Read The Girls of Tonsil Lake for Free Online Page B

know,” I said. “I invest a lot of myself in you, too, and you’re worth it. Most of the time.”
    He pushed my hair back from my face and kissed my eyelids. “Am I?” he murmured.
    “Oh, yes.” I snuggled into his arms, thinking I’d just like to stay there and go to sleep, but some kind of internal alarm went off. “Oh, my God. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.”
    “Whoa.” He raised his eyebrows. “I swear, I’m innocent.”
    “Do you know what day this is?” I said, panicked. “It’s Birthday Saturday and I forgot all about it.” I looked over at the grandfather clock in the corner. “All of our children and grandchildren will be here within the hour. They will expect dinner and a birthday cake and ice cream.” Except for November and December, we did this one Saturday every month, because our extended family included birthdays in all ten of them.
    “Well, that’s fine.” He pushed me off his lap and got to his feet. “If that’s the case, you’d better hit the shower. I’ll hit the grocery store.”
    “What?” I stared at him. “I don’t have time to cook a full meal now.”
    “You’re not going to. I’m going there for the cake and ice cream.” He grinned, his eyes crinkling in a way that had been known to make me want to sit up and beg—not that I ever did, but I wanted to. “I’ll swing by Kentucky Fried Chicken for the dinner.”
    “But we can’t—”
    He interrupted me with a quick, hard kiss. “We can and we will. Now, go take your shower. It would never do to greet your children in your nightshirt.”
    I don’t know how we did it, but by the time the kids began to arrive, I was waiting at the door in my favorite sundress and David was putting the finishing touches on the dining room table.
    The girls looked a little askance at the meal, but Josh and my sons-in-law dug right in. Toby, Carrie’s son, said it was the best dinner Grammy had ever cooked and got a big laugh.
    We were eating cake and ice cream when I mentioned Vin’s invitation to come to Maine. Everyone except Toby and his little sister Megan stopped eating and looked at me.
    “I’m not going,” I said into the silence, “unless it’s for a weekend while Dad’s playing golf in Georgia.”
    “Well,” said Carrie, “I should hope not. I don’t know what Vin was thinking of, asking you such a silly thing.”
    “No kidding,” said Kelly, pushing her cake away from her ice cream with her fork. “As if you’d even consider it.”
    The chicken breast I’d eaten for dinner starting jumping around in my stomach, and for a ludicrous moment I wondered if it had been dead when I swallowed it.
    “What do you mean, girls?” asked David, frowning. “Why shouldn’t she consider it?”
    “Good heavens, Dad, she can’t leave you for a month. The house would fall down,” said Carrie. “And who would watch the kids while Tim and I go to Florida, or Kelly and Brian’s dog when they go to the Bahamas? And what about your own vacation? Aren’t you and Mom going away this year?”
    “Yes,” I said, “we’re going to Hawaii in October.” Some little demon made me add, “I hope that’s all right with you, Carrie.”
    “You know, Josh and I could watch the kids,” said Laurie quietly, “if Mom wanted to go to Maine. And the dog, too.”
    “The kids have never stayed overnight with anyone but Mom and Tim’s mom,” said Carrie, just enough impatience in her voice to make it undeniably rude.
    “That’s awfully nice of you, Laurie,” said Tim unexpectedly, ignoring the glare Carrie turned on him. “Would you mind, though? They can be a handful.”
    “It would be fun,” said Josh, “for Laurie, anyway. I, of course, will have to keep Dad company on the golf course.”
    “Mom’s already said she’s not going,” said Carrie, giving her head a toss that threatened to dislodge the clips holding her hair back from her face.
    I leaned over to rescue Toby’s cake from going off the edge of the table.
    “I