Independence Day. Amy Frazier

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ on the knob. “You’re kidding about the midlife crisis.”

      She paused. “If that explanation gets you thinking about the lopsided dynamics of our family life, so be it.”

      “What lopsided dynamics?”

      “Hadn’t noticed, had you?” Chessie bristled, an unusually combative look in her eyes. “How about my unappreciated backstage roles as the family’s chief cook and bottle washer, laundress, taxi driver, mediator, cheerleader, nurse, convenient lover and general bend-over-till-I-can-touch-my-nose-to-my-behind Gumby?”

      “You can’t possibly think of yourself that way.”

      “I don’t, but the rest of you—”

      “Shh!” A child in the picture-book section put her finger to her lips.

      With effort, Nick closed the door between the foyer and the main reading room. “What’s gotten into you?” He wasn’t a stupid person. He was the principal of a regional high school.

      She paused, leveling him with her gray-green stare. “I have work. Work I need to do for myself. For a change. It’s not as if I’m abandoning you. I don’t always have to be the recreation director. It will do the three of you good to spend some time alone together. To have your routine jostled a bit.”

      His work routine was always being jostled. He didn’t like upset in his personal life.

      “We’ll talk later,” she offered. “There’ll be a quiz on what you’ve learned this morning.”

      He didn’t react to her attempt at humor. “I’ll carry the sign home for you.” He needed to take charge, even in this small way.

      “Nick, Nick,” she purred, “you always were my knight in shining armor.”

      “Were?” He stiffened. “So what am I now?”

      “Your armor needs a little buffing.” She wriggled out of the sandwich board.

      Confused, Nick took the bulky sign from her and, with difficulty, turned it inside-out so the words were hidden. He opened the door as if nothing had happened.

      But something had.

      When they’d married eighteen years ago, they’d been in total agreement. He’d be the breadwinner. She’d keep home and hearth. Now Chessie wanted to change the agreement. It made Nick, a man who never tinkered with what worked, want to reach for the antacid tablets.

      Chessie knew that, after her demonstration, Nick would want to make it home without attracting any more attention. But the sight of Penn, along with Sean, Kit and Alex waiting for them outside the library told her escape would be impossible. McCabes—even in small groups—were notorious for practicing family by committee.

      “So, this is what you had in mind when you said you had other plans and couldn’t come to the family picnic,” his father said.

      Chessie saw Nick flinch. “I was going to take my family to the islands,” he replied, a defensive edge to his voice. “I never have time to get out on the water. It seems I rarely have time to see my wife and daughters.”

      “Is that what Chessie’s demanding?” With an amused twinkle in his eye, Penn indicated the now reversed sandwich board. “More attention?”

      “Pop, butt out.” Good-naturedly, Sean nudged their father.

      “Hey, I’m just wondering if I should be wearing a protest sign,” Penn retorted. “I’m his old man, and I never see him.”

      “I’m busy, Pop. Making a living.”

      “We all are,” Sean noted. “So…great speech.”

      “Aunt Chessie, can I play your trumpet?” Sean’s nine-year-old daughter Alex piped up. Nick looked relieved to be out of the spotlight for a moment.

      “Sure.” Chessie relinquished her noisemaker. “Do you think you can play it better than I did?”

      “You weren’t very good,” Alex said with her typical candor. She put the trumpet to her lips, then blew till she was red in the face. Only a hiss of air came out. With a frown she lowered the instrument. “But you’re better than me.”

      The adults laughed.

      “Take it home with you,” Nick urged. “You can practice.”

      “Oh, thanks.” Sean ruffled Alex’s hair. “Just what we need. More noise in the house.”

      “Your Uncle Nick’s afraid Aunt Chessie might try to make a point with it again,” Penn declared dryly.

      “So…” Kit indicated both the trumpet and the sandwich board. “Are we talking about this?”

      “Sure,” Chessie replied as Nick said, “No.”

      If anyone would understand her mission, it was Kit. At twenty-five, her sister-in-law had been on her own for nine years—nine unconventional years—until Sean convinced her that loving him and Alex didn’t mean she had to give up her individuality.

      Nick looked at his watch. “The tide…”

      “You know McCabe parties go on forever,” Sean said. “Stop by when you get in.”

      “Thanks.” Nick smiled, but he didn’t say they’d be there.

      Chessie wondered about that as they made their way home. Nick had told her that moving this last time was a good idea because they’d settle into a ready-made family. She and the girls had done the settling, but Nick remained strangely aloof.

      “Are you and your family okay?” she asked.

      “Why wouldn’t we be?”

      She didn’t pursue the issue. Nick’s relationship with his family had always been…special. His mother had died when he was twelve and Jonas, his youngest brother, just one. Nick had been old enough at the time to shoulder some of the responsibility of looking after the kids. She could see where the experience had honed his deeply ingrained provider instinct. But when he’d left for college nineteen years ago, he’d left for a future away from Pritchard’s Neck. And when they’d returned last year, Nick had never seemed completely at ease with either his father or his siblings.

      He seemed as emotionally AWOL with them as he was with her.

      Chessie couldn’t control his relationships with others, but if her strike woke her husband up, she might not be the only one whose needs were met.

      CHAPTER TWO

      “CHESSIE?” Nick glanced at his watch. Seven-thirty. “We’re home!”

      “I’m up in the bedroom.”

      She sounded rational. With some sense of relief that she hadn’t ambushed him with more laundry, he climbed the stairs. Yet today’s explosion—having gone beyond anything she’d ever pulled on them before—still worried him. He was tired from exploring the islands СКАЧАТЬ