Read Online Two Weeks in August by Nat Burns - Free Book Online

often pulled back into a short ponytail. Her nose was long, patrician, her mouth small, her white teeth dainty. Her blue eyes were speculative, cool, and could convey unbelievable disdain if she was provoked. Hazy knew; she had watched her for years, fantasizing about the two of them together.
    One day, as Hazy was working on the social register, she felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. She turned and saw the girl reading over her shoulder. She smiled sweetly as Hazy caught her with her eyes. Hazy, cherishing her good fortune, returned the smile.
    The girl reached out a slim, perfectly-manicured index finger and touched a word on the copy sheet. It was high up on the page, in a paragraph that had, supposedly, already been proofread and corrected. Hazy lifted an eyebrow and bent to read the word: “boby.” Confused, she went back several words to put it in context.

    Mr. and Mrs. Carlton E. Wooby announce the birth of a boby boy. Oliver Everett Wooby was born at 6:25 a.m. Tuesday. Mother and son are both doing well.

    How had she missed it?
    Before she could pen in the correction squiggle, the girl leaned forward and sketched in another ‘ o ’ next to the word boby.
    “Booby Wooby,” she said, light dancing in her eyes.
    Strangely enough, Hazy left it as it was and it came out that evening as booby boy Wooby. That was an unHazy-like thing to do, just as was the passionate relationship that sprang up between the two of them. Fast, furious, and in the end, destructive.
    It began to unravel several months later when Hazy’s calls weren’t picked up and were never returned. Worried, she’d gone to the high school during her lunch hour. On the second day of watching she saw them, walking arm in arm toward the gym. He was a handsome boy, right enough, but when they moved into an alcove and the kissing started, Hazy had stalked off, unable to watch.
    Hazy blamed herself at first, spending days locked in self-loathing and pity. Then she realized that CC was a certain type of girl. There had been several of them at their high school. They experimented, lived for the moment, took what they wanted, whatever made them feel good for a short time, and then moved on when the excitement paled. Hazy wasn’t stupid, she knew the type and should have had her guard up.
    She’d made a solemn vow when CC had dumped her so cruelly. She’d never be hurt that way again.
    And she hadn’t, not in almost twenty years. No woman had ever touched her heart. Her conquests had been the wealthy, older tourists or the young, still innocent island girls. The former knew the score; the latter had yet to learn.
    She had always been able to mentally criticize each woman, pick her to pieces until there was nothing left to threaten her peace of mind. By that time the relationship was stripped to the bone as well, leaving nothing to nourish it.
    Hazy was well aware of this trait in herself and rather enjoyed the irony of it. Who needed a woman trying to edge into her life? She could love them and leave them as easy as anyone. Since CC, she’d never had the desire for anything more than the coolest of relationships.
    Until now.
    She almost dropped her coffee cup into the channel and had to fumble quickly to catch it.
    Now where had that thought hailed from? She looked around the dock scowling. She guessed that the tiny slip of a girl was beginning to get under her skin after all. Walking quickly into the office, she reassured herself. It was okay. Nothing she couldn’t handle.

Chapter 12
    Nina was feeling even sadder after talking to her father and sparring with Hazy, so she showered and threw on some of her oldest clothing and rode her bike out to Grandpapa Tom’s house. Physical exertion was usually effective in banishing the blues and since there was painting to be done at the house, she felt she was a prime candidate for the job.
    Parking her bike at the side of the The Border, she whipped a large handkerchief out of her back pocket and tied