“Yeah.” He took a long drink from his can.
“So, wait a minute,” Nikki said, “so you knew Archer was having an affair?” she asked, seeing him blush again and turn his attention to the windows that looked into the backyard.
“I suspected. I take care of the yard out there, too, and yeah, I’d seen the girl in the pool.”
Nikki asked, “And you didn’t say anything to Mavis?”
“Nope. My lips are sealed for all of my clients.” He turned his drink nervously in his hands. “There is one more thing.”
“What?” Lily asked, instantly suspicious.
“Mom wants us to go to the funeral as a family.”
“Mavis Greenlee’s funeral?” Nikki said in disbelief. “Wait a minute. Mom sent you over here so that you would sweet-talk us into going together?”
Lily rolled her eyes. “She wants to make a statement. About the solidarity in her family, or something. At her old friend or frenemy’s funeral. Because of Dad or whatever.” She threw up a hand and stared at her brother. “It’s all about appearances with Charlene. Wow. I can’t believe she talked you into it, though.”
He shrugged. “I figured why not?”
“Because it’s so fake, that’s why not. She just wants to make it look like we’re such a tight-knit perfect little family! Seriously?” Lily found a glass in a cupboard, then turned on the tap and filled the tumbler. “That’s why you’re here, Kyle? To do Mom’s dirty work?” She took a gulp from her glass. “Oh, I get it. She thought you could weasel your way in with us and she wouldn’t have to have the argument.”
“Mom isn’t the kind to back down from a fight,” he pointed out.
That much was true.
“The funeral is tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Lily repeated.
Nikki had seen the notice. “Eleven in the morning. At All Christian.” She was definitely going.
“Well, I’m not doing it,” Lily said emphatically. “And I’m certainly not taking my daughter. Mavis Greenlee was a snob. A horrible person. Momhatedher. For God’s sake, she carried on with Dad. Nope. Not doing it. I have no reason to go and pretend to be all sad.”
“I’ll go,” Nikki said.
“Of course you will!” Lily set her glass onto the counter so hard the water sloshed over the rim. “But it’s not because of any love for Mavis. We all know that. It’s because you’re a snoop. Always pokingaround. You don’t even care if you have to fake it and act like you’re at the funeral for Mavis or our mother, just so you can check things out. Well, it’s all sick, if you ask me.”
“Calm as ever, I see,” Kyle observed.
“I’m trying,” Lily said through gritted teeth, “but this, this hypocrisy is too much. I can’t imagine sitting in the church listening to Father Stark—that’s Westin Stark, by the way. Kyle, you remember what a jerk-wad he was when you were in school. He’s gonna be up on the altar in all of his robes and clerical collar or whatever and ask us to pray for Mavis’s soul. And he and the rest of the damned flock will listen while Mavis is made to look like a goddamned angel, when we all know she wasn’t. Worse yet, we’ll probably have to watch Archer blubber and wipe his eyes in the front pew, while he’s just itching to get out of there and back to his teen ager of a girlfriend.”
Lily’s face was turning red with her rant. “And you want to know the worst part of it? The very worst? Charlene wants us to go, and we all know that she hated Mavis and has never forgiven her for having a damned affair with our father. So, no, Kyle, I’m not going to be a part of the charade, and if I’m not calm? Tough! So be it.”
With that, she stormed out of the room. “I’m late,” she tossed over her shoulder to Nikki. “You’ve got her, right?” she said, motioning to the still-sulking Phee. “You’ll see that she gets to her lesson?” Though there was no school today, the riding academy was open, lessons ongoing.
“Yep,” Nikki said and noticed that Ophelia, caught in her own world, hadn’t looked up from her screen once, not even when her mother was reading them all the riot act.
“Wow.” Kyle walked to the glass door leading outside. “I’d forgotten how volatile she could be. Beneath all her peace/love/dove/ kumbaya vibe, she can go from zero to a hundred in a second.”
“I could say something about apples not falling far from the tree.”
“There was a reason or two or fifty that I backed away from the family,” he admitted, then changed the subject. “You’ve got a nice place here.”
It was the first time he’d been in her home. Nikki could well imagine he might have driven by the house a number of times, but she couldn’t remember him ever walking over the threshold. “You want to see outside? You know, since you’re the landscape guy and all.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Sure.”
As she opened the door, Arlo, nails clicking frantically, sped past her to bound across the patio and send a robin into panicked flight. Mikado was a step or two behind, but he’d noticed a squirrel on the fence; it ran across the top and leapt into the air to land upon the overhanging branches of a magnolia tree. Both dogs went wild, scrambling and circling while whining and barking, the squirrel scolding from the safety of the blossom-laden branches.
