Read Online Falling by Jane Green - Free Book Online Page B

around here?”
    â€œWe live in Massachusetts, actually, but we’re here visiting friends. Penelope?” She turns suddenly, calling out to a sweet little girl sitting at the kitchen table. “Run outside and check on Grace and Victoria.” She turns back to Emma. “Sorry. Just needed to check they’re not getting into trouble.”
    â€œOf course. How do you know Dominic?” Emma asks, to be polite more than anything else.
    â€œI don’t. My husband, Victor, went to school with AJ, and we’re staying with them, so he brought us. He seems lovely, though. You’re lucky.” She smiles, turning on her heel to take the food outside before Emma can close her mouth, which had dropped open in surprise at the comment, or have a chance to correct her. But she had to wonder what was going on. Why did everyone assume she had some kind of romantic connection with Dominic?
    She turns back to the ribs, basting them with the sauce, ready to put them in the oven as Jesse runs into the kitchen, feet soaking wetfrom the slide. With a yelp and a loud cry, he goes skidding into the kitchen table, banging his head, collapsing in a small heap on the ground.
    â€œJesse!” Emma races over and feels his head. “Are you okay?”
    Jesse is furiously trying to blink back tears as he nods. “I’m okay,” he says in a small voice, trying very hard not to cry.
    â€œLet me feel,” says Emma, hoping he doesn’t cry, because she has absolutely no idea what to do with a crying child. She runs her hand over the side of Jesse’s head, where she can already feel a bump forming. “Oh boy,” she says. “You’ve got a big one.”
    â€œA big what?”
    â€œA big, ginormous volcano erupting out of your head.”
    â€œIt hurts.” He blinks back more tears.
    â€œCan I rub it for you? Sometimes that helps. And we can put some ice on it, too. How does that sound?”
    â€œOkay,” he says, as Emma rubs his head just the way her mother used to rub hers. Leaving him for a second, she goes to the freezer and pulls out a bag of frozen corn that looks like it’s been living in there for years. And just behind it, she spies a box of frozen Fudgsicles.
    â€œOkay.” She goes back and scoots down onto the floor next to Jesse, the bag of corn in one hand, a Fudgsicle in the other. “The corn’s for your head, the Fudgsicle’s for your mouth. You know chocolate is the very best thing for bumps and bruises, right?”
    â€œNo,” says Jesse. But he reaches for the Fudgsicle as Emma holds the frozen corn to his head. Just then Dominic walks in, his face sinking when he sees his son’s tear-stained face.
    â€œBuddy! What happened?” he says, rushing over to pick Jesse up.
    â€œI’m okay,” says Jesse, who is more interested in sucking the Fudgsicle than in discussing his wound. “I skidded on the kitchen floor.”
    â€œWet feet,” explains Emma.
    â€œEmma looked after me. I feel better now,” he says, as Dominic winces when he feels the bump, before putting him down on the floor.
    â€œNo running with wet feet,” says Dominic sternly. “What did I tell you?”
    â€œSorry, Dad. Can I go back to the slide?”
    â€œOnly if you walk.”
    â€œâ€™Kay,” says Jesse, Fudgsicle in his mouth, as he turns and runs out of the kitchen.
    â€œNo running!” shout Dominic and Emma together. Then they look at each other and laugh.
    â€œSorry,” says Emma, who finds herself holding the bag of corn again. “I hope you weren’t saving the corn for anything special. It’s clearly vintage.” She turns the bag over to look for a sell-by date. “Goodness, sell by October fourteenth, 2010. This could be worth some serious money. Have you considered contacting
Antiques Roadshow
?”
    â€œIt’s frozen,” says Dominic, who is smiling through his