Read Rohn Federbush - Sally Bianco 01 - The Legitimate Way for Free Online Page B

have children, do you?” Sally asked with sincere curiosity.
    “Yes,” Penny was pouting now. “Why not? I’m healthy. I want Robert’s child.”
    “Well, that will be a problem.” Sally’s stomach was churning and she waved the waitress over to rescue her. But she added for Penny’s mollification, “I’m sure Robert was flattered.”
    “He said he was,” Penny continued to study the wood grain of the table. “But he didn’t do anything about it.”
    “I hope I’ve explained why he can’t,” Sally said.
    The waitress arrived, somewhat slowly Sally noted, and took their order. “Three chicken sandwiches, one creamed tomato soup to-go, two glasses of milk, and a pot of tea. Is there anything else you would like, Penny?”
    “I’m not hungry.”
    “She is,” Sally explained for the waitress. “French fries, sour cream, a veggie burger and a cup of coffee.”
    “Beer,” Penny said.
    “Orange Juice,” Sally instructed the waitress, “And coffee.”
    “Why can’t he?” Penny wouldn’t let go of the bone.
    “I don’t know,” Sally tried.
    “Yes you do,” Penny insisted.
    “What makes you think, I know?” Sally asked.
    “Because Robert says you’ve known him longer than Henry Schaeffer.”
    “Well that’s not true,” Sally said, somewhat shocked at Robert’s lie. “I met Robert a year before my husband died. He was in a coma. My husband, not Robert. That was seven years ago.”
    “Why did he lie to me?” Sally could see Penny’s ire was rising and the food hadn’t arrived to calm the surge in negative energy.
    “Maybe he was confused,” Sally said. Then she decided to change the subject, sort of. “Have you ever read Hemmingway’s ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’?”
    “No,” Penny said, sipping the tardy but arrived orange juice.
    As the food was served, Sally spilled some of Robert’s beans. “Well the story Robert tells about being a spy behind enemy lines in the Second World War, is word for word in the book. Remember how the hero falls over a brick wall to pick an early spring blossom and lands on the fat, dead enemy soldier? How he went through his pockets and found a picture of a fat wife and baby?” Sally breathed a sip of hot tea for fortification, “that’s all in Hemmingway’s tale.”
    “You’re kidding,” Penny said, finally interested in something besides her own hide.
    Sally shook her head, happily immersed in her chicken sandwich. Thank God, Penny had forgotten to inquire about the nature of Robert’s inability to perform. There was a medical term for having only one testicle because the other remains internal, but Sally couldn’t recall the word and certainly didn’t want to impart the exact information. Robert had told her the story of being so immature looking at the age of thirty the mailman commanded him to stop playing hooky and get back to school.
    Penny and Sally marched back to the shop equipped with Robert’s food and their own satiated stomachs. Mrs. Clankton, Robert’s landlady, was talking to Andrew. Robert was pouring himself another drink, not into the glass, down his throat from a water glass.
    Penny set the luncheon items before him, removing the glass in his hand and replacing it with a spoon for the soup.
    “Thanks,” Robert said, sheepishly; but enough of an imp to wink at Sally.
    Robert was a handsome man. His attempt to mimic Mark Twain’s looks might have been more authentic if his hair hadn’t been so curly and contained more grey than white. His moustache wasn’t white either; but Sally always imagined a white silk suit would help the likeness.
    During her first contact with Robert’s embrace, way before Penny’s arrival on the bookshop scene, Sally had noticed the smell of apples in his hair. The aroma did not come from cologne. Rather, given the daily evidence, from the cream sherry traces left on Robert’s fingers from pouring glass after glass for his customers and himself. Sally tuned into Andrew’s