Grim and Bear It by Paula Lester & Christine Zane Thomas
Author:Paula Lester & Christine Zane Thomas [Lester, Paula & Thomas, Christine Zane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cozy Mystery, grim reaper cozy mystery
Publisher: Paula Lester and Christine Zane Thomas
Published: 2020-04-28T16:00:00+00:00
Chapter 10
Even though Tessa’s mother wasn’t exactly the cookie baking, emotionally nurturing type, going to her childhood home for one of her favorite meals was comforting. Tessa parked Linda on the curb in front of the white colonial with black shutters and gazed at it for a moment.
As always, memories and feelings came at her too fast to process. Happiness, warmth, safety, and anger rushed at her like an oncoming train. Mixed in there, overlying all of it for the past half a decade, was the pang of sadness that her father wouldn’t be opening the door as she walked up the steps to the porch. He always timed it like that.
Tessa sighed and rang the doorbell, catching her breath when the front door opened. But, of course, it wasn’t Michael Randolph standing there, backlit by light from the living room, smiling and then running a hand through thick, dark hair. It was Cheryl. She leaned on the door frame and waited, moving aside to let her daughter enter.
“I thought you had a key.”
“Hello to you too, Mom.” Tessa dropped her purse on the bench in the foyer and breathed deeply. “Dinner smells great.”
“It’s ready,” Cheryl said. “I just need to carry the platter to the dining room.”
Tessa followed through the formal foyer with its brass-framed artwork and mirrors into the big modern kitchen that glittered with stainless steel and polished black and white tile. A platter of roast and vegetables sat on the black granite countertop, and Cheryl grabbed it before heading through another doorway into the formal dining room.
“You changed the locks,” Tessa said in answer to her mother’s earlier question.
“That was years ago.”
Tessa knew it was years ago. But she didn’t visit often enough to warrant a key. Not since her dad passed.
Even though she knew what the answer would be, Tessa asked, “Can’t we just eat at the kitchen table?”
She cast a wistful glance at the wood table tucked into a kitchen alcove next to a huge bay window that looked out onto the front yard’s lovely landscaping. It was a homey, comforting spot that Cheryl never used for family meals.
Sure enough, Tessa’s mother shook her head. “The dining room’s the proper place for dinner.”
She headed into the room in question, which had always made Tessa feel uncomfortable because of its formality. It reminded her of times long past. Nights when she had a boy over and her father grilled him about sports and hobbies—about school if the boy showed any hint of not being good enough for daddy’s little girl.
They never were good enough.
The room was large, with oak wood floors and cream-colored walls. Paintings of food hung at intervals, and a long mahogany table, scrubbed with wood polish until you could see your reflection, stood in the center under a fancy chandelier that dripped with crystals.
Cheryl set down the platter and waited for Tessa to get to her spot. They sat simultaneously. Tessa couldn’t contain a sigh as she looked at the place setting. The china was off-white with a delicate pink and blue flower pattern, and Tessa hated it.
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