Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer Read Free Book Online Page B

pregnant, you’ll want to buy all new baby things, wait and see.” She took a deep breath. “I’m going to sell some of Gus’s things, too. His clothes.”
    Maud groaned. “His parents will flip.”
    “They’ll have to flip. I was going to give them to the thrift shop anyway. But why shouldn’t I sell them? I need the money, and they’re all such good quality. Shoes, overcoats, suits, shirts, and his CD collection, or most of it. I never did like most of his jazz.”
    “You should do that on eBay,” Vanessa suggested.
    “Maybe. A tag sale would be quicker.”
    “What will the girls think?” Maud asked.
    “They both have piles of toys in the attic they’ve outgrown. I know—I’ll tell them they can have their own table and keep any money they make.”
    “Selling their toys? It seems sad somehow,” Vanessa said.
    “No,” Carley stated firmly. “It will help them learn a bit about the financial realities of the world.”
    “When are you going to hold it?” Maud asked. “I’ll come over and help.”
    “Me, too,” Vanessa said. “And Carley, I think you should have a table of baked goods. Everyone goes crazy for your scones and tarts. I bet they’d fly.”
    Carley stood in front of her kitchen calendar. “I’ll have to put an ad in the paper. That comes out next Thursday, but I can make the deadline. I’ll have to organize the girls to get ready. Oh.” Doing an about-face, she scrunched up her face at her friends. “I’ll have to tell Annabel and Russell.”
    Her friends groaned sympathetically.
    Cisco appeared in the kitchen, dressed in leotard and track pants. “Mom, I’m going to Delphine’s.”
    Maud stood up. “I’ve got to run. I’ll come back for the boys later, Carley, before lunch, okay?”
    “Sure, or they can have lunch here.”
    “Oh, bless you. I can do a few errands.” She hugged Carley and pecked a kiss on the top of Vanessa’s head. “Cisco, want a ride?”
    “Cool.”
    “Come on, then, sweetie.”
    Cisco tossed her mother a kiss. Cisco looked thin, Carley thought, too thin, but for the moment she was simply grateful that her increasingly temperamental daughter was happy.
    When Maud and Cisco left, the three children thumped around in the attic and Carley and Vanessa started back on the cookie project. They worked in peace for a few moments.
    “I worry about Maud,” Vanessa confided. “She’s not seeing any man or even interested. She’s been alone a long time.”
    Carley paused, a carton of eggs in her hand. “I worry, too. How can she meet anyone? She doesn’t get out of the house at all. She’s always with her boys or writing. She
has
started taking that intensive yoga class twice a week, and she needs it, really, because her writing and drawing are messing up her back and shoulders.”
    “But she’s not going to meet a man at a yoga class.”
    “Probably not.” Carley carefully cracked eggs into the mixing bowl. “Maybe she doesn’t need a man.”
    Vanessa snorted. “If anyone needs a man, Maud does. She’s so fragile I doubt she can open a peanut butter jar by herself.” She slid a cookie sheet into the oven and set the timer. “What about Wyatt Anderson?”
    “What about Wyatt?”
    “He could date Maud. They’d be cute together.”
    “Wyatt would be cute with Cruella de Vil,” Carley quipped. “He must know she’s divorced. He’s been at some of the parties and I haven’t seen him chat her up.”
    “Maybe he just likes younger women.”
    “Oh, moan. Vanny, I’m sure Maud will meet Mr. Right sometime.”
    “I hope so.” The room filled with the warm buttery aroma of cookie batter, eggs, sugar, and chocolate.
    Vanessa dropped dough by the spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet. “At least Maud has two children.”
    “Oh, honey.” Carley turned and embraced Vanessa, taking care not to get egg white on her clothes. “It’s so unfair.” Releasing her, she tried to be optimistic as she returned to her bowl. “Have you and Toby talked