Free Just Over The Mountain by Robyn Carr Page B

Myrna. “Hi, everyone,” she said.
    “June,” Sam muttered.
    “Hi, honey,” Doc said.
    “Evening, June,” said Burt.
    “Hmmph,” said Judge.
    “Hello, my dearest,” Myrna chirped.
    “You in or out,” Judge demanded crossly of the sole female in the group.
    “In,” she said, carefully sliding her chips into the center. “Two pair,” Judge said, putting down his cards.
    “Full house,” Myrna happily compared.
    The table groaned as she pulled the chips into her growing pile.
    “I haven’t talked to Birdie in a while, Judge. You having a nice visit with Chris and the boys?” Myrna asked.
    He turned his sour expression up at her. Judge wasn’t a cheery man at the best of times, but he definitely looked as though there might be a strain at his homestead.
    “Loud, teeny-bopper music,” Elmer quietly confided.
    “Arguing and such,” Sam obliged.
    “Back talk,” added Burt.
    “And they don’t do chores,” Judge barked.
    “Oh? Sounds heavenly,” she said, and escaped withher milk shake. It hadn’t taken long for the realities of teenage life to become evident at the grandparents’ home. That little glimmer of envy she’d felt when she’d first laid eyes on Chris’s twin sons was almost completely cured.

Six
    T here was no one who appreciated Susan Stone’s skills as a nurse quite as much as her husband did. But there was no one who appreciated her skills as a wife and mother more than John, also. It was completely unfair of him to expect her not to work in her field, especially if she was unfulfilled. But she took care of all the housework, laundry, cooking, shopping and child care, and the harmonious atmosphere created by her efforts brought such a feeling of peace and comfort to his life. To Sydney’s life. It wouldn’t be easy to choose where he needed her most, but the way she managed their home and family was far more important to him than the way she managed the clinic.
    He tried to express this to her, but she must not have sympathized with his concerns too much because she replied, “I wouldn’t mind a deal like that either. Should we discuss a role reversal?”
    John grimaced. They were having this conversationwhile they tidied up the kitchen and put out some snacks in anticipation of a quiet Saturday-night card game with friends, Mike and Julianna Dickson.
    “Well, you’re absolutely right. Anyone would like to have a stay-at-home wife.”
    “Especially a working mother,” Susan said. “John, you’re not in a residency anymore, Sydney is now in school full-time, your schedule is not as demanding as it was when you were full-time OB-GYN. It’s time for us to share the household chores a little better than we’ve been doing.”
    “But Susan,” he said, and it sounded miserably close to a whine. “Are you sure it will be good for our marriage to work together all the time.”
    Susan was petite and blond, but she should never be mistaken for meek or submissive. She handed him a can of mixed nuts with the same force she would use snapping a scalpel into his palm in surgery. “It won’t be good for our marriage if we don’t work together, both at the clinic and at home.” Her bright blue eyes glittered. Warned.
    “You’ve made up your mind?” he asked weakly. “You want to work full-time?”
    Susan rolled her eyes and turned away. She took the tray of nuts, napkins, playing cards and score sheet to the dining-room table. “We’ve been over and over this, John,” she called back to the kitchen. “If you don’t want me to work full-time, you have to come up with a better reason than that you like me doing all the scut work around the house.”
    “I never said that!”
    “Yes, you did. But you said it very carefully.”
    “Things are going to fall apart around here,” he muttered under his breath.
    “What?” she asked from the dining room.
    “Nothing,” he replied.
    It had only been a couple of days since June presented the résumé to John, announcing that