Pete blinked, as if noticing the red stains for the first time. “The knife slipped.”
“Is she out?”
“No, genius. What were you thinking? Why didn’t you warn me?”
“There was no time.”
“There was no time to warn me she was naked?” Pete scrubbed his hands through his short scruffy hair. “You could have at least covered her up.”
The simplicity of it made Dan cringe. Perhaps he’d overreacted just a little bit. A reoccurring problem where his mother was concerned. Rather than voicing his doubts, he crossed his arms and tilted his chin. “You don’t understand.”
“Clearly not.” Again, the edge in Pete’s voice cut the air like a bare razor blade. “I need a screwdriver.”
“In the shed, on the floor near the paint brushes.”
“Thanks.” Pete stomped out the back door, leaving a small trail of blood.
Dan followed and had almost reached the door when Julian entered behind him. “What’s wrong, Dad?”
“Your mother’s fretting over this tea. You got mint or fennel?”
“No.”
“Son...”
“I didn’t know you were coming, did I?” Dan saw the startled look in his father’s eyes and took a deep breath. He scratched the back of his neck. “She can have Earl Grey and be happy with it.” In a softer voice he added, “Do you want one?”
“Coffee, boy, you know me.”
Dan filled the kettle and grabbed three mugs. “Is she still in the living room?”
“No, she went upstairs.”
His stomach dropped so fast it threatened to hit his toes. “What?”
“She wanted to use the bathroom. What’s wrong?”
Dan fumbled the mugs onto the counter and ran for the stairs, climbing them two at a time. Halfway up he twisted his ankle and limped up the remainder. Rounding the corner on the landing, he saw his mother put her hand on the door to the master bedroom.
“Mum!”
“Hi, darling.” She beamed at him. “Just having a look around. I love the new wallpaper. Does it go all the way through?”
“Don’t go in there.” He approached with his hands extended, waving as if directing traffic.
“Why?”
Dan chewed his bottom lip. “It’s not fit for guests.”
“Silly boy, I don’t mind a little mess.”
“I’m embarrassed.” He knocked her hand away from the handle. “I’d rather you didn’t see it.”
She crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow.
“You raised me better than that. I don’t want you to see what a slob I am.”
“But the wallpaper—”
“Is exactly the same. I’ll show you later, once I’ve tidied up.”
“You know, Daniel.” She pursed her lips. “If that woman of yours was worth anything, she’d tidy up.”
Dan heard a sharp exclamation from beyond the door.
Maxine stiffened. “What was that?”
“What?” He widened his eyes.
“That noise?”
“I didn’t hear anything. Just come downstairs and have your tea.”
Maxine reached around him. “I really don’t mind the mess. Let me see.”
“No!” Again he shoved her hand aside.
“Daniel, that hurt.”
“Sorry, but please, let me tidy up first. Then you can see.” He held out his hand, using the voice he remembered using to recite his most successful Christmas wish lists. “Let’s go downstairs. Have you used the bathroom already?”
“Yes, and I can’t believe you’re using that thin, cheap paper. Why not use soft rolls? Like the ones we use?”
He fought the urge to roll his eyes. Nit-picking and thinly veiled disapproval were expressions of motherly love he could do without.
Instead, he took her by the hand and coaxed her toward the stairs. “You’re right. Remind me which ones you use so I can buy some next time.”
“I will and be sure you do.” She sniffed. “While I know that girl must be a financial drain you can at least buy decent toilet paper.”
With his shoulders hunched against the sound of another indignant squeak beyond the door, Dan marched back down the stairs. He held his mother’s hand all the way into the kitchen where clouds of steam told him the kettle had boiled.
Julian stood near the sink, pouring water into mugs. “Sugar?”
“No, thank you.” Maxine waved her hand.
“I meant Daniel.”
“And I said ‘no’, Julian. He’s getting chubby. Probably too much takeout.”
