Now and Then Friends Read Free Page A

“then you can buy your own car, or at least contribute more to the family finances.”
    Meghan had rolled her eyes, caught as ever between laughing it off and being annoyed. Lily had looked guilty, and her mother had pretended not to hear the whole exchange.
    Now Rachel slid into the driver’s seat of her car and headed downthe steep, winding lane from the Wests’ house to the beach road. The wind had started up again, blowing off the sea, and the clumps of daffodils that lined the road huddled against its onslaught. She had ten minutes to get to her cleaning job for the Browns, a busy family with two working parents and three school-age children, and then she’d drop the ironing she’d done for Juliet Bagshaw at Tarn House Bed-and-Breakfast before heading back home to see to dinner, tidy up, and make sure Lily, who was only two months away from doing her A levels, put in at least three hours of study. She was predicted for three As, maybe even an A star in biology, and if she got the marks, she would be going to the University of Durham in the autumn. Rachel was determined to see that happen.
    Three hours later Rachel pulled up to the terraced house on the upper end of Hartley-by-the-Sea’s high street that had been her home since she was a baby. The gutters were crooked, the paint on the front door was peeling, and the once-white net curtains framing the front window were the color of weak tea. Her house was definitely not an advertisement for her cleaning services, but then, she didn’t have time to clean her own house. Rachel hauled her cleaning supplies from the back of the car and headed inside.
    The first thing she heard was three-year-old Nathan’s shrieking. She walked into the kitchen, tossing the mop and pail into a corner, and glanced at her sister Meghan. Nathan was clinging to Meghan’s legs while she sat at the table, flicking through a magazine. Rachel glanced at the lurid titles on the cover:
My Child’s Past Lives
and
My Fur Stole’s Haunted by the Fox!
    She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Meghan?”
    Her sister looked up from the magazine. “What?”
    â€œYou’re reading rubbish while Nathan is screaming his head off.” At that moment Nathan chose to go silent, staring at Rachel with wide eyes.
    â€œHe’s been screaming all day. He’s getting teeth.”
    â€œHe’s three. He has all his teeth.”
    â€œHis molars or something. Trust me, I know.” She dropped her magazine onto the table and leaned forward. “Nath, open your mouth.”
    Solemnly Nathan opened his mouth wide, and Meghan peered inside. “See? Molars,” she said triumphantly, picking up her magazine once more, and Rachel spared a sympathetic glance for her nephew’s reddened, swollen gums before she shrugged off her coat.
    â€œHe should have some Calpol.” She fished in the cupboard for a bottle of children’s medicine, the lid sticky with residue, and handed it and a spoon to Meghan, who took it with a sigh, dropping her magazine on the table.
    Rachel turned to Lily, who was standing in front of the stove, her red hair, the same color as Rachel’s, caught in a messy knot as she hummed tunelessly and stirred the sauce.
    â€œLily, you should be studying.”
    â€œI did some homework at school—,” Lily began.
    â€œThat’s great, but you could get a little more in—”
    â€œOh, give it a rest, Rach,” Meghan cut in. “You’re always on her case.”
    Rachel stiffened. “I don’t mean to nag, but this is a very important year—”
    â€œAnd so was last year, and the year before that. Lily’s fine.”
    â€œOf course you would say that,” Rachel answered with a sigh. Meghan had left school at sixteen with only a handful of barely passing marks. “Seriously, Lily,” she said, and she gently elbowed her sister out of the way. “Let me do this.