“And what makes me white trash?” Jennie Sue asked. What would come out of Charlotte Baker’s mouth now?
“Runnin’ with those low-class farmers and cleaning houses,” Charlotte answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“People like James?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Where did you hear that name? No, don’t answer. Those wicked Clifford women have been spreading gossip.” Charlotte laid the back of her hand over her forehead in a dramatic gesture as she stretched out on the lounge.
“Who cares who told me what? You should have told me rather than letting me hate Daddy all these years for his affairs. You were both doing the same thing,” Jennie Sue said. It didn’t look like a truce was going to happen today. If she didn’t eat the breakfast Mabel was fixing, it would hurt her feelings.
“Sure thing,” Charlotte hissed. “I could tell my five-year-old daughter that I was in love with another man, and I couldn’t leave her father, because if I did, then I’d sully my mama and grandmama’s names. There was never a divorce in the Wilshire family until you got one, so that dirty mess is on you.”
“I’m not feelin’ guilty about it or any of my other decisions. Can we leave the past alone and move on to the future? I should’ve already been putting out résumés, but I keep hoping you and Daddy will change your minds and let me work for the family company. If I’m going to inherit it someday, it stands to reason I should be busy getting to know it from the ground up,” she said.
Charlotte dropped her hand and sat up straight. “It will not happen.”
“Why?”
Charlotte sighed. “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll tell Dill to give you a job if you move back home, go to the Belles meetings and parties with me, never speak to those Clifford women again, and break it off with Rick Lawson. And also his sister, Cricket. I never did like that girl. She’s nothing but a gossip.”
“No, thank you.” Jennie Sue shook her head.
“I’m willing to compromise. You can keep Rick if he’s that good in bed, but only on the sly. I don’t want him in this house except to deliver vegetables to Mabel,” Charlotte said.
“No, thank you,” Jennie Sue repeated. “I can get a job somewhere else. Mama, I don’t know if Rick is anything but a very good friend. I’m not sayin’ that there are no possibilities with him. He’s a good man and I do like him a lot, and he could turn out to be ‘the one.’” She made air quotes around the last two words. “But let’s get something straight—I don’t give a damn about the Wilshire name. I’ll never marry another man that you can pay to marry me.” She stopped for a breath. “Don’t look at me like that. I know what you did. Any man that can be bought ain’t worth havin’.”
“Isn’t,” Charlotte corrected. “You’ve been hangin’ around the lower classes too much. You’re beginnin’ to sound like them.”
“Thank you,” Jennie Sue said. “I consider that a compliment.”
“I admire you,” Charlotte said.
“Would you repeat that?” Jennie Sue shook her head. Surely she’d heard her mother wrong. Charlotte fussed at her, tried to control her, wanted to fit her into a mold, but she’d never given out compliments.
“I wish I’d had the courage to tell my mother to go to hell, that I was going to marry James and go off to wherever the military stationed us,” she said wistfully. “But I didn’t.”
“Why didn’t you get a divorce and marry him when he came home?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Wilshires didn’t do that. Besides, I had a child by then, and it was my duty to make sure you had a proper home.”
“A Wilshire home?” Maybe if she’d been raised a military brat, her mother would have at least made her feel loved.
“Okay, I’ll admit it. James couldn’t give me the living I was used to, and my mama had to give me the same talkin’-to I’m givin’ you today,” Charlotte told her. “Why didn’t you ever ask me why I wanted to keep your baby a secret?”
Mabel brought out food on a tray and left it on the table between them. “Y’all need anything else?”
Charlotte waved her away with a flick of her wrist. “We’re fine. Thank you, Mabel.”
Jennie Sue sat in stunned silence for several minutes. “So my grandmother knew about James?” she finally asked.
“Of course. The whole town knew. You can’t hide anything in Bloom, Texas.” Charlotte’s laughter was brittle. “Rumors will run rampant, darlin’. According to talk, I’m sure that you are pregnant with Rick’s baby already. But a lady simply holds her head up and pretends that she’s done nothing.”
Jennie Sue downed part of a glass of water to keep from choking on a bite of omelet. “I didn’t sleep with him in the biblical sense of the word. And I want to hear about why you were so insistent about keeping Emily Grace a big secret. Why isn’t there a tombstone on her grave?”
“I was looking out for you. I knew the day would arrive when you’d come home and start a new life with someone local. I wanted you to be able to do that without all the drama and genetic issues getting in the way over losing a baby.”
“A local man?” Jennie Sue asked.
“There are some really nice guys in the company that I will introduce you to. Dill is grooming at least three of them to step up into the CEO position in a few years,” Charlotte said.
“No, thank you,” Jennie Sue told her with a shake of the head.
“You’ll change your mind. And speakin’ of being the wife of the future CEO, we really do need to shop for you when you get enough of diggin’ in the garden with that scarred-up soldier and come home where you belong.” Charlotte toyed with her food, taking only a few small bites.
“Did Daddy’s affairs begin before or after James?” Jennie Sue asked bluntly.
“Bless your heart, honey, you shouldn’t listen to gossip or worry your pretty little head about things like that.”
Jennie Sue recognized that fake smile on her mother’s face. It meant that they should move on to another subject, but she wasn’t going to let it go.
“I really want to know, Mama,” she pressured.
“After,” Charlotte admitted. “He confronted me, and we came to an understanding. I wouldn’t divorce him and take the company from him if he’d let me have James.”
“And how did James feel about all this?” Jennie Sue couldn’t imagine that he was happy when the love of his life wouldn’t leave her husband.
“He loved me enough to take me any way that he could have me,” Charlotte said. “Now can we change the subject and go on to shoes or the weather?”
“Daddy still loves you,” Jennie Sue said.
“And I’ve always loved Dill. He’s a good man and he’s done wonders with the company. The trouble was that I wasn’t in love with him. That’s what the therapist told me after James died. It makes sense.” She sighed. “Come on. Let’s put this behind us now that you know the details and do some serious shopping this afternoon. I’m going with the Belles whether you come along or not.”
Jennie Sue shook her head. “I can’t afford to shop for new clothing or shoes. Maybe I’ll borrow one of the extra swimsuits in the bathhouse and spend some time in the pool, if that’s okay.”
Neither of them had worn the other one down, so it was a standoff. “Make yourself at home. A couple of the Belles should be arriving”—Charlotte was interrupted by the doorbell—“right now.”
Both women were dressed in cute little capri-length pants and sandals. Underdressed for a day of shopping, and yet there was no doubt that what they were wearing would cost more than Jennie Sue made in a month at her two jobs.
“Jennie Sue, darlin’!” Aunt Sugar rushed to her side and kissed her on the forehead. “We told Charlotte that you’d get enough of that crazy notion that you want to be independent and come home.”