Ain't She Sweet? (35 page)

“I don’t believe you,” Gigi replied, too loyal to abandon faith in her new aunt so quickly.

“Even Kelli Willman wouldn’t do something like that.”

“Believe it.” Sugar Beth threw a slab of butter into the skillet. She’d forgotten to turn the burner on, so it sat there in a hard lump. She picked up a tea towel to wipe her hands, then turned to face them both. Winnie had the coffee mug cradled in her hands, her expression unreadable.

“My senior year, I did the worst thing to her I’ve ever done to anybody.” Sugar Beth looked at Gigi because she didn’t want to look at Winnie. “Your mom was in a show at school—”

Winnie rose from her chair. “There’s no reason to go into this.”

“It’s my shame, not yours,” Sugar Beth shot back.

To her credit, Winnie sat down again. Maybe she realized, as Sugar Beth did, that the time had come to drag the old ghosts out into the sunlight.

“She had paint all over her,” Sugar Beth said, “so I knew she’d have to go to the locker room to get cleaned up when it was over. I waited till she had time to get into the shower, then I sneaked in and hid all her clothes. I hid the towels, anything she could use to cover up with.”

She half expected Winnie to make another protest, but she simply cradled her mug and gazed straight ahead.

“That wasn’t as bad as reading her diary to everybody,” Gigi said.

“I haven’t finished.”

Gigi drew Gordon’s head farther into her lap while Winnie sat stone-faced.

“I was with some boys,” Sugar Beth said, “and I dared them to go into the locker room. I made a big joke out of it. They didn’t know your mom was in there, so they went along with me.” She fiddled with the tea towel. “Your dad was one of those boys.”

The muscles worked in Gigi’s throat as she swallowed. “Did he see her?”

Sugar Beth nodded. “Yes. And she had this huge crush on him. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But she liked him so much, and she was humiliated.”

“Why would you do something so mean?”

Sugar Beth gazed at Winnie. “Maybe you’d like to explain this part.”

“How can I explain it when I never understood it myself?” Winnie said stonily.

“Sure you did.”

“There was no reason for it,” Winnie retorted. “You had everything. You were legitimate.

You had a real family.”

“And you were popular, too,” Gigi said. “So what did you have to be jealous of?”

Winnie knew, but she wasn’t going to say it.

“My father loved your mother, but he didn’t love me,” Sugar Beth said. “The truth was, he could barely tolerate me. I giggled, I got lousy grades, and I made too many demands on him.”

“I don’t believe you,” Gigi said. “Dads love their kids, even when they screw up.”

“Not all dads are like yours. Mine didn’t hit me or anything. He just didn’t like being around me. But he loved being with your mother, and that made me hate her.” Sugar Beth turned back to the stove and flipped on the burner, aware of how much the past still hurt.

“Whenever I saw them together, he looked happy with her in a way he never looked with me. I couldn’t punish him for it, so I punished her.”

Gigi swallowed hard, trying to make the best of it. “Teenagers do dumb things. I don’t see why it should still be a big deal.”

“You’re right,” Sugar Beth said. “It shouldn’t be.”

Winnie continued being unhelpful by taking another sip of coffee and not saying a thing.

Sugar Beth concentrated on the French toast. Finally, Gigi set Gordon aside and rose to her feet, a little furrow in her brow. “Did you take my dad away from my mom in high school?”

“Now
that
I didn’t do.”

“He was your boyfriend for a long time, right?”

“Until we went to college. Then I dumped him for another guy. A guy who wasn’t half as nice as your dad. But you have to admit that turned out to be a good thing because, if I hadn’t cheated on him, your dad and mom wouldn’t have gotten to know each other, and you wouldn’t have been born.”

“They had to get married. Mom got pregnant.”

Sugar Beth glanced at Winnie, but she had that miles-away expression she used to wear sometimes in school.

“I’d never be stupid enough to get pregnant if I wasn’t married,” Gigi said.

“That’s because you’re not going to have sex until you’re thirty,” Sugar Beth replied.

Something that might have been a smile caught the corner of Winnie’s mouth, but Gigi didn’t see the humor. “Are you, like, going to try to take him away from her again?”

“No!” Winnie smacked her hand so hard on the table her mug rattled. “No, Gigi. She’s not going to do that.”

Gigi moved to her mother’s side, relaxing almost imperceptibly.

