Chapter17
When she got home, that big blue Lexus she’d seen outside of the Misty Cat was parked in front of their little house. The one the tan Clint Eastwood-y older guy had climbed into. It was looked wildly out of context against the untamed shrubbery, and it was almost the width of their house.
She stared. Then squeezed her eyes closed and opened them again.
Nope, still there.
Mrs.Binkley was in her garden, pretending to deadhead some flowers but in truth enjoying her usual front-row view of the Greenleaf drama.
“I think your mama has taken to entertaining gentleman callers. Times being what they are for you Greenleafs.”
“Bite me, Mrs.Binkley,” Glory said almost ritualistically. With the solemn reflexiveness of a churchgoer uttering “And also with you.”
“He’s been there forhours,” Mrs.Binkley added, standing on her toes expressly to see Glory’s expression when she told her this.
Shit shitshit.
She didn’t even bother to try to hide her angst over this news.
Glory hovered indecisively on the porch.
First she checked her own reflection in the sideview mirror of the Lexus, just to see if she looked as though she’d been ravished in the woods and then wept for a half hour.
And that was exactly what she looked like.
She was altogether rather pink, a bit chafed from wild kissing, and her hair was just a degree more subdued than Medusa’s. Her eyes were pink, too. That she could at least blame on allergies.
So she was forced to some grooming in the sideview mirror while Mrs.Binkley watched, evilly amused.
Finally she put her hand on the knob of their house gingerly, as though it was suddenly electrified.
She had an entirely heretical thought: What if Mrs.Binkley was actuallyright? And her mother was making a little money on the side?
There was no way. There was just no way. She knew her mother too well.
And then... she heard her mother laugh, a big, delighted, genuine laugh.
The rumble of an amused masculine voice rushed alongside it.
Glory went still.
She knew her mother’s social laugh from her real one.
This was the real one. A little stab of happiness stole her breath.
She was realizing she hadn’t heard her mother laugh quite like that in a long time.
She went toward it almost reflexively, as if she were going toward the light, and turned the knob before she knew it.
Her mom was sitting on the sofa, and the Lexus guy was sitting across from her in the armchair.
“Glory, honey! Come on in and sit down and meet my old friend Gary Shaw. He went to school with your uncle Bill. Turns out we know practically all the same people. I remember him coming into the supermarket before I met your daddy. He was driving by the house because he buys up foreclosed properties and I was out in the yard, and he recognized me, and before you know it...”
She and Gary Shaw laughed together giddily, even though this wasn’t exactly funny. Especially the bit about foreclosed properties.
“Maybe I should have told you, Charlie. I confess I met your daughter a few days back down at the Misty Cat. I just got so caught up in catching up with you, it didn’t come up.”
Their faces were lit up in that way people have when they’ve been laughing and talking for hours. They were in a little haze of happiness and peace, and the sunlight through the windows cast them in a little amber glow.
