Moms Night Out by Tricia Goyer Read Free Book Online

forcing a smile. “That was, um-hum, yes . . .” Sondra tucked her dark brown hair behind her ear and then scanned the room. “Would anyone else like to share?”
    “But we didn’t even get to talk about when there is a discount involved . . .” Mattie Mae said, with eagerness in her voice.
    The brightness in Sondra’s face faded as Mattie Mae started in again. Yet Allyson didn’t mind. When Mattie Mae started in it meant at least ten more minutes of no kids hanging on her. And as she partly listened to Mattie Mae, her mind had mostly moved to Saturday night. A night out with friends. That’s what she needed. It would recharge her batteries. The angst had built up inside, and she knew the best way to release it was by eating good food that she didn’t make herself, spilling her guts, and laughing with friends.
    Saturday couldn’t come soon enough.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    The kids were down for a nap, finally. And the house was back in order . . . mostly. Allyson sat down on the floor and pulled the lid off the small can of paint. When Sean had repainted the living room just last year, and had gone to buy new paint, the woman cashier at the hardware shop asked if he had kids.
    “Yeah, I do,” Sean had said. “Three of them.”
    The woman had handed Sean an extra pint of paint, in the same color. “I’m a mom of three myself. This is for your wife. She’ll know what to do with it.”
    And she had. Allyson had used it to touch up scrapes on the wall from Matchbox cars and from crayon scribbles. And today she pulled it out again.
    She dipped the brush into the paint and brushed it over the random scribbles along the wall. Bailey had indeed finished her picture on the wall when she ran out of paper. A cluster of stick figures was there. Five, not four, this time. Two big figures, three little ones. All of them together . . . as it should be. They were surrounded by red and blue flowers.
    Allyson lifted her paint brush to paint over them, but then paused. Their little family. Her family . . . seen through her daughter’s eyes.
    A soft smile touched her lips, and she had an idea. She hurried to the hall closet where she had some old picture frames. She’d picked them up at the neighbor’s yard sale last year and had plans for some type of Pinterest project, but she hadn’t gotten around to it yet. She had the perfect idea for those frames.
    Working quickly, she pulled them apart, and then hung the empty frames on the wall over Bailey’s images. A large frame over the family picture, and two smaller ones over the flowers. A display of their lives from her daughter’s eyes. She’d redeemed the offense, and it felt good. Not that she wanted Bailey to repeat it!
    A lightness filled her chest as she looked at it. As crazy as this place got sometimes . . . this was her family.
    Bailey woke up and wandered down the stairs. She was always the first one awake at nap time. It was as if the world had too much excitement happening for her to miss anything. Bailey paused at the bottom of the stairs and her eyes brightened as she saw her mother’s handiwork.
    She hurried closer, peering at the hammer in Allyson’s hand. “Mommy, my pictures . . . why did you do that?”
    “For Daddy.” Allyson brushed her hand over her daughter’s wrangle of curls. “So he can see our family together.”
    A grin filled Bailey’s face from ear to ear.
    She was still looking at the pictures, still smiling, five minutes later when Allyson heard Sean’s car park. Allyson was folding laundry on the couch. One load down, five more that waited . . . but at least it was a start.
    Bailey ran her hand down the length of her blonde, curly hair and continued to stare. “He’s going to love this,” she said. She tossed her hair around.
    Sean walked through the door with quickened steps. She glanced up to him, and her throat thickened with emotion. He was home. Things always seemed right in the world when Sean was home.
    “Hey, honey,” she