Read Online Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky - Free Book Online

was the escape. Choosing hot biscuits over a ghost ship, she layered a sweatshirt over her T-shirt and sleep shorts, pulled on a pair of wool socks, and followed the smell.
    *   *   *
    An hour later, she was stuffed. Frittata, hot biscuits, sliced kiwi and grapes, two mimosas, and endless coffee—Nicole kept plying her with more, refusing to let her move from her seat to either serve food or clean up. She was feeling pampered, but then, she always did when she came here. Nicole was mothering her the same way Angie used to. Back and forth between stove, sink, fridge, and coffeemaker—she didn’t stop moving.
    Nor did she stop talking. She mentioned the blog she’d just posted and the preliminary book cover her editor had sent, but these were only en route to discussing Charlotte’s own work. She seemed to have read it all—humbling for Charlotte, who had spent the same years in ignorance of Nicole’s life and wanted to hear about that, but Nicole wouldn’t allow it.
    Finally, when she was about to make one more trip to the sink, Charlotte caught her hand. “You’re making me dizzy, Nicki. Sit .”
    Nicole was quickly apologetic. “I’m sorry. I love doing this.”
    “The dishes can wait. I want to talk.”
    “We are talking.”
    “Not about what I want.” She softened the words by jiggling her friend’s hand. “I want to know about your life.”
    Nicole looked cornered. “My life? My life is great.”
    “So’s mine. End of discussion.” She stared in challenge.
    Nicole stared back, then laughed. “You haven’t changed. Same blunt Charlotte.” When Charlotte continued to stare, she finally settled back into her chair. “What do you want to know?”
    “Start with Kaylin and John,” Charlotte said. “Are you guys close?”
    Nicole’s smile held affection. “Very. Julian and I share custody with Monica … well, shared, past tense, because they’re both over eighteen now. Come fall, Kaylin will be a senior at Penn and John a sophomore at Haverford, but right up through high school, they were at our house all the time.”
    “House or condo?”
    “Condo,” she acknowledged. “We kept thinking we’d buy a house, but Kaylin loved playing Eloise in a high-rise, and Johnny loved running up and down the halls—and it was only ten minutes from Monica, who did have a house with a yard, and like I said, there were summers up here. Mom and Dad loved it. And the kids adored them. They’ve taken Dad’s death hard.”
    Charlotte believed it. Bob was one of the warmest people on earth. Right from the start, he had considered Julian’s children his grandchildren. But those two were supposed to have been a prelude to more. There had been lots of talk about that during the wedding summer.
    So—yes, same blunt Charlotte —she asked, “Why haven’t you had more kids?”
    “Because we already had two to raise.”
    “You always talked about having your own.”
    “There’s no rush. I know”—a dismissive wave—“I’m thirty-four, but that doesn’t make any difference. All that talk about the biological clock? Sometimes I think it’s a crock of you-know-what. Women today are having kids in their forties. Lots of women are. I know three doing it right now.”
    Her response was a bit too emphatic for Charlotte. “Is there a problem?”
    “Like fertility? No. We’ll have kids. We’re just taking our time.”
    “If Kaylin and John are both in college, and Julian is forty-six, what are you waiting for?”
    “Charlotte. You’re as bad as my mother!”
    But Charlotte wasn’t being put off. She needed to know that Nicole’s marriage was okay. “He didn’t change his mind about having more, did he?”
    “Oh no,” Nicole insisted. “He wants them as much as I do.” She glanced at the window and brightened. “Sun’s breaking through. Let’s take coffee out to the patio.” Before Charlotte could respond, she was heading for the mudroom. She returned carrying two parkas, and though her