Sugar Beth tossed the bread into the skillet. “Honey, I couldn’t take your dad away from your mom even if I tried. He loves her. He doesn’t love me.”

Still troubled, Gigi gazed at her mother. “I don’t understand how you could let her do so many bad things to you. Why didn’t you stand up for yourself?”

“I was a wimp,” Winnie said, looking surprisingly formidable in her oversize clothes.

Gigi nodded with the wisdom of the ages. “You didn’t claim your power.”

“I didn’t know I had any. You should have seen her, Gi. She was so beautiful, so confident. Her hair was perfect, her clothes perfect, her makeup always right. And she had this amazing laugh that made everybody want to laugh with her. Nothing was ever boring when Sugar Beth was around. When she walked into a room, you couldn’t look at anybody else.”

“She’s still kind of like that,” Gigi said. “People pay attention to her.”

“Hey, I’m standing right here, in case you’ve forgotten,” Sugar Beth said. “And nobody outside of Parrish even notices me.”

“I seriously doubt that,” Winnie said. “You’re just so used to it you don’t see it anymore.”

Gigi got her mulish look. “I think you should say you’re sorry, Sugar Beth. And, Mom, I think you should forgive her because she’s not like that now.”

“It’s not that easy,” Sugar Beth replied, so Winnie didn’t have to be the bad guy. “I am sorry, but there’ve been too many years of animosity.”

Winnie’s expression held the hint of a smile. “Griffin Carey did love me more.”

“Mom! That’s mean.”

“Well, he did,” Winnie replied. “But I was still jealous because Sugar Beth had Diddie.”

“You had Grandma Sabrina.”

“Believe me, there was no comparison. Diddie was like a movie star. She was beautiful and glamorous, and she had this amazing laugh. She and Sugar Beth were more like girlfriends than mother and daughter. If Sugar Beth wasn’t with your dad or the Seawillows, she was with Diddie. Everybody knew not to schedule meetings for Saturday mornings because they always watched
Josie and the Pussycats
together. When they were out in public, they’d whisper secrets to each other, and if you walked by Frenchman’s Bride, you’d see the two of them sitting on the front porch, drinking sweet tea and gossiping. All Grandma Sabrina and I ever did was get on each other’s nerves.”

“Grandma’s nicer now.”

“Old age mellowed her. When I was growing up, she only had room in her life for one person, and that was my father.”

Sugar Beth flinched to hear Griffin referred to that way. At the same time, she acknowledged that Winnie had the right.

“So what are you going to do?” Gigi said. “Are you going to keep hating each other? Or do you think you could be friends, now that you’ve talked out your problems.”

“Not likely,” Sugar Beth said. “Or at least not until somebody’s handed over somebody else’s pearls.”

Gigi looked at her mother for an explanation.

“I have Diddie’s pearls,” Winnie said. “They should be Sugar Beth’s, but they aren’t, and I’m not giving them back.”

“That’s pretty mean.”

“As mean as what happened in the locker room?”

“No, not that mean.” Gigi returned her attention to Sugar Beth, a pint-size secretary of state trying to negotiate a treaty between warring nations. “I think Mom should keep the pearls to make up for what you did, even if they look dumb on her.”

“They don’t look dumb on me,” Winnie said, “which is why I wear them
all
the time.”

“You should be glad Mom’s keeping them. They’d look dumb on you, too.”

“That’s not the point,” Sugar Beth said. “The point is . . . Oh, never mind. I know where this is leading, Gigi, and don’t waste your breath. Your mother and I will never act like sisters, no matter how hard you push. The best we can hope for is politeness.”

“I guess. But, Sugar Beth, did you ever think . . .” Gigi touched her mother’s shoulder.

“Me and Mom are the only two people in the world that have the same blood as you.”

Sugar Beth got that old tight feeling in her throat and did her best to shrug it away.

“Them’s the breaks, kid.”

“Can I take Gordon to see Dad?” she said abruptly.

“Leaving us alone together won’t work,” Sugar Beth said.

“I just want Gordon to meet Dad.”

“What about your French toast?”

“I’ll take it with me.” She grabbed a piece from the plate, called to Gordon, and a few moments later, they were out the door.

Winnie rose and headed for the coffeepot. “I knew you were jealous of me. I guess I never quite realized how jealous.”

“You don’t have to look so happy about it.”

