“You’re comparing me to a nervous horse now?” she asked indignantly.
He laughed. “Flo, sometimes you make loving you so much harder than it needs to be.”
The sweet sincerity and hint of frustration behind his words touched her more than any of his other gestures. Until this instant, she wasn’t sure she’d truly believed any man could love her as Donnie professed to. Yet he seemed to see her clearly and loved her anyway.
“Let’s eat,” she said briskly, not ready to concede just yet that he might have won the battle, if not the whole darn war. “All this discussion has given me an appetite.”
Clearly amused, he said, “You do know the discussion is just getting started, right?”
“I do.”
“Okay, then. Let’s eat. We have the whole night to figure out the rest.”
Flo imagined they’d find some way to put that time to good use, and, if she had her way, there’d be very little talking involved.
* * *
Lynn had just hung up the phone after speaking to Mitch, who’d asked to postpone their get-together until tonight, when it rang again.
“I’m in serious need of a margarita night,” Helen said right off. “My place tonight, okay?”
The tension in her attorney’s voice alarmed Lynn. “Has something happened? Have you found out something bad about Ed’s finances?”
“Sorry,” Helen said. “This isn’t about the divorce. I should have said that right off the bat. It’s about my mother. She called me ten minutes ago and says she has an announcement.”
“She and Donnie are getting married?” Lynn guessed, trying not to allow her own delight at the news to creep into her voice. It was obvious Helen was less than thrilled.
“That would be my guess. She’s taking me to lunch at Sullivan’s. Since she has never once invited me to have lunch with her, much less in a fancy restaurant, she must have something huge on her mind.”
“So margarita night is being planned in anticipation of your having a really bad day, not because it’s already started?” Lynn said, amused. “Are the Senior Magnolias coming tonight?”
“Not if I can help it,” Helen said grimly. “But if I know my meddling friend Maddie, they’ll turn up. She’ll think the best way to smooth things over between me and my mother is by putting us in the same place with a pitcher of margaritas. Anyway, you can be here, right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Lynn said. This dance between Helen and her mom promised to provide more lively entertainment than she’d had in weeks. It would mean postponing her conversation with Mitch yet again, but maybe that was for the best. He didn’t seem any more eager to hash things out than she was.
Thinking about what had happened the night before between Ed and Mitch, she said, “Before you go, I should tell you about something.” She described the scene at Rosalina’s. “Ed clearly has a problem with Mitch for some reason. Mitch has offered to back off, and he’s probably right, but it’s not what I want. We were going to talk about it tonight.”
“Oh, dear, I didn’t mean to disrupt your plans. Would you rather spend the evening with Mitch and settle this now?” Helen asked at once. “It’s okay if you would.”
Lynn considered the offer. “No. I think maybe it’s good that the Sweet Magnolias are getting together. It’ll give me more time to think this through. Any advice?”
“How do you feel about Mitch?”
“I like him,” Lynn said, then smiled as she thought of that one blazing kiss they’d shared. It had been a revelation. It truly had. “A lot.”
“Then the answer’s easy. Don’t let anything get between you, not even Ed or his misguided possessiveness.”
“But I don’t want him to drag Mitch into the divorce,” Lynn said.
“Let me worry about that,” Helen said. “Another week or so and I’ll all but guarantee we can neutralize anything he wants to try.”
Lynn was startled by the conviction she heard in Helen’s voice. “Is that because you’re already on the trail of something?”
“No, it’s gut instinct and my track record,” Helen said confidently. “I haven’t let a client down yet. And that is not just my massive ego talking, by the way. I have testimonials.”
Lynn chuckled. “I don’t doubt it for a minute. Thanks. See you tonight.”
Now she just had to call Mitch and postpone their talk, making him believe it was all about showing up for a friend and not about putting off a tricky, potentially uncomfortable conversation.
* * *
Mitch heard the nervousness in Lynn’s voice when she canceled their plans for the evening. Though her excuse had seemed genuine, he couldn’t help wondering if maybe Ed had gotten to her the night before, planting either doubts or fear in her head.
He was wondering if he shouldn’t go next door and find out when Carter walked into the new addition, grabbing a hard hat at the last second.
“I figure you’re at loose ends tonight, same as me,” Carter said. “All the women are going over to Helen’s for some Sweet Magnolias thing.”
Mitch held up his cell phone. “Just heard about it,” he confirmed.
“How’d you like to go out with me, Travis, Tom and some of the other men for a little basketball and a few beers?”
“Seriously? I haven’t been on a basketball court since high school.”
“That hardly matters. Cal, Tom and Travis are pretty competitive, but the rest of us just try not to make fools of ourselves or land in the hospital.”
Mitch chuckled. “How’s that usually work for you?”
“Only one split lip requiring stitches, a sprained ankle and a few minor cuts and bruises so far. Luckily, J. C. Fullerton plays, so he’s been patching us up like the big old babies we are. That’s one good thing about having a pediatrician in the gang.”
