Read Online Small Change by Sheila Roberts - Free Book Online Page B

perfect man didn't exist, except in fiction. And guess who made up those perfect men? Women, probably women who wished they could find such a thing as a perfect man.
    But when she'd passed the romance paperbacks at the library she hadn't been able to stop herself from adding a couple to her pile of finance books. Maybe pretend wasn't so bad. Maybe reading about love and happy endings was good for the soul and gavea girl hope. With school (and her job) about to end, she could use a little hope.
    She popped a chocolate in her mouth and opened the book.
    Destiny Vane knew she had found her soul mate when she first saw Auguste Baiser. He was darkly handsome with sensual lips, a chiseled chin, and powerful arms, and he was helping an old woman across the dirty streets of Paris.
    Rachel snuggled down deeper among the sofa pillows. Auguste Baiser, would, of course, turn out to have other body parts as powerful as his arms, and after many ups and downs (no pun intended), many tears and terrors, Destiny and Auguste would walk off into the French sunset hand in hand. In the book, this would take months. At the rate Rachel read, it would take until Sunday afternoon.
    Which it did. She gobbled the story down like candy, even though this par ticu lar book was one big cliché after another. But so what? Her real life was a cliché.
    She was done and ready to return to the real world by the time the children came through the door from spending the weekend with their father and Misty the lingerie model. Rachel was slipping peanut butter cookies onto a cooling rack when the door opened and the sound of voices and a bouncing basketball echoed through the house, announcing that her babies were back.
    David bounded into the kitchen first. “Cookies!” His basket-ball landed on the floor and dribbled away and he scooped up two, juggling the hot goodies in his hand.
    Rachel smiled. She couldn't run out and buy her son the latest Wii game, but cookies worked almost as well. “Did you have fun with your father?” she asked, keeping her voice conversational. Of course, he had fun. Fun was all the kids ever hadwith Aaron. No homework ever got done, no chores. Aaron's house was Fun Land. Sigh.
    David had already stuffed half a cookie into his mouth. “Yeah,” he said, spitting crumbs.
    Normally Rachel would correct him for talking with his mouth full. Not now, though, not when he'd just returned from being with the other woman.
    â€œExcept Misty can't cook.”
    Her son, who was basically a support system for a stomach, always said this when he came home, and she always kept the same thought to herself: Aaron didn't marry Misty for her cooking skills.
    Now Claire was in the kitchen, too. She was smiling, which meant Misty had done something cool with her, something where money was no object. It only took a second to guess what. Claire was wearing a new necklace and earrings.
    â€œYou look like you had fun. What did you do?” asked Rachel, working hard to sound like a good sport. Let me guess. Does it start with an S?
    â€œWe went to the mall,” said Claire.
    Big surprise. Clothes were Misty's life. How nice to have the perfect body for clothes, and for attracting someone else's husband. How nice to have money to spend on clothes, not only for yourself but to use to buy the affections of someone else's daughter, as well. How nice. Where was the Kick Me sign for Misty's backside?
    Okay, enough. Misty might have been able to steal Rachel's husband, but she'd never be able to steal her children. Kids couldn't be bought. They saw right through feeble attempts like trips to the mall, at least that was what Rachel's mother was always saying. She sure hoped her mother was right.
    â€œGuess what,” said Claire, still smiling. “Misty had braces when she was my age.”
    â€œAnd look how she turned out,” Rachel said, finishing her daughter's thought. She'd had braces, too, and had told Claire