Read Online Mary Ellen Courtney - Hannah Spring 02 - Spring Moon by Mary Ellen Courtney - Free Book Online

alone.”
    “That’s sweet, but I don’t need time alone.”           
    “You going to see friends while you’re here?”
    “No. I’m heading to L.A. the day after the wedding. See Karin and Amy. Maybe I’ll get a henna tattoo.”
    “You could get
Mike
in a heart. That would drive Dad crazy.”
    “I was thinking more of a lotus flower. You going to call your mom?”
    “After the wedding. I don’t want her driving down here and disrupting the wedding,” said Chana. “Dad promised not to tell her. Luckily she’d called him about managing the Big Island restaurant before he talked to you so he couldn’t blab. I don’t know why she’s so worried about being broke; it’s a community property state. Grandpa Tom says he’ll help her invest her money.”
    “Oh. Yeah,” I said. “I’m going to take the kids for a walk before lunch.”
    “We’ll go with you,” said Chana.
    I didn’t want company and I didn’t plan to take a walk. I planned to sit and stare off into space. Celeste wanted to come back and manage one of the restaurants? I asked them to take Meggie for ice cream. Adam carried her on his shoulders up the hill to the village. They were practicing being parents. I sat with Chance in one of the green huts on the cliff and watched waves crash. Jon called.
    “How you doing?” he asked.
    “Fine. Meggie’s with the kids.”
    “They sound good together.”
    “They’ll figure it out,” I said.
    “How are you doing?”
    “I said I’m fine. I’m going to have lunch with Marty when I’m in L.A. See about getting work. I don’t want to drop all those threads.”
    “We decided to wait a few years,” he said.
    “I don’t want to lose my career, not in this economy. You’re changing light bulbs to save money. Lots of people take their kids on location. They’re both young enough that I don’t have to worry about school.”
    “What are you talking about? You’re not taking the kids on location. They live here.”
    “They live with me. It would be better. You don’t want to raise kids alone again. It would free you up. You’ll be island hopping. I’ll be in one place. Maybe I can get something in Europe and they can learn a foreign language while they’re young. So how you feeling about Chana and Adam?”
    “I told you I’m okay with it.”
    “You said they sound good together. You didn’t say you were okay with it. How’d Celeste take the hillbillies?”
    “I haven’t talked to her about it.”
    “That’s right, you didn’t know when you talked to her about going to work for you.”
    He was quiet.
    “Chana told me,” I said. “I better get going, I’m meeting them in town. Chana looks beautiful in the dress. Meggie thinks she’s a princess. She looks just like Celeste.”
    “Are you running away?” he asked.
    “I don’t want to hear that anymore, Jon. I am busy. But I can still work and salvage at least part of my life.”
    “It didn’t seem like the time to bring it up.”
    “Nope. Never is. Speaking of which, I talked to Chana about birth control. They’ve got it covered better than you ever did when you were out there screwing everyone with a heartbeat. And your mother knows, she walked in on them. So I’ve told you my news. Gotta run.”
    “Hannah.”
    “Jon, I have babies to take care of and days of pretending to be happy to get through.”
    Screwing heartbeats was a cheap shot. I felt like I was going to break out in hives.
∞
    I took my own car to the cocktail party. I draped a loosely woven scarf across my sleeping Chance. It shielded him from beady eyes. Judith opened the door and sized me up. 
    “You’re still doing the whole India thing, I see,” she said.
    “I am,” I said. “It’s comfortable when I’m nursing.”
    Chance was in a stretchy suit; his chubby feet, in blue leather shoes with red sailboats, hung down like paws from under my scarf. She the scarf so she could see his face.
    “He looks like your grandfather,” she