Read Online Twist of Fate by Mary Jo Putney - Free Book Online

together every Sunday night. "Think of Charlton Heston as Ben-Hur after the Roman galley sinks and Chuck is rowing that raft. Lots of muscles and a blond beard."
    Rachel laughed. "If he looks like that and has a brain as well, ask him if he has a brother. I await developments eagerly."
    "Don't hold your breath. Rob is strictly fantasy fodder."
    Rachel arched her brows in patent disbelief, but didn't argue the point. "Even if he's a nonstarter, a new job means meeting new people. Maybe one of them will be the love of your life."
    "Even if I do find Prince Charming, that would lead to the biggest ambivalence of all--motherhood," Val said wryly. "My biological clock is ticking madly, but the prospect of children also terrifies me. What if I find a guy who's a keeper, have a baby, then discover I'm a total loser as a mother? It's a job that you can't quit after you start."
    "Personally I suspect that you have plenty of ambivalence about the love-of-your-life part as well," Rachel observed, "but you won't be a failure if you decide to have kids. You'll read every book on parenting ever written, analyze them all, then put the best ideas into practice. The real question is not whether you'd be a decent mother, but whether it's a responsibility you want to take on."
    "You're right. It's the responsibility that's so scary. Sure would be nice if we could do a test run on parenting before jumping into the abyss."
    "You're over-thinking this parenting business--an amazing number of people manage it with no advance planning at all. But if it would make you feel better, there are different kinds of test runs available."
    Val ran a mental list of friends with small children. "Borrow someone's child for a weekend?"
    "That's a start. Or you could join a Big Sister/Little Sister program." Rachel grinned. "It would fit right in with your new do-gooder status."
    "I never thought of that," Val said slowly, "but it's a good idea. Maybe I'll learn something about how well I can handle a long-term relationship with a kid."
    "Maybe, or maybe not. I know plenty of people who say the only children they can stand are their own. But even if you don't get a definitive answer on becoming a parent, mentoring a young girl should be rewarding in its own right."
    "I'll put 'little sister' at the top of the list." Val smiled, soothed by wine, good company, and feline purring. She had the prospect of exciting new work, an intriguing man, and finding a little girl she could play with, then hand back.
    What more could a woman want?

 
    Chapter 6

    ∗ ∗ ∗
    Rob was about to start framing the new offices in the church basement when Val rang up on his cell phone. "Hi, Rob, it's Val. I know this is short notice, but can you meet me at the SuperMax prison on Madison and Fallsway in an hour so we can talk with Daniel Monroe?"
    So soon. The knowledge of what he was starting was like a cold north wind on bare skin. "Sure, but let me pick you up at your office."
    "I can manage. It's not far from where I work."
    "Do you really want to park your Lexus in that area?"
    "Mmm...probably not," she agreed. "Do you know where my office is?"
    "Yes." He had learned that when he web-searched her. "See you at eleven." He hung up, thinking he had better go upstairs to his apartment and change clothes. Worn denim was his fabric of choice, but he needed to look like an investigator, not an inmate.
    It had been years since he had made much effort to look respectable, and he found that his navy blazer was now tight across the shoulders and his khakis loose at the waist.
    Hammering a nail was much better exercise than hammering a keyboard.
    He climbed into his truck and headed downtown, thinking it felt odd to wear business casual clothing in his old pickup. The monastic simplicity of the life he had lived these last years would surely break down if he involved himself with people and causes. His feelings about that were ambivalent. The oppressive heaviness that had flattened him was