Wild Honey by Veronica Sattler Read Free Book Online Page B

might be the perfect opportunity to suggest she do something about it. Obliquely of course.
    “I spoke to Carol Martin on the phone this morning, Randi,” she said casually, eyeing her sister as she reached for the coffeepot and refilled her mug.
    “Oh?”
    “She’ll be able to be a bridesmaid for sure. Her family reunion’s been postponed till December.”
    “Oh, Jill, I’m glad. I know how much you wanted her in the wedding party.”
    Jill nodded, sliding a careful glance at her. “She asked about you…how you are.”
    “Mmm,” Randi murmured noncommittally. She knew what was coming.
    “You know,” Jill said all too cheerfully, “you ought to drop in on her one of these days.”
    “Drop in on her…at her office, you mean?”
    Jill had the grace to blush, then laughed. “Okay, okay, but it was worth a try.”
    Randi laughed, too, then grew serious. “We’ve been over this ground before, Jill, and, no, I don’t feel I need to see Carol professionally. There’s nothing wrong with me that a little R and R wouldn’t cure. So, sister mine, bug off!”
    With a sigh, Jill used her index fingers to mimic the antennae of a bug and waggled her head—an old joke between them—and they both laughed.
    Then Jill said, “Okay, what about the R and R? Is your vacation still on for next week, or is that summer flu gonna put a cramp in your plans?”
    “It had better not. I’ll lose my five-hundred-dollar deposit on the cottage if I cancel.”
    Randi had engaged a beach cottage on Maryland’s Eastern Shore for three weeks, and she was looking forward to spending some quality time there with Matt. She’d sent in her deposit months ago.
    “The hospital wouldn’t force you to cancel if they were short-staffed, would they?” Jill asked worriedly.
    “Relax. I reminded Dr. Harper of it just yesterday, and all signals are go.”
    “Good,” Jill said, “because I’ve got something to tell you with regard to those three weeks.”
    “Shoot.”
    “Well, David and I were discussing it, and we think it’s super that you’re doing this with Matt.” Jill paused, wanting to phrase this exactly right. Randi was an excellent mother, despite being a single parent with a career. She’d taken great pains, since Matt’s birth, to arrange her life to accommodate a child. No, not just accommodate. Matt was a priority in everything she did.
    She hadn’t gone to work at all for the first year of her son’s life, dipping into her savings to support them. And when she went back to nursing, she frequently took night duty to allow her time with Matt during the day. Jill had helped, too.
    As an interior decorator working out of her office at home, she’d been able to juggle her schedule; between the two sisters, they’d managed to raise Matt with very little outside assistance.
    But as Jill saw it, there were problems lurking on the horizon. She worried about how Randi would manage after the wedding, when Jill left to make her home with David. She also worried her sister might actually be spending too much time with Matt, for every free moment revolved around the child. This hadn’t been a bad thing when Matt was an infant, but as he grew older, Jill feared Randi was in danger of overdoing it. A child needed love and affection as much as food to grow up whole and healthy; but just as too much food was a bad idea, so was too much affection; it could be smothering.
    And the signs were already there. Randi’s concern for Matt bordered on the overprotective. She hired a sitter—even the older woman who lived up the block and whom they’d known for years—only as a last resort; when Jill couldn’t stay with Matt, Randi frequently canceled an engagement rather than leave him with someone else.
    And Randi never spent recreational time alone; her vacations always included Matt. She didn’t seem to think she sometimes needed time for herself, to recharge her batteries.
    So when Randi had mentioned this vacation on the Eastern