12 Borrowing Trouble Read Online Free Page A

after that you are going to relax and forget you even have kids for a week.  This week is for you.   I’m going to talk to Leigh Ann and get her to set you up for a makeover.  You’ll get your hair done, your nails done, then she will take you shopping.  A girl’s day out.”
    “I can’t afford to go shopping,” Carrie immediately replied. 
    It was true.  She was up to her eyeballs in bills.  What she needed to do was find a job.  Fast.  Sean’s pension just wasn’t cutting it, even though she didn’t have the house anymore.  With the money they owed from Izzy’s hospital bills from when she was born, combined with the money she still owed on the house which she sold for less than she owed on the mortgage, back taxes from Sean’s security work on the side, and credit card bills, Carrie was overwhelmed. 
    If she hadn’t found the eight thousand dollars between Chris’s mattresses when she was searching his room for drugs, she wouldn’t even have been able to make the move to her parents’ ranch.  That money had been a godsend. 
    She still didn’t buy Chris’s story that he found it in Sean’s home office after he died though.  Carrie wasn’t that stupid.  Her husband didn’t leave that kind of money laying around, even if he was on an undercover assignment.  He said before he would never do that, because it might lead the bad guys to their doorstep. 
    But if Sean had made an exception on that particular job, one that seemed to go on forever, the one that got him killed, it meant the money belonged to the department.  Carrie’s thought process was, if they hadn’t missed it in three years since he died, she needed it more than they did.  So she hadn’t reported it, and she hadn’t asked her son any other questions.
    H er husband was dead, her bills were due, and her son was in trouble from hanging out with the wrong group of kids at school.  Getting the foreclosure notice on the house was just icing on the cake, the final sign it was way past time for her to get the hell out of Dodge.  That eight thousand dollars let her be able to do that.
    “It’s on me ,” Terri said, waking up Carrie from her thoughts.  “I’m paying you for working today.  God, woman you have almost cleaned the entire house!  You’ve been at it since before I got up this morning!”
    “I always get up early.  Chris and Izzy—“
    “Aren’t here,” Terri interrupted with a lifted brow.
    That was the problem.  Carrie didn’t know what to do with herself without the kids around.  She sighed and dropped the sponge into the sink.  “This is the least I can do for you letting me stay here this week.  I’m paying you back.” 
    A thought hit her.  Maybe that’s what she could do to help herself financially.  Carrie liked to clean, was good at it.  Maybe she could get a few houses to clean when the kids were at school, but her shoulders slumped again when she realized that wouldn’t work either.  Her parents’ ranch was out in the boonies.  She’d probably spend as much in gas to get to the houses as she made cleaning them.  She’d already nixed the idea of getting a student loan to go back to school, because that would just mean more debt.  That would just compound her situation, not help it.
    “No, ma’am, you aren’t.”  Terri unfolded her arms to push away from the counter.  She hugged Carrie’s shoulders.  “What you are going to do is have a little fun for a change.  Go get ready.  Joel’s mom, Curly, has Jayden for the day, so I’m going shopping with y’all too.  Tonight we’re going to Smack Daddy’s.”
    “Smack Daddy’s?” Carrie repeated dumbly , looking at her.
    “Yeah, it’s a local bar.  Joel and I need some adult time, and so do you.”
    Adult time was something she hadn’t had in a long time.  Since her d aughter was born ten years ago.  After Izzy was born, if Carrie wasn’t dealing with something the kids needed, she was anticipating what