Summerhouse Blues

By T. D. Jones

Susan Summerhouse is a wife and mother who feels like her life has no meaning. Nothing seems to be going right. She soon finds out her dad is dating an old classmate of hers and things just start to get worse when Susan tries to prove to everyone that Allison Baxter is not as perfect and pretty as she makes out to be. Susan tries and digs up any dirt she can on Allison, but soon comes to realize that her life is the one that needs a change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melange Books, LLC
• Release date: Jun 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781612356112

Book preview

Special Smashwords Edition

Summerhouse Blues

by T.D. Jones

Published by

Melange Books, LLC

White Bear Lake, MN 55110

www.melange-books.com

Summerhouse Blues, Copyright 2013 by T.D. Jones

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should go to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-61235-611-2

Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States of America.

Cover Art by Caroline Andrus

Summerhouse Blues

T.D. Jones

Susan Summerhouse is a wife and mother who feels like her life has no meaning. Nothing seems to be going right. She soon finds out her dad is dating an old classmate of hers and things just start to get worse when Susan tries to prove to everyone that Allison Baxter is not as perfect and pretty as she makes out to be. Susan tries and digs up any dirt she can on Allison, but soon comes to realize that her life is the one that needs a change.

To my Aunt Hazel for always being there as my Muse

Table of Contents

Summerhouse Blues

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

About the Author

Previews

Chapter One

I was so focused on what kind of donut I was going to get I didn’t even see Allison Baxter slide up beside me.

Susan Summerhouse, what are you doing?

Any normal person would be able to tell what I was doing, but Allison wasn’t normal. She was never normal when we were in school together, and now that we’re in our thirties, she’s still not normal. Let me explain. In front of me stood a petite woman and it was before eight on a Saturday morning and she was already perky. She bounced around in her pink jogging suit and her long, blond ponytail bounced right along with her. Everything about her looked perfect. She had goals for which adults strived. Me, I only had two goals at this point in my life. One, raise my kids to be normal people which, considering their gene pool, was going to be a hard goal to pull off. My second goal was to get my parents back together. Their divorce was a mistake, at least in my eyes. I looked down at Allison again. She was slightly jogging in place but not going anywhere. Standing next to her was like standing next to a live wire that had just come off the pole. You knew you had to kill it, you just had to figure out how without harming yourself in the process.

You’re not eating that stuff are you? Allison asked as she pointed to the glass case that lined a wall of the small shop.

Okay, I’m not one to lie but if she couldn’t figure it out then I wasn’t going to tell her.

No, of course not. I just wanted to get a bottle of water. I had been standing in the long line for the last ten minutes trying to decide if I was going to get the chocolate glazed-pecan covered donut or the strawberry glazed donut. After the week I had, I deserved both, but I knew I only needed one, but eating only one donut was very hard for me. I didn’t have that kind of will power. You see, I, Susan Summerhouse am not petite, or blond, and sure as hell not perky in the morning. Nope, I’m 5’6 if I stand up straight, and my hair is dirty brown right now, but when I wash it....well it’s still dirty brown. As for my weight, let me just say no one has ever called me tiny. Nor did I make anything look perfect. In fact, here lately, I had the feeling I was far from even being in the vicinity of anything perfect. The only thing Allison and I had in common at this moment was we both had on jogging suits, if you considered my gray sweat pants and a black sweat shirt that I had picked up off my closet floor and threw on, an actual jogging suit.

I looked over at her as she looked up and down the line. I could tell she was judging everyone for eating what she considered trash.

What can I do for you, Allison? I asked as the line inched up. I had to get her out of there before it was my turn. I refused to stand in line and leave with just a bottle of water and no donuts. Sure, I was a grown up and shouldn’t have to explain my actions, but whenever I was around Allison she made me feel like we were back in school. She was the one that did everything right and me, well I was just there taking up space. I considered myself a good student and I had friends, but I just never seemed up there where I wanted to be.

I wanted to see if your mom is attending my parents’ anniversary party?

I’m not sure. She hasn’t mentioned it to me. I wasn’t about to explain to this pink puff that I wouldn’t know anything about my mom and a party because my parents had flipped off the deep end two years ago and had gone their separate ways. I really didn’t stay in the loop about their social life much anymore. Their divorce was amicable, as my parents would say, but it just didn’t feel right to me. They belonged together. I was truly heartbroken when they broke up. Sometimes you know when people are headed for divorce, they fight non-stop, cheat on each other and do anything possible to destroy the marriage. Not my parents, no fighting, no cheating, just one day they came to me and said they were getting a divorce after thirty years of marriage. Since I was an only child, I had no siblings to turn to for comfort. Somewhere in my discomfort, I made it my mission to get the two back together.

She just has to come. My parents would want her there. They have been friends forever. Allison leaned in and whispered, "I know about the divorce...so you don’t have to worry about that."

The line inched up. Great, now even Allison knew about my misfit family and here I was trying to pull us off as normal. Just to get rid of her I said, Okay, well when I see her I will mention it.

Allison shuffled her feet and then said, I didn’t send you an invitation. It’s just going to be a quaint party and well...we prefer no kids there.

I knew exactly what she meant. She didn’t want the Summerhouse kids there. Okay, so maybe the last function we all attended my three kids weren’t the best behaved but it wasn’t Jared’s fault his frogs jumped into the punch bowl, and there’s no way Sally would have known that those tablecloths weren’t fire proof. Besides, who puts candles on tables anymore? That’s a freak accident just waiting to happen.

The line moved up. Only two people left and then it would be my turn. I had to hurry the conversation along. That’s fine. I’m really busy right now anyway. It was a true statement. I had three kids, some days were busier than others were but nonetheless, I was too busy for parties. I would rather work in my garden...okay so I hadn’t started growing it yet, but I was planning on growing one and