Wife for Hire by Janet Evanovich

whisper.“That’s why I married her, you know. I needed money for the cider press and the bakery equipment.”
    Maggie sucked in her breath and narrowed her eyes. He was doing it again!
    â€œAnd is the book really full of sex?” Bubba asked.
    â€œYou wouldn’t believe what’s in that diary,” Hank said. “Maggie and I have been going through it, page by page, for the last three nights, and it’s got stuff in there I’ve never even thought of. We’ve been trying it all out just to make sure a person can really do it. Maggie wouldn’t put anything in her book that she hasn’t personally experienced. You know, sort of like testing recipes before you write a cookbook.”
    Bubba chuckled and punched Hank in the arm. “You dog, you.”
    Elsie hit Hank on the head with her wooden spoon. “The Lord’s gonna get you for that.” She bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud and quickly turned back to the stove.
    Maggie’s mouth was still open, and she’d taken hold of the table. Her knuckles were turning white and her eyes were small and glittery.
    â€œMaybe you should go easy on the diary stuff for a while,” Bubba whispered to Hank. “She looks a little on edge, you know what I mean?”
    â€œIt’s the way she gets,” Hank said. “Hungry. All you have to do is mention the diary, and she turns into an animal. She’s just trying to control herself. That’s why she’s holding on to the table. She doesn’t want to rip my clothes off at the breakfast table.”
    â€œWow,” Bubba said. “Are you doing okay? I mean, she isn’t hurting you or anything, is she?”
    Hank finished his coffee and winked at Bubba. “I can handle her.”
    Bubba chuckled and punched him in the arm again.
    Hank pushed away from the table. He kissed Maggie on the top of the head and gave her shoulders a squeeze. “I know you’re feeling desperate, but I have to go to work now, pumpkin. Maybe you can find some techniques for when I come home at lunch.”
    â€œI—you—” she said. She grabbed a jar of strawberry preserves and threw it at the door, but Hank and Bubba had already disappeared down the back stoop. The jar ripped throughthe screen and smashed against a stack of empty wooden apple crates.
    â€œDid you hear something crash?” Bubba said.
    â€œDon’t worry about it,” Hank told him. “Sometimes she gets violent when I leave her.”
    â€œCrazy about you, huh?”

Chapter 6
    Maggie and Elsie stood staring at the hole in the screen door.
    â€œYou didn’t miss him by much,” Elsie said. “It was the screen that slowed you down.”
    â€œI didn’t really want to hit him. I just wanted to throw something.”
    Elsie nodded. “Good job.”
    Maggie grinned. “He would have been disappointed if I hadn’t thrown something. He likes to provoke me.”
    â€œYou mean you weren’t really mad?”
    â€œOf course I was mad. He makes me crazy.”
    Elsie shook her head. “This is too complicated for me. I’m going to do the dishes.”
    Maggie cleaned the back porch and went upstairs to work. It was going to be another perfect day, she thought. Blue sky and warm with just the tiniest of breezes. In the distanceshe could hear an engine turn over and guessed it was Bubba on the loader.
    She reread the handwritten notes she’d been compiling. The diary lay to her right. It was open to December 3, 1923. Aunt Kitty had talked of the weather, the tragedy of the Thorley baby’s death from the croup, and Johnny McGregor, whom she declared to be the handsomest man she’d ever seen. The “diary” actually consisted of seven diaries, covering a span of thirty-two years. Among other things it was a chronicle of love for John McGregor.
    Maggie had chosen to treat her book as historical fiction. It would