Good Harbour by Diamant Anita

Author:Diamant, Anita [Diamant, Anita]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary, Adult
ISBN: 9780743229760
Amazon: 0743229762
Goodreads: 2050273
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2001-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

JULY

JOYCE spent another whole week behind the wheel of her car, working her way through a long list of errands in advance of Nina’s departure for camp. And then there was her daughter’s urgent social calendar: she had to sleep at Sylvie’s house; Rachel’s sleepover was the last one until September; going to the movies with Jesse was the only thing she wanted to do.

“What if I sit on the other side of the theater?” Joyce asked as she drove the girls to the multiplex. “You won’t even know I’m there.”

“I would, too, know it,” Nina snapped.

Joyce opened her mouth to argue, thought better of it, and said nothing.

Nina finally agreed to spend a few hours with Joyce, shopping for camp clothes. They bought sneakers and shorts at the sporting goods store without incident. The underwear purchase went smoothly, but at Old Navy, Joyce said, “Honey, I’m not going to spend forty-nine dollars on a pair of pants that are going to get wrecked at camp.”

“I am not going to wreck them,” said Nina, her eyes instantly glazed with furious tears. “These are the only ones that fit me.” She slammed the dressing-room-cubicle door.

A woman outside another door caught Joyce’s eye and shrugged. “They’re all like that,” she whispered. “They get better.”

“Promise?” Joyce whispered back.

The well-dressed stranger nodded as her daughter — tall, chubby, and pouting — walked out of another cubicle carrying a stack of jeans. “Nothing,” she said, glumly handing the jeans to her mother in a messy heap.

“Do I look like the maid?” the woman asked in a strangled voice that Joyce recognized. The girl shot her mother the Teenage Death Ray look, grabbed the pants, and shoved them at another sullen teenager wearing a headset, whose miserable job was to fold rejected items.

“Nina,” Joyce said softly through the door, “let’s just buy those pants and go home.”

Nina opened the door and smiled. “Thank you, Mommy.”

Joyce and Frank drove two cars to see Nina off. Side by side, they watched as the buses pulled away. “Seven weeks,” Frank said. “I don’t know whether to cry or cheer.”

Joyce nodded.

Frank took her hand. He chewed the inside of his lip. “She’ll come back more mature.”

Joyce, fighting tears, didn’t respond.

“You’re a great mom.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she said. “Want to grab a cup of coffee?”

“Sorry, Joyce, I’m already late for a meeting that I can’t miss.” He kissed her on the cheek. “See you later?”

“Are you going to come up to Gloucester?”

“Looks good. I’ll call this afternoon.”

Joyce watched Frank drive off. She sat in her car and promised herself that she would write every single day that Nina was gone. She would walk the beach with Kathleen every day. She would start Nina’s room this afternoon. And she wouldn’t wait for Frank to make the first move. She’d ask him what was going on. She’d do it tonight.

Or maybe she wouldn’t have to. Maybe he would show up at the house with flowers and they would make love every night for a week.

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.