Read Online Not Quite Perfect (Oakland Hills Book 3) by Gretchen Galway - Free Book Online

lowered her voice to a whisper. “Are you okay?”
    “If I told you I’d be dead next week, would you invite him to dinner?”
    The goose bumps spread to the rest of her body. “Yes,” April whispered.
    Trixie sighed. “How about a knee injury?”
    “You hurt your knee?”
    “I could.” She moved her hands from the keys to her thighs. “I’m not getting any younger.”
    “But you’re not sick. Right?” April studied her mother, unhappy to notice she didn’t look quite as baby faced and vibrant as the image April nurtured in her mind. Lines from unprotected sun exposure—which Trixie insisted was worth the vitamin D—creased her eyes, cheeks, mouth, and neck. Her hair had been white for a long time, but it looked a little dull and flat. “Right?”
    “I’m not pooping as easily as I’d like,” Trixie said. “And I almost wet myself laughing at a TV show last night. Does that ease your mind?”
    “It depends,” April said, swamped with relief. “So to speak. What was the show?”
    Trixie laughed. “That’s my girl. You’re my lighthearted one, always were. Don’t worry. I’m fine.”
    “Except for the peeing-in-your-pants thing.”
    “My grandbaby and I have so much in common,” Trixie said, starting to play again. “Next Thursday is perfect. Do you know if Zack’s a vegetarian?”
    The craziness of the idea was so her . “Great idea, Mom,” April said. “I’ll invite the business consultant I barely know home to meet my mother—on Thanksgiving .”
    “Not just your mother,” Trixie said. “Liam and Bev’s mother, too. His clients. It’s not such a strange request, see? You could pretend it’s for business.”
    Luckily, Zack had told everyone he’d be gone the entire week for the holiday. He didn’t specify where he was going, but she and Rita and Virginia had decided it was New York, his permanent base.
    Gossiping about the dark-haired, serious young consultant had become a widespread hobby at Fite Fitness, and although April tried to abstain, she found herself as curious and full of theories as everyone else.
    “He’s out of town until after Thanksgiving,” she told her mother.
    “Visiting family?”
    “How would I know?” April turned the pages of the sheet music on the stand in front of them—beginner’s music, for a child. Just in time for the two-month-old infant in the other room, who no doubt would be playing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” any day now.
    “Didn’t you ask?” Trixie swatted her hands away from the sheet music. “Never mind, you’re right—a regular day will be more relaxing, less intimidating. You can invite him for a plate of my famous lasagna.”
    “Mom, seriously. I barely know him. And inviting him home to meet my mom—”
    “Forget about me. I’ll go out. There’s a space movie I want to see. Those are always better in theaters, and I can avoid the crowds around the holiday weekend.”
    April looked at the couch next to the piano. It was the same one she’d slept on in Liam’s condo in San Francisco during another one of her homeless periods. “How about you and I go to the movies together?” April asked. “Just you and me.”
    It had been ages since they did anything like that. April tried to remember the last time she’d been out with just her mom—away from the house, away from her brothers.
    “You’d do that?” Trixie asked.
    “Of course I’d do that. I want to do that.”
    “Just us?”
    “Why are you so surprised?”
    “I… I don’t know. Movies are such a date thing with you. Seems like a waste to go with your mom when you have boyfriends falling all over you.”
    That was her polite mother’s way of saying she slept around. “They were all losers, that’s why they kept falling.”
    “But this Zack guy sounds impressive—”
    “Forget that guy. You and I will make a real date of it. We’ll go to the salon beforehand. And dinner. Indian, and not just the lunch buffet. From the menu .”
    Interest