Juno's Daughters Read Free Page A

was heading over to Snug Harbor to help wash Jack’s boat.” The ten dollars was allegedly for soda and snacks at the small camp store.
    Lilly must have seen Jenny fall to the ground holding her baby sister. She was five years old—where else could she have been? She must have been watching, but Jenny couldn’t remember noticing her. What she did remember was the way Lilly raged after Monroe left for work and Jenny began packing their things. She would not , she insisted in all her kindergarten fury, go to Mary Ann’s without telling her father good-bye.
    Frankie nodded. “In Elliot’s truck?” She looked over at Phoenix. “Maybe they have room for us?”
    Jenny raised her eyebrows. “Elliot Cooper? Is she involved with him?”
    Frankie nodded. “Don’t tell her we told you, okay?”
    â€œI won’t, honey.”
    Jenny tried to imagine Lilly hooking up with the lanky, brown-eyed boy she had known since junior high. He had a big Adam’s apple and a talent for drawing comic book figures. Working at his very first outdoor summer job, he must have been caught off guard in the sudden tractor beam of Lilly’s attention. Lean and dreadlocked and gorgeous, she burned through boys like kindling. All the more likely contenders on the island were probably exhausted.
    She reached out to straighten the woven bag that her daughter wore over her shoulder like a small quiver for arrows. She heard coins clinking against whatever treasures she kept in there: polished stones, abalone shell buttons, loose beads. She lifted the cap off her head and pressed a kiss against the milk white part in her black hair.
    The bell jingled and the door swung open. Bright sunlight shot through the dark corners of the store and Lilly’s laugh carried to the back, along with the words, “ Tell me later ,” no doubt shouted across the street to someone perched on the front porch of Café Demeter.
    Frankie jerked herself out of her mother’s embrace with a fraction of a second to spare before her sister appeared before them in ripped shorts, work boots, and a T-shirt that said Peace, Love, Entomology. No bra.
    Jenny looked from Frankie to Lilly and sighed. The moment you became an embarrassment to your children always snuck up on you. You went from lawful spouse to backdoor lover in the blink of an eye.
    Lilly grinned and reached for a peppermint. “Hi kiddos.”
    Frankie hopped from one foot to the other in delight. She was bursting from the news she had to tell her sister. “You would not believe what Mr. G wore today in Social Studies. I tried you on your cell, but all I got was voice mail. He had on those plastic sandals, you know, with the dark socks pulled all the way up to the knee.” She glanced at Phoenix, and they both giggled. “But the thing was, instead of shorts I swear he was wearing swim trunks. And I think they must have been Steven’s, too, because they were too small .”
    Phoenix nodded. “Way too small.”
    â€œHe probably got behind on the laundry,” said Jenny sympathetically.
    No one else appeared to have heard.
    Lilly pressed her hand to her stomach and grimaced. “Don’t, Frankie,” she said. “I just ate something.”
    Jenny raised her eyebrows. “So you won’t be borrowing ten bucks after all?”
    â€œ Mom .” Lilly glanced toward the door, outside of which Elliot Cooper was no doubt waiting, his leash tied to a tree.
    Frankie began digging in her pockets for cash to hand over to her sister. “Can we come with you?” She glanced at Phoenix for confirmation. “Cleaning Jack’s boat will go a lot faster if you have us helping.”
    Jenny saw a look pass over Lilly’s face and she guessed that boat-cleaning was the last thing on her older daughter’s mind. “Look, Franks,” said Jenny. “We only have an hour or so until we have to get ready to