Read Family Ties for Free Online Page A

youth. Watching Jean-Louis and Liz suddenly made her feel ancient. She had traded her own youth for surrogate motherhood to her sister’s children. Even now it seemed like the right thing to do, and a fair trade, and she didn’t regret it.
    Ted and Jean-Louis went to watch TV in the living room, while Jean-Louis extolled the virtues of soccer, but he seemed to enjoy the American sport too. There was much hooting and cheering and yelling from in front of the TV, while the three women cleared the table, and Liz commented to her aunt and sister what a nice man Jean-Louis was. Kate was inclined to agree and liked his looks, and Annie admitted he was a little too scruffy for her, but she knew that was the desirable look of the moment. She had seen enough of Liz’s friends to be aware of it, and it no longer shocked her, but it didn’t appeal to her either. She preferred Ted’s clean-cut style to Jean-Louis’s.
    The three women stood in the kitchen and talked while they cleaned up, and by the time they finished, the football game was over. Jean-Louis commented about what a fantastic meal it had been, the best he had ever eaten. And he won Katie’s heart by admiring her tattoos. They all agreed it had been a perfect Thanksgiving, and Jean-Louis seemed to revel in the warm atmosphere. And he touched Annie by saying what a wonderful woman Liz was. It was obvious that he was very taken with her, and he charmed everyone. After they left, Ted, Annie, and Kate watched a movie on a DVD, and it was midnight when they finally got up to go to bed.
    Annie came in to say goodnight to Kate a few minutes later and was surprised to find her lying on her bed, still dressed, talking on the phone. She sounded animated and looked happy, and Annie discreetly left the room. She went to say goodnight to Ted, and he kissed her and thanked her for the wonderful Thanksgiving. He seemed grateful to be home. And when she went back to Kate’s room, she was off the phone, with a mysterious expression. She looked like the proverbial Cheshire cat.
    “New romance?” Annie asked her. She didn’t like to pry, but she tried to keep abreast of what was happening in their lives. Kate nodded vaguely in answer and didn’t meet her eyes.
    “Maybe.”
    “Do I know him?”
    “No. Just someone I know from school. It’s not a big deal.” But her eyes said something different. Kate had always been very private and somewhat secretive, and more inclined to serious relationships than casual ones. She had gone out with the same boy all through high school, but they broke up when he went to college on the West Coast. She hadn’t had a serious boyfriend in three years, but something told Annie that this one might be. Katie looked dreamy eyed as she kissed her aunt goodnight.
    “Happy Thanksgiving,” Annie said as she kissed her niece, and Katie just smiled.

Chapter 4
    A s it had been for several years now, it was an adjustment for Annie when her nieces and nephew left after the Thanksgiving weekend. Ted went back to his apartment, and Kate to her dorm on Sunday night. The house felt like a tomb, and the only thing that cheered her was knowing that they would stay with her again over Christmas, which was only a month away. After so many years of living with them, and as her main focus and only personal life, she lived for the times when they were together. She hated to admit it to anyone, even Whitney, but it was true.
    It was a relief to get back to work on Monday morning. She had four client meetings set up in one day and visited two of her job sites during lunch. And she didn’t get back to the apartment until eight that night. She was so tired, she looked at some plans and notes she’d made during meetings with clients, and then took a bath and went to bed. She was almost too tired to miss the kids, never bothered to eat dinner, and barely noticed the darkened rooms and silence in the apartment. It was the drug she had always used to counter loneliness and