Wedding Bell Blues - [14]

head. She wore a plain blue T-shirt, sweatpants, and a pair of expensive white running shoes. Far frombeing a prissy old lady, she had an easy, comfortable manner about her that was almost butch. Lily likedher immediately.

“Well,” Granny said, glancing over at the food table, “Wayne’s got the meat on the grill andeverything else is ready. I reckon I could sit a spell.” She sat down at the table next to Lily and acrossfrom Sheila and Tracee.

Sheila and Tracee exchanged glances, and Sheila said, “Excuse us. I think we’re going for aswim.”

When Sheila and Tracee got up, Granny said, “Lord, Sheila, that bathing suit you got on’scrawling right up the crack of your hind end!”

“Everybody’s wearing suits like this, this season,” Sheila said defensively. She turned to go to thepool, revealing most of her tanned, taut butt.

“She’s just showing off,” Granny whispered to Lily. “She had that thing done where they take avacuum cleaner and suck all the fat outta your butt — what’s that called?”

“Liposuction?”

“Yeah, that’s it.” Granny grinned. “Of course, she didn’t have that much fat in her butt in the firstplace. If she’d had the fat sucked outta her head, that doctor woulda had a real job to do.”

Lily laughed and looked down at Mimi, who started laughing, too.

“You know,” Granny said, “you’re the first woman I’ve ever seen drinking a beer at a McGillybarbecue. I think I just might have me one, too.”

Granny grabbed a beer from the cooler while Lily watched Sheila and Tracee in the pool. Theywere staying at the shallow end — no doubt so they could avoid wetting their carefully coiffed hair. Ofcourse, given Lily’s recent conversation with the other McGilly wives, she thought the shallow end wasan appropriate place for them.

“What’s your baby’s name?” Granny asked.

“Mimi — it’s short for Artemesia.”

Granny looked down at Mimi. “That’s an awful big name for such a little-bitty girl. Benny Jackher daddy?”

“Uh-huh.” Maybe she’d have another beer. The alcohol seemed to make lying easier — and it alsoeased the awkwardness of social interaction. Before her normal life had been interrupted, Lily had been areclusive sort, content to spend her days bent over her drawing board, rising only to see to Mimi’s needs,until Charlotte came home from work. Lily had probably talked to more people in the past two weeksthan she had in the past two years.

“Benny Jack’s the only one that’s been able to make a baby girl,” Granny said. “His brothers isjust too all-boy, I reckon. I always did love me a little girl, though. You care if I hold her?”

“Go right ahead.” Lily helped herself to a second beer.

Granny knelt down and made eye contact with Mimi. “Hey, Mimi, you care to come sit in an oldwoman’s lap?”

Mimi smiled and raised her arms in the universal “pick-me-up” symbol.

“What’s all this about?” a male voice boomed.

Lily looked up to see a middle-aged man, balding, bearded, and broad-shouldered, with a sizablepaunch beneath his plain white T-shirt. She knew immediately that he was “Benny Jack’s” father, BigBen.

Jeanie ran over to stand at his side. “I thought about calling you at work to tell you, but I thoughtit’d be more exciting to surprise you at home.” She looked across the pool. “Benny Jack! Come tellDaddy your news!”

Lily considered joining Ben but decided to stay put until she was told otherwise. From her safespot at the picnic table, she heard Ben say, “Daddy, I’m married.”

When Big Ben could close his jaw enough to speak, he shouted, “Married? To a woman?” BigBen cackled with joy. “Hot damn! I never thought I’d live to see the day.” He punched his son on theshoulder so hard that Ben lost his footing for a second. “Where is she? Where’s the little lady?”

This, Lily guessed, was her cue. She rose. “Right here,” she said.

Big Ben gallumphed over and placed a hand on each of her shoulders. “I don’t believe I’ve everbeen so happy to see a woman in my whole life.”

Lily guessed that Ben had been right. Her nose ring, her dreadlocks, and her Doc Martens wereirrelevant; the only thing that mattered to the McGillys was that she was a woman, and Ben had marriedher. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. —” She stopped herself. “Big Ben.”

“Gan!” Mimi babbled from Granny McGilly’s lap. She was already trying to say granny.

Big Ben looked down at the baby girl, surprised. “Now who is this?”

“This,” Ben said, “is my daughter.”

Big Ben looked at Mimi, then at Lily, and finally at Ben. His lips spread into an impossibly widegrin. He punched his son on the shoulder again. “You dog,” he laughed. “You ole dog, you!”

The party was dying down. Wayne and Sheila and Johnny and Tracee had taken their kids home tobed. Jeanie and Granny were in the kitchen, washing the dishes after having assured Lily that there wasno need for her to help them. “No need for a girl to wash dishes on her wedding night,” Jeanie had said.

“They’ll be plenty of time for that kinda thing later, believe me.”

Lily and Ben sat beside the pool with Big Ben, who was holding the sleeping Mimi in his arms.