Clair De Lune by Jetta Carleton

Author:Jetta Carleton [Carleton, Jetta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adult, Historical
ISBN: 9780062089199
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-03-06T05:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

It was Friday, just after noon. Coming back from lunch, Allen arrived at the building just as Max’s car was pulling up to the curb, a convertible with the top down, and Maxine beside him, her honey-brown head close to his shoulder. Max bent his head and kissed her, in public, in the broad light of day. But it was all right; they were about to be married.

“Oh, hi!” said Maxine as Max drove away. She wore a dress the color of her eyes. “You disappeared early from the shower. What happened to you?”

“I had to leave a little early. I’m sorry.”

“You missed the surprise. It was such a cute idea—even if it did fall apart.”

Allen had already heard about it from the Ladies. The box collapsed with Max’s weight. The bottom dropped out and so did Max and it was a bigger surprise than they had expected. “Poor Max,” Allen said. “It must have been embarrassing. Was he hurt?”

“Not a bit. And he was such a good sport. The girls felt terrible about it, but it wasn’t their fault. It was such a cute idea. I’ll bet you had a hand in it, didn’t you?”

More than she cared to admit. But Maxine prattled on without waiting for an answer. “You’re staying for the wedding, aren’t you?”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

“I should hope not! But honestly there’s only a few weeks left and there’s so much to do—I may miss it myself!”

“If you do, I’ll stand in for the bride.”

“Thanks, you’re a pal.” Maxine gave her a quick hug. “Oh, and thank you for the darling teapot. We just love it, both of us. You’ve all been so wonderful.”

“It was easy.”

Maxine was lit up like a marquee. Her skin glowed, the eyes were sapphires. Being in love could do that—tone up the skin, make the eyes sparkle, all the glands working overtime at the right things, the hormones doing whatever they did. It probably even cured warts.

“Oh gosh,” said Maxine with a glance at her watch. “I’m ages late. Thanks again, Allen. See you in church!” The laugh ran up the scale as she ran up the walk in a flurry of blue voile.

“Well, anyway, I’ll see you.” Allen climbed the stairs slowly. She wasn’t sure that being in love had cured much of anything for her. Maybe at first. But whatever it did was all undone now.

Down the hall a gang of girls stood at the gym door, in their midst, Toby and George. The two of them broke away and came up the hall, pleased as punch with themselves, whatever they’d been up to. Slaphappy and carbonated, in their crew-neck jerseys, George with one shoe on, the other one in his hand. She expected some creative explanation, but they simply said Hi and went on. Old Lordy was right behind them, looking abstracted. He merely nodded. Not even a wink out of him or an Oh-you-kid! But down by her door Dr. Ansel was lying in wait. She caught sight of him through a gaggle of kids.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.