by Julia Watts
Stellaluna was the story of a baby fruit bat who gets separated from her mother and so is raised, for a time, by a family of birds. The birds are kind to Stellaluna as long as she exhibits birdlike behavior.
She is not allowed to fly at night or hang upside down, and she is fed insects instead of the mangoes she loves. While Stellaluna appreciates the birds’ kindness, she is only happy when she is reunited with her fruit bat family.
Lily’s eyes filled as she read the book to Mimi. It was amazing how a simple children’s book could say so much. She identified with Stellaluna. A lost fruit bat, she was taken in by the McGillys. Their kindness was unquestionable, but it was contingent on her pretending to be something she was not. The McGillys were her bird family—well-meaning, but different from her — and capable of offering her only insects, not the mangoes she craved.
She tucked Mimi into her crib just as Ben returned with the pizza. After they ate, Lily asked, “So are you just gonna hang out here tonight?”
“Thought I would. Ken has some god-awful departmental function tonight.”
“So...would it be okay if I went out for a while?”
“Sure. I’ll look after Mimi if she wakes up.”
Lily was up from the table already.
“So where are you going?” Ben asked.
“I’m going out ... to get some mangoes.”
“What do you mean, mangoes? You can’t buy mangoes in Faulkner County”
Lily grabbed her car keys and walked out the door without bothering to explain. There might be no mangoes in Faulkner County, but she did remember something from her breakfast with Jack. Like a mango, it was sweet, juicy, and succulent. There were no mangoes in Faulkner County, but there were peaches.
CHAPTER 17
Jack opened the door of her farmhouse and surveyed the new, prim Lily. “Isn’t it kinda late for Jehovah’s Witnesses?”
“Jack, it’s me.”
“Lily? Omigod, what happened to you?”
“The Chatterbox beauty shop happened to me. Can I come in?”
Still slack-jawed, Jack backed away from the door so Lily could enter.
Once the door closed behind her, words started spilling from Lily’s lips faster than she could control them. “I don’t even know why I came here, really. I just feel so...weird. Before all this shit happened, my outside always matched my inside, but now nothing matches. Buzz Dobson told me it would improve my chances with the judge if I tried to look respectable, and now when I look at myself in the mirror I don’t even see me anymore.”
She didn’t realize she was crying until Jack offered her a handkerchief. “I’m scared, Jack. I’m scared of losing Mimi, and I’m scared of losing myself. What if my insides change to match what’s on the outside, Jack? What if I pretend to be a bird for so long that I forget I’m a fruit bat?”
Jack’s brow knitted. “A fruit bat?”
“It’s just a metaphor.”
“Come here.” Jack pulled her close in a tight, warm hug. “You’re still you, Lily. You’re just wearing a costume. Think of it as Halloween in July.”
Lily buried her face in the collar of Jack’s soft coveralls. They smelled of sweet hay and horse flesh. “I need to be reminded of who I am by someone who understands, by someone who’s ...”
“A fruit bat?”
Lily smiled. “Yeah.”
“Lily, what I said the other night ... I know I did a bad job of saying it, but I still meant it. I know you still love Charlotte — that you always will love her, but where she is right now, she can’t help you.
And since she can’t, I’d like to be the person who does, who looks after you, helps you with Mimi, gives you the love I know you’ve been missing. I’d like to be that person. Even if it’s just for right now, I’d like to be that person.”
Lily looked at Jack — her broad shoulders, her strong, square jaw, and her clear blue eyes.
Looking at Jack, Lily felt kindness and kinship, but she also felt something else — a stirring she hadn’t felt since her wedding night when she had dreamed of Charlotte. Standing on tiptoe in her frumpy, Sunday school-teacher shoes, Lily kissed Jack on the lips, resting one hand on the back of Jack’s head to feel the velvety stubble of her close-cropped hair.
“Wow,” Jack said, when they broke apart. “That wasn’t a pity kiss, was it?”
“I don’t do pity kisses.”
“Good.” Jack leaned down and kissed Lily this time. It was a long kiss. Their lips were parted and locked, and Lily pressed her body against Jack’s.
Lily’s mind was protesting, but her body was telling her mind to shut the hell up. It had been so long since she had felt such closeness, and she needed it — needed the comfort of two bodies twined together, needed to be in the one situation where there was no denying what she was. When the kiss ended, Lily was gasping for breath.
“The way I see it,” Jack said, wiping some of Lily’s Mary Kay lipstick from her mouth, “we’ve got two options. I can make us a pot of coffee and we can sit in the kitchen and pretend like nothing happened. Or we can go upstairs.” She looked Lily square in the eye. “It’s your call.”
Lily was tired of pretending. “Upstairs,” she said, barely above a whisper.
Jack grinned. “Good choice. Put your arms around my neck.”
Lily did as she was told and whooped with surprise as Jack lifted her up in her arms. “What is this, a little Rhett-and-Scarlett action?” Lily laughed. “You’d better put me down. You’re gonna break your back.”
