The Money Club by FIONA LOWE

Author:FIONA LOWE
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: FIONA LOWE

“Your mother hates me,” Lucy told Jack that night as soon as he’d caught his breath.

He’d walked in the door just before midnight and thankfully Birdie and Mike were already in bed and not around to monopolize him. Lucy had hustled him down the hall—Jack hadn’t protested—and they’d tumbled into bed, desperate to connect after three very long weeks apart.

Now he wound strands of her hair around his fingers. “She doesn’t hate you.”

“She does.” Lucy told him about Rigby and the biting.

“Jeez, Luce. He can’t go back there.”

“You think!” She sucked in a calming breath. “I know he can’t go back there, and we need to surround him with stability to help him cope with all the changes. Having him camping out in here with us hasn’t helped.” She lay her head on his chest. “The thing is, I don’t understand why your mother went ballistic on me. The only reason we hadn’t moved him earlier was because she had you working flat out in the garden and doing other jobs.”

When Jack didn’t say anything she prompted him. “Right?”

He sighed. “I never got around to talking to her about it.”

She sat up fast. “Jack!”

“Sorry, but that week we moved was a blur, and I didn’t want to do it on the cell phone or on a video call. I was going to talk to her tomorrow.”

“Oh God, no wonder she’s upset. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I never thought you’d do it on your own.”

“Why not? I do just about everything else on my own.”

He tensed. “That’s not fair. You know I’d be here if I could.”

She slumped against him and sighed. “I know. It’s just now Birdie has yet another reason to hate me. I never told you, but when she said she couldn’t mind Rigby in the afternoons, she was smiling!”

“Aw, be fair, Luce. She was probably just embarrassed she was letting you down.”

Lucy knew that wasn’t the case—she’d seen the delight on Birdie’s face. It was as if her mother-in-law was deriving pleasure from making her life more difficult.

“She’s gotta be embarrassed about the IGA too.” Jack ran his hand through his hair. “Poor Mom. Instead of retirement she’s working with Deidre the dragon. That’s enough to make anyone cranky.”

Lucy chose not to say that she felt sorry for Deidre—working with Birdie wouldn’t be easy. Living with her was almost impossible. Every night the walls of Jack’s childhood bedroom bore down on Lucy, reminding her of everything they’d lost. She needed time away from the claustrophobic house. Who was she kidding? She needed time away from Birdie.

She trailed her fingers down Jack’s chest. “Let’s go away for the weekend. Rigby needs time alone with us and we can easily get a cabin at Robe.”

Jack caught her hand. “Luce.”

“Good idea, right?” she said, ignoring his tone.

“We can’t afford the gas for a six-hour round trip.”

Desperation tugged hard. “Portland then. It’s closer.”

“It’s not the destination. We don’t have the readies to drop a hundred and twenty bucks on a cabin or to eat out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.