Sadie-In-Waiting by Annie Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

same reply.
    By then two police cars had arrived, and the officers practically scrambled all over one another trying to do the honors of giving Moonie both a stern talking-to and a hefty traffic ticket.
    Meanwhile, the president of the bank had come outside with a handful of customers trailing on his heels. The bank staff stopped short of the sidewalk, but each did manage to find a spot near the plate-glass windows to feign working while they watched their boss make wild gestures and rap his knuckles on the hood of Moonie’s car.
    The ruddy-faced old man finally hopped out amid it all, tipped his hat and began handing out his business cards, probably with a caveat that they’d better spell his name right when they reported the incident in the paper.
    Sadie leaned her head back on her husband’s chest, letting the vibration of his gentle laughter ease away all the emotions she’d struggled to cope with a moment earlier.
    Ed leaned down and brushed his lips over her cheek. “Forgive me?”
    She dug her elbow into his side. “No.”
    “Yes, you do.” He buried his nose in her hair and inhaled slowly.
    “Things have to change, Ed,” she whispered.
    “I know. For starters, sounds like you’re going to have a new job.”
    “No, for starters, I’m going to have to meet with my sisters and decide once and for all what we are going to do about Daddy.”
    “And then you’re going to have a new job?”
    “Who knows? If I can get my daddy straightened out, then I might just have myself a whole new life!”
    “If you wait until you get Moonie straightened out, darling, you may be too old to start a new life.”
    He’d intended it as a joke, she knew, but that didn’t make it sit any easier with her. Maybe she had already been waiting too long. Maybe she’d never have the kind of life she dreamed of. Maybe God had other plans for her.
    And all that she could do about that at the moment was…to wait and see. Wait and see .

Chapter Five
    “A re y’all praying for me out there?”
    From her seat on the floor, Sadie easily laid her head back against the door and answered the voice behind it. “You know we are.”
    Of course, she was praying for her sister. What Sadie could not do for herself she could easily do for others, especially those she loved as much as she loved Hannah.
    “Well, cut it out, will you?”
    The oldest of the sisters, April, looked up from her perch on the nearby window seat. “Why?”
    “Because it’s making me nervous,” came the muffled voice from behind the pristine white door. “I can’t accomplish my goal in here knowing that you two are on the other side of the door praying over the outcome.”
    The look on April’s face moved from stunned indignity to sudden and delighted enlightenment. She burst out laughing.
    Sadie clenched her teeth but could not contain her own laughter. She’d tried to hold back but how could she? The image of Hannah—prissy, “conniption fit waiting tohappen” Hannah, she of the “manicured nails and trips to Atlanta to buy only the best of the best for her wardrobe” Hannah—sitting in her cavernous bathroom with her two fretting sisters outside, backs to the door in fervent prayer while she tried to do what she must to take an at-home pregnancy test cracked her up.
    “You two cackling like a couple of hens is not helping, either!” The bathroom tile amplified Hannah’s complaint.
    And it only made them laugh harder.
    “Y’all… please ,” Hannah nagged.
    “Okay, okay.” April stood and held her hand out to help Sadie up. “We’ll take it into the kitchen.”
    “I’d very much appreciate it if you would.” Abruptness barbed Hannah’s courteous words.
    So much so that Sadie couldn’t help getting in a jab of her own as they headed out into the hallway. “Call us when you’ve…had a breakthrough.”
    More girlish giggling bubbled up from the two women old enough to be above that kind of silliness.
    “Just go and wait in the kitchen