Bitter Waters Read Online Free PDF Page B

bad for her to tuck the money away with no more protest; his mothers were still struggling with medical bills left over from Mom Lara’s illness, several years ago.
    â€œMaybe we should talk to Max,” Ukiah suggested. “He’s very good with money.”
    â€œNo!” Jo snapped, and then gave a wry smile to soften the word. “Honey, I like Max, even though he occasionally drives me nuts, and I know you trust him, but I’m not about to turn my life over to a man.”
    â€œAs I get older, am I going to increasingly become the enemy, one of them ?”
    â€œNo!” She swatted him on the shoulder. “It’s just—it would feel like an invasion of privacy. Like undressing infront of him. And then him telling me what I’ve done wrong and how to fix it.” She shuddered a little. “I’ve got a PhD, for pity’s sake.”
    Since financial counseling was out, he tried another route of helping. “I can go food shopping too, since I’ll have a reliable car.”
    â€œAre you sure? You’ve never gone shopping by yourself before.”
    â€œMom, I stop almost every night for milk, or bread, or diapers, or something.”
    Mom Jo swallowed whatever argument she was going to make, and messed his hair. “All right. Mom Lara can give you a list. What would really help would be for you to take Kittanning on Tuesday, so we don’t need to pay a sitter.”
    â€œI’ll take him tomorrow and Tuesday,” he promised, though the agency was extremely behind in its cases; he’d make it work somehow. “It will give us time together. What about Cally?”
    â€œMy cousin Steve’s little boy is in Cally’s kindergarten class.” Mom Jo’s family had lived in Evans City for several generations, and she had a huge extended family in the area as a result. Each person had a different level of willingness to deal with Jo’s “wife,” wolf boy son, fatherless daughter, and wolf dog hobby. “We’ve worked it out so his wife takes Cally home on Tuesday and Lara takes both kids on Friday.”
    He remembered the woman to be laid-back and friendly so this news surprised him. “She won’t take Kittanning?”
    â€œShe says that she’s done changing diapers.”
    The kitchen smelled of lasagna and chocolate chip cookies, evidence that Mom Lara was already in pre-party cooking blitz mode. The kitchen timer started chiming as Ukiah and Mom Jo entered, and Mom Lara shouted from the back porch, “Can you get those?”
    â€œOkay!” Mom Jo called back, opening the oven to a blast of chocolate heat. “Go see your mom.”
    The tiny changes to the house since he left struck him like spots of color on black and white photos, grabbing his attention. While the lighthouse beside the overflowingbills-to-be-paid bin was quite nice, the seashells scattered along his path through the dark house reeked of sea salt and dead shellfish.
    Mom Lara sat on the railing of the back porch, staring at the northern night sky. A stiff wind was pushing the last of the rain clouds out, and stars gleamed brilliant in the moonless sky.
    â€œWelcome home, honey.” Mom Lara hugged him. “I was afraid it wouldn’t stop raining in time! Look!”
    â€œAt what?” he asked.
    She pushed him to sit on the railing and then stood behind him, pointing out the northern edge of the sky where ribbons of color waved. “It’s the aurora borealis. They had some terrific sunspot activity a few days ago, and they were predicting we’d be able to see them this far south. Aren’t they beautiful? The charged particles from the sun are spiraling down the Earth’s magnetic field. That’s why they look like blankets, they’re actually falling in sheets.”
    It was so like her and Mom Jo, filling him with odd bits of scientific information. He had a patchwork education, stitched together