Moonlight in the Morning Read Free

was going to faint.”
    “You didn’t!”
    “I did!” Jecca said. “So spill the dirt.”
    “I told you not to say that name to anyone from Edilean.”
    “You did not,” Jecca said.
    “Okay, so maybe I didn’t.” She glanced at the door, then lowered her voice. “It’s the local makeout point—and has been for centuries.”
    “Centuries?” Jecca asked in disbelief.
    “Certainly since WWI and that ended in—”
    “1918,” Jecca said quickly. “And donand8220;An’t remind me of the Great War. That’s when Layton Hardware was founded, and if I hear one more time that we Laytons have a tradition to uphold . . . Okay, so what about that war?”
    “Somebody called the place the French Letter Point. That’s old slang for a condom and they were used a lot there. Somewhere along the way it got shortened to F.L. and since that stands for Florida . . .”
    “I get it,” Jecca said. “So I’m to say Stirling Point to anyone over thirty.”
    “Good idea.”
    “So let me see what you’re designing,” Jecca said and picked up her friend’s sketchbook. Kim’s passion was jewelry and she loved organic forms. That was one thing that had united the three young women when they’d met at school. Whether it was jewelry, paintings, or sculpture, they liked reproducing what they saw in nature.
    “I like this,” Jecca said, looking at the branch-like designs. They flowed in a way that would hug a woman’s neck. “Will you add any jewels?”
    “I can’t afford them. I can barely afford the silver.”
    “I could get Dad to send you some steel ball bearings.”
    Kim laughed. “So tell me what you said to your dad to get him to let you come. And tell me again about you and all those men in tool belts.”
    “Gladly, but first I want to hear all about Laura and Reede and the bad boy preacher.”
    Kim groaned. “Whatever you do, don’t mention any of that while Reede is around. And don’t make jokes!”
    Jecca stopped smiling. “Really bad, huh?”
    “Worse than you can imagine. Reede was really in love with that little slut and—”
    “Has that always been your opinion of her?”
    Again Kim looked at the doorway. “Actually, it was worse. I thought she was ordinary.”
    Neither she nor Kim would ever say it out loud, but having been born with a talent in art made them feel grateful but also, well, sometimes disdainful of people who didn’t create. “How ordinary?” Jecca asked.
    “Bland. Nothing she ever did was different from what everyone else did. The way she dressed, what she talked about, what she cooked, everything was tasteless, flat. I could never understand what Reede saw in her.”
    “Pretty?”
    “Yes, but not in a way that would cause any notice.”
    “Maybe that’s why she left. Maybe she was intimidated by Reede,” Jecca said. “I only saw him once, but if I remember correctly, he wasn’t bad to look at. And he must be smart or he wouldn’t be in med school.”
    Kim was looking at her friend hard. “Did you come here to see me or my newly single brother?”
    “I didn’t know he was single until an hour ago! But now that I’ve heard, I’m not exav h17;m noctly torn up about it.”
    Kim started to say more but she saw her mother about to enter the room. “You have my blessing,” she whispered and squeezed Jecca’s hand.
    Blessing or no, over the next few days Jecca found it impossible to get Reede’s attention. If anything, he was better-looking than she remembered, and at twenty-six, he was close to being a full-fledged doctor.
    But hard as she worked she couldn’t get him to notice her. She wore shorts that showed her legs, low-cut tops that displayed a lot of her breasts. But he never looked. In fact, she never saw him look at anything. He just wandered around the house in old sweats, watched TV some, but mostly stared at the walls. It was like his body was alive, but his mind wasn’t.
    A couple of times, Jecca saw Kim’s mother looking at her as though she knew that