Read Online Tender Loving Care by Jennifer Greene - Free Book Online

to say, but the back door had already closed with a snap.
     
    Busily mixing cookie batter, Zoe glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. Three minutes past three. Exactly three minutes had passed since the last time she’d looked. Her back, neck, knees, hands and nerves felt as if she’d been through a war. This had to be the longest day she could ever remember.
    Every task had taken ages to accomplish. She’d spent an hour making a snowman, and approximately five hours getting the kids in and out of their snowsuits. At home, she could have tossed in a wash and made a few beds in minutes; those simple projects had stretched to an hour because of little boy–type interruptions. Four games of Go Fish had lasted forever. She’d pushed Magneto around in a mock battle with Wolverine on the living room rug for at least a lifetime, but of course all of that was an exaggeration. She knew darn well she’d never been out of the kitchen for more than four minutes between drinks, spills, lunches, cocoa and cookie baking.
    She glanced at the clock again. Four minutes past three. Rafe wouldn’t be home for another two hours. She certainly didn’t want him home; she wanted him busy at work building a serious relationship with Sarah, but she felt so…stranded.
    Was it normal for two four-year-old boys to try to kill each other every fifteen minutes? What was the appropriate thing to say when one discovered them practicing their aim from three feet away from the toilet? Had Janet really let them eat their lunch upside down? How much cookie batter could she remember her mother letting her lick without risking her getting sick?
    She’d die if the kids got sick.
    “How’s that look, Zoe?”
    She glanced at the cookie sheet. Some of the blobs of batter would have filled a teaspoon; others would have filled half a cup. “Wonderful,” she said.
    “What are we going to do after this, Snookums?”
    Die. Nap. “I could read you a story,” she suggested.
    Reading a story, she discovered, was a ritual. Thumbs went in mouths; each boy glued himself to one side of her; and since she had to put her arms around both of them, the boys took turns holding the book. Interruptions like oven buzzers for burned cookies were followed by a vigorous resettling in the same spot on the couch. They were so quiet that she vaguely worried that they’d both gone into a catatonic state, but that posed yet another question to ask Rafe. Where was the nearest children’s bookstore?
    At four forty-five, the kids seemed reasonably settled in front of the television, and Zoe slipped into the bathroom to wash her face. Her appearance in the mirror appalled her. She not only felt as if she’d been through a war, she looked it. Hastily, she washed, tucked, brushed and was just reaching for her mascara wand and lipstick when both boys showed up at the door.
    “Whatcha doing, Snookums?” Parker demanded.
    “I thought you liked that cartoon…”
    “The screen’s all wavy. What’s that?”
    “Mascara.” Zoe carefully removed a lipstick tube from Aaron’s hand.
    “What’s it for?”
    Alarmed, she saw Aaron was ready to cry. “To make your eyes look bigger,” she said distractedly to Parker.
    “What’s wrong with your eyes the way they are?”
    “ Why can’t I put some on?” Aaron demanded. “Mommy let me put hers on.”
    “Look, you can spray perfume on me, okay?” Zoe said desperately to Aaron.
    “What’s perfume have to do with eyes?” Parker looked irritated. “Look, numbskull, I’m trying to talk to Snookums.”
    “Oh, shut up, Parker. What’s this?” Aaron had discovered her cosmetics bag, and he wasn’t content until he’d seen for himself exactly what every item was.
    As a result, Zoe was made up for a formal ball when Rafe walked in the door, and all three of them were wearing perfume and sporting powdered noses.
    His nostrils flared slightly when both boys ran to him with a whoop of a hello. Zoe flushed clear to her toes and