Dan felt his mother’s fingers jab his rib cage.
Just can’t help it, can you, Mum? What next, my hair?
Julian rolled his eyes. “How do you want this tea, my boy?”
“Two sugars please.” Dan ignored the sigh of disapproval from his mother and steered her into a chair.
“Your friend is outside, by the way.” Julian pointed to the window. “In your shed.”
Maxine craned her neck. “Has he been here all this time?”
“Yes.” Dan rubbed his foot over the trail of blood on the floor tiles. “He’s helping me in the bedroom. You know he’s a builder.”
“And you left him here alone with Kate?”
This time he did roll his eyes. “Karen.”
She smoothed her skirt. “Was that wise?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“You know better than I do, but—no. Don’t mind me. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
He stared at her, his entire body tingling with the effort it took not to take the bait. It was too much. “What is it, Mum?”
“Well, where is she?”
“Karen? Upstairs.”
“Getting dressed?”
“Maybe. What are you getting at?”
“Nothing. Though...” Maxine glanced out the window. “Your friend is a bit scruffy, isn’t he? Disheveled?”
“So?”
More skirt smoothing. “Perhaps he dressed in a hurry?”
“Tea, Maxine.”
Dan closed his mouth over his reply, grateful for his father’s timely interruption. He used the gap to take several deep breaths. “Pete helped me do the wallpaper. That’s all. He’s probably clearing tools from the bedroom.” He gave his mother a significant glance.
“He won’t let me see the master room, Julian.”
“And why should he? He’s not a child.”
Though their relationship had never been physical, in that moment Dan could have kissed his father. He settled for smiling behind his raised hand.
“Does that mean I shouldn’t see his lovely new wallpaper?”
Content that his parents had returned to bickering, Dan rushed into the garden. He reached Pete just as he held up a screwdriver.
“Near the paintbrushes, my ass.”
Dan tangled his hands in his hair. “I’m under a bit of pressure right now.”
“Whatever. Let’s sort out this bloody cage.”
“Please hurry.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Pete trudged inside.
Dan followed and positioned his chair to block the way out. He noticed a fresh trail of blood across the floor tiles and glanced at his mother who was scrubbing at the tabletop with a sponge. “Your tea is getting cold.”
She moved to the counter beside the sink and kept wiping. “Does she ever clean?”
“Mum, please.”
“I’m just asking.”
“This is my house,” he snapped, patience beaten so thin he could poke holes through it. “When I can be bothered, I clean. I cook. Karen spends her time here with me, not clucking like a mother hen.”
“She’s here often?”
“Every day.”
“Oh.” Maxine stopped cleaning long enough to wrinkle her nose. “What’s her house like?”
“She shares an apartment with a friend.”
“An apartment? Oh dear.”
“You used to live in one
.”
“Before I got my break on Home with Mr. Barclay.” Her chin tilted as she said it. “Then I moved straight into a nice clean semi. Caroline’s old enough to own her own place. Why share?”
Dan flexed his fingers and whispered Karen’s name in his head as if to secure his own memory of it. “Does it matter?”
“I’m curious.”
“She had to finance the PhD herself. Rent is cheaper than a mortgage.” As Dan lied, he realized he had no idea why Karen still shared with Cindy. But he did know the idea of discussing Karen’s living arrangements made him want to crawl into a deep hole and never climb out.
“That’s something. But is she moving in with you?”
He hesitated, weighing out the projected satisfaction of lying against the ease of simply telling the truth. He opted for the latter. “We don’t have any plans for that.”
The smug, knowing smile on Maxine’s lips made him want to change his answer.
“Here, my boy,” Julian nudged his shoulder with a steaming mug.
Dan took it and gratefully slurped from the rim.
“Darling, have you fixed the garden yet?”
“Give him a break, woman.” Julian actually raised his voice, a rare and frightening occurrence. Even Maxine glanced at him.
“It’s just a question. What’s wrong with you two today?”
