Castles in the Sand Read Online Free Page B

ornery enough to force Susan Starr to put it into words.
    “With…with…” Susan sighed. “With them not being married. With them living together.”
    She waited a beat, measuring her words. “I find it best to be okay with things I can’t possibly change. I sleep better at night.”
    There was another long silence. At last Susan spoke. “Can we meet? For tea? Or something? Just to talk a few minutes?”
    Pepper wrinkled her nose. She really didn’t want to get into it. If and when the Starrs made amends with their daughter, then she might consider a cordial relationship—for the baby’s sake.
    Susan was still speaking, rushing her words together. “The truth is, I’m not okay with this. I’m not sleeping. I’m not eating. I can’t think straight. I don’t know how to process the situation. Please. Tell me how you do it?”
    Pepper suppressed a sudden urge to giggle. Nah. No way, Lord. This one is totally Yours. I’d bite her head off and have fun doing it .
    Susan said, “I’m sorry. That was awfully presumptuous to ask. Will you just tell Kenzie that…that…I miss her and I’m here.”
    “Of course.” Why wasn’t the woman pounding on the Carluccis’ front door to find Kenzie instead of stammering over the telephone? Their address was in the book!
    “All right. Thank you. Goodbye.”
    If you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive—
    Nuts. She really had to quit studying Matthew’s Gospel.
    “Susan, wait. Where are you? What beach?”
    Again a reply did not come immediately.
    Pepper gazed at her ceiling and noted cobwebs.
    “Mission Beach.”
    “Okay.” That was further than she wanted to drive, and she wasn’t ready to have her cobwebs scrutinized by the wife of the illustrious Reverend Drake Starr. She calculated a midway point, not too private. “We could meet at the Fashion Valley mall. At the Starbucks on the second level.”
    “When?”
    “Tomorrow? Say nine thirty?”
    “Yes. Thank you. Uh, we met once, but it was a long time ago. I don’t look like Kenzie. I have dark blond hair.”
    And, I bet, the expression of a woman watching a rattlesnake coiled at her feet . “I’ll recognize you.”

    Later that evening after dinner, Pepper enlisted Aidan’s help in the kitchen. As he washed dishes, she playfully bumped a shoulder against his. “So, you want to come with me tomorrow? Meet your semi-mother-in-law for coffee?”
    “Mom.” Aidan, hands deep in sudsy water, shook his head. “Where do you come up with these phrases?”
    “It’s a gift. You know you didn’t get your ability to write song lyrics from your dad.” She picked up a plate and towel-dried it. “I guess I could say ‘the mother of your live-in girlfriend who’s not exactly just a girlfriend because she is the mother of your child, now about twenty weeks old in womb age.’”
    “Yeah, right. How about ‘the witch who wouldn’t leave her dog outside on a rainy night but shoved her daughter through the door’?”
    Pepper grasped his bristly chin and turned him to face her. “Hush,” she whispered. “We all make mistakes, and she didn’t shove Kenzie.”
    He closed his eyes briefly.
    Nose to nose with him, she could have been looking at a photo of herself. He had the same narrow face as she, the same long nose, the same sapphire blue eyes set deep and close together under bushy brows. No laugh lines creased his twenty-five-year-old skin, though. No extra weight rounded out his neck. His dark hair was longer, thicker, and curlier than hers, and he stood shoulders and head taller. She let go of his chin.
    “Yeah, Mom, we all make mistakes.”
    “You remember my first reaction to your news.”
    He smiled. “You were ecstatic about being a grandma.”
    She picked up a handful of flatware with the dish towel. “All right. Go to the second and third reactions. I wanted to ground you for life.”
    “Thank you for not doing that.”
    “Like