Summer at the Shore Leave Cafe by Abbie Williams Read Free Book Online Page B

moments later, her own drink in hand, and sat across from me, with nothing but a pair of salt and pepper shakers that looked like mallard ducks between us. The television was blaring, the kids were wrestling and scarfing popcorn, and no one but me heard her as she asked, “So what happened?”
    We’d talked on the phone since Christmas, of course. But I’d been in a flurry of emotion, alternating between anger, denial, depression, and exhaustion, unable to carry on a lengthy conversation. It had taken me months to find the courage to leave the house with the kids, and even then I’d done so under pretense of visiting my family in Minnesota. Jackie should have been the one to move out, but he’d stayed, albeit in a separate room; I was terrified at the thought of losing him, even when I wanted to claw out his eyes. It had been a terrible and long set of months since Christmas. I sighed, scraping one had through my hair.
    â€œI let him go, I guess,” I said after a moment. I took another deep drink of the sweet frothy drink; tonight I’d just have one, though. I could not give in to abject alcoholism, no matter how tempting. “I knew it was happening. It started about five years ago, best I can tell.”
    â€œWhy then?” she asked, concern and sympathy crossing paths over her delicate features.
    â€œJackie got a new assistant around then,” I answered, catching up the girl duck salt shaker and turning her around and around in my hands as I told the story. “He would come home talking so innocently about her, this girl named Lanny.” Even now I wanted to spit out her name like a bad grape. “He talked about her so much, and I thought he couldn’t be possibly be that obvious. I was just being suspicious of nothing. And then I met her.” My voice dropped ominously and Jilly’s eyebrows raised.
    â€œSlutty, nasty, grody, right?” she asked, and I smiled just slightly.
    â€œNo, of course beautiful, and young. Long eyelashes, long legs. Jackie was obsessed, I could tell. But it took me years to admit it. I knew he was cheating, I knew it, Jill, but I did nothing. I’m a total coward.” I set down the duck and reclaimed my drink. Jilly waited calmly. I continued, feeling tears prickle, “See, the thing is, Jilly Bar, he used to look at me that way. I know he loved me once. We were totally in love.”
    â€œI know you were,” she said softly. “Anyone with eyes could see it.”
    â€œPeople change, you know? I used to think that if we’d stayed around Landon Jackie would never have strayed. But now I’m not so sure. He doesn’t look at me the same anymore.”
    â€œDon’t be a martyr, Jo. You’re still gorgeous, and desirable, and all of the things that you’ve always been. Don’t give me any crap about it being all your fault.” That was the Gran in her, coming out. My mouth twisted wryly as I considered voicing the thought to Jillian.
    â€œI don’t really think that, honestly. But it’s not all his fault.”
    â€œMom is going to hound you about getting back with him, forgiving him. She always liked Jackie.”
    â€œI know,” I groaned. “And Aunt Ellen and Gran are in the exact opposite camp.”
    â€œOf course. Gran thinks good riddance.”
    I contemplated my sister’s tan face, pixie-like chin and small, pointed nose. Her eyes were the blue of an August afternoon on Flickertail Lake. “What do you think?” I finally asked.
    â€œLike I said last night, Jo, I’m just glad you’re home. Fuck Jackie, for now, anyway,” she said. And again her tone grew serious as she tapped her drink on the table with every word for emphasis, “But don’t go fucking anyone else until you’re sure he’s the right guy. No rebound fucking, okay?”
    I giggled in spite of myself. I knew she didn’t want me to get hurt, didn’t