A.K.A. by Dave Pedneau

Author:Dave Pedneau [Pedneau, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery & Crime
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2013-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Tressa's fork was busy, pushing food around on her plate, but she wasn't eating. Her mother, sitting across the table, watched. "You have a long face," she said.

"I'm worried, Mother."

"About Anna Tyree, I assume."

Tressa lifted her eyes from the plate and glared at her mother. "Mrs. Binder, too. I guess you don't approve."

Julia Pynchon dropped her eyes. "No, dear. I mean—no, you're wrong. I understand. I really don't dislike Miss Tyree. In fact, I don't even know her. I think maybe I'm simply very jealous of her."

Tressa couldn't conceal her astonishment. "Jealous? You? I thought you hated Dad."

Julia placed her fork by her plate and stared out the dining room window. With daylight savings time, the sun remained high in the sky. "I've never really hated your father. I despise how he behaves, his crude ways, but I loved him when I married him, and in a way I still do."

Tressa's face reflected her confusion. "After so many years, you're telling me this? It would have helped to have heard you say this when I was nine or ten."

Julia's eyes were moist. "I know, dear. Your father can't help how he is, and you overlook his faults. I can't help how I feel about him. One reason I feel as I do, I think, is that you can tolerate his faults but not mine."

"But you're so . . . so intolerant of others—of the faults of others—"

Julia managed a weak smile. "And your father isn't?"

She had Tressa on that point. So Tressa changed the subject. "You said a moment ago that you were jealous. What do you mean?"

Julia was slowly shaking her head. "I don't honestly know, Tressa. When I married your father—heavens, so many years ago—I wanted it to work out. I had the same fairy-tale notions of life as every young woman. As your father said, I think I based my expectations on what I saw on television. I had the same notions that you have, I suspect. Even then, Whitley had so little patience with fairy tales. Oh, he wasn't as bad as he is now, but—"

"Mother! He's not bad."

"I didn't mean that, child. I meant to say he wasn't as cynical as he is now, but he has always been something of a maverick."

"You had to know that when you married him, didn't you?"

"One can't help with whom one falls in love. Sometimes, we need to simply resist our impulses. Of course, if I had, then you wouldn't have been born. Whitley and I both would have been denied one of the true joys in our lives."

The expression on Tressa's face had changed from sheer astonishment to sudden suspicion. "Is this leading up to something about Rob?"

"Not intentionally," her mother said, quite honestly. "I have decided to stop badgering you about the young man. You will have to make your own decisions about your future, at least insofar as this matter is concerned. I simply hope and pray—and beg of you, Tressa—that you don't rush headlong into something that you might regret.

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