Wedding Bell Blues - [44]

a theoretical context, whereas I read books to find out whodunit.”

Jack smiled. “I’m sure she wouldn’t have thought much of my reading habits either.”

Lily winced at the appropriate but still painful use of the past tense in reference to Charlotte. Jackmust have noticed it, because she quickly blurted, “So, ready to see the farm?”

The morning sun shone on the green pasture and freshly painted barn, making the pastoral sceneso cheerful it could have sprung to life from the pages of a Little Golden Book. Of course, in a LittleGolden Book, the horse in the pasture wouldn’t be quite so swaybacked.

The old chestnut gelding’s spine dipped in the shape of a horseshoe. “This ole boy was treatedawful mean by his owners,” Jack said. “I figured the least I could do was let him get old and fat.” Thehorse nuzzled the pocket of Jack’s coveralls in search of sugar cubes. Jack fished out a cube and handed itto Lily. “Here, feed it to him. Just hold it in the flat of your palm. Not that he’s got much teeth to bite youwith.”

Lily offered the sugar cube and scratched the horse’s velvety nose.

As they walked across the farmland, they were assailed by dogs— brown dogs, black dogs, yellowdogs, and spotted dogs, all of questionable breeding but unquestionable devotion. Jack led Lily into thebarn. A black streak shot past them. “That was D-Con,” Jack explained. “Barn cat. Standoffish.”

“Runoffish, more like,” Lily said. “Thing took off so fast I wouldn’t have known it was a cat ifyou hadn’t told me.”

Jack laughed. “I told you about my one-horned goat, didn’t I?” She led Lily to a stall, the home ofa black-and-white ram with a single, curlicued horn. Seeing company, he rested his front hooves on thefence. His eyes, like all goats’ eyes, were innocent and knowing at the same time.

“Well, aren’t you cute?” Lily scratched his bony back. “You might just be making a cameoappearance in my new book.”

“Ole Pan here’s the way I got Sandy to come to my place the first time. I told her I had a unicornand asked her if she wanted to come see it. Pretty slick, huh?”

“Pretty slick indeed.” Lily was attempting to rescue her shirttail from Pan, who was nibbling it asthough it was a delicacy. She finally pulled it out of his mouth and, laughing, turned toward Jack, whowas looking at her with a hard-to-read expression.

“Was Charlotte pretty?” Jack asked.

It took Lily a moment to get her bearings. “Um, yes, I thought so. She wasn’t that emaciated, doe-eyed kind of pretty that you see in the magazines. Hers wasn’t a fragile beauty ... but bigger and stronger.”

“Butch?”

“Yeah, I guess you could call her that. She wasn’t butch in the same way that —” She started tosay that “you are,” but stopped herself. “In the same way that Mick is, but yeah, you could call her butch.

Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. I guess I was just curious about your...type.”

They walked out of the barn and into the sunlight. “Well, Charlotte was definitely my type.” Shethought of Charlotte in her various guises — in her jeans and blazer, in her motorcycle jacket, in nothingat all. “I miss her so much.”

“I know you do.” Jack draped a companionable arm over Lily’s shoulders. “I know you do ’causeI miss Daddy. I know it’s not the same thing, but I did live with him my whole life except when I was offat school. ’Course, it was easier for me. I was expecting him to go.”

Lily was sobbing now. She was embarrassed to be doing it, but embarrassment wasn’t enough tostop her.

“I’m sorry, Lily. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just...you mentioned Charlotte earlier, so I thought itwas okay to talk about her.”

“It is okay. Sometimes, though, this wave of loss just sweeps over me.”

“I know. And if I hadn’t brought her up, it wouldn’t have happened.” She produced a clean whitehanky from the pocket of her coveralls and handed it to Lily. “I want to make you feel better, not worse.”

“You do make me feel better. Thanks for the tour ... and the peaches.. . and the snot rag.” Shewiped her eyes. “I’ve gotta go, though. I’ve got to meet Ben so we can pick up Mimi, after our allegedovernight trip.”

“Don’t forget those books you left on the porch.”

“Thanks.” Lily retrieved the books and opened her car door. “Well...see ya.”

“Yeah. You still wanna go see those mares this week?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, I’ll carry you there, then?”

Lily smiled at Jack’s Southern speech. “That’d be great.” Lily backed out of the driveway andwatched as the receding figure of Jack stood in front of the farmhouse, watching Lily drive away.

CHAPTER 15

When Lily came into the living room to announce that dinner was ready, she found Jack lying onher back on the floor, holding up Mimi, whose little arms were outstretched like the wings of an airplane.

“She’ll play airplane forever,” Lily said. “My arms get tired before she does.”

“Not mine. If I can carry a calf, I can play airplane with a baby girl.”

Lily and Mimi had gone with Jack this afternoon while she vaccinated the mares. Mimi had playedin a pile of sweet-smelling hay while Lily had sketched the beautiful animals.