Woman in Red by Eileen Goudge Read Free Book Online Page B

shoulders and grinning as though they were posing for a family photo.

    “Listen to you,” said Denise, giving him an affectionate jab with her elbow. Turning to Alice, she explained, “I’ve been trying to convince him to run for county commissioner. We’ll need him on our side when they vote on the Spring Hill project.”
    Alice didn’t know much about the project, except that Denise and her fellow activists had been campaigning against it for weeks. Some big housing development slated for Spring Hill that they were trying to block. She was familiar with the area, though; it was the virgin tract that bordered on their grandmother’s old property. Nana used to take her and Denise on hikes there when they were young, pointing out all the different birds and flowers and insects along the way. Now it seemed Denise was determined that it remain untouched for future generations to enjoy.
    “I keep telling her if she’s so worked up about it, she ought to run for office herself,” Gary said.
    “She’d have my vote,” replied Alice with a laugh, before remembering that as a convicted felon she’d lost that right. Her smile fell away, and she could see from Gary’s expression, an odd mixture of pity and disdain, that the same thought had occurred to him.
    As she followed them into the house, Alice recalled what a wreck it had been when they’d first bought it. Their every spare hour had been spent scraping and sanding and painting, restoring the old floors and woodwork until they gleamed. They’d made it into a real showpiece, though at the moment it looked like a tornado had hit it: The living room floor was strewn with construction paper cutouts, discarded socks and shoes, and random items of clothing, while dirty plates and glasses lined the coffee table, along with an empty milk jug and a half eaten plate of chocolate chip cookies.

    “Guys! Look who’s here!” Denise called to the two children at the center of the chaos. “Sorry it’s such a mess,” she apologized, “but you didn’t give us much notice.” A teenage boy with his father’s sandy curls and athletic build looked up from the computer screen that was occupying his attention. On the sofa, a slight, dark-haired girl dressed in a rumpled Brownie uniform looked away from the TV to stare at Alice.
    Alice scarcely recognized her niece and nephew. Ryan had been the same age as Jeremy when she’d last seen him—Alice and Denise used to jokingly refer to Ryan and Jeremy as the twins—and Taylor an infant in Denise’s arms. It was a shock when Ryan rose to greet her, easily as tall as his father, sporting a small diamond stud in one ear. She remembered him as a sweet-natured little boy, and it was a relief to see that he hadn’t changed when he stepped forward to hug her: a fleeting impression of body heat, musky boy’s scent, limbs bumping up against hers. His face was red when he stepped back.
    “This must seem weird to you,” Alice said, to put him at ease.
    “Kind of.” He shuffled from one foot to the other, smiling shyly.
    “Well, it’s pretty weird for me, too,” she confided. “You probably don’t even remember me.”
    “I remember playing over at your house when I was little,” her nephew said.
    “You and Jeremy were always building forts.” Alice smiled at the memory. Made of cardboard and stuff scavenged from the garage, those forts usually collapsed with the first rainfall or heavy gust of wind.

    “I’m still at it,” he said, with a grin. “Only now it’s called Shop.”
    “Well,” she said. “I see I have some catching up to do.”
    “It’s cool that you’re here. You can have my room, if you like,” he said, making Alice fall in love with him all over again. Ryan was the kid who made you smile even when he was getting into mischief.
    “Thanks, I appreciate the offer, but the sofa will do just fine,” she said. She turned to her niece, now peering out from behind her brother. “You must be Taylor. You