Spinning the Moon Read Online Free

was a gentle baby, which made it easy for us to resume our adult lives when she was still quite young. She went everywhere with us, her fair head poking up over the carrier strapped to one of our backs. We enjoyed being together, our little family.
    Annie was only twenty-three months old when we took her to see her first comet atop Moon Mountain. Sky watching was a hobby of mine, introduced to me as a child by my Cherokee grandmother, and I was eager to share it with my daughter. Genetti’s Comet would be sharing the sky with a total lunar eclipse—a rare enough event to warrant mention of it in the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
. Moon Mountain wasn’t really a mountain, but rather a largish hill and the perfect vantage point for celestial happenings. According to my grandmother, who was widely known for her eccentricities, it was a place with strong unknown powers. She called it a sacred place to the Cherokee Indians, who had inhabited this part of the country for centuries.
    Michael grumbled only slightly when I roused him that Saturday morning. It was usually his sleeping-in day, but I had made plans for an early start at antique shopping and general family togetherness before the lunar eclipse that night. He leaned over and rubbed his stubbly chin on my bare midriff, where my nightgown had ridden up. Resting his head on my abdomen, he gently traced a circle around my navel with his finger. I ran my hands through the thick mane of his hair and sighed softly. He looked up at me with a raised eyebrow.
    â€œLaura, why don’t we just skip the shooting star and stay in bed all day?” He rose to nuzzle into my neck, sending delicious shivers down my back.
    I pressed my head into the pillow and tapped him gently on the head with the flat of my palm. “It’s not a shooting star—it’s a comet and an eclipse. It’ll really be spectacular.”
    â€œMmmmm,” he mumbled.
    I shifted my head, enjoying his attentions to my earlobe. Slowly, he worked the spaghetti straps of my nightgown off my shoulder and moved his mouth lower. I looked down at his dark blond head, and my body flooded with love and desire for this man. I sighed, and our eyes met.
    His moist lips formed a slow grin. “I’ve got powerful methods of persuasion, you know.”
    I sat up, pulling off my nightgown completely. “Yes, you do. You certainly do.”
    We made love slowly, in the comfortable way old lovers do, and then we held each other close, listening to the sounds of morning outside our window.
    â€œMommy!” came the shout from across the hall.
    The sound made me grimace. Reluctantly, I threw off the sheets. “It was nice while it lasted,” I said as I slipped out of bed and into my robe. I leaned down to give Michael a kiss and then hurried to the nursery, where I was being summoned in a tone approaching hysteria.
    Annie clutched the top rail of her crib, huge tears of distress running down her cheeks. I tripped over the object of her anguish and bent to pick up her stuffed giraffe from the floor, the apparent victim of afall through the crib slats. Her chubby arms stretched up to greet me as I approached. I handed her the giraffe and reached for her.
    â€œHello, morning glory,” I whispered as I picked her up and kissed her baby-fine hair. The mingled scents of baby sweat and shampoo wafted up my nose. “Can Mommy have some good-morning butterflies?”
    Annie put her face right up to mine and fluttered her eyelashes, tickling my cheek. She then laid her head on my shoulder, a cue for me to sing and waltz. This had been our morning ritual for as long as we both could remember.
    â€œYou are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray,” I sang as I twirled my delighted partner, my bare feet padding gently on the hardwood floors of the nursery. “You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine