Rolling in the Deep Read Online Free Page A

“What?”
    “Thinking of you racing down a hill with the wind in your face, having fun. And then knowing that when I see you again you’re going to tell me all about it.” I take his hand, and he curls his warm fingers around mine. “You’re going to tell me all about it, right?”
    “Right.”
    I push his milk toward him and he takes a long sip.
    —
    Brett’s house is large and set back from a long rural road. The lawn in front is close-cropped and green, and the nearest neighbors are a mile or so way, through a patch of uncut trees. I pull up the winding drive and park in front of the entrance.
    It’s not a door, of course. That would be too pedestrian. It’s an
entrance
.
    As I turn off the ignition, Brett comes out to meet Drew. He goes straight to the rear and leads my son out by the hand, dragging his backpack behind them. He gives Drew a quick hug and then wrinkles his nose.
    “Why does Drew smell like fried bacon, for God’s sake?”
    I take a deep breath and open the driver’s-side door. The sun is just beginning to set. It will be dark for the drive home. “We had an early dinner.”
    Brett rolls his eyes. “You have to do that every time—seriously? Fill the kid with garbage before you bring him here? He’ll be bouncing off the walls. Nice hair, by the way. I see you’ve stopped trying entirely.”
    Drew stands very still beside my beat-up Ford Focus and eyes us nervously. I think briefly of my messy ponytail—so different from the manicured polish of Brett’s wife—but I can’t let myself be baited by him. I won’t do that to my son every goddamn time I drop him off. I drop down to one knee and hold out my arms.
    “Come here, honey.”
    Drew folds himself into me and I smell his hair—the honeysuckle scent he’s had since he was a baby. His arms squeeze tightly around my middle.
    “Love you, Mommy.”
    “I love you, too, teddy bear. Be a good boy, okay? Have so much fun. I’ll call you tomorrow at bedtime and you can tell me all about snowboarding.”
    Drew smiles and runs into the house, and I take a second to watch him go. It’s a high-wire act, to be open the way my child needs me to be, and then to shut myself down before I turn to Brett. I never quite manage the balance.
    I try for diplomacy, so that I can get out of here without a fight.
    “We can go to the diner a different night if it bothers you.”
    Brett smirks. “It would bother anyone with a nose. So yeah, please do.” He looks me up and down, like he still owns me, like it’s his personal privilege to take stock of my body and see how it’s holding up. “You’re picking him up from school on Friday. Don’t forget.”
    “I pick him up every Friday. I won’t forget.”
    “Yeah, well. You never know with you.” He starts to lean in, as though whispering something to me, when Emma comes out the door.
    “Hey, Holly.” She’s wearing skinny jeans with a camel-colored blouse and gold earrings, and is just as perfect as always. I wish for the thousandth time that I could hate her, but she gathers me into a hug before I can even form the thought. “Thanks for bringing Drew over. We have a fun weekend planned for him.”
    I return the hug, because it’s impossible not to, and think of Drew hugging her like this before he goes to sleep tonight. If there’s one thing Emma has taught me, it’s that envy and gratitude make a bittersweet cocktail. “He’s really excited.”
    Emma smiles and pulls back, holding my shoulders in her slim hands for just a moment before releasing me. “Is he? I’m so glad. We’ll take good care of him, okay?”
    She glances at Brett, and if I didn’t know any better I’d think she was deliberately stepping in to help me, to protect me from him and see me out without a scene. Could that be true? It wouldn’t surprise me, knowing her.
    Not for the first time I wonder what in the world a good woman like Emma would see in Brett. He’s handsome, sure—tall, blond, broad