“I kept her from graduating high school.”
“Look, Alex, you didn’t keep her from doing anything,” he argued angrily. “All right, she made a mistake. She got too hot with a soldier boy, or he took advantage of her. However the hell it happened, it happened.”
With the edge of his hand, he chopped the air between them in a gesture of finality. “You didn’t have anything to do with the act or the consequences of it. You said so yourself, just a few hours ago. Remember?”
“I’m not condemning my mother or stigmatizing myself, Reede. I feel sorry for her. She couldn’t attend school, even though she was legally married.”
Alex wrapped her arms around her sides, giving herself a huge hug. “I think she was a very special lady. She could have given me up for adoption, but she didn’t. Even after my father was killed, she kept me with her. She loved me and was willing to make tremendous sacrifices for me.
“She had the courage to carry me in a town where everybody was talking about her. Don’t bother denying it. I know they did. She was popular; she fell from grace. Anyone harboring malice toward her was delighted. That’s human nature.”
“If they were, they didn’t dare show it.”
“Because you were still her knight, weren’t you?”
“Junior and me.”
“You closed ranks around her.”
“I guess you could put it like that.”
“Your friendship probably meant more to her then than at any other time.” He gave a noncommittal lift of his shoulders.
She studied his profile for a moment. The rocky path had led her to the cliff, and she was about to take the plunge. “Reede, if Celina hadn’t died, would you have gotten married?”
“No.”
He answered without a second’s hesitation. Alex was surprised. She didn’t quite believe him. “Why not?”
“Lots of reasons, but essentially, because of Junior.”
She hadn’t expected that. “What about him?”
“While Celina was pregnant, they became very close. He just about had her talked into marrying him when she… died.”
“Do you think she would have, eventually?”
“I don’t know.” He slid Alex a sardonic glance. “Junior’s quite a ladies’ man. He can be very persuasive.”
“Look, Reede, I told Sarah Jo, now I’m telling you, that—”
“Shh! They’re passing us off to Austin radar.” He spoke into the headset. When the formalities had been dispensed with, he coaxed someone in the airport tower to arrange a rental car for him. By the time he had gone through that procedure, they were approaching the lighted runway. “Buckled up?”
“Yes.”
He executed a flawless landing. Alex thought later that she must have been in a daze, because she barely remembered getting from the plane to the rented car. Without having to concentrate, she gave Reede directions to her condo.
It was located in a fashionable, yuppie neighborhood where Evian was the drink of preference, every kitchen had a wok, and membership in a health club was as mandatory as a driver’s license.
A line of thunderstorms hadn’t hampered their flight, but had moved in over the city by the time they reached her street. Raindrops began to splatter the windshield. Thunder rumbled.
“The one with all the newspapers scattered in the yard,” Alex told him.
“You’re a public prosecutor. Don’t you know better than to advertise to thieves that you’re out of town? Or is that your way of drumming up business?”
“I forgot to stop delivery.”
He pulled to the curb, but he didn’t turn off the motor. Several days ago, Alex would have been jubilant at the thought of returning home, just for a temporary respite from the Westerner Motel, but as she looked at the front door now, she felt no enthusiasm for going inside. The tears that clouded her vision weren’t tears of joy.