Three’s a Crowd

Three’s a Crowd Read Free

Book: Three’s a Crowd Read Free
Author: Dianne Blacklock
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beautiful.’
    She raised an eyebrow as she sidled over to him, snatching a carrot stick.
    â€˜Why do you care anyway?’ asked Scott. ‘You’re only going out with the girls. Or is that just a cover and you’re really going out to pick up?’
    â€˜Yep, that’s it, you sprung me,’ she quipped, crunching into the carrot.
    â€˜Just try it,’ he said, stooping to plant a kiss on her neck. ‘You smell good.’ He straightened again, considering her. ‘And you look good enough to eat, really.’ Scott’s biggest compliment.
    â€˜Not too casual?’ Lexie persisted. ‘I don’t want to look like I’m going to the beach.’
    He frowned. ‘What does it matter? It’s just the girls, loosen up.’
    Lexie shrugged, avoiding his eyes.
    Scott shook his head. ‘It’s Catherine the Great, isn’t it? I don’t know why you girls put up with her.’
    â€˜Don’t say that,’ said Lexie. ‘I know she can be a little . . . prickly, but she means well . . . and she has a good heart.’
    â€˜Why do people always say that about someone who’s a real –’
    â€˜She’s had a hard life,’ Lexie interrupted him. ‘You know she started with nothing.’
    â€˜Yeah, yeah, teenage mum, did it all on her own, I’ve heard it before,’ said Scott. ‘Doesn’t give her the right to be a bitch.’
    â€˜Honey,’ she chided in a low voice, glancing across at the children, but they were absorbed in something on the TV. Scott just didn’t like Catherine and nothing Lexie could say was going to change his mind. So she decided to change the subject instead. ‘I put the fans on up in the kids’ room. It was so hot up there. I don’t know how we’re going to get by without aircon this summer if it’s this hot already.’
    He looked at her sideways. ‘We’ll get by just the same as we always have, Lex.’
    â€˜I’m only thinking of the kids.’
    â€˜We got by when we were kids, even you, Miss Richie Rich,’ he added. ‘No one had airconditioning in their houses back then, and everyone wasn’t dying of heat exhaustion.’
    â€˜I know,’ she agreed begrudgingly.
    â€˜We either believe in global warming or we don’t, Lexie. And if we do, then we have to take personal responsibility, even when it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable.’
    â€˜I know, I know,’ she surrendered, holding up her hands. ‘You can stop the lecture.’
    They couldn’t afford airconditioning anyway. Lexie adoredtheir pretty little house, tucked away in a pretty little street in Clovelly. She’d had so much fun decorating it when they first got married. They didn’t have much money then either, but Scott’s dad and a couple of his brothers had all the trades covered, so they were able to do a cheap but effective makeover of the kitchen and bathroom. The rest was achieved with lots of spak filler and paint and elbow grease. Her parents had kept wanting to pay for this or that, but Lexie refused. Scott would never have accepted it anyway. Instead she pored over her mother’s interior design magazines and scoured the wholesale outlets and created a home that was chic and comfortable for a fraction of what it could have cost.
    When Riley came along the house worked beautifully, at least while he was only crawling. But with the addition of Mia things were getting, well, cramped. The children had to share a smallish bedroom; there was no longer space for the charming rocking chair Lexie had found at a garage sale, or the display unit housing all their baby mementoes and special books. The room had become very utilitarian: Riley’s bed, Mia’s cot, storage for their clothes. They had even had to resort to one of those padded mats on top of the chest of drawers as a change table. Worse was the impact

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