Read Online Grand Avenue by Joy Fielding - Free Book Online

to the house, catching Tony’s shadow watching her from behind the sheer curtains of her living room.
    “We’re kidnapping you,” Vicki announced, leading the women toward the pearlized-beige-colored Jaguar parked halfway down the street.
    “Really,” Chris said, coming to an abrupt halt. “I can’t do this. I have to get back.”
    Vicki unlocked the car doors as the women surrounded Chris, blocked her escape. “Get in the car,” someone said.
    Chris peered out the rear window of the large luxury car, watching one winding road disappear into another. They’d only been driving for ten minutes, and already it seemed as if they were in another world, a magical world untouched by the mundane concerns of harsh reality. A world where large estates sat well back from the road, and traffic signs announced horse trails and crossings. A world where peaceful, rolling green hills created the calming illusion of country life, although it was situated less than half an hour from downtown Cincinnati. Lots of money, both new and old, Chris thought, in the twenty square miles that comprised the tony suburb of Indian Hill. Had these people been affected by the recession at all? Did they even know about it? “What are we doing here?” she asked.
    “Just looking,” Vicki said. “See anything you like?”
    “Only everything,” Barbara said from the seat beside Chris.
    Chris felt Barbara’s hand resting on top of hers, wondered if Barbara was keeping it there to prevent her from bolting from the car. She’s so beautiful, Chris thought absently, fighting the urge to run her free hand across Barbara’s soft cheek. She doesn’t need all thatmakeup and hairspray. She doesn’t need anything at all.
    “Did I tell you what Whitney said the other day?” Susan asked from the front passenger seat, her voice resonating quiet maternal pride. “We were getting ready to take a walk when it started raining, so I told her we’d have to go later, and she said, ‘That’s okay, Mommy. We take
open
umbrella.’ ” Susan laughed. “I thought that was pretty good for two years old, that kind of deductive reasoning.”
    “Amazing,” Barbara said.
    “Puts Einstein to shame.” Vicki laughed.
    “Well, I thought it was pretty smart for two years old.”
    “I remember when Tracey was two,” Barbara said, “and I’d been playing with her all afternoon, and I was just exhausted, so I told her I had to go lie down for a while, and of course, she wasn’t tired, because she was one of those kids who never slept, so I went into my room and lay down on the bed, and a few minutes later, I heard these little feet come padding into the room, and I opened one eye and saw her struggling with this big blanket, which she finally managed to throw over me, and then she climbed into the chair on the other side of the room and just sat there, watching me. Next thing I knew I’m sound asleep. I woke up an hour later and she’s still sitting there, she hasn’t moved, she’s just sitting there staring at me.”
    “Josh is a bit like that,” Vicki said of her four-year-old son. “Kind of creepy.”
    “I didn’t mean to imply Tracey was creepy,” Barbara protested.
    “Josh is definitely creepy,” Vicki said matter-of-factly.“I mean, I love him and everything, it’s just that he’s a little weird. You know what he asked me for the other day? Tampax!”
    “Tampax! Why, for heaven’s sake?”
    “He said he heard you swim better with it.”
    The women hooted with laughter. Even Chris found herself laughing out loud. Immediately she felt the tug at her ribs.
    “And Kirsten,” Vicki continued. “She’s a hard one to figure out. I never know what she’s thinking.”
    “It’s better that way,” Susan said. “Ariel tells me every thought in her head. Most of them have to do with hating her sister. I don’t think she’s ever going to forgive me.”
    The women chuckled, fell silent, stared out the windows at the magnificent expanse of