reluctantly accepted and sipped. For an instant, her mood shifted from annoyed to pacified. Chilled Chardonnay, her favorite, had that effect on her. The sweet, buttery tang hit her bloodstream just right—somuch so that she downed the rest of the glass in four uninterrupted gulps.
    “I just wish you would keep to the plan,” she said through a shiver as she gave him back the