Southern Poison Read Free

on Monday. Your name is Jill Burns.”
    “Can’t it be something a little more exotic like Marilyn Tulika or Giana Brenneka?”
    He dropped some bills on the counter and stood to leave. “Good to see you again.”
    “Wish I could say the same.”

TWO
    Peggy Lee Cooke
leisurely opened her eyes and rolled over to face the rays of early morning sun that pressed through the miniblinds. Enjoying the flood of warmth that hit her cheeks, she smiled, and, catlike, stretched her entire body, starting with her toes. She couldn’t remember when she’d last awakened happy and now that she thought about it, maybe she’d never before had anything worth being happy about. But now that a meaningful project sizzled on the burner and she had the love of an amazing man, she couldn’t imagine
not
feeling cheerful.
    No longer did she feel like a childless outcast. She wasn’t even bothered by her three-year-long failed attempt to find a cure for her type of infertility, working with the wild leafy shiff bush found in South America. She used to think that a man would never marry her if she couldn’t give him a family. Men wanted heirs to immortalize their name and she planned to mother hordes of children. Two or three, anyway. But like a promising slot machine that pays off just enough to keep the gambler from moving on to the nextflashing machine, her research project ultimately ended up a loser. It sucked up all her energy and left her barren and dry. Until
he
came along, that is. Her lover and life mate. Chuck was a surprise jackpot.
    A good chemist, he told her, didn’t accept failure. He’d held her face between his strong hands and explained how a fruitless research project could be redirected—and resurrected—as a winner. Which is exactly what he did with her wild leafy shiff bush research. She’d chosen the right slot machine, after all, and it promised to pay handsomely.
    Pushing herself upright on the edge of the bed, Peggy felt beautiful, despite her plainness. The genetic outcome of her mother and father’s union hadn’t bestowed her with alluring physical features, but it hadn’t been totally unkind. Her skin was blemish-free, her eyes were set apart by seven-point-four centimeters, pupil to pupil, and her thick hair grew fast. Using how-to tips from a magazine, she’d tried applying makeup before her dates with Chuck, but the result was always clownish so she no longer bothered. Even so, he had called her brainy and gorgeous, and she’d been pleasantly giddy since. She was the best of both worlds, he proclaimed, as they’d made love in his hotel room and watched a movie and made love again. He was a visionary with big dreams and now she was a part of something that might change the world. She was
someone.
    Stripping off a T-shirt and shorts, Peggy stepped into the shower and thought back to her geeky high school years, when nobody—not even the other girls—wanted anything to do with her. Fueled by a craving to learn more about chemistry, the only subject that made perfect sense of the world that surrounded her, Peggy plodded steadily through years of higher education until she could put the word
doctor
in front of her name.
    She gloated in the proof that her stepmother had been wrong all those years ago to scold her for growing crystals in a brand-newEasy-Bake Oven. She didn’t even cry when she got spanked over the incident, because seven-year-old Peggy knew that Santa Claus would have put a chemistry set beneath their scraggly tree, had he only known. A career in chemistry was her destiny, as sure as beautiful crystals will grow from simple charcoal, ammonia, and salt.
    Now, twenty-five years later, Peggy Lee gleefully acknowledged that it was also her destiny to become a wife. There was a reason she remained lonely for so many years, because just as the best crystals use more advanced ingredients and take the longest to develop, the best relationships happen in due time. Chuck was elated to learn of her