Mitch considered the offer. He’d been thinking for a while now that he needed some real friends in his life. Here was his chance. The prospect of a few beers at the end of the evening gave him pause, but, as he’d told Lynn, it wasn’t as if drinking were a serious problem. He’d just been wise enough to see that it could become one.
“Sure. Count me in,” he told Carter.
“Want me to stop by and pick you up on my way to the park?”
“That’d be great,” he said, already thinking that there couldn’t possibly be a better designated driver than the police chief.
Carter nodded. “See you in an hour, then.”
Mitch gave him a wave, then went to check on a problem that Terry had alerted him to before he’d left the site. He smiled at the way his mood had turned around. He might not be spending the evening with Lynn, as he’d hoped, but as alternatives went, this could be good. He could work off a little steam and some of that aggressiveness he’d had to rein in the night before during his confrontation with Ed. Maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to hold off on slugging the jerk for a while longer.
16
Lynn was pretty sure she’d never seen Helen look as rattled as she did when Lynn arrived at her house for the Sweet Magnolias get-together.
“You okay?” she asked.
Helen shook her head. “But I can only talk about this once, so do you mind if we wait until everyone else arrives?”
“Of course not,” Lynn said, though she was dying of curiosity. She put two pies onto the kitchen counter. “I brought along some dessert. I seem to have gone into some kind of baking frenzy now that I have groceries in t
he house again. The kids are in heaven, but I’ll be big as a blimp if I keep it up.”
Helen gave her a weary smile. “You have a very long way to go before you reach blimp status.” She studied Lynn. “Any more thoughts about the Mitch situation?”
Lynn sighed and shook her head. “No, and it’s making me crazy. He’s so blasted thoughtful and kind. Did you hear that he created an entire azalea garden in my backyard? I was telling him how I envisioned landscaping back there if I ever got the chance and the next thing I knew, he’d had it done while I was at work. How sweet is that?” she asked.
To her surprise, rather than being impressed, Helen frowned. “Has Ed seen it?”
Lynn winced. “Oh, sweet heaven,” she murmured. “He’s going to freak out, isn’t he?”
“If past experience is anything to judge by, more than likely,” Helen agreed, then squared her shoulders and said forcefully, “But let him. Lynn, don’t you dare allow me to put a damper on your excitement. It was an incredibly sweet gesture. You should just enjoy it and let me worry about the rest. I didn’t mean to spoil it for you.” She managed a halfhearted smile. “It’s just this mood I’m in. I seem to be seeing the dark side of everything today.”
“Was lunch with your mom that bad?” Lynn asked worriedly.
“You have no idea.”
Before Helen could explain, the others started arriving, laden with more food and excited chatter. Lynn noticed that only Flo looked subdued as she walked in and went straight to a seat between Frances and Liz in the living room. The three women immediately put their heads together, chatting animatedly.
Lynn noted the frown on Helen’s face when she spotted them.
“I know they’re in there conspiring to make me feel like an idiot,” Helen muttered.
Maddie overheard her. “Why would they do that?”
“Because I am an idiot, or at least I’m behaving like one,” Helen admitted, looking faintly chagrined. “I need to shape up before Erik gets wind of how I’m reacting to this latest turn of events. He has no patience with me when I get like this, carrying on about my mother as if I were the parent, with any right at all to disapprove of her choices.”
Maddie grinned. “I thought Erik must have endless patience just to live with you.”
Helen scowled at her. “Not even a tiny bit amusing.”
“So when are we going to hear the big news?” Dana Sue inquired, joining them.
Helen nodded toward her mother. “Ask her. It’s her big announcement.” She picked up a margarita glass and drained it, then tapped on it with a knife. “So, Mom, why don’t you tell everyone what’s going on?”
Flo gave her a lingering look that spoke volumes about her own displeasure. “Sure I will, honey bun,” she said.
She had an unmistakable hint of sarcasm in her voice that made Lynn grin as she heard it. Mother-daughter dynamics were always complicated, it seemed. She’d heard that exact same tone in Lexie’s voice a time or two.
“Donnie and I have made an important decision,” Flo began. “It’s one of which Helen clearly disapproves, but we’re happy about it.” She gave her daughter a defiant look as she announced, “We’re moving in together.”
It seemed as if every head in the room swiveled to take in Helen’s reaction, but she kept her face astonishingly neutral. Only a tic at the corner of her eye gave away her annoyance.
Frances broke the strained silence. “Good for you,” she enthused, as Liz gave Flo a heartfelt hug.
There were a few subdued whoops of approval from the other women, then, but Lynn noticed that Dana Sue and Maddie continued watching Helen worriedly.
“I don’t know why you couldn’t just give in and marry the man,” Helen said, obviously unable to keep her opinion to herself another second. “I know that’s what he wanted. Now you’re going to make a complete spectacle of yourself. The whole town will be talking. You’ll be a disgrace.”
