Betrayal - Fern Michaels [7]
“What in the world were you two doing in there for so long?” Don asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“Sara is constipated,” Debbie reported.
Emily had to bite the inside of her mouth just to keep from laughing out loud. If she couldn’t go to the bathroom now, just wait a while. Once those miniburgers navigated their way through her sister’s gut, she’d have the Hershey squirts for days. Just imagining this brought an even bigger smile to her face. Maybe she’d crap herself. It would serve the little brat right if she did. Maybe then she wouldn’t be such a pig in the future.
“Mommy!” Sara shrieked
“It’s all right, honey. You can’t help it if you’re sick. It’s her nerves.” Debbie turned around to look at Emily, who was trying very hard not to laugh at the topic of conversation.
“Emily, badgering your sister has got to cease. She has a nervous stomach as it is. All the bickering has wreaked havoc on her bowels.”
“We get the picture, Debbie. Now, can we talk about something else?” Don flashed a grin in his rearview mirror at Emily.
She smiled back.
For once they were on the same page.
Chapter 2
Asheville, North Carolina
Kate was careful not to make too much noise as she removed bowls and utensils from the cupboard. Don and Debbie had arrived after midnight and would most likely want to sleep in. She wanted to make a hearty breakfast for everyone. She’d start them off with her homemade blueberry pancakes. She had thick-sliced hickory-smoked bacon and a special bottle of homemade syrup straight from Vermont. Fresh oranges for juice for the girls and grapefruit juice for Debbie. She was sure she still drank grapefruit juice. She’d been on a diet ever since Kate had met her and, other than alcohol, Kate had never seen Debbie drink anything else.
Kate loved the early mornings. Always an early riser, she’d cherished this time for as long as she could remember. She would start her day with a good strong cup of tea. Alex wasn’t a tea drinker, so she bought the best roasted coffee beans she could get at the Daily Grind, a local grocery specializing in gourmet coffees and hard-to-find food items. She readied a pot of coffee, then took the blueberries she’d recently picked, put them in a colander, and rinsed them in the kitchen sink. Kate loved her kitchen almost as much as she loved the art studio that Alex had built for her right after they’d married. It was a loft just above the kennels where all the dogs were kept. When she needed inspiration, she’d simply walk downstairs and play with all the wonderful retrievers Alex bred and raised. Almost always, she’d go back to the studio exhilarated and would work at her pottery wheel for hours. Kate planned on showing the girls how to use it during their visit this year. Though she had wanted to let Emily try her hand at the wheel a couple of years ago, for fear of hurting Sara’s feelings, she’d waited until both girls were old enough. That way she could teach them together. At fifteen and twelve, Kate figured they were both ready.
Kate finished her prep work for breakfast and sat at the old oak table in the corner of the kitchen. She sipped her tea, enjoying the quiet. Though it wasn’t cold, she lit a fire in the fireplace. Early mornings in the mountains of North Carolina were always a bit on the chilly side, even in the summer. It was these mornings Kate liked best. She loved the pungent woodsmoke billowing from the chimney, the damp, earthy smell from the moist soil, the buds that dotted the hundreds of trees in early spring. She opened the window over the kitchen sink to admire the view. As the sun ascended above the mountaintops, clearing away the purple-gray fog suspended over the Blue Ridge Parkway, Kate observed the first rays of daylight. This is God’s country, she thought. Never had she seen a sunrise like that on the parkway. In the fall, it was breathtaking. Golds, reds, and oranges, ranging in hundreds, the colors decorated the mountains like thousands of brightly colored gems.