Friendship Makes the Heart Grow Fonder Read Free

tonight. He took the train to his brother’s house in Hicksville so he could borrow their second
     car while theirs is in the shop.”
    Monique paused. “So she’s alone.”
    “Yup.”
    “And her kids are next door, having fun on the trampoline.”
    “Monie, I saw her through the window tonight. She’s sitting at her kitchen table with her head in her hands.”
    *  *  *
    She could do this.
    Becky pushed herself up from the kitchen table and slipped into the den, rounding the couch to confront the usual scattering
     of toys. She picked up the Matchbox fire truck and little yellow car, and then she scooped up the Spiderman and Green Goblin
     action figures and tossed them unerringly into the big wicker bin in the corner. She gathered the fashion dolls. She squinted
     at the rug, searching for the little shoes, belts, and sparkling fabric purses. She lifted pillows off the carpet and tossed
     them on the L-shaped couch, pausing to fold the throw blankets and tuck them in the lower shelf of the coffee table.
    See? She was perfectly fine. She could take care of her house. There was nothing wrong with her at all. She’d finish cleaning
     out this den and then she’d move back to the kitchen and make sure the last of the flour had been scrubbed from the counter.
     She would hand-dry the bowls she’d used to make the cake. By then the pans should be well-soaked enough that she wouldn’t
     have to scrub to loosen the baked-on crumbs.
    After that, it’d be time to call Brianna and Brian home from the trampoline. On summer nights, they always tumbled in streaked
     with grass stains, sticky with mosquito repellent, and sweaty around the hairline. She’d have to bathe them tonight because
     early tomorrow morning they were going to her mother-in-law’s house for the annual Labor Day weekend cookout. She should probably
     start packing snacks for the car.
    A knock on the back door startled her. Shadows shifted through the window, and then someone turned the door handle and stepped
     right in.
    “Hey, Becky.”
    She recognized Monique’s voice before her friend stepped into the light of the kitchen. Monique wore a tank top that showed
     off her arms, honed by kickboxing. Judy, a shorter, sturdier shape, followed behind.
    “I told you she was an alien.” Judy hiked her fists onto her hips as she scanned the room. “Mothers of three children aren’t
     supposed to have clean houses.”
    “It’s only two of the monsters now. I can’t blame Gina for this.” Becky pulled open the lower cabinet to toss a paper towel
     into the garbage. “I haven’t seen hide nor hair of Gina since she left for Rutgers. But I’m not complaining.”
    Becky smiled tightly. No use bringing up that other concern about Gina—that, if Marco’s unpaid furlough stretched much longer,
     the college girl might actually have to move out of the dorm at Rutgers and back into this house. She and her step-daughter
     didn’t have the best of relationships. If Gina came home again, the girl would take inordinate pleasure in flaunting the tongue-stud
     she had done on her eighteenth birthday.
    But Becky had bigger things to worry about now. She let Gina slip away, like water through her fingers.
    Monique pulled up a chair. “We missed you at the barbecue, Beck.”
    “That’s quite a trick,” Becky said, “since you weren’t there either, Monique.”
    “I bailed when I thought your red velvet cake wasn’t coming.”
    Becky turned toward the sink to avoid those clear, all-knowing eyes. “I think you bailed when Mrs. Davis started talking about
     her colonoscopy. I hear the Miralax powder is thorough.”
    Judy asked, “Marco not home yet?”
    “The charmer won’t be back until ten or eleven.”
    Monique said, “You want to talk about it?”
    Becky concentrated on pulling one of the cake pans out of the sink and attacking it with the scrubbing side of a blue sponge.
     No, she really didn’t want to talk about it. She hadn’t even told