"Kit Reed - Playmate (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Kit)

stains that Karin can see. Ever. It's clear the child's mother takes
good
care of him. Right, she thinks with a twinge of guilt. Like he's a
fulltime job.
And if she's never met her? Hey. People keep to themselves here in
Cadogan
Hills. Nice neighborhood, there are some lovely people here. But.
Sometimes Karin thinks it would take a quake or an explosion to make
them
open the regulation white drapes in their uniform picture windows and a
 firebomb to bring them out of their front doors. Cadogan Hills is so
exclusive that except for a couple she met at preschool and cute Denny
here, she hasn't seen any of her neighbors up close. Oh, chronic
gardeners
wave as you drive by in the nightly attempt to find your own house, but
you'd better not stop to talk. After all, you haven't been introduced.
And
she hears children playing at twilight sometimes but she never sees
them.
A gated community was never Karin's idea of a good time -- up market,
manicured "homes" and yuppie neighbors cut from the same social cloth
--
but she understood what big Dan was buying when he moved them in.
"Life's
too short to deal with downscale neighbors," he told her. "We both work
too hard to waste time hunting suitable friends for our kid."
So what if it's lonely? Dan is right. With everything going on at the
ad
agency, Karin's hard pressed to get in all her mothering before work
and
early evenings, when she drags herself home so tired that she's walking
on
her knuckles. She's spread too thin to check out every little friend
Danny
tries to make. During the week, Blanca copes. Even though Blanca is
from
Ecuador and not too good at English, she's terrific. Danny adores her,
which is both necessary and a source of jealousy. She cooks, cleans,
manages play dates; she carpools to the community preschool where Danny
is
supposed to get socialized. Which is what the Fowlers are paying the
five
K for, according to the brochure. But Blanca also gets the best of his
smiles and those cute new words. It's the only reason she hasn't quit.
Listen, Karin tells herself. That's weekdays. The weekends are mine.
Denny comes over Saturdays and every Sunday. If he's there weekdays,
Blanca doesn't say. He picks the best time -- after Karin's had her kid
fix and before Danny starts whining, "I'm bored."
Danny lights up. "Doorbell!"
"I bet I know who it is." Smiling, Karin opens the door and looks out