Free Mended by By Kimberly M. Clayborne Page B

retrieved the car keys from her purse and gave them to her husband Bruce.
    “Kassie Lawton.”
    Nora looked at him wide eyed.
    “Kassie Lawton?” Natalie shouted, grabbing her father’s arm. “Kassie Lawton!” She screeched jumping up and down, “She told me her name was Kassie but . . . WOW!”
    “Uh yeah.” Tim looked at his daughter with a mixture of amusement and concern. “What’s the big deal?”
    “She’s the illustrator for the books we used to read to Nat when she was a little girl.” Nora said. “You know that story ‘Brown bird in the big sycamore’ . Remember? The pictures were always so cute.”
    Tim looked at the two of them like they were crazy and Bruce laughed.
    “We read a thousand books to this kid when she was little.”
    “Daaadddyyyy!” Natalie groaned, rolling her eyes at Tim.
    Norah had to laugh too. “You’ll remember when you see them.”
    “She was married to Monroe Evans and apparently the guy was a bit of a player, so she left him.” Bruce chimed in.
    Tim looked at Bruce with raised eyebrows.
    “Bathroom reading, man,” Bruce said with an uncomfortable smirk. “Bathroom reading.”
    “Sure.” Tim threw him a look and Nora cracked up.
    “Think she’d sign my books?” Natalie asked, totally ignoring the grownup conversation, lost in Natalie land.
    “Sure, if she doesn’t eat you first.” He said. The image of Natalie dressed like Gretel skipping up the path to Kassie’s house illuminated by lightening, rain and wind, popped into his head.
    Tim looked at Nora and Bruce, “Monroe Evans huh?”
    “Yup.” Nora said.
    “Wow.”
    “They lived in Chicago because that’s where they met and went to college. But once he hit it big, the cheating started. One woman he was cheating with described, in total detail, the color of their bedroom, the sheets on their bed and even the color of the shower tiles in their bathroom.” Bruce recited the information as if he were reading the article to them. “She was heartbroken . . . according to sources that is.”
    Tim looked at Bruce disgustedly and Nora laughed.
    Bruce shrugged, “What? So I read Breakin’ Up magazine , is that a crime? 
    “I read that she threw every single thing he owned out in the hallway of their apartment building and hired a security guard in case he tried to get back in.” Nora added.
    No wonder she was such a bitch when she moved in , Tim thought.
    “Now I feel bad for fighting with her and refusing to take her packages from the mailman the other day.”
    “Daddy!” Natalie gasped.
    “You were mean to her?” Nora couldn’t remember him being mean to anyone. Tim was really a very sweet guy.
    “She frustrates me.” Tim defended. “And it’d be so much easier to take her nastiness if she was ugly.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Nora asked putting a hand on her hip. Tim looked at her remembering how much of a feminist she was.
    “I mean sometimes ugly makes you mean, it’s a fact.” It wasn’t really and they all knew it. “If her face looked like a foot I could understand her bitterness just a smidge more.” He reasoned with an innocent face, all the while watching Nora’s indignation rise with inner glee.
    “That is so sexist!” She shot angrily.
    “How is it sexist? You think I hooked up with you because I loved your brain?” He asked. “Nora you were a college hippie who smelled like patchouli, wore sandals . . . with not the best looking feet in the world let me say, and took offense to everything people said to you if it had sexual “undertones”. You didn’t shave anything but your head because you said hair was a token of one’s beauty and you didn’t want to be a sex symbol.”
    Nora stared at him in disbelief.
    “But you came to our women’s group meetings!” She sputtered.
    Tim covered Natalie’s ears.
    “I was trying to get in your pants.” He told her. “No offense Bruce.”
    “None taken.” Bruce said with a chuckle. He looked on the verge