A Seaside Story by C.J. Foster

Author:C.J. Foster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, relationship, family, autism, development, heartwarming
Publisher: Foundations Book Publishing Company

Lydia registered neither surprise nor disappointment that Kate and Jimmy were home much earlier than she expected. “Did you have anything to eat?” she wanted to know.

Kate knew her mother well enough that it wasn’t a declaration to cook something for them or, for that matter, to even heat a plate of leftovers. The years she had spent living alone had turned Lydia Toscano into a minimalist when it came to keeping herself fed. The fact she now had two guests sharing her roof was, in her own words, no excuse to suddenly become “Mother Bountiful”.

“I bought us a couple of ice creams on the way home,” Kate told her, omitting that Jimmy had dropped most of his on the sidewalk when he got distracted by two cats chasing each other and that she had given him the rest of hers rather than walk back to purchase a replacement.

“Ice cream is no substitute for a healthy meal,” Lydia informed her, stopping just short of offering to fix him one.

“This from the woman who eats like a bird?” Kate said.

“Well, you can’t just give him ice cream and leave it at that. And look at yourself. Have you lost weight since you got here?”

“If I did, it’s all because of stress.” To which, she thought, she could now add the toll of a broken heart that, suffice it to say, was probably her fault for either leaving Avalon Bay too soon or not coming back to it fast enough. “Do you have any stuff for a salad?” she asked. “I thought I’d just throw something quick together.”

Lydia was up from the TV, on her feet, and headed toward the kitchen. “You don’t know where I keep anything,” she informed her daughter. “Oh, by the way,” she added a breath later, “that girl from Las Vegas called you. I left her number next to the phone.”

“Dee? I wonder what she wants.” She had meant to murmur it only to herself but it was just loud enough for her mother to overhear.

“I’m not a personal secretary,” Lydia was quick to remind her. “It’s enough that I had to go hunt down a pen to write down where you were supposed to call her back.”

Hunt down a pen. Kate smirked in reminiscence of all the times she and Cassy had heard that phrase growing up even though their mother always had no less than half a dozen pens sticking out of decorated aluminum cans right next to every phone in the house. She glanced at her watch, then glanced back at Jimmy who was happily laying on top of a throw pillow, rhythmically scissor-kicking his legs and staring at the woodworking on the side of the coffee table as if it were the most fascinating thing in the universe.

Given the time difference, she could call Dee on her cell phone but still be mobile enough to keep an eye on her young charge in the event he found a new diversion. Dee answered on the second ring.

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.