Best Laid Plans Read Online Free

was not an option. Who knows, things might get better; they had gone through difficult times before and here they were, still together.
    ‘For heaven’s sake, don’t creep up on me like that,’ she said, wobbling a little. ‘Can’t you see I’m standing on a stool? You nearly gave me a heart attack,’ she added knowing at once that it was the wrong thing to say. ‘Oh, sorry, darling.’
    He managed a small smile. ‘No danger of that. You’ll outlive me.’
    ‘Don’t say things like that. That little op sorted you out, didn’t it?’
    Looking back, the health scare had been a good thing, a warning, which had brought him up sharply and been the incentive he needed to stop smoking and start eating more healthily. Sadly there was no way she could stop him fretting about the business, which had taken a bit of a downturn this past couple of years but then in this day and age everyone was surely in the same boat. They owned a removal company and the fact was very few people were moving at present. There were always people moving with their jobs and that would never change but it was the moving house just for the sake of it that had been stopped in its tracks.
    ‘Nearly done.’ Christine, still precariously balanced on the stool when there was a perfectly good set of sturdy steps in the back porch, reached across and looped a silver star over the tree top. ‘There.’
    She stepped off the stool and stood back.
    ‘Can I help?’ Frank asked belatedly regarding the finished tree with a frown. He was a heavily built man, lately edging towards plumpness, which they were trying desperately to control but he had kept his good head of hair of which he was proud and there wasn’t a grey hair in sight. Christine had a few – and no wonder – but her regular trip to the hairdresser took care of that. She had opted to remain dark-haired shying away from the hairdresser’s attempts to persuade her otherwise. Unadventurous, she wore it in the same style she had had for years; falling to shoulder length from a side parting, which meant it was versatile and she could if she wanted bunch it up off her face to show off her high cheekbones, an inherited feature that meant she would age well.
    ‘What do you think?’ She thought the tree looked gorgeous standing in the corner of the drawing room and, after all the hard work she was not in the mood for criticism.
    ‘Do you want the truth?’
    ‘Go on.’ She gave him one of her looks.
    ‘It looks a bit sparse. What’s happened to the decorations? The stuff the kids made?’
    ‘Oh come on, isn’t it time we went for something a touch more elegant? I’ve still got them,’ she added quickly. ‘But I’ve left them up in the loft for now. Perhaps we’ll get them out when we have grandchildren.’
    ‘Sometime never then,’ Frank said. ‘You’ll have to put that right out of your head. How many times do I have to tell you not to get your hopes up? Amy isn’t into kids and I can’t see Mike and Monique obliging any time soon.’
    ‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that.’
    ‘I don’t know what he sees in her, anyway,’ he went on, determined, it seemed, to grumble.
    ‘I wish you wouldn’t talk about her like that.’ Christine glanced anxiously round as if their daughter-in-law was standing outside the door.
    ‘I’m only saying it to you, love. She needs to get herself a job for starters if she doesn’t intend to have kids. What does she do all day?’
    ‘She paints.’
    ‘She paints,’ he echoed mockingly. ‘And that helps to pay the bills, does it?’
    ‘You could help out. You could give Mike a rise, darling.’ She tried a smile, hoping it might strike home. ‘He works hard for you. He deserves it.’
    ‘He does not. He still hasn’t got the hang of it. He knows how to shift furniture, I’ll give him that, but when it comes to the business side of things he’s hopeless. He’s supposed to do the marketing for Christ’s sake. He’s the one supposed to