Read Online Walk on Water by Josephine Garner - Free Book Online Page B

function to walk but it was possible that it might have left him enough to feel and to perhaps even respond. Luke would have determined what he could do and mastered it. He had never been the celibate type.
    In college, there had been an ample assortment of girls on the verge of womanhood preening and prancing around him like the princesses that they were. AIDS hadn’t happened yet, and herpes had been the problem of people who lived in New York and Los Angeles. Condoms had provided reliable protection against gonorrhea and girls too embarrassed or careless to take birth control, although Luke had confessed more than once to me that he had forgone them. As his Mercutio , I had adoringly listened to his contemplations regarding his relationships—instant, short and long; and from him I had learned about men, and I had learned about him.
    Which was why it was my fault that I had lost him. Hungry for the that I had chased after the other and forfeited the this . But now I had him back in the way that mattered most, I thought smiling to myself, and on a juniper breeze.
    “What’s so funny?” asked Mommy from across the table.
    “Oh,” I shook my head. “Nothing. How’s your Shrimp Trio ?”
    How rude was that—fixating on sex while having Sunday dinner with your mother?
    “Good,” she said. “Too much food though.”
    Mommy could be as astute as Corrine, so I decided it was time to at least let off a little of the steam about Luke. If she began to figure it out on her own she could come up with the wrong narrative. Worse yet, sometimes Corrine got together with us for Sunday lunch and I certainly didn’t want her version of the story getting out ahead of mine.
    “Remember we’re splitting a dessert,” I reminded Mommy. “So save room.”
    “That Lava Cookie sounds good,” she replied. “But I certainly don’t need it.”
    Good, I thought. I’d bring it up casually over a decadent treat with coffee sweetened with Splenda .
    “We’ll split it fifty-fifty,” I smiled again. “And leave some on the plate too.”
    “Dark chocolate is supposed to be good for you,” Mommy added and we laughed at that together.
    The Red Lobster menu hadn’t lied about the Lava Cookie. It was really delicious. And in the words of Scarlett O’Hara I’d just have to think about it tomorrow…and tomorrow, and tomorrow.
    “What did Betty Sterling think,” Mommy wanted to know as she tore open another package of Splenda to add to her coffee refill. “That you’d get involved with her beloved boy on the rebound? Humph.”
    Mommy was now fuming.
    “Four kids,” she fussed. “Child support and alimony. You realize that he has to leave them with the same lifestyle they had when they were married. That little Miss Christina is not the nine-to-five type from what I could see. He probably doesn’t have a dime to his name.”
    At least Mommy wasn’t calling Luke a pervert, although she no longer seemed to think him kin to Midas.
    “Unless mommy and daddy bailed him out,” she went on. “No wonder he moved back here. Probably can’t afford his own place.”
    “He took another job,” I explained. “And he has his own place, Mommy. A house.”
    “Have you seen it?” Mommy asked.
    I shook my head.
    “Well then how do you know? He wouldn’t tell you the poor man’s truth, Rae. He’s a Sterling. It’s not a good look.”
    And Luke cared about having a good look . He was nobody’s cause he had informed me.
    “Mommy, I think he’s doing fine. Besides, I’m not exactly a gold-digger.”
    I scooped up a little more of the melted chocolate and stuck the spoon in my mouth. So Mommy was getting the story pretty much wrong anyway. Oh well. At least she hadn’t landed on Corrine’s line, and I was glad for that.
    “Is that why she fixed you up with him?” Mommy’s next question surprised me. “Because you work for your living?”
    “Mrs. Sterling did not fix us up,” I said. “She gave him my number and he called.