Read Online About Face by Carole Howard - Free Book Online

to get the shovel in, struggle to get it out, but never do it half-way. Spunk to spare.
    She realized her feet were cold. Damn, she knew this would happen. And why did her feet have to keep acting like cold appendages stuck crudely to her mid-calves? She was tired of being cold. Old and cold.
    Then her body treated her to her first hot flash of the weekend. The speed with which it took over caught her by surprise, as always. The power of her hormones—or, rather, their lack—felt as much a force of nature as gravity.
    Rather than stand in front of the refrigerator, she tried a friend’s suggestion: visualizing herself on a beach, where the heat would be pleasant and accompanied by the nurturing sound of waves. No dice. The heat on a beach came from outside her body, whereas this heat was definitely within.
    Enough. She closed the paper and went upstairs to get showered and dressed.
    â€œHi hon,” David said, returning from jogging, as she emerged from her shower. “I had a great run. It is really gorgeous out there. You know how you can smell spring before it’s actually… And the flowers are starting to… It’s just a great day.”
    She caught herself smiling a robotic half-smile.
    â€œHow about if I go into town?” David seemed determined to bull through her mood, even though that approach had never worked in the past. “I’ll take the grocery list and get some stuff for lunch, too. I want to check out the new deli. I’ll stop by the dry cleaner and the post office. While I’m at it, I guess I’ll go over to Millwood and drop off those papers at the accountant’s office. Anything else?”
    â€œNot that I can think of.”
    He dropped his sweaty running clothes on the floor and headed toward the bathroom in his underwear. “Remember,” Ruth said. “We decided to cut down on fat in our diet after Max’s little… episode. So go easy at the deli.”
    â€œGot it.” He closed the bathroom door behind him, then re-emerged. “While I’m gone, why don’t you try to find some time to relax? You could use a little … ” He tried to maintain eye contact and took a step towards her.
    â€œA little what? Relaxation? Is that a joke?” She sidestepped, walking toward one side of the bed. He followed her lead and walked to the other side. They removed the pillows, then simultaneously pulled the covers up toward the headboard and straightened them out, just as they did every morning, not even noticing what they were doing. She waited for him to smooth a wrinkle in the blanket on his side.
    â€œNo, I’ve got way too much to do. I’ve got to pay bills, do laundry, return at least a dozen phone calls. Including one to Josh, to see if he’s called that guy.”
    â€œWhat guy?”
    â€œDon’t you remember? That school superintendent Diane told him about, a friend of hers? I could ask him tomorrow at lunch, but I’m afraid it’ll piss him off and I don’t want that to spoil our time together. So I have to think of a reason to call today.”
    They fluffed the pillows and replaced them on the bed covers. “And then I have to push and pull some numbers into line for Jeremy.”
    What she really wanted to do in the worst way was escape into a crossword puzzle. A really hard one, the kind where she’d make inroads bit by bit. “If this letter goes here in the Across word, then that must mean the word going down is… ” And after awhile, the world having taken a back seat to the challenge, every box would have the letter that belonged in it.
    â€œBut I’ll put relaxing on my list and maybe that way I’ll get to it—in my next life.”
    He headed back to the bathroom and she heard him turn on the shower, then call out, “Okay, you do your stuff, I’ll do mine, but let’s do lunch.”
    She forced out a curt “It’s a