“But how on earth did he find me? The records were sealed.”
“Times have changed. Many states are allowing adoptive kids to look at their files. The only way to know for sure is to call him.”
Marie seemed to ponder that for a moment. “I haven’t shown the note to Mama. She’s liable to hit the ceiling. It’s bad enough I’m seeing Bernadine’s ex. Getting in touch with the child she insisted I couldn’t raise is only going to make her go off again on what she calls my ‘evil past.’ ”
Lily didn’t respond. Out of respect, she’d always kept her feelings about Agnes Jefferson unspoken.
“I’m over sixty years old, and still scared of my mother. Pitiful.” When Marie smiled, Lily met it with one of her own.
“I really want to call him, Lily.”
“Then go for it. Who knows? This may turn out to be a blessing.”
It was easy to see that Marie wanted it to be just that, but the thought of her mother’s reaction had to be looming like a hawk over prey. The situation brought Preston’s quest back to mind. Would his mom want contact?
Lily turned the envelope over and saw that although it bore a Tennessee postmark, there was no return address. The person who’d mailed it seemed as uncertain as Marie. “Have you talked to anyone else about this besides Leo?”
“Genevieve. And her advice was the same as yours.”
“Great minds think alike.” Another thing Lily kept to herself was how she felt about Marie possibly letting Leo influence her thinking on this. For as long as Lily had known her, Marie had always been in charge of Marie. Lily hoped she wasn’t turning into one of those women who wouldn’t cross a street without asking her man first.
“Thanks for listening, Lily.”
“No problem, and if you need to talk it through some more, I’m your girl.”
Marie nodded approvingly and after a few more seconds of silence asked, “So how’s the wedding coming?”
Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. Bernadine wants to throw the Wedding of the Ages, and I just want a quiet ceremony with a reception at the Dog.”
“Then say that.”
“I have. Many times.”
“Not listening?”
“Seemingly.”
“She’s a tough lady.”
Lily assessed Marie in an effort to try and determine if she’d meant that to be complimentary or not, but Marie was an excellent poker player and hid her emotions well. Lily changed the subject. “Sorry I haven’t been out to see you. It’s been crazy.”
“I understand why you haven’t. Has Bernadine asked you to choose?”
Lily went still. “No.”
“And neither will I. I know how she feels about my being with Leo, but we’re all adults. You are still my godchild—always will be. I can even still be friends with Bernadine, if she’d let me.”
“She’s just concerned about you, that’s all.”
“So she says.”
Lily heard the snipe. “Do I need to sit the two of you down and have a come-to-Jesus meeting? The last thing I need is another layer of drama before my wedding.”
“Another layer?”
“Yes. Devon is insisting on being the preacher, and no matter how many times I tell him no, he keeps asking. I also have Bernadine trying to smother me with her checkbook. If I have to referee a catfight between two grown women, too, I swear I’m going to elope.”
Marie smiled. “A Jesus meeting won’t be necessary.”
“You sure? Both of you are in my wedding because you mean the world to me.”
“I know, but have your wedding. Emphasis on the your. You’re the one getting married. No one else.”
Lily knew she was right, but Bernadine wanted the nuptials to be a grand affair so badly.
“Go on back to work. I know you probably have a million and a half things to do.”
“Nope, I have the day off, so I can sit awhile unless you have someplace to go.”
“Nope. I’m waiting for Genevieve to get back so we can head over to the rec and set up for tonight’s movie. You heard about her and Riley?”
“Yeah.”
“Cliff is so mad at her, he can’t see straight.”
“Why?”
“Told Genevieve she’s supposed to be a lady, not Muhammad Ali.”
“Riley can bring out the Ali in a girl.”
“Amen.”
“How’s her hand?”
“Broken in three places, but she’s displaying the cast so proudly, you’d think she was Ali.”
Lily smiled at that. “Where is she?”
“With Cliff. He said they needed to talk.”
“I never knew he was so rigid.”
“He used to be as big a knucklehead as Mal, but when he came back from ’Nam, he’d changed. Not sure why, but he loves the ground Gen walks on, so they’ll work it out.”
They spent a few more minutes chatting, and then Lily had to go. “Today’s laundry day. I suppose I should get to it.”
Marie walked her out. Before they parted, Lily gave her a strong hug. The visit had been a good one. “You should come over and have dinner with me and Trent and the boys.”
“I’d like that. Leo invited, too?”
“Of course.” It was a lie, but for Marie’s sake she’d be nice to Leo even if it killed her.
They set the date, and Lily drove home.
With the laundry done and the house clean, she was wondering if she really wanted to tackle the windows, too. But before she could decide, her stomach protested, not having been fed since the quick breakfast in Miami at the crack of dawn, so she called Trent to see what he might be doing, and if they could meet for lunch.
“Just sitting down at the Dog,” he said on the phone.
She loved the sound of his velvety voice against her ear. “Alone, I hope.”
“Nope. Gary’s with me so, if you’re coming, behave.”
“Aww, that’s no fun.”
“Crazy woman,” he muttered affectionately.
“See you in a minute.”
