Taking a Chance on Love by Mary Razzell Read Free Book Online Page A

thought of my own mother. Nothing would have stopped her from getting in touch with a child of hers.
    More to hide my feelings than from hunger, I opened the lunch bags and handed Glen a devilled egg sandwich. “Your mother … What’s she like? Do you like her?”
    â€œShe’s my mother … I need her, but … Oh, Meg, I don’t know. She’s falling all over herself to please me. Maybe she feels guilty. The others don’t like it.”
    The waves made small slapping sounds at the shoreline. “I’m glad you’re back, Glen. It’s good to have a friend.”
    â€œI missed you,” he said, “even though they kept me so darn busy all the time, I hardly had time to think.”
    â€œWill you stay here for the summer?” I asked.
    â€œYeah. I’ll go in to see my mother a couple of times before I go into Vancouver for university.” He picked up my hand. “I want you to go to the dance with me on Friday night.”
    â€œI don’t know. My mother’s got a thing against dancing. She met my father at a dance and, well … He swept her off her feet, she says, and has been unfaithful to her ever since.”
    â€œHas he?”
    â€œWell … Maybe. Probably.”
    â€œParents,” said Glen, shaking his head. “Don’t you wish they’d just behave themselves and let us get on with our own lives?”
    Mom was working in the small garden at the front of our house. I knelt down to help her pull weeds. “Anna Hanson is going to the dance tomorrow night at the tennis court,” I said, knocking the dirt from a long dandelion root against a stone. “I’d like to go, too.”
    â€œHow late would you be getting in?”
    â€œI’m not sure when the dance ends. Midnight? I’d come straight home.”
    She put down the trowel. “You’re so young.” She stood up and stretched, putting her hand to the small of her back. “Don’t be in a hurry to grow up, Meg. It happens fast enough as it is. You know what I think about dancing. I sometimes wonder how my life would be if I’d never gone to that dance where I met your father.”
    What if Dad were in earshot? They must be still quarrelling, I thought.
    Just then Dad spoke from the top of the front doorsteps. “Let the girl go and enjoy herself, Vera,” he said. “Don’t let the priest turn you sour on our children.”
    The same old bickering. With Dad away in the Air Force, there had been a break from that. But at least I was going to the dance. I could hardly believe it had been so easy.
    â€œMom says it’s okay for me to go to the dance tomorrow night,” I told Glen when he met me after work later that day. “Dad’s home, and he stood up for me. But I’d like to meet you at the bridge tomorrow evening, okay? Don’t come to my house. My parents are having a bit of a tiff, and I don’t want you to see it. Oh, and I have to be home right after the dance.”
    He leaned forward, as if he were about to kiss me. I didn’t move away. He looked at me with those piercing eyes that made me feel as if he knew everything about me and liked it. After a moment, he drew back.
    I had nothing to wear to the dance. Finally, I thought of asking Amy’s mother. She had always been helpful to me. Once she’d given me a dark red cardigan sweater, saying, “The colour doesn’t suit me, and Amy doesn’t want it. I think it will look good on you with your dark hair.”
    The next day I went to see Mrs. Miller, but she didn’t answer my knock. I had turned away and was already halfway out the gate when I heard the door open behind me. Looking back, I saw Rob Pryce lounging in the doorway.
    â€œWho is it?” I heard Mrs. Miller’s voice call from behind him.
    â€œIt’s okay, Sweetie,” said Rob. “Whoever it was has gone.”
    â€œSweetie” for