Dan rubbed his forehead. “I wanted to do the house first. The garden can wait.”
“Do you still have that ghastly pond?”
“I filled it in.”
“Good. Can I at least see that?”
Sighing, Dan put his tea down and reopened the back door. He ushered his mother through then followed. Julian joined them.
Maxine marched to the bottom of the garden and stopped at the edge of a patch of freshly turned earth. “Even without flowers it’s much nicer like this.”
Dan shrugged.
“And now you have space for a vegetable patch. Organic food is good for you.”
“Mum...”
“I read an article last week about all the chemicals in our food. Terrible. It’s a wonder any of us are still alive.”
He nodded.
“I forgot my tea. One moment, darling.” Maxine pranced back to the house.
Dan put his head in his hands. He gave a wordless groan.
Julian patted his back. “Deep breaths, my boy.”
“Why can’t she just be normal?”
The older man smiled. “You never did understand, that is normal for your mother.”
“Every time she speaks, I feel like I’m going through a wringer.”
“Try living with her.” He grinned. “It does look better, by the way. The pond was too much work for a busy man like you. And you don’t need a veggie garden.”
“I only said it to shut her up.”
“I thought so. As if you have time with this girlfriend of yours.”
“Don’t you start, too.”
Julian’s eyes twinkled. “What? I think she’s lovely; intelligent clearly, dedicated obviously. It sounds like you struck gold.”
Dan gave his first real smile in hours. “Thanks, Dad. Convince Mum, will you?”
“I’ll try. Where is she?”
“Tea, she said.”
“What’s taking so long?”
Dan looked at the house. He frowned and peered through the window into the empty kitchen. Cold knots filled his stomach. He closed his eyes. “She’s not there. I think she’s in my bedroom.”
Chapter Five
Karen clutched the bars of the cage. The blanket slipped off her shoulders but she made no move to pull it up, staring instead at the closed door while her knuckles paled. Beyond it, she heard Dan beg his mother to join him downstairs, diverting her with some nonsense about toilet paper.
“Be sure that you do,” Maxine’s high, nasal tones floated through the door. “While I know that girl must be a financial drain you can at least buy decent toilet paper.”
Karen slammed her fist against the cage bars. “Screw you, Maxine.”
Their footsteps retreated on the stairs. She had no idea what Dan’s response might have been, but she knew enough not to hope for much.
“Bitch.”
Again she hit and kicked the cage bars. Silence followed and through it Karen could hear the thunderous pound of blood in her ears. She sank back onto her knees and stared at the door, half sorry that the chance to vent her frustrations had been snatched away by Dan’s timely intervention. She leaned back and kicked the bars again, over and over, each kick timed to land in concert with her passionate grunts of fury. The noisy assault continued until Pete returned holding a screwdriver. She kicked the cage again.
“Hey, calm down.”
“Are you serious?” she snapped.
“They’ll hear you.”
“I couldn’t give a shit. Did you hear her? Bitch! She’s worse than before. I hate her so much.”
“I know, but—”
“You know how it feels to have someone look down on you because you don’t fit their idea of what’s good enough?”
“No, but—”
“No. So shut up and get me out of here.”
Pete gazed at his shoes. “I found a screwdriver.” When she didn’t answer, he set to work on the screws. Pete released all the screws on the first hinge, despite his injured finger then began the next. Eventually the front panel clanged forward and dangled from its bolt and padlock.
Karen grinned and eased through the gap. “Thank God.” Her spine creaked as she straightened it and lifted her arms above her head for the first time in hours.
“You’re welcome.” He tossed the screwdriver onto the bed.
“Sorry, Pete. I didn’t mean to snap. It’s been a rough day. You did great.” Her smile faded when she followed his gaze down. She snagged the blanket from within the cage and wrapped it tight around her once more. “You can go now.”
He turned to the door and looked back. Though he refused to meet her gaze the crimson flush to his cheeks was easy to see. “This ‘playing’ you do...does it involve friends?”
