Once and Again by Elisabeth Barrett Read Free Book Online

sometime.”
    Carolyn blinked. Jane was asking her to coffee. And while she was a bit apprehensive about putting herself out there, talking with Jane was easy. “I’d like that,” she said slowly.
    “Nice,” Jane said. “We’ll have to find time soon. Evelyn’s been pushing me to do a girls’ night, though my schedule exploded this spring. Still, I need to find the time or else I’m going to go crazy. I thought—” She paused. “Well, I suppose I thought that you might be fun to get to know. Outside of work, I mean.”
    “Yes. I thought the same,” Carolyn told her honestly.
    Jane glanced down at her watch. “Oh crap, I have to dash. We’ll schedule something soon!”
    Carolyn nodded and waved as Jane hurried to her van.
Friend.
Maybe Jane could be a friend—a real one. For the briefest of instants, her heart lightened.
    And then Jake’s angry face flashed in her mind.
    Get a grip, Carolyn.
    Whether or not he hated her, Jake was her boss and deserved her respect. If Briarwood was going to be renovated, he’d be around a lot, so she might as well get used to it and figure out a way to get him if not completely happy with her presence, then at the very least,
comfortable.
    A few sprinkles of rain fell on her head—nature’s opening shot. Quickly, she slipped inside the back door just as it really started to come down.
    Carolyn took a moment to look out the window at the rain on the meadow. She knew what she had to do—the same thing she’d been doing for months.
    Slowly, very slowly, she smoothed out her suit. She pulled her shoulders back and tilted her chin up. She put on her game face.
    And then she went back to work.

Chapter 5
    Jane Pringle was not having a typical Monday morning. For one thing, she’d been able to sleep in until six thirty, nearly three more hours than she normally got. But instead of feeling fully rested, her head was strangely fuzzy, and she couldn’t quite figure out why. She slid out of bed and pulled her sleep shirt off. Was it the change in her schedule? The bakery’s new schedule and hires? Her mother’s visit? She put on a bra—useless thing, since she had nothing on top worth holding in—and swabbed some deodorant under her arms.
    “Mom!” her son, Andy, screamed from his room. “I can’t find my T-shirts!”
    A first grader who couldn’t find something right in front of his face? Now,
that
was typical.
    Jane pulled a clean blouse over her head. “Check your dresser drawer where they always are!” she yelled back.
    There was a little pause and then she heard some shuffling around. “They’re not in there!” Another pause. “Mom!”
    He’d keep complaining, the way only a six-year-old could, if she didn’t go in there and help. “One minute!” She pulled on some jeans and grabbed a belt—she’d lost more than a few pounds lately and it was starting to show—and padded into Andy’s room.
    Andy was still in his pj’s, his auburn hair sticking up all over the place the way it did when he just woke up, punctuating his bright-blue-eyed freckle face.
Worth fighting for.
    “Mom!” Andy said when she’d been staring at him a little too long. “Look!” He gestured wildly. Jane blinked and cast her gaze around. There
was
something different about his room—something she hadn’t noticed last night, likely because she was so zonked after her long day. Specifically, the space looked unusually clean. Instead of books, toys, and clothes strewn all over the room, the floor was tidy, as was the bookshelf. Even the pictures lined up on the dresser looked freshly dusted and organized.
    Jane opened the drawer that typically held the T-shirts and found underwear and socks neatly folded and stacked.
    “See?” Andy said.
    “I see,” Jane said, shutting it and pulling out another. Still no T-shirts. She tried the third drawer. “Ah, here they are.” She took out one with the Green Lantern insignia on it. “Want this?”
    “No, Spider Man.”
    “Okay.” She