Read Online Josie Day Is Coming Home by Lisa Plumley - Free Book Online

strawberry blond
toddler. She honestly was adorable, dressed in pint-size overalls and a tiny
flower-print T-shirt. “The last time I saw you,” she cooed, “you
were just a baby. And your big sister was about your size.” She looked
around. “Where’s Hannah, anyway?”
    Silence.
    Uh-oh. Josie glanced up, temporarily abandoning her quest to
capture her niece’s flailing, chubby little hand in hers. It was just as she’d
feared. Jenna stared at her as though she could see right inside her head—and
knew perfectly well this whole conversation was a detour from the deadly
“visiting Donovan’s Corner” discussion.
    But then she hitched Emily higher on her hip and, to Josie’s
relief, answered.
    “Hannah’s in kindergarten now. I just dropped her off
at school.”
    “ Kindergarten ? Wow! I can’t believe it.”
Kindergarten was one thing Josie had fond memories of. In kindergarten, no one
had expected her to settle down, stay in her seat, or pay too much attention to
things like good behavior. “Time really flies. That means Hannah must be,
what, five now?”
    Another silence.
    Josie could feel something building between them. Something
expectant. Something she wanted to avoid.
    “Cute shoes,” she blurted. Another bid for
diversion.
    Jenna wasn’t buying it. She didn’t so much as glance at her
scuffed sneakers.
    “Are you going to go see Mom and Dad?” she asked.
    Yup, that was it. The thing Josie wanted to avoid.
    So much for diversion.
    “Well, I just got here. I mean, literally. This
morning. I haven’t had a chance to do much.” Besides go ga-ga over my
gorgeous handyman, lug half a dozen boxes into my new tumbledown mansion, and
launch a dance school scheme . “So far.”
     “Mmmm-hmmm.” With practiced ease, Jenna tugged a
grubby stuffed monkey from the depths of her purse. One-handed, she offered it
to fussy Emily. Then she gave Josie her patented I’m older, listen to me look. “Mark my words. You might as well just get it over with. By the time
the five o’clock news airs tonight, the whole town will know you’re back anyway.”
    “I seriously doubt I’ll make the news.”
    “You know that’s not what I mean.”
    Josie wished she didn’t. Adopting her most persuasive tone,
she tried again. “You know, it would keep me out of the news if you
didn’t mention that you saw me.”
    Jenna rolled her eyes. Right. Josie had been crazy to expect
any kind of deviant behavior from her saintly sister. Even for solidarity’s
sake.
    With a sigh that suggested longstanding tolerance, Jenna
held her ground. “You’re going to have to see them sometime.”
    “Okay, fine.” Josie looked away, pretending to be
absorbed in the snail’s-pace traffic down Main Street. “I’ll stop by Mom’s
office.”
    “And Dad?”
    “Dad? He’s doing pretty well with that whole ‘I’ve only
got one daughter’ thing.” Josie shrugged, offering up a feeble grin.
“I’d hate to break his winning streak.”
    “Josie—”
    “No, don’t worry about it. I’m fine.” Feeling
anything but, she looked around for an excuse to get away. “Anyway, I’ve
got to run. I was just on my way…here.” She pointed.
    Jenna arched an unplucked eyebrow. “Donovan’s Corner
Utilities?”
    Josie nodded. “Yup. But it was great seeing you! Say
‘hi!’ to David for me, okay?” Jenna’s husband, a plumber, was as flawless
as Jenna was. “Bye! Bye, Emily!”
    The little girl squeezed her fist in an awkward learner’s
version of a wave. The gesture pricked Josie right where it hurt most—her
heart. She wished she’d seen Emily and Hannah more over the past few years. But
with things so complicated….
    “Later,” she said, then ducked into the refuge of
the town’s combined electric, gas, water, and phone company. As long as she was
hiding out, she figured she’d might as well get something useful
accomplished—like having the utilities at Blue Moon transferred to her own
name.
    Not that going all