Read Online Aurora 06 - A Fool And His Honey by Charlaine Harris - Free Book Online Page A

sink, and I think I have shampoo and soap out and ready.”
    Rory took the not-too-subtle hint in a jiffy. “That was real good,” he told Martin sincerely, carrying his coffee cup and plate over to the sink.
    I had another thought. “If you’d like to set your clothes out the bathroom door, I’ll throw ‘em in the washer,” I offered. I rose to go upstairs to check on Hayden. “I’ll put a robe in the bathroom first.”
    “Thank you, ma’am,” he said, smiling shyly.
    Martin was staring at Rory as if he were an alien wearing an ill-fitting human suit. I padded out of the room and began taking the stairs at my usual pace, and then realized I’d have to go slower. The night before had taken its toll, and toting the baby around had already made my arms trembly. I was in no shape to be thrown into the role of mother.

    It wasn’t any trouble finding a robe for Rory to use, since when people can’t think of anything to give Martin, they give him bathrobes. Some men get gloves, some men get ties; my husband gets bathrobes. Last year, my seldom-seen father had sent us matching green terry ones (which made us look like walking bundles of Astroturf). Martin’s son Barrett had sent him a silk paisley, and my mother had given him a blue flannel. The year before that, Barby had presented him with the nicest one of all, gray polished cotton with his monogram in maroon.
    I hung the green terry robe in the downstairs bathroom and Rory scooted in. A few minutes later, his clothes were deposited discreetly outside the bathroom door, and I went to the washer and dryer closet at the rear of the house in the kitchen to start a load. There was always something in the laundry basket I could throw in with a small bundle of clothes.
    Martin had gotten the portable phone and was punching in a series of numbers, peering at a page in his personal address book. He looked up at the kitchen wall clock as he listened to the ringing at the other end.
    “Hello,” he said. I thought he sounded uncertain, which was rare for Martin. “Cindy Bartell, please.”
    I began to load dishes into the dishwasher—anything to stay in the room and keep working without making it obvious I was determined to listen to this conversation.
    “Cindy? This is Martin. Have you been doing well? Barrett told me you’d taken a partner on
    ... yes, he called me at work last week.”
    Barrett hated to call here because I might answer the phone.
    “I’m glad you’re finally getting some free time. Who’d you ... ?”
    Martin’s face underwent the oddest change.
    “Dennis Stinson,” he said. “Hmmm.” He looked as if he was restraining all kinds of comments. I gathered Dennis Stinson was not unknown to Martin; but frankly, Cindy’s business dealings were not my prime concern at this point in time.
    I just barely heard Hayden whimper upstairs, and I cringed. I went up the stairs so fast I wished I’d had Martin clocking me. I stood by the portable crib and held my hands up in a soothing gesture, as if that would calm the baby back into sleep. I noticed that my hands were shaking, and I was saying, “Sshhhh! Sshhhh!” in a kind of frantic way. Hayden’s blue-veined eyelids fluttered once more before he settled back into sleep.
    Feeling as though I’d just avoided a herd of stampeding buffalo, I shambled back down, the stairs and collapsed into the chair across from Martin. I slumped over the table, burying my face in my folded arms. After a moment, I felt Martin’s fingers in my hair. He stroked my head the way a man absently pats a dog, but I was so tired by my unusually prolonged turn at being the strong one that I found even an offhand caress comforting.
    “So, have you seen Regina lately?” Martin said into the telephone.
    I could hear a tinny buzz that was Cindy’s answer.
    “Not in five months? Did you notice, the last time you saw her, that she’d gained some weight?”
    Buzz, buzz.

    “She had a baby,” Martin said.
    I heard a kind of