Moon Shell Beach: A Novel by Nancy Thayer Read Free Book Online Page B

stayed to talk, and one day she asked Jesse for help opening a stuck window in the bedroom, and then, as was often the case with Jesse, one thing led to another.
    After a few weeks, Clare heard the gossip from a friend who had heard it from a friend who had seen Jesse’s truck parked in front of the Kostners’ house for exceptionally long lunch hours. Clare had confronted Jesse. Jesse had confessed and pleaded for forgiveness. It wasn’t that he’d found Georgeann so irresistible, he swore, it wasn’t that he cared for her in even the smallest way; it was just that the woman had come on to him so strongly, and she had been so needy, and he had been so weak.
    After Jesse’s affair with Georgeann, Clare had told Jesse she was through with him, this time
forever.
She’d packed up his possessions and dumped them in the bed of his truck. She’d gotten Caller ID and refused to pick up the phone when his number came up. She refused to open the door when he knocked.
    And she had her own affair, with Jesse’s best friend, the painfully shy Amos. When he found out, Jesse had given Amos a black eye. Clare had been surprised at how guilty she’d felt when she heard about that. She thought she’d be
pleased
by Jesse’s jealousy. Instead she felt sad for both Jesse and Amos.
    Then her mother had gotten ill, and Jesse had come around to visit her, and she and Jesse had grown close again, and now here they were, engaged. Here they were, and she was convinced Jesse was through with wandering. She believed he would keep his promise to her, she trusted him when he said he loved her and wanted to live the rest of his life with her, but she still couldn’t find a good reason in her heart or mind to attend this memorial service.
    She followed Jesse into the bedroom and shut the door so her father wouldn’t hear them arguing. “I doubt Georgeann would even want me to come.”
    Jesse gawked. “Are you nuts? You think she’s going to come on to me at her husband’s memorial service?”
    “No. No, I didn’t mean that. I just meant that Georgeann and I were never close. And she’s got to know that I never cared for Tony.”
    Jesse grabbed his white shirt and yanked it on, buttoning up the front and the cuffs. Jesse looked really good in a white shirt. “His parents will be there, too, and his brother and sister. You like Rena.”
    Clare conceded the point. “I do like Rena. But it’s not like we’re close. She won’t notice if I’m there are not.”
    “Sure she will. Come on, Clare, this isn’t just about Tony, it’s about the community. We’ve lost one of ours. Whether we respected him or not, he is still one of ours. It’s like…like…like how we all take care of Lillian O’Malley. We don’t say, oh, the dumb broad took too many drugs and broke her brain and can’t walk across the street without getting lost. If anyone sees her wandering around, we take the time to cajole her into our car and we drive her home, we take the time to do that, even though on this island time is money. Tony was a dumb grunt in high school, I admit that, and he never did get much smarter, but he was a fisherman, he was an island son, and you’re an island daughter, and it’s just not
right
for you not to attend this service.”
    Clare looked at Jesse, who had slipped on the trousers to his best and only dark suit and was now working on a tie. His newly washed hair gleamed like the sun. He was beautiful. And he was right, too, about Tony and the island community, and this was one of the reasons she loved Jesse, because he was such a profound part of the island, and the island, land and people, were part of him.
    “You’re right, Jesse. I should go. I will go. Give me a moment, I’ll find my black dress.”
             

    The Congregational church
was crowded to standing-room only. As Clare sat next to Jesse in the last row, a deep welling of pain told her the real reason she’d wanted to avoid this service. It reminded her of