Blue Moon Read Online Free PDF

Irish—someone from another family.
    “Let’s leave her alone,” Bonnie said. “I’ll take over for Mom for a while. Let the little creeps starve. This morning they missed the school bus on purpose, both of them. They’re doing it to torture me. It’s punishment for their father, I think. Every time he does a long trip, they act up. He’s been out thirteen days, scallopping with the O’Tooles. You’d think they’d have outgrown it by now. I mean,
teenagers.”
    “A hunger strike,” Cass said, glancing again at Nora. “We have to find her a boyfriend. Someone you wouldn’t necessarily have to describe as ‘halfway decent.’”
    “All these guys talk. Gavin says you wouldn’t believe the sex bragging on the boat, even about Nora. Dad’s paying their wages, and they’re talking about his daughter.”
    “They’re skunks,” Cass said.
    “You must admit,” Bonnie said, making a matronly little clucking noise, “that she does bring it on herself.”
    Cass didn’t reply. Bonnie was the family earth mother, everything in her life as comfortable as old clothes.
    Nora needed help, not criticism. She was so lonely, she would drink too much and start making phone calls at night. She’d call her sisters, friends, people she hadn’t seen in ten years. Sooner or later she’d call some horny guy just back from fifteen days at sea without a woman. Nora would tell him to come over, and things would start up.
    Cass saw John Barnard watching her, his smile all crooked and sultry, wanting her to really notice him. “Come on,” she said to Bonnie. “Let’s get out of here.”
    Mary Keating turned the reservations desk over to Bonnie. Bonnie rolled her blue eyes, listening to Mary tick off familiar instructions: give the Pentwarses a good table; keep an eye on Sandy and make sure her checks match what people order; offer the lobster-stuffed sole to the best customers only, the regular seafood stuffing to everyone else.
    Billy, T.J., and Belinda walked through the front door. The kids were wearing Red Sox caps.
    “Will you look who’s here!” Mary exclaimed.
    Billy kissed Mary, Bonnie, and Josie. Cass felt a force drawing her to him. He looked her straight in the eye, but she gave him no encouragement—just to see what he would do. He pulled her close, gave her a hot kiss, didn’t let her go as soon as she expected. His rough hands felt smooth running down the back of her yellow cotton sweater. Leaning back, he gave her a questioning smile; perhaps, like Cass, he was wondering why this feeling so seldom hit them at home.
    “Who won?” Mary asked.
    “Red Sox,” Billy said.
    “Oh, good. Jim should be happy. He’s probably been listening on the radio.”
    “We brought you a cap,” Belinda said to Josie.
    Josie gasped with pleasure. She shimmied on the stool. “Where is it?”
    Billy reached into his back pocket and fit it on her head.
    “Kitty cat, kitty cat. Where is it?” Josie asked.
    Bending down to Josie’s level, Cass looked straight into her eyes. “’Cap,’ not ‘cat.’ It’s on your head.” Josie began slapping her own head, as if there were a live animal on it, and howling with fright and frustration.
    “Oh, God,” Belinda said, mortified. She escaped out the door.
    Cass tried to reason with Josie for exactly thirty seconds, until she realized that Josie had worked herself into a frenzy. When Cass tried to lift her, Josie turned into rubberchild. Over and over she performed a boneless slither, slipping through her mother’s arms, screaming “No, no!” as alarmed patrons glanced up from their drinks. Cass fought an urge to shake her like a dust mop. Billy stood there, motionless.
    “Can’t you do something?” Cass asked him. She heard the outrage in her own voice. She stood aside.
    Billy put his arms around Josie—loosely at first, then more firmly. She stopped struggling. She was crying so hard, tears flew out of her eyes. “Kitty cat, kitty cat,” she wept. Again, she