Son of a Mermaid Read Online Free PDF Page A

but instead they come to work here, as lifeguards or waitresses or landscapers. And of course there are always the tourists, the lifeblood of Cape Cod. They come for the day or a weekend, or even for a week at a time to vacation in the sun. Many of them are fine people, but you always get the ones who, for one reason or another, feel superior to those of us who live here year round.”
    Shea thought of Bobby Joe Peters and the way he always acted superior. He thought about his dad growing up that way, with summer people putting him down. “What about my mother?”
    “Your mum was from a wealthy family, and her father definitely felt superior.” His grandmother put the last dish into the drying rack and pulled a fresh dishtowel out of the pocket of her apron. She dried her hands slowly before peeling off the rubber gloves. “Your daddy was so in love with her. He took a second job running fishing charters so he could buy that fancy ring.”
    “What ring?”
    “The engagement ring, of course.”
    “You mean like a diamond?”
    Martha shook her head. “Your mum thought diamonds were cold things.” She held out her own hand across the table so Shea could get a better look. “See the ring your grandfather gave me? It’s called a moonstone. The same kind of ring your dad gave your mum.”
    Surprise shot through Shea as he looked at the milky stone with the swirling streaks of blue running through it. His father never wore any ring. “Did they, you know, ever go through with it? Ever get married?”
    Martha nodded. “You didn’t know even that?” Shea shook his head, and Martha frowned slightly. “Of course they were married, but without her father’s blessing as it were. A judge performed the ceremony up in Hyannis. Your Uncle Richard, Tom’s twin, was the best man, and one of your mum’s…friends came to be her maid of honor. Your grandfather and I were the only audience. Didn’t you notice the photograph in the living room?”
    Shea shook his head again, and Martha turned to leave the kitchen. When she didn’t return, he followed her to the next room and found her on the sofa, her blue dress blending with the blue and white checked slipcover.
    “This is the one I was thinking of,” Martha said, a silver frame clutched in her hands. Shea crossed the threadbare oriental carpet and maneuvered around the coffee table. He eased down onto the couch next to her, holding his breath.
    He’d never paid attention to the photos in this room, the ones covering the mantle. He’d been so wrapped up in his own cocoon of depression he hadn’t noticed much of anything. Now he looked, really looked, at the photo in Martha’s lap.
    The lady in the white dress was beautiful, with huge green eyes and a cascade of blonde curls surrounding her perfect oval of a face. She looked strong, defiant, and totally in love.
    And exactly like the woman in his nightmares.
    He blinked and shifted his gaze to the groom. Although Shea recognized the man in the tuxedo as his father, he’d never seen a smile like that on his dad’s face. Or that look of pure happiness in his eyes.
    The room was quiet as they sat looking at the photograph. Shea tried to make sense of this new bit of information. He didn’t know there’d even been a wedding. He’d decided long ago that his birth had been unplanned and unwelcome. He knew things like that happened all the time. But apparently that wasn’t true.
    His parents had been married.
    And in love.
    And somehow he’d been dreaming about his mother rescuing him from drowning?
    “So…what happened?” he finally asked.
    Martha sighed. “They sat here, in this very room, planning their life together. Deciding where they could go that her family wouldn’t find them. Oklahoma seemed like it would be far enough away, smack dab in the middle of the country as it were.” The old woman stared again at the photo, lost in thought.
    “Why didn’t they live happily ever after?”
    Martha sighed again and