“Nah,” Jack said. “You weigh less than that damn dog of yours.”
Jack carried Lily up the stairs and dropped her on the bed. Patsy the cat, who had been snoozing on the quilt by the footboard, leaped from the bed and stalked off, offended.
Jack laughed. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a reason to kick ole Patsy outta bed.” She looked down at Lily as she lay on the bed, and Lily felt her eyes on her almost as if they were hands. “So beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
“And I even kinda like that dress. You know, I used to have a bad crush on my Sunday school teacher.” Jack sat on the side of the bed and pulled off her cowboy boots, then leaned over Lily and kissed her.
It had been so long since Lily had felt the weight of another woman on her, another body pressing into her own. Without even thinking, she wrapped her right leg around Jack’s waist.
“Mmm,” Jack purred. “Let me help you with that dress.” Slowly, methodically, Jack undid each button from calf to waist, then from neckline to waist. When Lily’s underwear had been cast aside, Jack said “beautiful” and leaned over her.
“Wait.” Lily had become suddenly aware that Jack was still wearing her coveralls, looking more like she was about to deliver a calf than make love. “Aren’t you gonna undress?”
“Oh, I forgot.” Jack stood up and unceremoniously shucked off her coveralls. She looked self-conscious for a moment, standing there in a white tank undershirt and a pair of plain white briefs. “The shirt, too?” she asked.
“Uh-huh.”
Jack pulled off the undershirt and stood before Lily, all rippling biceps and strong thighs. Her breasts were small and high, and her stomach was tautly muscled — not from the machines at a gym, but from hard work. “Wow,” Lily sighed.
“Ah, nothin’ special.” Jack’s freckled cheeks reddened— adorably, Lily thought.
“Are you kidding, woman? If you lived in Atlanta, you’d have to beat the dykes off with a softball bat. Come here.”
Lily shuddered as Jack’s skin met her own. Jack was a strong lover, skillful yet passionate. Her hands were everywhere, on Lily’s breasts, belly, thighs, stroking so many surfaces that Lily wondered if Jack had a couple of extra pairs of hands she kept hidden from view.
When Jack entered Lily, she took her quickly to orgasm, then waited inside her a few moments, and took her again. Lily clutched the headboard and bit the pillow to stop the scream that she felt building up in
her throat. After her third climax, she gasped, “We’re gonna have to take it easy a minute. I think I’m losing brain cells here.”
Jack slowly withdrew her hand. “Well, why don’t we try this instead?” Jack threw the quilt over Lily’s naked body and burrowed under it until her head was between Lily’s thighs. Lily closed her eyes and sighed. For the first time since Charlotte’s death, her mind was clear and empty, and she gave herself over to pleasure. Her orgasm was beautiful and shattering, and tension drained from her eyes in the form of tears.
As Lily lay exhausted in Jack’s arms, she said, “Your turn.”
“Huh?”
“Your turn. You did me; now I do you.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. A lotta girls, I wear ’em out so bad, they pass right out.”
Lily smiled at Jack’s cockiness and slid on top of her. “Not this girl.” She pressed her lips to Jack’s and let her hands trail down her lean, muscular body.
As they lay holding each other, Jack said, “I wish you could stay the night. I’d make you breakfast again.”
“Peaches and coffee?”
“Mm-hm.”
“I’d love to stay, but you know I can’t.”
Jack grinned. “Gosh, you don’t think your husband suspects you’re a dyke, do you?”
Lily laughed. “I’d better get dressed.” She rose and walked across the room to retrieve her underwear. “How did my panties end up all the way over here?”
“Beats me.” Jack watched her dress. “Any chance we could maybe do this again?”
Lily buttoned her dress. “Well, I’m not in a position right now to make any promises, but yeah, I think maybe we could.”
Jack pulled on her underwear. “You know, don’t you, that I don’t just do this with any girl. I used to, but I don’t do it anymore unless it means something.”
“I know.” Lily looked at Jack, vulnerable in her underwear. She felt like she should say something else, but she couldn’t find the words.
Jack zipped up her coveralls. “I’ll walk you to the door.”
Downstairs, they kissed good night in the same place where earlier kisses had begun their evening.
“Wait. Don’t go yet.” Jack disappeared into the kitchen for a moment. When she came back, she pressed something soft and round into Lily’s hand. “Eat it when you wake up in the morning, and think about me.”
In her car, in the dark, Lily stroked the soft skin of the peach and smiled.
CHAPTER 18
The hearing was tomorrow. Lily couldn’t sit still for a second. She paced around the house like a caged panther, rehearsing the lines she and Buzz Dobson had gone over, making sure her outfit for the next day wasn’t wrinkled. She felt like an actress preparing for opening night of a play, except that if the play bombed, her life and her daughter’s life would be permanently damaged.
Even Ben, who had been discounting all of Lily’s fears about the hearing, was showing signs of nervousness. He kept riffling through the suits and ties in his closet. If he was going to try to pass himself off as heterosexual, he couldn’t be too well dressed.
