Disguised Blessing by Georgia Bockoven

Author:Georgia Bockoven
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780062031273
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-10-29T23:27:50.656000+00:00

19

CATHERINE OPENED THE GAS AND ELECTRIC BILL and sucked in her breath in surprise. She’d known it was going to be high—they were near a record run on the number of consecutive hundred degree days and she’d been keeping the house cooler than usual for Lynda—but she’d had no idea it would be this high. Another two hundred dollars and it would be the same as her house payment.

This couldn’t go on. She had to find a job. Soon. Or sell some stock. Or cut back on some of the extras, like the housekeeper who came in three times a week and the twice-a-week gardener. Then there was the pool service. How hard could it be to test the water and add chemicals herself? She’d watched the guy when he thought no one was home and he’d been there less than ten minutes. Two hundred dollars a month for ten minutes a week? If she could find a job like that, she wouldn’t have to worry about paying her bills.

She’d drop the country club if it weren’t for Tom. He was desperate to be a member and she’d be damned if she’d give him the opening to buy in. At her lowest point—when he’d been gone for two and a half weeks, when Lynda had slipped into another depression, when her brother had taken off for Japan for another six months, when Jack had informed her his business was in a slump and that he might have to take her to court to lower her alimony payments, when she’d pulled a pair of slacks from the closet that she couldn’t get zipped—she’d seriously wondered whether Tom had asked her to marry him because he wanted her or her membership in the country club.

She’d recovered nicely when the cleaners called and told her they’d made a mistake and had given her someone else’s pants. Someone who was obviously far too skinny for her height, Catherine decided.

“I’m home,” Lynda called from the front door. “Where are you?”

Catherine almost wept at the upbeat tone she heard in her daughter’s voice. “Thank you, Rick,” she said softly as she pushed back her chair.

“I’m in here,” Catherine called in reply.

“Where’s here?”

“My office. But hold on, I’m coming out.” She didn’t want Lynda to see the stack of bills sitting on the desk.

Lynda was at the refrigerator looking for something to eat when Catherine found her. “Where’s Rick? Didn’t you invite him in?”

“He’s doing something with some cupboards and had to get back. But he said to tell you he’d try to stop by next week. I invited him to dinner so he’d have to come.”

The idea startled Catherine. She’d never even considered asking Rick to dinner. “And he said?”

“That we didn’t need to feed him to get him here. But I told him you loved playing Martha Stewart.”

She groaned. “You didn’t.” She wasn’t sure how she wanted Rick to see her, but that wasn’t it.

“Maybe not in those exact words, but whatever it was worked. You’re supposed to call and tell him it’s okay and when he should come.

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