“Life doesn’t hand you too many perfect moments. I’m savoring.” She smiled, transferred a piece of French toast to her plate, then regarded it critically. “This was supposed to have cinnamon on it.”

“I got distracted humiliating myself in front of your daughter.”

Winnie squeezed out a dab of syrup, then picked up a knife and fork. Still standing at the counter, she began to eat, but she no longer looked quite so full of herself. Finally, she said, “I’d like to stay here for a few more nights if it’s all right.”

“You’ll have to deal with him sooner or later.”

“Later.” She took another bite. “What’s going on with you and Colin?”

“I’m toying with him.”

Winnie laughed as she set down her plate. “You’re nuts about him.”

“Says you.”

Winnie headed for the living room and picked up her purse. “It’s going to be so much fun watching you get dumped.”

“Yeah? We’ll just see about that.”

Winnie snickered, and the door shut with a firm thud.

Sugar Beth lunged for the maple syrup. “And isn’t it nice having our old animosity behind us.”

“She was ever a wild piece,” wept Madam.

GEORGETTE HEYER,
These Old Shades

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

All that day Sugar Beth kept her eye on the comings and goings at Yesterday’s Treasures.

Despite the closed sign taped to the boarded-up front door, the place was a beehive of activity. Ryan and Gigi showed up around nine-thirty. Later, the Seawillows began dropping by. Shortly before noon, a paneled truck appeared, and Ryan, who was dressed in jeans and a work shirt, stood on the sidewalk for a while, talking to the men before he led them inside. Later, Gigi slipped out, then returned with a pizza. Winnie’s family had circled its wagons. Maybe all was finally well in the Land of Galantine.

Which meant that Winnie wouldn’t be coming back to the carriage house tonight. Not that Sugar Beth had exactly been looking forward to it. Still, there was something about their confrontation that morning she hadn’t entirely disliked.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a thinly built woman with a square jaw approached the register. “You remember me, don’t you, Sugar Beth? Pansye Tims, Corinne’s big sister.”

“Yes, Pansye, of course. How’ve you been?”

“Gettin’ over a sinus infection.” She leaned closer. “Everybody in town’s talking about last night. Imagine what could have happened to Winnie if you hadn’t been there to carry her out. She’s such a special person. Parrish wouldn’t be the same without her. I just want you to know how grateful we all are.”

Sugar Beth shifted uncomfortably. Pansye was at least the twentieth person who’d stopped in the bookstore already to thank her. Why hadn’t Winnie outed her? “As a matter of fact, Pansye, the story’s gotten a little exaggerated. I really didn’t carry Winnie out. I—”

“Oh, stop now. You’re a heroine.”

Jewel popped up next to the register like an evil elf. “That’s right, Sugar Beth. I even heard talk about you getting the mayor’s Good Citizen Award.”

She glared at her employer, who knew the truth. When Sugar Beth had come in that morning, she’d told her exactly what had happened. But Jewel had merely laughed. After Pansye left, Sugar Beth confronted Jewel in the self-help aisle. “This whole thing was supposed to be a joke. I only did it to entertain myself and aggravate Winnie. She’s deliberately not telling people the truth because she knows I’m expecting her to.”

Jewel chuckled. “I swear, Sugar Beth, hiring you was the best move I ever made, and not just for your entertainment value. You’ve brought more business into the store than I ever dreamed.”

“Based entirely on deception.”

“Whatever works.” Jewel got distracted by her shrunken poetry section. Her smile faded, and her forehead crumpled in outrage. “Where’s all my Langston Hughes? He’s—”

“Dead,” Sugar Beth retorted. “I needed his floor space for the children’s department.”

“Well, Nikki Giovanni’s not dead.” She poked a finger toward the shelf. “And if she walks into this store, I don’t know how I’m going to face her.”

“I doubt Parrish, Mississippi, is at the top of Nikki’s dream travel destinations. And we don’t need to display three copies of everything she wrote.”

“Says the white girl.”

Jewel didn’t stop grumbling until late afternoon, when she realized Sugar Beth had sold out the new
Daphne the Bunny
book, along with half a dozen other titles. “All right,” she said begrudgingly. “I’ll leave you alone. But if you even
think
about touching Gwendolyn Brooks, you’re the one who’s gonna be dead.”

As closing time approached, Sugar Beth realized she was still waiting for Colin to call.

He had to have heard about the fire by now. Wasn’t he the slightest bit concerned?