Tempting Fate by Jane Green Read Free Book Online Page A

shocked. ‘Put those back right now! Those are for after we’ve eaten.’
    ‘They’re not just for me,’ she protests. ‘I was sent inside to get them for everyone.’
    Gabby shakes her head. ‘And I suppose if they asked you to jump you’d say, “How high?”’
    Alanna just stares at her. ‘What?’
    Gabby sighs. ‘Never mind. Put them back. Everyone can wait.’
    Alanna grumbles in a way that seems far too teenaged for an eleven-year-old, but puts the cookies back.
    Trish walks over. ‘How is Alanna finding middle school?’ she says. ‘My girls had such a rough time, and I hear it’s got worse. A very difficult transitional phase.’
    Gabby would love to be able to say that everything is fine, but everything is not fine. To others, Alanna seems to be the same girl she has always been, only quieter, but Gabby knows that, having given up trying to be in with the group she called the Populars at her old school – little girls Gabby has known all their lives, who are sweet as pie with the adults, and vicious minxes as soon as they are on their own – Alanna has found a new group of friends in middle school.
    A new group of friends who were clearly thePopulars in their own elementary school and who are exactly the same as the old girls Gabby never liked, only couched in different clothes, with different names.
    Alanna refuses to talk about them, and when Gabby encourages her to find different friends, ones who are not obsessed with boys at the age of eleven, ones who aren’t given the iPhone 5 as soon as it comes out, Alanna doesn’t want to hear. She isn’t interested in the girls in the softball team, or the girls from art class. She wants only to be accepted by the cool girls in school, and nothing her mother says or does will make her want anything else.
    Gabby takes a deep breath. ‘Alanna’s a tough cookie,’ she lies to Trish. ‘I think she’ll be fine.’

Chapter Six
    The sheets are refreshingly cool as Gabby slips between them, pulling up the covers and revelling in the comfort of her bed, the comfort of her life, all of it effectively rendering more and more dreamlike the fact that she met a man to whom she was attracted last night.
    In the bathroom Elliott brushes his teeth, then he turns away from the basin and leans against the door jamb, looking at her.
    ‘I like that Trish,’ he says. ‘And Gavin seems like a great guy. Young, though. How old do you think he is?’
    ‘Thirty-five?’ Gabby ventures, before making a face.
    ‘What? You didn’t like him?’
    She sighs. ‘It’s not him. It’s Trish. She’s always pleasant enough, so why do I feel so damned inadequate around her?’ Gabby laughs, knowing how ridiculous she sounds.
    ‘Why would you feel inadequate? I’ll admit, she’s great at a lot of things, but so are you.’
    Gabby gives a bark of laughter. ‘You are kidding, right?’
    ‘You don’t run your own business as she does, but other than that you cook pretty well, you’re fantastic atrestoring furniture, which I bet she can’t do, and you’re a great mother. You …’ He pauses.
    ‘See! You’re struggling. Me too. That’s the point. Look!’ She grabs a handful of her belly. ‘She’s perfect! She doesn’t have this! Or these!’ She tries to show Elliott the two prickly hairs she’s recently found on her chin, but in vain: he doesn’t have his glasses on and can’t see them. ‘I bet Trish doesn’t have any chin hairs!’ They both laugh. ‘Seriously! She’s there with her taut, yoga-honed body, and I get hives just driving past the damn place. Everything about her is perfect. There isn’t a wrinkle on her face or a grey hair on her head, and look –’ Gabby bends her head down – ‘look!’ She sounds like she is joking, but there is a touch of hysteria in her voice as she points out her grey hairs.
    ‘I can’t see anything,’ Elliott says gently.
    Gabby lifts her head up. ‘Oh, that’s right. I just dyed them. Still, they’re there.