She Sins at Midnight by Whitney Dineen Read Free Book Online Page B

was that for a book anyway?
    Then Creigh remembered Quandi Quartermain. It was just his luck that she was on her way to Chicago for Playboy business and wound up sitting right next to him. Creigh had met Quandi (with a “Qu” instead of a “C” and an “I” instead of a “Y”) at a party thrown by Robert Felton, one of the founding partners of his law firm.
    He had a short and unmemorable affair with the Playmate which ended the minute he realized that Quandi was only in the relationship for what she could get out of it. She viewed Creigh as the fatted calf who would keep her in all the Rodeo Drive shopping excursions she could handle. The last thing that Creigh needed was four solid hours stuck next to his ex at thirty-five thousand feet off the ground. Every time the plane hit a pocket of turbulence she nearly threw herself on top of him as though he could somehow save her.
    * * * * *
    J illy picked up Trevor at pre-school. Jack and Titty were strapped into their car seats and “Wee Willy Songs” were blaring through the speakers. Jilly thought if she heard “The Wheels on the Bus” one more time, she was going to get out of the car and lay down in the street until a bus ran over her and put her out of her misery. She was so desperate to hear some real live adult music that Trevor’s CD of fifties rock-n-roll tunes, sung by second graders, would have done the trick. Unfortunately “Wee Willy Songs” was the only music they could play that Titty wouldn’t cry through. Every other CD drove her to screaming fits and she was only five months old.
    Jilly realized that it was a good thing that Trevor was born first because if Titty or Jack had led the pack, they would have been only children. Those two had turned out to be poster kids for having your tubes tied. As much as she loved them and was thrilled to have a baby girl, getting pregnant with Titty had been the result of her mother taking the boys for the weekend, an expensive bottle of champagne and a husband who forgot to buy condoms.
    Jilly was allergic to the pill, so birth control had always been up to Bill. Well, never again. She now purchased the goods herself, in bulk at Costco. She bought a box of three-hundred, right after Titty was born and so far they had managed to use a grand total of one. Jilly laughed thinking at that rate, they’d have the same box in ten years. Maybe even twenty! After all, there was no better birth control in the world than three kids, especially when one of them was certifiably brilliant.
    Jilly bemoaned her fate as she turned down Golfview Drive and caught sight of an SUV stuck in the marsh. As she got closer, she realized there was a woman lying in the mud next to the car, crying. Oh dear, and she thought she had it bad. She pulled over to help. As she got out of her minivan, she told the boys to stay put and keep an eye on the baby.
    As soon as Jilly hopped out of the van, the filthy woman scrambled to her feet and yelled, “Oh my god! Jilly, is it really you?”
    Recognizing the voice, Jilly answered, “Lila?”
    Jilly was so thrilled to see the person she viewed as her savior that she ran straight out into the muck and threw her arms around her best friend’s neck. When they connected, Lila’s legs slipped out from under her and both women went sprawling in the sludge. The friends started to laugh and cry, all the while hanging on to each other like life preservers.
    * * * * *
    C reigh asked his driver, Frankie, to stop by the grocery store on his way home so he could load up on some staples that he’d need. After loading the trunk with enough food to supply a fraternity house for a week, he gave Frankie directions to his mother’s house. The scenery was ingrained in every fiber of his being, like picture postcards of his soul. Creigh knew that he would never feel like he belonged anywhere as much as in Bentley. He loved L.A. and his big old home in the elegant Hancock Park district, but it could never mean as