For All Their Lives by Fern Michaels Read Free Book Online Page A

chin. He squinted, crossed his fingers on his left hand as he said a silent little prayer. He threw.
    Sadie’s eyebrows shot upward. “Dead center, Mac. You can see the hole real clear.”
    Mac waited for the round of applause to quiet down. He adjusted his cap at a rakish angle before he stretched his neck muscles. He didn’t wind up, didn’t stare at the picture the way he usually did. He threw.
    Sadie expelled the long breath she was holding. “You hit the same hole, Mac. Now it looks like there’s a pimple on his nose.” No one laughed. They weren’t supposed to.
    â€œTwo rounds of drinks for the house, Sadie. Benny’s buying one and so am I.” He ripped the picture off the dart board and handed it to Sadie, along with two twenty-dollar bills. Benny forked over the same amount.
    â€œI’ll . . . guess I’ll see you around, Sadie,” Mac said in a choked voice.
    Sadie bit down on her lower lip. “I’ll be here, Mac. Write, okay?”
    â€œYou bet. Allow extra time for the mail, you know . . .”
    â€œI will. I’ll write once a week and send you packages. Come here, you big lug.”
    The bar grew suddenly noisy, the juke box blared “The Witch Doctor” as Mac folded Sadie in his arms. “Thanks for everything,” he whispered. Sadie struggled from his arms and ran upstairs. To cover the emotion of the moment, Mac playfully punched Benny on the shoulder before he shot off a salute that was so professional, Benny blinked. His own was sloppy in comparison.
    â€œSee you, Benny.”
    â€œYeah.”
    When Benny left Bill’s Bar and Grill, there was no sign of Mac or his car. He cleared his throat three times before he could take a normal breath. “Fuck you, Judge Carlin,” he muttered through clenched teeth.
    Â 
    M AC GARAGED THE car. It was a clear February night and extremely cold. Overhead, the sky was black and sparkling. So many stars. He wished, the way he always had when he was a boy, for peace within himself. He always wished for the same thing when he saw the first spring robin. He’d never told anyone, not even Benny.
    He entered the house through the kitchen door, but he didn’t stay long in the kitchen. Once it had been his favorite room in the house. It was the place where his mother took him to give him sugar cookies and milk. Sometimes in that room, she told him stories about giants and kings and queens. Now it was for him a tidy, sterile area where food was prepared by a woman whose name changed monthly.
    Alice was sitting on the sofa with her legs curled under her. She looked pretty, Mac thought, but she evoked no emotion in him. She wore a mint-green peignoir with lace ruffles. She had one in every color imaginable. He craned his neck to see if she had on matching mules with feathery tendrils. She did. Benny’s wife, Carol, didn’t own things like that. She wore a pink flannel robe with a belt and slipper socks. He knew because he’d seen her once when one of the twins was sick. He’d stopped by to give Benny a ride to work so she could keep the car that day. The house had smelled like perked coffee and fried bacon.
    â€œAlice,” he said curtly.
    â€œMac,” Alice said without taking her eyes from the television screen. The Man From U.N.C.L.E was her favorite show.
    â€œI need to talk to you, Alice. Now. I have to be up early. I’m going to Charleston, and from there on to the West Coast. I want to discuss a few things. Are you listening to me, Alice?”
    â€œI can hear every word you’re saying, Mac. What do you want to talk about?”
    Mac walked over to the television set and turned it off. He stood with his back to the screen and faced his wife. “I want to know how it is you got pregnant when you used a diaphragm?” He asked though he knew that diaphragm or not, the baby couldn’t be his; he wanted to know how she would explain