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

said.
    Beautiful little Meggie was freshly bathed and dressed in a sunny Grandma dress with matching sandals. Mom came up and took her hand.
    “Come on, Margaret, let’s show everyone your pretty new outfit.”
    Meggie hopped off smiling. I dropped my diaper bag by the front door. Judith picked it up and put it away in the closet. She’d never forgiven me for accidentally leaving one of Meggie’s dirty diapers on her patio lounge. You’d think I’d left a dead cat.
    “How is Jon doing with the situation?” she asked.
    “He doesn’t consider it a situation.”
    “What do think?”
    “I think it’s none of my business,” I said.
    “I imagine her real mother isn’t happy about the hillbillies.”
    “I wouldn’t know. Are they here?”
    “Yes. I’m afraid Chana is showing up the bride. She must take after her mother with that olive skin.”
    “She does,” I said. “Hair too.”
    “It’s good she and Margaret are so far apart in age, they won’t compete.”
    “Was that hard for you?” I asked. “Competing with Mom.”
    She appraised me. I don’t think I blinked.
    “I’m sure Margaret will catch up some other way,” she said.
    I couldn’t slap her, so I was out of responses. Eric had been watching from across the room and came over to rescue me.
    “Come outside, I want to ask you something,” he said.
    We stepped to the edge of the patio. The La Jolla shoreline stretched out in front of us, past the pier at Scripps Institute and on to the cliffs over Black’s Beach. I imagined the hang gliders afloat on swells of air above an earth cooling in the setting sun.
    My father had planned to take me. He thought gliding first would teach me the fundamentals of flight so if the engine failed, I’d know I still had air under my wings. He hadn’t lived long enough to teach me that lesson. I could use it today. I took a deep breath.
    “She is such a bitch,” I said. “She actually put down a four year-old.”
    “She jumped Anna when we walked through the door. Mom gave her the hillbillies,” said Eric. “Listen. Anna and I have an idea. We wanted to run it by you before we mention it to Adam.”
    Eric and Anna thought Adam should buy Chana her own string of pearls. It was a family tradition. There were so many strings of pearls when we showed up at family functions, you’d think we had some crazy uncle downtown L.A. who bought wholesale.            
    “Can Adam afford them?” I asked.
    “Are you kidding? He probably makes more money than I do.”
    “Well, I think it’s an incredibly beautiful idea,” I said.
    It didn’t sound like I thought it was an incredibly beautiful idea.
    “Forget Asp,” he said.
    “It’s not her. Celeste wants to come back and manage one of the restaurants.”
    “Jon’s not going to do that.”
    “He might. I heard it from Chana. He didn’t want to bring it up. He didn’t say he wasn’t going to do it. I’ve decided to go back to work. I don’t want to get left with kids and no job. It’s like a bad fucking family cliché. Third generation woman left stranded to start over with kids.”
    “Jon is not going to strand you.”
    “No. I might change the pattern and leave him.”
    “You need to stop saying fuck. It could end up being Chance’s first word.”
    “You’re one to talk,” I said.
    Anna came out on the patio and closed the door behind her. Chana watched us through the living room window.
    “What do you think?” asked Anna.
    “I think it’s a sodding beautiful idea,” I said.
    Chance sighed under his shroud. I hoped he’d say Mama first. If he followed in Meggie’s footsteps, he’d say Papa for a year and ignore me.
    “Is that good or bad?” she asked.
    “It’s good,” said Eric. “She’s upset because Celeste wants to move back to the islands and work for Jon.”
    “He’d never do that,” she said. “She called us hillbillies.”
    “Jon did,” I said. “Celeste hasn’t called us anything yet. Penny and Tom