Sugar Dust Read Free

to concentrate on the road ahead instead of what Pete would soon uncover in his bedroom. Again he thought of Karen’s face when he left her; brows scrunched, down turned lips and a deep sadness in her eyes. His own chest ached at leaving her that way, but what choice did he have?
    Ten minutes and six missed calls later, Dan pulled into the train station car park and stopped in front of a tiny, silver haired woman waving an equally tiny hankie. Her dress, reminiscent of some hideous seventies curtain, billowed in the breeze and displayed an unwelcome length of leg encased in sheer nylon.
    “Darling!” she cried. “I thought you’d never get here.”
    The sound of that crisp, nasal voice sapped all the righteous rage Dan had managed to cultivate on the car ride over. The voice dragged him back twenty years, maybe even thirty, and placed him at his mother’s side, hanging his head as she brandished yet another of his second place trophies.
    “It is rush hour, Mum.”
    “We had to settle for that ghastly sandwich place. The green one.”
    “Subway? What’s wrong with that?”
    “All that greasy, microwaved meat. Terrible. I had to ask your father to find us a sofa in Costa instead. At least they have decent coffee.”
    “Hi, Dad.” Dan eyed the older man’s lion-like sweep of white hair and lively brown eyes and held out his hand. His father took it and gave it a brief squeeze.
    “You’re just in time, my boy. I don’t have it in me to fight off another group of tourists. Or keep your mother away from them.”
    Maxine pursed her lips. “You have no right to shoo away my fans. There’s no harm in signing an autograph or two.”
    “I prefer to drink my coffee in peace.”
    “You’re such a stick in the mud.”
    “And you can’t stand not being the center of attention.”
    As the pair began their customary bickering, Dan tuned it out and led his mother to the front passenger side. He held the door for her.
    “See that, Julian, I raised him right. Such a good boy.” She pressed a dry, heavily perfumed kiss against his face and folded herself into the car.
    Dan slammed the door behind her and scrubbed his cheek with his sleeve. “Want a hand, Dad?”
    Julian shook his head and climbed into the back seat. “Let’s just go.”
    Back in the car, before Dan managed to fasten his seatbelt, the bickering started again.
    “Let me buy you a new car, darling.” Maxine shoved one glossy fingernail into a hole in the dashboard. “This thing is falling apart.”
    He eased her hand away from the hole. “It will, if you keep doing that. Besides, I like this car.”
    “It isn’t safe. I’ll get you a BMW, or one of those sporty things my agent used to drive. You know the ones...a Lexus.”
    “I don’t want a new car.”
    “It’s no trouble. I know money must be tight what with that woman leeching it from your pockets.”
    His pulse quickened. “Leeching?”
    Maxine patted her hair. It was already perfect, but she made a great show of curling it behind her ears before she spoke again. “Carol, or whatever it is.”
    “Karen.”
    “Her. She’s not working?”
    “She’s a student.”
    “I knew she was too young for you.”
    Dan curled and uncurled his toes within the confines of his shoes. He bit the inside of his cheek and counted to five before he spoke. “She’s thirty-one. It’s a PhD.”
    “That’s a fancy way of saying she’s living off the state, darling.”
    “Steady, Maxine. Clearly the woman has some brains if she’s doing something like that.” Julian leaned forward to pat Dan on the shoulder. Dan opened his mouth to thank his father, but cut short when Maxine flapped a dismissive hand in his face. “It’s lazy, that’s what it is. Those people who stay in education drinking and smoking, instead of working and contributing like everyone else. Lazy.”
    “Like you?” Dan gritted his teeth.
    “No, not like me. I’m retired, darling.”
    “You haven’t worked for twenty