Starcrossed (Starcrossed 1)

learned . . .? Daphne stomped confidently past the boarded-up

windows of the nervous art dealers and down the block, where a

line was forming outside the Overeasy Café. ?It?s that Whalers love

nothing more than a really good storm,? she finished with relish.

It was true. Helen?s fellow Nantucketers were proud of their ability

to live through whatever Mother Nature threw at them. It was a

macho thing, but also a chance to bond. They shared a good laugh

over the howling wind, ice, snow, or rain while they all looked for

their hysterical cats and retrieved their lawn decorations from each

other?s living rooms.

The block didn?t have electricity, and folks were still sweeping up

glass from the broken windows. In spite of all this, Helen wasn?t at

all surprised that the café was seating people. In fact, she knew

334/395

that at that moment her father and Kate were six blocks away at

the News Store, checking out the damage. She also knew that if

people started hanging around out front looking hungry, Jerry and

Kate would open the doors and feed them. With the refrigerators

out, the perishable would have to be eaten or thrown out, anyway,

and Kate would much rather give food to her neighbors than watch

it spoil.

Helen thought for a moment of how she should be there with

them, but then she caught a glimpse of her new reflection in the

one window outside the Overeasy Café that wasn?t broken. She

wasn?t Helen. She was a cute brunette from the mainland, and she

and her tacky, horse-faced mother were on vacation in Nantucket.

These two tourists owed nothing to anyone.

Helen sat, put her napkin in her lap, and ordered whatever the

café could make on a gas stove?eggs, bacon, and French-pressed

coffee. As she pushed her food around, Matt walked into the diner.