The hip-shaking sound of Wilson’s Pickett’s “Engine Number Nine” was rocking the house when Lily entered the diner. The music competed with the noise of what sounded like a hundred different conversations. The place was packed like it always was between eleven and two, and the mouthwatering smells of the food coming out of Rocky and Siz’s kitchen filled the air.
Behind the counter Malachi was moving to the beat and counting a stack of paper money over the opened cash drawer. Looking up, he shot her a smile. “Hey, girl. My lady with you?”
“Nope. She still has herself chained to her desk. Me, I have the day off.”
“Good for you, but your boss has to be the hardest-working person on the planet.”
“Amen.”
“Trent’s over there on the left,” he informed Lily just as she spotted him, so she left Mal bopping and counting, and threaded her way over to Trent.
She greeted him with a quick kiss on the lips. Slipping into the booth, she gave Gary a grin. The waitress arrived and set down the men’s loaded-up plates.
“You all didn’t wait for me?” Lily asked with mock offense.
Trent gave the waitress a nod of thanks and began covering his fries with ketchup. “Seven times out of ten, when you say you’re on your way, you get distracted by the job and arrive a week later. I want lunch today.”
She punched him playfully in the shoulder. “I have the day off, but at least I do work, unlike you.”
He peered at her over the giant burger filling his hands and countered, “I work, too. As mayor, I officially welcomed my boy Gary back to town by helping him move today.”
“Where to?”
“The empty trailer out on Tamar’s land.”
“Good. Welcome home, Gary.”
He toasted her with his large chocolate shake.
“You got keys and everything, then.”
Trent said, “We got keys, Lil. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been ab
le to get in.”
“Thank you, Mr. State the Obvious.”
“Why are you mad?”
“I’m not mad.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“Keep that up, and I will be,” she countered coolly.
Gary chuckled.
They both glared.
He shook his head in amusement. “I feel like I’m in Mr. Peabody’s Way Back machine and we’re seventeen all over again. Think you can take me back to the year before I married Colleen?”
That broke the tension.
Lily stuck out her tongue.
To give Lily something else to think about besides her hair-trigger temper, Trent leaned over and gifted her with a kiss that was so all that, everybody in the diner saw it and began cheering and whistling. When he finally let her up for air, she saw stars.
Gary’s laughter made his shoulders shake. “And thus ends another fiery episode of the July and Fontaine Show. Stay tuned, boys and girls.”
Trent raised his soda in reply.
Lily wanted to smack them both, but the room was still spinning. Holding Trent’s mischief-filled eyes, she smiled and beckoned him closer. When he complied, she whispered in his ear, “You are so going to pay for that.”
He whispered back, “Counting on it.”
She chuckled, pushed him away, and looked around for the waitress to place her order.
As they enjoyed their meals, the three friends talked of old times. Soon the conversation drifted to who they’d run into, who was working where, and the classmates that had passed away. Some of the names were of people Lily hadn’t thought of in years, but with each mention a seventeen-year-old face rose up clearly from her memory. Like Irene Parrish, who was on the Henry Adams girls’ track team with Lily. “We really ought to have a reunion,” she said over her salad.
“You willing to be the organizer?” Trent asked.
“I’d consider it. It would have to be after the wedding, though.” She looked Gary’s way. “What do you think about a reunion, Gary?”
“Might be fun. We’ve never had one that I can remember.”
Trent replied, “Neither can I.”
“Then let’s put it away for now and talk about it after the first of the year.”
Bernadine entered the dinner. She and Lily exchanged a wave over the sizable crowd and the sound of Al Green crying about how tired he was of being alone, blasting on the jukebox. Lily watched Bernadine and Malachi greet each other with a quick kiss before they slid into a booth.
“Bernadine’s been good for him,” Trent said.
Lily hadn’t known he’d been watching them, too. “The only time she seems to relax is when he’s around.”
“She’s made him grow up. That alone makes her gold in my eyes.”
Lily understood. When they were in high school, Malachi July had been in his glory days as a wild man. Although Trent never talked about it, Lily knew how much it hurt him to be the son of a man seemingly bent upon self-destruction. She remembered many a Friday and Saturday night riding shotgun in Black Beauty with a worried Trent while they scoured the county’s dives and truck stops, hoping to find his father before he killed someone driving drunk. Mal was a mess back then.
“I’m glad she came to town,” Trent said as he turned and met Lily’s eyes.
She agreed.
They spent the next few minutes discussing Gary’s move and his plans for his girls. He explained to Lily, “Leah’s being pretty supportive, but as I was telling Trent yesterday, Tiff is not happy.”
“I know how she feels. Losing your mom doesn’t make for happy times. Even though our circumstances are different, a loss is a loss. Do you want me to talk to her?”
“I’d like that. Warning you, though, she’s got a lot of her mother in her. She may not want your help.”
“I won’t force myself on her if she’s not comfortable.”
As the cast of diners came and went around them and the ruby red jukebox continued to kick out the jams, Rocky appeared, carrying a tray. She stopped beside Lily. “When are you going to get me that list?”
