Read Online Jane Austen Girl by Inglath Cooper - Free Book Online Page A

should waste your time on that ridiculous—”
    She threw up a hand to stop him. “I don’t think it’s ridiculous!” she cried. “Why can’t you be happy that I want to do something different?”
    On that, she turned and ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs. A few seconds later, he heard her bedroom door slam.
    Flo looked up at him, her big brown eyes worried.
    “I know,” he said, rubbing the top of her head. “I need to learn when to keep my mouth shut.”
    He stood in the same place for a long time, trying to decide when life as he knew it had turned inside out, so that he recognized virtually nothing of the current landscape.
    The phone rang, jangling him out of his state of stunned shock. He picked it up with a distracted hello.
    “Let me speak to Andy.”
    Priscilla’s highhanded demand tipped Bobby Jack right over the edge. “Why? So you can brainwash her with more of your ideas on how to get ahead in this world?”
    “Oh, Bobby Jack, we all know you have the only secret formula available, so why would I bother?”
    Her sarcasm ignited him even further. “There’s no secret to where hard work and a good college will get her. Where do you think winning a date with a duke will get her?”
    “Maybe she’ll marry him. Don’t they come with country houses and servants?”
    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said on a choked laugh. “This is your idea of parental guidance? No, wait. Forget I said that. You don’t have the slightest idea of what it takes to be a parent. Because you weren’t around for eleven years of her life. Now that you’ve remembered you have a daughter, this is your contribution to her development? Filling her head with garbage?”
    “She doesn’t think it’s garbage. You’re the only one who seems to think that. And as a matter of fact, I met the woman who’s going to be choosing the makeover candidate. I’d like to give Andy a few tips before her interview tomorrow.”
    Beneath her breezy arrogance, Bobby Jack broke. “Or why don’t you just skip to the part you know best? Maybe you could tell her how to get pregnant and force the guy to marry her. There’s some wisdom you could surely pass down to her.”
    “You are such an asshole, Bobby Jack.”
    “Because I don’t choose to drape our history in pink roses?”
    “That’s your version of our history,” Priscilla said, her voice suddenly flat.
    “No, that’s the truth.”
    With that, Bobby Jack clicked off the phone and tossed it on the kitchen counter. He forced in several deep, calming breaths. Hearing a noise, he walked down the hallway, suddenly sorry he’d let temper bring out accusations he’d long ago shelved and catalogued as irrelevant.
    Footsteps sounded on the stairs. He reached the bottom of the staircase only to see Andy take off running mid-way up. “Andy!” he called out.
    But she ignored him, again slamming the door to her bedroom. This time, he heard the click of the lock. And along with it came the sickening realization that she’d heard every word he’d said.

 
     
    If you believe in yourself
    andwhat you’re doing with your life, stand tall
    anddon’t make excuses for who you are. 
    Grier McAllister - Blog at Jane Austen Girl

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    At just after nine o’clock, Grier climbed into the comfortable king-size bed from which Sebbie had only moved when she took him out for a walk to do his business. She tucked his head against her shoulder and rubbed his side with her thumb, taking pleasure in his soft snoring.
    Too restless to sleep, she picked up the remote control and flicked through fifty or so channels, not a single one catching her interest.
    For the past few hours, she’d immersed herself in work she’d brought along on her laptop, answered e-mails and reviewed her notes for tomorrow’s interviews. All in a futile attempt to avoid thinking about what Priscilla Randall had said about her mother and whether it was true that she was living in the nursing