Read Swingin' in the Rain for Free Online Page A

finished. I guess they could have run into each other over the years at industry parties I had taken him to. Wouldn’t Patti have mentioned that? Unless they were sleeping together and Patti was embarrassed to tell me.
      Hmmmm.
      Patti Dennis had been doing make-up on “The Bare and The Brazen" for thirty years. She had to be in her late fifties and she still had it going on. But Randy liked his women younger, and dumb. After me, I mean. I couldn’t see Randy with Patti that way.
      Or maybe Patti having the stamp and being at the police station was a coincidence, after all.  I decided to stop thinking about it until I heard from Jakes.
      Instead, I was back to thinking about how to tell Sarah that her daddy was dead. She understood about death as best she could for being seven. We’d had the talk when she had accidentally loved her hamster to death a couple of years ago. I decided I would explain that her daddy went to Heaven, and he would always watch over her and be her personal angel. She was smart, though, and inquisitive. She was going to ask me why he died. And how. And when she did ask, I would need to have an answer ready for her.
      A big plop of water hit me squarely on the nose. I looked up and saw the clouds had moved back in and we were in for another soaker. I quickly gathered up my computer and hustled inside.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
     
      I picked Sarah up from school and listened to her talk about her day as we drove home. She wanted me to know that she was the fastest girl in the second grade. She had come in third at recess, beat out by two boys, Jesse and Riley.
      “Mom, I was all wet after, I ran so fast. Nobody could believe it!” she exclaimed. “I just kept trying and trying, but Jesse and Riley are just SO fast.”
      “That’s amazing, Sweetheart! I’m so proud of you for trying hard.”
      I decided not to tell her about Randy until I heard what Jakes had to say. I knew I was hanging onto a slim hope, but maybe they’d solved the mystery of his death before dinner and at least I’d know more information when I told her.
      Yeah, right.
      When we got home she ran to her room to play with her “American Girl” dolls and I went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. I’d stopped at our corner grocery store and gotten chicken breasts, bread crumbs, shredded mozzarella and a bottle of red wine. I was going to make my old standby “Chicken Mozzarella”. Quick, easy and something I knew Sarah and Jakes always liked.
      I pounded the poor chicken breasts with a wooden mallet into very thin fillets. If they weren’t dead before they certainly were now. Then soaked them in beaten eggs. I was coating them in the breadcrumbs and dropping them in sizzling olive oil when Jakes walked in the front door. As had become normal, Sarah ran to him and he picked her up. 
      “You’re getting so big! I can hardly lift you up anymore, Sarah,” Jakes said.
      “Daddy says the same thing. He says I must be eating bricks. Daddy’s so funny, isn’t he, Mom?”
      I looked at Jakes, kind of stunned, then took a second to regain my composure and said, “Yes, he is, honey. But no bricks for you tonight. I made your favorite chicken dish. Wash your hands. It’s time to eat.”
      Sarah ran off to the bathroom and Jakes faced me. “You haven’t told her yet?”
      “No,” I said as I turned the fillets.
      “Why not?”
      I placed the breasts in a baking dish, sprinkled a generous amount of shredded Mozzarella on them and stuck them under the broiler to melt. I poured two glasses of Merlot and handed one to Jakes.
      “First, I don’t know how,” I said. “Second, I was hoping you’d come over today with good news.”
      “Sorry to disappoint,” he said. “Let’s eat and then I’ll tell you after Sarah’s in bed.”
     
     
      We had dinner, thankfully, Sarah didn’t mention her dad again. After several rousing games of “Connect Four” I put Sarah to bed. Jakes