Prayers for the Dying (Pam of Babylon Book Four) Read Online Free Page B

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    “Mom, we’ll do the clearing. Stay here so we can talk about the wedding plans,” Sharon said. Genoa was appalled. Nelda was not interested in the least and it showed. But Jack and Pam didn’t notice her behavior and went on talking about the wedding. Frank was interested and asked questions, prompting his daughter to think about who her attendants would be, her sisters; where they would honeymoon, Hawaii, of course; and where they would live.
    “We haven’t talked about that yet,” Pam answered, but she looked at Jack. He had everything else figured out. Did he know yet where they would live as husband and wife?
    Jack didn’t hesitate. “The Upper West Side. Not Columbus Avenue, further west. He looked at Pam, gauging her reaction. Once again, he was on target. He had chosen his new partner wisely. Pam was smiling happily at him, nodding her head yes to everything he said.
    The Upper West Side? If he wanted to live there, what reason could she have not to want to join him? It was like a dream. After living in Brooklyn all of her life, hiding her enthusiasm for life from her pessimistic mother, making it to Manhattan was a dream come true. She would realize later that living there had its drawbacks.
    Marie left her chair next to her Nelda and moved over to where Pam sat. They assumed their usual posture, Marie standing alongside a sitting Pam. Marie would have to consciously remind herself as an adult that it was inappropriate to cling to her sister. But as a child, it was her birthright. The only reason she sat next to her mother during the meal was so that Nelda could clamp a hand over her daughter’s mouth if she started to say anything that might embarrass the family. But tonight she was quiet and well-behaved. She thought Jack was the most handsome man she had ever seen. She kept her mouth shut because she didn’t want to miss out on the plans. Would she be included? A little trickle of fear brewed in her chest; what would become of her if Pam got married and moved out? She would ask Pam as soon as Nelda was out of earshot and everyone else was occupied. In the meantime, she stuck like glue to her sister’s side and Jack didn’t seem to mind a bit.

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    3
    A week later, as Jack left the restaurant to head uptown to his mother’s, Ashton Hageman lingered over his coffee. He’d pulled himself together and morphed back into the dependable lover who never made demands and had no needs. Jack seemed happy with the recovery, literally patting him on the head as he got up to leave.
    “You’ll see. Everything will work out. And you’ll love Pam. Call me tonight.” And then the humiliating pat. Ashton asked the waitress for a cup of coffee. He wasn’t going to waste any time rationalizing why it would be okay to continue a relationship with Jack, and why it would be devastating to his well-being to do so. He was hopelessly in love. It would be easier to leave things as they were and try to adapt. Breaking up with Jack wasn’t an option. He would rather die.
    Jack had paid the check on his way out, so when he finished his coffee, Ash threw a tip down and left quickly through the back door. He wasn’t in the mood to run into friends and as the afternoon progressed, there was a greater chance that he would see someone he recognized from the close circle who knew Jack and Ashton as a couple.
    It was a beautiful autumn afternoon. The leaves on the few trees along the sidewalk had changed and were beginning to fall, and chrysanthemums and pumpkins were everywhere. When he reached his neighborhood, he stopped at a corner store and sorted through a box of pumpkins displayed outdoors on the pavement, the closest he would get to a farmer’s market on the Upper East Side. He found a small, perfectly round one that had a little dried stem on top. It would be his one gesture to the season. Walking up Fifth Avenue, he was happy that he’d chosen this area to live in, rather than Midtown where Jack lived, or