Read Online Hatteras Girl (Heart of Carolina Book #3) by Alice J. Wisler - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Alice J. Wisler
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that being at Sheerly’s is like reality TV—much too revealing and always predictable.
After a lunch of ham sandwiches and chips, it’s evident that Zane and I need to get out of the duplex. Zane is irritated about something; I can tell by the way he bangs his trucks together. The large yellow Tonka continues to collide with the smaller one as Zane shouts, “Crash, boom, you are dead!” He spells dead, only he leaves out a letter and repeats, “You are d-a-d. Dead.”
The day is sunny with little humidity, a good one to run some errands. Minnie has remembered to leave his car seat for me. I take the boy with me to drop off an article at the Lighthouse Views office. When we get inside the office, Selena isn’t in. Bert tells me that she went to talk to the owner of some new health club. Cassidy says she’s lost two pounds and fourteen ounces since Monday. I congratulate her and then tell Zane, who has made his way into the men’s room, to hurry. He calls from inside the restroom, “I’ll only be a minute.”
When he appears at the door to the men’s room, I notice that the zipper on his shorts is undone. “Zane,” I say, “you need to zip up your fly.”
“Where’s a fly?” His eyes scan over my head.
“Your fly. That’s another word for zipper.”
He looks down and says, “I don’t see a fly,” but he does zip up the gap in his shorts. Then he burps, and when I tell him he needs to say excuse me, he only burps louder.
Under her breath, Cassidy asks me, “Who does he belong to?”
“I live with him.” I force a smile. “We have lots of fun.”
She looks alarmed. “Does he have a mother?”
“Yes, Cassidy. You know Minnie.”
She gives a tentative nod. Then she confesses that she’s so hungry she could eat five burgers from the Grille.
“Want me to order you takeout while I’m there?” I ask.
“I wish. Gotta drink some water and maybe then the craving will go away.”
“What about mints?” I ask. Ropey went through a whole box of Life Savers when he was on a diet. “Will some of them help?”
“The sugar-free ones are allowed on my diet. But I ate them all yesterday.”
There are days that I’m grateful to be five-feet-ten with a high metabolism. “Good luck,” I tell her as Zane and I leave to drive to the restaurant.
Zane says, “Good luck. Be careful of germs.” He thinks this is a funny line and laughs all the way to the parking lot.
“I’m funny,” he tells me as I strap him into his car seat.
“You think?”
“Yeah.” His laugh reminds me of chimpanzees at the zoo.
I remember the day Minnie called to say she was pregnant. I was in my Charlotte apartment on Commonwealth Avenue, watching a car outside my window try to parallel park when my cell rang. Without any preliminaries, all I heard was, “I’m going to have a baby! I’m going to have a baby!” Minnie was on the verge of hyperventilating, she was so excited. “At last! I’d given up hope. Oh, Jackie, oh, Jackie, can you believe it?”
The car I was watching at the time was not as blessed. I saw it scrape the fender of another car, and then end up on the curb, its passenger door dented by a telephone pole.
Inside the Grille, I enjoy Buck’s comical banter with Betty Lynn as I sip my Diet Pepsi. Zane spins around on the barstool next to me.
“Do you know that Buck is an artist?” Betty Lynn asks me when she comes over after filling four glasses with sweet iced tea.
“He is?”
Before she heads off with her tray, Betty Lynn says, “He paints with acrylics. We might even put one of his pictures on the wall here, right, Buck?”
Suddenly, I realize Zane is not happy with his Mountain Dew, or as he calls it, “Mountain Doom.” He’s tossed the straw paper onto the floor and crumpled the straw with his fingers so that it resembles an earthworm in Sheerly’s garden.
With a bottom lip curved over the upper one, he sits with eyes closed. I hear the hissing in his throat rapidly make its
After a lunch of ham sandwiches and chips, it’s evident that Zane and I need to get out of the duplex. Zane is irritated about something; I can tell by the way he bangs his trucks together. The large yellow Tonka continues to collide with the smaller one as Zane shouts, “Crash, boom, you are dead!” He spells dead, only he leaves out a letter and repeats, “You are d-a-d. Dead.”
The day is sunny with little humidity, a good one to run some errands. Minnie has remembered to leave his car seat for me. I take the boy with me to drop off an article at the Lighthouse Views office. When we get inside the office, Selena isn’t in. Bert tells me that she went to talk to the owner of some new health club. Cassidy says she’s lost two pounds and fourteen ounces since Monday. I congratulate her and then tell Zane, who has made his way into the men’s room, to hurry. He calls from inside the restroom, “I’ll only be a minute.”
When he appears at the door to the men’s room, I notice that the zipper on his shorts is undone. “Zane,” I say, “you need to zip up your fly.”
“Where’s a fly?” His eyes scan over my head.
“Your fly. That’s another word for zipper.”
He looks down and says, “I don’t see a fly,” but he does zip up the gap in his shorts. Then he burps, and when I tell him he needs to say excuse me, he only burps louder.
Under her breath, Cassidy asks me, “Who does he belong to?”
“I live with him.” I force a smile. “We have lots of fun.”
She looks alarmed. “Does he have a mother?”
“Yes, Cassidy. You know Minnie.”
She gives a tentative nod. Then she confesses that she’s so hungry she could eat five burgers from the Grille.
“Want me to order you takeout while I’m there?” I ask.
“I wish. Gotta drink some water and maybe then the craving will go away.”
“What about mints?” I ask. Ropey went through a whole box of Life Savers when he was on a diet. “Will some of them help?”
“The sugar-free ones are allowed on my diet. But I ate them all yesterday.”
There are days that I’m grateful to be five-feet-ten with a high metabolism. “Good luck,” I tell her as Zane and I leave to drive to the restaurant.
Zane says, “Good luck. Be careful of germs.” He thinks this is a funny line and laughs all the way to the parking lot.
“I’m funny,” he tells me as I strap him into his car seat.
“You think?”
“Yeah.” His laugh reminds me of chimpanzees at the zoo.
I remember the day Minnie called to say she was pregnant. I was in my Charlotte apartment on Commonwealth Avenue, watching a car outside my window try to parallel park when my cell rang. Without any preliminaries, all I heard was, “I’m going to have a baby! I’m going to have a baby!” Minnie was on the verge of hyperventilating, she was so excited. “At last! I’d given up hope. Oh, Jackie, oh, Jackie, can you believe it?”
The car I was watching at the time was not as blessed. I saw it scrape the fender of another car, and then end up on the curb, its passenger door dented by a telephone pole.
Inside the Grille, I enjoy Buck’s comical banter with Betty Lynn as I sip my Diet Pepsi. Zane spins around on the barstool next to me.
“Do you know that Buck is an artist?” Betty Lynn asks me when she comes over after filling four glasses with sweet iced tea.
“He is?”
Before she heads off with her tray, Betty Lynn says, “He paints with acrylics. We might even put one of his pictures on the wall here, right, Buck?”
Suddenly, I realize Zane is not happy with his Mountain Dew, or as he calls it, “Mountain Doom.” He’s tossed the straw paper onto the floor and crumpled the straw with his fingers so that it resembles an earthworm in Sheerly’s garden.
With a bottom lip curved over the upper one, he sits with eyes closed. I hear the hissing in his throat rapidly make its
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