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"Very funny, Olivia You see, Thelet a complex"

"Please, spare us," I cried

Thelh to see how much of a burden Belinda had been, and still was

When Louise Childs gave birth, Saain ecstatic He ca smile on his face

"Guess what?" he said stepping into hter"

"There's nothing wrong with having a daughter, Sa well?"

"Yes, but Nelson's not He went into hiding," he said with a laugh

"The only thing with less intelligence than a chauvinistic man is a clam," I declared and he roared

"Nevertheless," he bragged, "I've got a boy"

The first year of Jacob's life passed so quickly, I couldn't believe ere celebrating his first birthday so soon Daddy had improved to the point where he could carry on a short conversation and ith a walker His arth and his hand was more like a claw He had to eat very slowly and it was always very ot so she couldn't take aso

"It turns my stomach to see the soup drool down his chin or the food on his lip, Olivia Don't yell atDaddy to eat his dinner alone every single night "I can't eat and that upsets him more!"

I didn't doubt she had trouble sitting there She was never good at stoer terrified her The sight of blood turned her a shade whiter than ot how sickly pale and terrified she looked the night she gave birth to the premature fetus

"Well, try not to ine what he's going through and reh," I lectured

"I'll try," she promised, but still she rarely ate with him

Maybe Daddy was better off with her out of his sight She was still doing little with her life She tried to take an adult education secretarial course given at the high school in the evening, pro to master some skills and really do soh hopes for her, and was very upset when he learned a fewto the class She pretended she had been attending, but si or, when the weather was good, to a party on the beach or on soot so I couldn't keep track of whom she ith and when There were just too many new boys in her life