Lily was supposed to have decided weeks ago on what food she wanted served at the reception.
“You’re going to mess around and have everybody eating peanut butter and jelly on crackers.”
Lily hung her head.
“Get with it, Fontaine,” she scolded and moved on.
Gary quipped, “Rocky hasn’t changed much, either.”
Lily sighed dejectedly.
Back at home, Lily took a cup of tea out onto her deck and sat down at the wrought-iron patio table. She could still hear Rocky’s admonishment ringing in her ear. Get with it, Fontaine. She supposed she should, but she didn’t want to. First, she didn’t want to take the time away from all the other stuff she was doing; who knew that town building would be such a rush? She loved her job, whether it be going over the blueprints for rebuilding Main Street, or arguing with the county over an out-of-date building code, or riding around in her hard hat and boots.
The second reason was that she didn’t know the first thing about how to do it. When she married the first time, it had been a quick trip to the judge, and that was it. Although she wouldn’t mind doing that again with Trent, Henry Adams was a small town, and no matter how much she protested to herself, it was understood that her friends and neighbors would want the day to be one to remember, and because of that there had to be at least a wedding dress and a reception dinner.
She let out a frustrated sigh. She needed to have someone else do the planning, which automatically meant Bernadine, but as she’d mused earlier, by the time the Boss Lady was done flashing her onyx card, there’d be glass slippers, seven dwarves, and lord only knew what else. There had to be a middle ground between glass slippers and a quick trip to the country courthouse, but she had no idea what it might be or how to go about finding a compromise that didn’t take away from her life. Yes, it was her wedding, but she was far more excited about marrying Trent than she was about the ceremony. She glanced down at her finger, sporting the beautiful sparkler he’d given her in San Francisco, and once again she voted to just elope.
Lily heard Sheila Payne calling her through the screen of the front door, so she set down her tea and hurried inside.
“Hey, Sheila. Come on in. How are things?”
“Interesting, let’s just call it that.”
Lily directed her back out to the deck and offered her tea, but Sheila declined. Lily gestured her to a seat and waited to learn the purpose of her call.
“First, thank you for counseling Preston.”
“About what?”
“Preston said you told him to talk to Barrett and me about his search for his birth family.”
“Ah.” She understood now. “I’m assuming he did?”
“Yes, but it’s not sitting well with Barrett. He and Preston are back to circling each other like boxers in the ring.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Barrett’s just being a hard-ass. He doesn’t understand why Preston would want to do this, and frankly, he’s taking it personally, as if maybe Preston wants to leave us.”
“Is that what you think?”
“Of course not. Preston made it very clear what he’s about on this, and I told him I’d help in any way I could.”
“Good for you.”
“Even though Barrett’s not on board, I wanted to thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Now my second reason for coming is to offer to host a bridal tea.”
“A bridal tea?”
Sheila explained, “You don’t impress me as a bridal shower kind of woman, but it might be nice to bring all the ladies together and have a tea, maybe on the weekend before Thanksgiving.”
“Sheila, that is so sweet of you. You don’t do weddings, too, do you?” she tossed out teasingly.
“I’ve arranged a few in my day.”
Lily paused. “Really?”
“I may
not know how to run a town or stand up to an adulterous husband, but I’m an expert at entertaining. I’ve overseen officers’ dinners, Red Cross luncheons. I even put on a dinner for two hundred generals, various senators, and their wives, and did I mention the president and first lady were there as well?”
Lily almost fell off her chair.
“So do you want to have the tea?”
Lily searched Sheila’s face as if seeing the woman for the first time. “Yes. Very much.” She supposed the colonel knew about this side of his wife, but no one else did. This Sheila, speaking with confidence and humor, was not the Sheila she thought she knew. “You’re not making all this up, are you, girl?”
“Of course not. Who’d lie about being able to plan a dinner? This may sound silly, but spearheading events gives me joy. Trying to decide on the right china pattern or whether to use damask or linen for the table keeps one’s mind off your husband sleeping with another woman.”
Lily didn’t say a word.
“So do you want me to plan your wedding, too?”
“I would.”
“Then how about I come over tonight, and we can make some decisions.”
“Not tonight. It’s Friday. Movie night at the rec, remember? We can get together in the morning, if that’s okay.”
“Of course. Sorry to be so eager. It’s been a while since I’ve had anything like this to do. I’m excited.”
Lily sensed the happiness. “Glad I could help, and I’ll expect a bill for your services.”
“You’re not getting one, so forget that.”
“Sheila—”
“No, this is my wedding gift to you, and my gift to myself. No bill.”
Lily didn’t argue, but planned on revisiting the matter at a later date.
Sheila got to her feet. “Thank you, Lily.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’ll give you a call around nine.”
“Sounds good, and Sheila?”
She stopped and turned back.
“Thanks,” Lily whispered with emotion.
Sheila winked and exited.
After the departure, the first thing that came to Lily’s mind was the biblical saying “Ask and ye shall receive.” She wasn’t sure the verse applied to things like weddings, but she sure wasn’t going to complain. She also hoped Sheila knew what she was doing.