“Helen Decatur, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Frances said in a tone that almost every single person in the room could probably remember hearing at one time or another in her classroom. “This is your mother you’re talking to. You should respect her decision. I know she’s given it a lot of thought, and this is clearly what’s right for her.”
Helen looked only momentarily taken aback. “You really approve of this? I figured you were faking it to try to calm me down.”
“It’s not up to me to approve or disapprove, now is it? You, either.”
“It’s okay, Frances,” Flo said quietly. “The battle is between Helen and me. We’ll work it out.”
Frances wasn’t finished, though. Keeping her focus on Helen, she added, “Life’s short. It’s not meant to be wasted on letting resentments simmer with the people we love.” She gave Flo a little nudge in Helen’s direction. “Go and fix this right this minute.”
Flo gave her a resigned look, but she did cross the room. After a momentary hesitance, Helen finally followed her in the direction of the kitchen.
“I predict they’ll either come out smiling or one of them will wind up dead,” Maddie said, only partially in jest.
Dana Sue poked her in the ribs. “Do not say things like that. Maybe we should propose a toast.”
Maddie frowned. “To what exactly?”
“Flo and Donnie?” Dana Sue suggested.
“Shouldn’t Flo be here when we do that?” Liz asked.
“Of course,” Dana Sue said, looking chagrined. “Let’s just drink.” She grabbed the pitcher of margaritas off the coffee table. “Who wants more?”
As Dana Sue served the drinks, Raylene came up beside Lynn. “Feeling better now that the focus isn’t on you?”
Lynn laughed. “You have no idea. I do feel a little sorry for Flo and Helen, though. I can see both sides. I know Helen is actually far more worried about her mom than she is about what people will think.”
Raylene nodded. “I think so, too, but those two apparently have communications issues that go way back.” She rolled her eyes. “Boy, can I relate.”
“You and your mom?” Lynn asked.
“We don’t speak at all these days,” Raylene confirmed with a shrug. “I’m finally reconciled to that.”
Lynn nodded. “Sometimes I wish my mom had lived long enough for us to work out our differences, but maybe it’s just wishful thinking to imagine that we would have. She made choices I don’t think I could ever understand.”
Raylene put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “At least we don’t have the same kind of problems with our girls. You and Lexie get along really well, and my relationship with Carrie and Mandy is amazingly tranquil despite all the complexities of my being married to their big brother. Since he’s been their guardian since their parents died, that puts me in the position of acting like an unofficial mom. It could have been incredibly awkward, but they’re such great girls, it’s turned out to be one of the best parts of being married to Carter.” Her grin turned wicked. “Not the best part, of course.”
Lynn laughed. “Here’s to well-adjusted teenagers,” she said.
If she could get Lexie—and Jeremy, for that matter—through this divorce without them being traumatized, well, what more could she possibly want?
* * *
“Helen, what exactly upsets you about my living with Donnie?” Flo asked reasonably when she and her daughter were alone in the kitchen.
“It’s just not right,” Helen said tightly.
&n
bsp; “Is this some kind of lecture on morality?” Flo asked, wondering if she should point out that Helen was pregnant with Sarah Beth before she and Erik even considered getting married. In fact, if she’d heard the story right, even their friendship had been contentious, so the baby and the marriage had come as a surprise to a lot of people.
“Hardly,” Helen said wryly. “Believe me, I know I’m in no position to make those kind of judgments.”
“Then what is it?” Flo persisted, though she thought she knew. “Is it because the thought of my having sex makes you a little crazy? I recall the look on your face when you were driving me back from Florida and I mentioned those condoms in my nightstand. I thought for a minute you were going to drive us into a ditch.”
Helen winced. “Mom, really!”
Flo chuckled at the reaction. “So that’s it. I thought so. Sweetheart, don’t you think if Donnie and I got married, we’d be having sex?”
“I really don’t want to think about it at all,” Helen said, her cheeks turning bright pink.
“Then don’t. Won’t it be easier for you to pretend we’re nothing more than casual roommates if we just move in together? Tell yourself it’s all about saving money on a mortgage and other expenses. You can even imagine we’re sleeping in separate rooms, if that would help.”
Helen regarded Flo in silence, then chuckled, her sense of humor finally kicking in. “Not even my imagination can stretch credulity that far, though it would be nice if it could. I’d like to go back to thinking about you as my mother, not as a woman who’s entitled to find a relationship of her own.”
“This from a woman who’s been standing up in defense of women for years?” Flo chided.
“Believe me, I get how ridiculous I’m being. If this were Frances or Liz, I’d say more power to ’em. But it’s you.”
“Donnie makes me happy,” Flo said quietly. “Shouldn’t that count more than anything?”
Helen sighed heavily, then took Flo in her arms. “It does count, which is why I will suck it up for your sake and his, wish you both well and try really, really hard to envision that platonic roommate scenario you painted.”
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