Read Sour Grapes (A Savannah Reid Mystery #6) for Free Online

Savannah and Gran had done most of the mothering of the Reid brood. Why should anything change at this late date? Savannah asked herself.
    "You there, hon?" Gran said, her voice soft with concern.
    "Right here, Gran." Savannah reached for a spoon to stir the grits that were bubbling on the stove. "I'm just shocked into silence. I mean, I'm always glad to entertain a family member, but. . . Atlanta. She's a bit of a. . . challenge. . . . c. speaking, that is."
    "Eh, forget the . c. nonsense. She's a pain in the hind end, that one. Don't let her walk all over you, darlin'."
    "That'll be the day."
    Savannah thanked her grandmother and said goodbye.
    As she hung up the phone, Tammy said, "So, when exactly is that day? The day you aren't going to let your spoiled baby sister take advantage of you, that is."
    "Today," she replied with a weary sigh. 'There oughta be a law against getting news like that before
     
    47
    U liKAYES
     
    breakfast, with only one cup of coffee in your blood- :stream. And while they're making rules, there should be another one about kid sisters showing up unanbounced
    and uninvited. They oughta be required to give you a thirty-day notice so that you can move."
    0. She chug-a4ugged another cup of coffee, then added, "And I say that with the deepest affection for
    Atlanta and all of my adorable siblings."
    - Tammy nodded. "Gotcha. Don't you sometimes won-if you're ever going to get them all raised?" "Naw, I gave up on that dream long ago. They're peretual juveniles. Dysfunctional to infinity."
    Tammy studied Savannah thoughtfully as she continbed
    her food preparations. "How about you?" she _asked. "You had the same parents--or lack of parentbig--that they had. Plus you had the additional burden AT being the eldest and all those responsibilities. Why aren't you dysfunctional?"
    Savannah laughed and broke an egg into the skillet
    "What makes you think I'm not?"
    "You're one of the most together ladies I know." 'That's pathetic, Tam. Obviously, you've had lousy
    tole models. Besides, I don't have time to be dysfuncmal. I can hardly function as it is."
    The sound of a car's horn blasted, just outside the kitchen door. Savannah left the eggs frying to take a kook at her driveway. "A Yellow cab," she said. "Gee, we must have company. Who do you suppose it is?"
    As she turned down the heat under her breakfast
    and made her way out the kitchen door with Tammy behind
    her, Savannah felt a flood of contradictory emoions,
    ranging from warm and fuzzy, to seriously irked.
    strongest was guilt. . . guilt that she wasn't happier to see her own flesh and blood arriving on her door
     
    a
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    aep. But she slapped a pseudo-smile across her face Ind hurried to the taxi, her furry slippers flapping on the cement driveway.
    The back door of the cab swung open and out came
    guitar case, followed by an enormous garment bag . . . Ind a positively bony teenager who couldn't possibly
    have been spawned in the gene pool with anyone related
    to Savannah.
     
    Rather than the dark-haired, voluptuous beauty she ta.d been the last time Atlanta had visited, this girl was ainfully thin, with sunken cheeks and ribs showing beleath her midriff-cropped stretchy shirt. And her hair, taturally the same dark chestnut as Savannah's, was a 3latinum blond haypile, stacked on her head and held with a dozen glittering, butterfly barrettes.
    Savannah's heart sank and a queasy feeling hit her
    ;tomach with a wallop. The kid was sick! The kid was very sick, maybe even dying! Yes, that had to be it! She 'tad come to California to live out her final days, baskng in the healing golden sunlight, listening to the etertal song of the ocean waves and--"
    "Hey, Van, I'm here to compete in a beauty paTant!" the girl shouted, running toward her, guitar :ase and garment bag fluttering in the breeze. "Isn't hat just the coolest thing?!"
    "Uhhh . yeah. . . cool."
    Atlanta gave her an enormous, enthusiastic hug, vhacldng her on the back with the