“Get out!” she shrieked.
He fled.
Karen considered the merits of hiding beneath the bed and never coming out, but the thought of Maxine’s smug smile and haughty stare convinced her not to. Instead she snatched up the screwdriver and attacked the other sides of the cage. Pete made the job look easy, but sweat beaded on her back and forehead. More than once the tool slipped on the reluctant screws and only sharp reflexes saved her fingers from similar damage.
Several minutes later, the cage lay in six pieces that she stacked and shoved under the bed. The door creaked open just as she smoothed the duvet back into place.
“Oh, you are here.” The snide inflection in that posh voice made her gut clench.
She whirled round and glared. “Maxine.”
“Nice to see you, Carol.”
“Karen.” Her molars gnashed together.
“Of course.” Maxine shoved the door open and entered the room. She spared Karen only a glance before inspecting the walls and carpet. “It looks very nice. He could have had more color though.”
“We like blue.”
“We?” Surprise temporarily broke through Maxine’s veneer of disdain. “This is Daniel’s house.”
Karen hesitated, tugging the edges of the blanket. Yes, it was Dan’s house, despite all the time they spent together in it. The decorating. The furniture. The sex. It was still his house.
She tucked the corners of the blanket beneath her armpits and tilted her chin. “He asked me to help. We decided together.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Yes,” she said, earlier hesitation vanished. The unhappy twist to Maxine’s mouth gave her an absurd rush of pleasure. “Is that all? I need to get dressed.”
“You keep clothes here?”
“Of course.” Another wicked spike of pleasure surged through Karen when she saw the tightening of Ma
xine’s lips. “I wake here most mornings so I keep some in those drawers.”
Maxine sniffed, as if something unpleasant had crawled up her nose. “Daniel does enjoy company.” She arched an eyebrow. “Last week he told me about a pretty woman he met at work. Sandra, I think he really likes her.” Though coy in her body language, the nonchalance of her tone didn’t fit the grim smile on her face.
“Yes, I know Sandra, she’s lovely. So is her girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend?” Maxine’s voice rose several octaves. Her eyebrows shot up her forehead to hide beneath her fringe.
“He didn’t tell you she’s gay? And married?” Karen didn’t bother hiding her smirk. “It must have slipped his mind.”
With visible effort, Maxine gathered herself for the next attack. Karen waited with her tongue wedged between her teeth.
“Sorry to disturb your day in bed. Sleeping off last night’s drunken revelry?”
Karen opened her mouth then snapped it shut again. No matter how she felt, she knew that to blurt out the truth would only make matters worse. Even her own, liberal parents knew nothing of her unconventional relationship with the man eleven years her senior.
She settled for a half-truth. “Dan and I were in bed when you called. I thought I’d take advantage of the half hour catnap. I know he would have preferred to rest too, but he’s a charitable guy.” She turned to the dresser to hide her triumphant smile.
Pounding footsteps advanced up the stairs. Dan burst into the room. “I can explain!” he cried. A pause. “Oh.”
“Explain what, darling?”
Karen glanced over her shoulder, enjoying the flicker of confusion in Dan’s eyes. That’s right, she mused. Sweat it out, you bastard.
“Nothing.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I mean, your tea is getting cold, Mum.”
“Oh, I completely forgot it, silly me.”
“Don’t worry, Maxine, the occasional senior moment is nothing to worry about.”
Dan gaped and slumped against the doorframe, hiding his face in his hands.
Karen ignored him and grinned at Maxine. “Do you need a hand down the stairs? If you don’t mind waiting I’ll come with you.”
“I’m fine.” Maxine tossed her head, gave one last glare, and stalked out.
Karen narrowed her eyes and watched Dan listen to her retreating steps. As soon as they were gone she unleashed her anger on him. “If you ever do that to me again—”
Sugar Dust Page 3