Read Online Crooked House by Joe McKinney, Wayne Miller - Free Book Online Page B

days, perhaps even weeks. He sensed that he’d been forgiven for his stupidity earlier in the day, and things were right in the world again.
    They went into the kitchen and Sarah made them drinks, a vodka and tonic for him, a Sea Breeze for her.
    She raised her glass and he his.
    “To our new house,” she said.
    “To us,” he corrected.
    She smiled, and they clinked glasses.
    “To us,” she said.
    The liquor hit the back of his throat. “Mmm, that’s good,” he said. Sarah always did make the best drinks. A benefit, no doubt, of the work she’d done as a bartender and waitress before she met him. “I didn’t know we had vodka.”
    “Well, I had to go shopping today . We didn’t have anything.”
    He nodded . That was true.
    “Angela and I went to Costco after the movers left . Check out the fridge.”
    He opened the refrigerator and whistled appreciatively . It was fully stocked with chicken breasts, tubes of hamburger meat, several kinds of fruit, milk, cheese, eggs, orange juice, sour cream, salsa, the cranberry juice she’d used for her sea breeze. They were set. “Wow,” he said.
    “Oh, we bought a tree too.”
    “A tree?”
    “Yeah, you know, a Christmas tree ? Christmas is next week, in case you’ve forgotten.”
    “No,” he said . “I – I hadn’t.”
    “We talked about it last night, remember?”
    “Well, yeah, but...how much did all this cost?”
    “About six hundred.”
    “Six hundred...dollars?”
    “Well , yeah. And we still need to get presents for Angela. We haven’t really done much in that way. I mean, me personally, I think we can just not get each other anything this year, but we can’t skimp on her. I don’t know if you’ve noticed from the things she says her friends at school say, but between you and me, I don’t think we’re gonna get many more years with her before the whole Santa Claus thing goes away. I want to enjoy it while we can.”
    “Yeah, but six hundred dollars ? That’s a lot of money.”
    She sighed and put her drink down on the butcher’s block . “Look,” she said, “I’m tired of feeling like this, like there’s never enough money.”
    “But there really is never enough money. ” He frowned at her. “I’m sorry, what exactly do you want me to do?”
    “You said that if we did this move we’d get caught up, that not having a mortgage and utilities would finally put us where we needed to be.”
    “Yeah, but that takes time. It’s not something that happens overnight. We still have bills to pay. We’ve got medical bills, credit card bills, all the rest of it.”
    “So what do we do?”
    “I don’t know,” he snapped. “Maybe you could take Thom Horner up on his offer for a job.”
    “No!” she said, and he flinched from the sudden ferocity in her voice . “No, Robert, I will not go back to work for him. If you want me to go back to work, I will. I’ll work at an office somewhere, or a doctor’s office. Hell, I’ll even bag groceries down at the store. But I will not go back to work for him.”
    “Why are you mad? ” he said. “I’m the one who’s supposed to be mad. Besides, I thought you liked Thom.”
    “I’m not doing it, Robert . I won’t. You can’t make me.”
    “I …I’m not making you do anything, Sarah. I’m just trying to understand.”
    She crossed her arms beneath he r breasts and huffed. She wouldn’t look him in the eye. Finally, she said, “Look, just drop it, okay? If you need me to go back to work, I will. I’ll start looking tomorrow.”
    He didn’t know what else to say . “Okay.” He shrugged.
    “Fine. ” She finished off her drink and said, “I’m going to bed.”
    “ Sarah, wait...”
    But she was already headed down the hall toward the master bedroom in the east wing.
    “God damn it,” he said. “God damn it all.”
     
    *
     
    Robert couldn’t get to sleep. His mind was turning over the same tired questions, the same self-doubt, the same troubles that had plagued him for at