Autumn Blue by Karen Harter Read Free Book Online Page A

said Ty is going to come through this just fine. That
     someday we’ll look back and thank God for the wonderful man he’s become.”
    “Wow. At least she’s positive. Why didn’t you tell her before? I go crying to my mom about things like the toilet backing
     up.”
    Sidney stared at the chunk of burrito on her fork and shrugged. “I don’t know. Mom has this family-portrait image of my world
     in her head—everything’s fine; the kids are always squeaky-clean and smiling. I used to clean for days before her visits,
     trying to make my house look as perfect and organized as hers. We weren’t rich growing up, but you wouldn’t know it by the
     way she kept the house. She served tea in bone china cups and saucers, poured it out of a silver teapot on a silver tray.
     She dressed my sister and me in matching dresses—the kind you have to iron! I’m lucky if I can get two matching socks on Sissy
     before I push the girls out the door in the morning, let alone iron anything. And of course, she always had her hair done
     and lipstick on when Dad came home at night. She managed to stay happily married too, by the way.”
    “How many years?”
    “Dad died just before their fortieth anniversary. The funeral was on the actual day. August 12.”
    “Oh, how sad.”
    Sidney tipped her head and smiled. “Yes, it was. But for once Dad was there with flowers—enough to make up for all the anniversaries
     he forgot. He never was very good with dates.”
    Micki leaned back and crossed her arms, looking at Sidney like her fifth-grade teacher used to when she couldn’t diagram a
     simple sentence. “So you’re comparing yourself to your perfect mother, who—correct me if I’m wrong—had a husband to pay the
     bills and help raise the kids, and she never worked an outside job a day of your childhood.”
    “Not comparing, exactly,” Sidney said. “Just trying to live up to. Please pass the salsa.”
    “Too bad she lives so far away. I think you could use some mothering right now.”
    Sidney stared at a papier mâché parrot that seemed to be eavesdropping from its perch above Micki’s shoulder. Her mother lived
     in a suburb of Cleveland with Sidney’s aunts, Clair and Aggie. The three now-single middle-aged women were crazy best friends.
     Sometimes Sidney couldn’t carry on an intelligent phone conversation with her mother for all the laughter and commotion going
     on in the background. She wouldn’t do anything to break up that happy trio, no matter how bad things got for her there in
     Ham Bone.
    “My sister needs her worse than I do.” Sidney shook her head, still disbelieving that her younger sister, the one who once
     claimed she didn’t have a maternal bone in her body, had somehow ended up with five kids under the age of ten. She and her
     husband were in a standoff, both refusing to have their bodies permanently altered to prevent any future surprises. “Mom watches
     the little ones in the mornings while Alana works.”
    She glanced at her watch. The school bus would drop Rebecca and Sissy off at their driveway at about 3:45. With Ty gone, the
     girls would be home alone until she got home after 5:00. But maybe it was actually better that way for now. Lately, she had
     worried more about them being
with
their brother than without him.
    A green sheriff’s car sped past the restaurant window, lights flashing. Sidney was surprised when it jerked to a stop abruptly
     in front of the insurance office next door.
    “What’s going on?” Micki stood, dropping her napkin to the floor. Another patrol car appeared from the other direction and
     braked, and an officer stormed from the car. Both women bolted for the door of the restaurant, leaving their half-eaten lunches
     behind.
    “We’ll be right back,” Sidney called over her shoulder to the waitress.
    The officers ran, shouting, toward the gravel alley behind the Leon Schuman Insurance building where another deputy was wrestling
     someone facedown to