To Protect and Serve Read Online Free Page B

wasn’t happy about it, but seemed determined to not make it any more difficult for anyone else.
                  Jonathon had just pulled into the cobblestoned area in front of the gates at the guard station of their perfectly planned community in Irvine.  He was coming home with Kate, and Nancy was taking off.  She and the girls were going grocery shopping.
                  After dropping Kate, Jonathon drove past them into the gated community without even looking at Nancy, much less a wave or courteous comment.
                  Oh well , Nancy thought to herself.  Probably just as well .  She wasn’t sure if she could have been cordial or not.  Her emotions had been on such a roller-coaster that sometimes she was surprised what came out of her mouth these days.  Not to mention the thoughts that bounced around inside her head!
                  As Nancy pulled out of the gated area, she thought back seven years to when they had first moved here.  Jonathon had purchased the second home available in the new community before it was even built.  They’d stopped by regularly with the girls to see their house go up.  They’d even made a time capsule with notes from each of them, a picture of the family, as well as a few trinkets from the girls, and placed it in one of the walls of the house before it had been finished.  This had definitely been their ideal home.  It was the perfect Orange County neighborhood.
                  That seemed like a lifetime ago.  Now it seemed a little too Stepford for Nancy.
                  “Mom?”
                  “What?”
                  “I said, don’t we have to pick up Christy?  She’s at Blake’s.”
                  “Oh, geez yes!  Thanks, Hon.  I almost forgot.”  Nancy made a quick left turn onto the next street.
                  “Mom?  You okay?”
                  Good grief, the number of times she had heard that phrase over the past ten days.
                  She wanted to say “No, not really.  In fact I’m a basket case.   I’m coming unglued at the seams and I just want to hit something!”  Actually not something -- someONE -- whose name began with a J ! 
                  Instead, she gave her daughter a smile and said “Yep.  Just a little tired.  Good thing I have you around to remind me.”  Nancy could tell from the look in Kate’s eyes that she didn’t believe her, but at least she didn’t persist with more questions.
                  As Nancy and Kate drove over to Blake’s house to get Christy, Nancy realized that she hadn’t slowed down for one instant since Jonathon had asked for the divorce.  She’d been there when her dad had come out of surgery and two days later she had been the one to drive him home and get him situated at her folk’s house.  Thank goodness the surgery had gone so well. 
                  He’d sure given the family a scare, though.  He’d never complained about anything.  When he’d gone in for his angiogram, the doctor had treated the family like this was no big deal, and probably was all for nothing.
                  It wasn’t until the doctor had come out of the room where he’d just finished the angiogram, looking slightly shaken but trying to hide it, that Nancy and her family knew that something was very wrong.
                  Her father had immediately been scheduled for heart surgery and had been transferred by ambulance over to St. Bernardine’s Hospital, where the best heart surgeons were available for the triple bypass.
                  The next time her dad said he was feeling a little tired, the family was definitely going to pay closer attention.
                  Luckily, her dad was also a fast healer and was up in record time, giving the nurses a run for their