The Commitment by Virginia Hale

Author:Virginia Hale [Hale, Virginia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642472578
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2021-07-19T00:00:00+00:00

At the chime of the doorbell, Jen turned at the clothesline.

Mac dropped her racket to the grass. “Angie’s here for Mum!” Abandoned, the ball on the end of the totem string lost its speedy momentum. “Can I open the front door?”

Dropping the last handful of pegs into the basket, Jen nodded. “Make sure you ask who it is first…”

With the last bedsheet quickly folded into the basket, Jen hauled it onto her hip and headed across the yard for the house. Even from the far side of the pool, she could make out Angie’s high-pitched voice. “Where’s Mum, Macky?”

“Upstairs in her room.”

“Upstairs? I thought their bedroom was at the front of the house.”

One foot over the threshold of the back door, Jen stiffened. No. No, no, no—

“That’s Jen’s room,” Mac said. “Mum and me sleep upstairs.”

Oh God…

“You do?” Angie asked as she rounded the corner into the kitchen.

Lowering the washing basket to the kitchen table, Jen’s gaze locked on Angie’s. “Hey, Ange.”

“Jen…” Quickly masking her curiosity over Mac’s revelation, Angie crossed the kitchen and pulled her into a hug.

“How’s Cory?”

“He’s good, he’s good.” Winking, Angie smoothed a hand over Mac’s hair. “Is Mum almost ready?”

“Don’t know. She’s fart-arsing around upstairs.”

“Mac!” Jen said.

“What? You said it.”

Grinning, Angie held up an enviro bag. “Rain’s been good for our garden. Brought you some cauli and broc. There’s a cabbage in here too but it looks like the runt of the litter to be honest, so do with that what you will…”

“Jen can’t eat those because of Muriel.”

Angie tilted her head. “Who’s Muriel?”

Oh god…

“Jen’s stoma.”

Jen didn’t miss the way Angie’s eyes dropped to her abdomen. “Oh. Lacey never said…”

“Only a few people know.”

“Of course. Of course.”

“It’s not a secret or anything.”

Hauling herself up to sit on a stool, Mac reached across the counter for Jen’s phone. “Me and Jen are going to the movies with Mare.” She entered the passcode. “Do you want to watch the trailer, Angie? I can show you the trailer. You want to see it, trust me.”

Jen forced a smile. “I’ll just go and let Lacey know you’re here.”

She took the stairs two at a time. Softy, she rapped on Lacey’s door. “Lace? Angie’s here.”

“Come in for a sec?”

On the edge of the bed in dark-wash jeans, Lacey was busy zipping her black boots halfway up her calf. Jen smiled softly. “You look lovely.”

“Thanks.” Standing, she turned, the waist ties of her baby blue jumper swinging about her hips. “Can you tie me up so the bow’s even?”

She pushed off the door. “Why does everything you wear require a personal dresser?”

Lacey giggled. “You know very well this is the only jumper I have with a back bow.”

The moment her knuckles brushed Lacey’s lower back, Lacey flinched. Jen swallowed. “Well, you’ve also asked me to zip up that navy dress with the—”

“Oh, please,” Lacey said playfully, “you say it like you don’t enjoy being needed.”

Jen scoffed. “Sure, spending twelve minutes every morning tying you into your stays is my sole motivation for getting out of bed—”

“It takes three minutes.

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.