Hard Hat by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online

told her.
    “We’re being careful,” Carole added.
    “I can see that,” said Deborah. She picked up her computer and briefcase and headed for the house. “I’ll see you later, Maxi!” she told her daughter, but thelittle girl’s attention was already totally turned to the job at hand, which was riding Penny. She seemed to have completely forgotten about her mother.
    “It’s in the genes,” Carole said.

“A ND HOW WAS the museum?” Mrs. Lake asked Stevie. It took her more than a minute to figure out that her mother was asking about the natural history museum. It seemed like an awfully long time ago that she and Regina had been there—at least one near disaster ago!
    “It was great!” Stevie said. “Dinosaurs, you know.”
    “I know,” said her mother.
    “And elephants. I liked the elephants.”
    The two girls and their mothers were all sitting at dinner in the Evanses’ dining room. Like the dining room at the old house, it was on the ground floor and looked out on the backyard.
    “How was your day, Mom?” Stevie asked.
    “Dinosaurs and elephants would have been an improvement,” she said. “A big one. Well, it wasn’t that bad, actually, but I just wish these people would be more reasonable.”
    “You mean like they should see it your way?” Stevie teased.
    “Exactly,” said her mother. “I mean, we’re going to finish our business, but they’re making it take so long!”
    “Sounds like good news to me,” Regina said. “The longer they take, the longer Stevie can stay here, right?”
    “As long as you two don’t get into any major trouble,” said Mrs. Evans.
    “Whatever would make you think something like that?” Regina asked. Her mother just gave her a look that pretty much said it all. Stevie was beginning to think that Regina spent more time in hot water than she did, and after this afternoon she thought she knew why.
    “So, what’s everybody up to this evening?” Mrs. Evans asked.
    “A hot bath and bed,” said Stevie’s mother. Being a lawyer was hard work sometimes, Stevie knew, thoughher mother often said that being a mother was even harder.
    “Girls?” Mrs. Evans asked.
    “We’re going over to Ann and Peter’s. We’re going to meet the gang there. Stevie claims to know some really good ghost stories.”
    Mrs. Lake laughed. “She does. She sometimes tries to tell them at dinner and freak out her brothers. Alex and Chad never seem to mind, but Michael has been known to run from the table.”
    “That’s why ghost stories have been outlawed from the dinner table,” Stevie explained. “But that’s okay. It’s better if I tell them in the car, when Michael can’t run anywhere!”
    “Well,” said Mrs. Evans, “it’s okay to go to Peter’s, but don’t be late, okay? Catherine and I are really tired and we’re likely to be asleep before you get home, but the curfew is still ten P.M . sharp.”
    “That’s okay, Mom. We’ll be home by then, won’t we, Stevie?”
    “Oh, sure,” Stevie said, but at that moment her mother’s plan was feeling like a better one than Regina’s. Bath and bed versus breaking and entering. “By ten, easy,” she promised.
    After dinner the girls cleared the table, thenMrs. Evans told them it was okay to go on over to Peter’s. Regina had lots to do before they could leave, and she got Stevie to help her fill her school backpack. They needed candles, a flashlight for each of them, and lots of snacks, including marshmallows, chocolate milk, cheese crackers, and diet soda.
    The mothers surveyed the girls’ snack choices with raised eyebrows. Mrs. Evans handed Regina a stack of paper cups so that they wouldn’t have to use Peter’s mother’s glasses.
    “Good idea,” said Regina. “She’ll be really grateful for that.”
    “She’ll be grateful if you don’t make nuisances of yourselves in her home,” said Mrs. Evans.
    Stevie wished they were planning to make nuisances of themselves in Peter’s home instead of in the