Granny McGilly had taken Mimi out for a few hours this afternoon, on the theory that Ben and Lily needed some grown-up time to collect themselves. Granny McGilly also wanted Mimi to get used to spending time with her, since she was serving as babysitter during the hearing.
For their grown-up time, Lily and Ben had invited Jack and Ken to come over—to comfort them in their time of hysteria. At first Lily had been wary about inviting the two of them over so much, but Ben assured her she had nothing to fear: In Faulkner County, the rumor was that Lily and Ben were playing matchmaker for the bachelor professor and old-maid veterinarian. Once again, Lily found herself marveling at the obliviousness of straight people.
As they waited for Ken and Jack to arrive, Ben sat on the couch and Lily paced the length of the living room. “Could you just light for a minute?” Ben asked. “I feel like I’m living with a giant hummingbird.”
Lily forced herself to sit in the armchair. Her knees bent, but her body didn’t relax. “We were insane to think we could pull this off. We should’ve stayed in Atlanta and fought this honestly.”
“I still like our chances here. And besides, if we hadn’t come back to Versailles, I never would’ve run into Ken, and you never would’ve met Jack. Who’d have thought a sham marriage would put us in a situation where we’d both fall in love?”
“Hey, you fell in love, buddy. I’ve never said anything about being in love.”
Ben rolled his eyes. “Well, no, you’ve never said anything, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you and Dr. Jack have been doing more than trotting off to farms and giving pigs enemas.” He leaned forward. “I saw your face when you came home the other night, Mrs. McGilly. I know the face of an adulterous wife when I see one.”
Lily smiled and shook her head. Jack had been a comfort to her since the moment she met her — a remarkable friend and, as of the other night, a remarkable bedmate. But she couldn’t just pretend the years she had with Charlotte didn’t exist, couldn’t just climb up the ladder and dive into another relationship ...
not so soon. “I still love Charlotte, Ben.”
“Of course you do. And I never stopped loving Dez. Even after we weren’t lovers anymore, I still loved him. And now that he’s dead, I still love him. I don’t have to stop loving Dez just because I love Ken. And you don’t have to stop loving Charlotte just because you love Jack.”
Before Lily could form a response, the doorbell rang. She rose to answer it, eager to escape the conversation, and let in Ken, who was carrying a large white shopping bag, and Jack, who was carrying a small brown paper sack.
“Okay,” Ken said, unpacking his bag on the coffee table. “We have two bottles of champagne, artichoke dip with sliced baguette, smoked salmon with crackers, and fresh fruit with poppy seed dressing.”
“And paper napkins and a bag of potato chips.” Jack grinned. “My elegant contribution.”
When Ken popped the cork of the champagne bottle, Mordecai fled the room in terror. It was nice to have something to laugh at.
“Shouldn’t we have the champagne after the hearing?” Lily asked. “If we win?”
“Well, I thought about that,” Ken said. “But I figured you’d need it more before the hearing.”
The two couples fed each other dainty bits of food and drained the first bottle of champagne far faster than was probably good for them. By the time they were halfway through the second bottle, Ben and Ken were necking on the couch, and Lily was sitting on Jack’s lap in the armchair.
“Well, I guess we know why the French are supposed to be so sexy,” Lily laughed, watching Ben and Ken kiss. “It’s the champagne.”
Ben and Ken broke apart. “Sorry,” Ken laughed, “champagne always has that effect on me.”
“I’m not complaining.” Ben’s face was flushed.
Lily knew that Ben had loved Dez, but by the time she met them, they were acting like a bickering old married couple. Seeing Ben with Ken was completely different. In Ken’s presence, Ben seemed lighthearted and light-headed, giddy with excitement. Lily wondered if that’s what Ben was like in the early days of his relationship with Dez. Or was each love different?
“The champagne’s got nothing to do with it,” Jack teased. “It’s you city people coming down here and corrupting the likes of Ken and me. I mean, look at this living room...the empty champagne bottles, the kissing boys...we’re practically having an orgy here!”
Ben and Ken were too busy kissing to respond to Jack’s comment, but Lily laughed. “Why don’t you boys get a room? Like, Ben’s room, for instance?”
Ken turned to Ben. “What do you say?”
Ben reddened and drained his champagne glass.
“Sure. Why not?” Laughing, they strolled down the hall, hand in hand.
Jack took Lily’s empty glass. “More champagne, milady?”
“Well, it�
�s a shame to let it go to waste.”
Jack refilled their glasses and motioned for Lily to join her on the couch. They linked their arms and tried to drink champagne out of each other’s glasses, but the alcohol made them clumsy and Jack spilled some of the golden liquid on Lily. They laughed, and then Jack took Lily’s glass and set it down on the coffee table.
“Can’t stand to see that champagne go to waste,” Jack said, leaning over and licking the spilled drops off Lily’s collarbone. Lily gasped with delight. “You know what?” Jack whispered in her ear. “I’ve never seen your bedroom.”
Lily giggled in spite of herself. “You really want to? With the boys just across the hall?”
