Read Online Hand-Me-Down Love by Jennifer Ransom - Free Book Online

section, but she was there for the
chicken. She chose a five-pound roaster. On the way back through the
store, she got a package of basmati rice and two bottles of
chardonnay. Marla was going to cook for the first time in a long
time. Sean was coming home and she wanted to celebrate.
    After she put
the groceries up, Marla got a glass of wine and put it in the
bathroom on a blue wooden stool beside the tub. She took a shower and
washed her blond hair, then filled the tub with water and bath salts.
She lay in the tub for a while. Sean texted her once while she was
there, saying he was about two hours away. The tub was so relaxing
that Marla had a hard time getting out of it. But she finally did,
drying herself with the freshly laundered towels. She put on her
terry cloth robe and dried her shoulder length hair. It was the same
color as Meredith’s hair. In fact, she and Meredith had looked a
lot alike, enough so that people definitely knew they were sisters.
But Meredith’s eyes had been blue and Marla’s eyes were hazel,
almost golden colored.
    Marla was not
unaware that she was preparing as if she were going on a date. She
tried to push her feelings away, but they kept coming back. She
reasoned with herself. Sean was her brother-in-law and she was
looking after him like Meredith asked. Right? She just missed him,
that was all. She had gotten used to him being around. It was a habit
thing. Marla was confused, but she was so excited at the thought of
seeing Sean again that she allowed her excitement to take over. And
hadn’t he texted that he was looking forward to seeing her, too?
    Marla dressed
in a long brown skirt and fitted pink cashmere sweater with pearl
buttons down the front. She would have to be careful not to get any
food on her clothes as she cooked their dinner. Come to think of it,
she did have a vintage apron in the large kitchen drawer. She had
never used it, but today she would. She walked into the kitchen and
pulled the green apron from the drawer. She put the loop over her
head and tied the sash behind her. She was ready to go, like any good
housewife from the fifties.
    Sean would
probably be back any minute. Marla got the chicken out of the
refrigerator and washed it, then dried it thoroughly with paper
towels, inside and out. She placed it in the chicken roaster she had
inherited from her grandmother. Well, inherited was too strong a
word. When her grandmother died a few years back, Marla and Meredith
and her mother cleaned out her house. No one else wanted the blue
speckled chicken roaster, so Marla took it. Turned out, she used it
frequently for chicken and roast and anything else she wanted to
bake.
    She cut a lemon
in half and squeezed the juice on the chicken before shaking salt and
pepper all over it, even the bottom. She placed the domed top on the
roaster. As she was washing her hands, she heard footsteps coming up
the stairs. She grabbed a kitchen towel. Sean opened the door and
said, “Honey, I’m home.” He laughed and so did she. She felt
like Mary Tyler Moore and he was Dick Van Dyke.
    Marla noticed
that Sean’s hair had grown longer. She knew it must have been
getting longer every day he had been living there, but now that he
had been gone, she really saw it. He hadn’t shaved since he left
and he had a four-day stubble that was not unattractive. Marla wanted
to give him a hug, but instead she said, “I’m making supper for
us tonight.”
    “ Really?”
Sean said with a note of surprise.
    “ I do know
how to cook, believe it or not,” she said.
    “ Oh, I
believe it. Anybody wearing an apron like that better know how to
cook.”
    “ I know,
right?” she said laughing.
    She took a sip
of wine and suddenly felt shy. “Would you like a drink after your
long drive?” she asked.
    “ I most
certainly would,” he said. “But I’d like to take a shower
first. Get the road grime off.” He picked up his dark blue duffel
bag and walked out of the kitchen. A few minutes later, Marla