Alice Hoffman - Second Nature by Nature Second

Author:Nature Second [Second, Nature]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“You wonder why I don’t tell you anything?” Lydia said. “You wonder why I despise you?”

“This is not going to continue,” Michelle said.

She left school, although dismissal wasn’t for another hour, and drove to Robin’s in less than ten minutes, probably ruining the gearshift on the way. Robin was out in the driveway, shoveling mulch into the bed of her truck.

“What?” she said when Michelle came tearing up the driveway.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your son,” Michelle said. She was standing in mulch up to her ankles, and her face was so hot she looked sunburned.

Immediately Robin thought car accident. She leaned against her truck for support. She used to worry about that when Roy worked at night and there was ice on the roads, sometimes she wouldn’t fall asleep until she heard him come home.

“He’s the one that Lydia wouldn’t tell me about. It’s Connor.”

“No,” Robin said. “They hate each other.”

Michelle took off her jacket and tried to breathe deeply.

“Don’t they?” Robin said, more uncertain now.

“All this time, he was the one she was running off to meet. He’s like his goddamn father. I’d bet he’d fuck anything, just like Roy. But he’s not getting my daughter.”

Robin took a step back. She refused to believe she had heard Michelle correctly. As a matter of fact, her ears were ringing, she could have easily misunderstood.

“It’s up to you to stop him,” Michelle said. “I want you to keep him away from Lydia.”

Robin looked at Connor’s bike, which he’d left near the back gate.

Just the other night he suddenly decided he would go see his father, or at least that was what he’d told her. Robin had been so grateful to have that time with Stephen that she hadn’t thought to question Connor.

But then she’d happened to look outside as he was getting on his bike, and he’d looked so joyful, intoxicated almost, that she’d been thrilled by his youth.

“Did you hear what I said?” Michelle asked. “He’s not to see her.”

“It’s not up to me,” Robin said. “I can’t stop them.”

“You’d better,” Michelle told her. “You started it.”

“Wait a minute,” Robin said. “Are you blaming me?”

“Because you always let Connor get away with murder? You never disciplined him, not ever. And now you’re more concerned with who you’re screwing than what your son is doing every night. And don’t tell me you’re not at it with this assistant of yours. I can see right through you.”

“We’d better stop.” Robin was truly frightened of where this had led them. “Right now.”

“Maybe I’d better call Roy,” Michelle said. “Maybe what’s going on is statutory rape. This is the sort of thing that runs in families.”

“Maybe you’d better fuck yourself.”

“Oh,” Michelle said, “is that the way it is?”

Robin grabbed her shovel and started to clear away the mulch. Her breathing was coming too hard, but she refused to cry, and all the tears she might have shed went downward, until they formed a lump in her throat so large she couldn’t have spoken even if she’d known what to say.

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