“She’s...she’s never eaten meat before.” Lily had pledged to raise Mimi a vegetarian, at least until she got old enough to make her own dietary decisions.
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” Jeanie said. “She eat them Chicken McNuggets like she was going to the chair.”
It was so easy, Lily thought, to plan how you would raise your child — to say with absolute certainty the things you would and would not do. But once the child got exposed to outside influences, all those plans were shot to hell. “Well ... Mimi, I guess we’d better get you home for your nap. You’ve had quite a day.” She picked her daughter up. Her new dress must have added five pounds to her weight. Or maybe it was the Chicken McNuggets. “Thank you, Jeanie, for taking her shopping and ... taking care of her.”
As they walked out of the building, Ben said, “You look like you’ve been poleaxed.”
“I’m just overwhelmed. The house, the car ...” When she set Mimi in her car seat, Mimi’s lacy petticoat flew up high enough to obscure her little face. “And Mimi ... god ... leave her with your mother for two hours and...”
“She becomes a meat-eating femme fatale?”
Lily’s laugh gave way to an uneasy sigh. She leaned against the car. “Maybe having the Maycombs over for dinner will work things out. I just want this whole custody thing taken care of as soon as possible. It’s scary how fast stuff can change your life, y’know?” She wiped away a stray tear, missing Charlotte.
“I know.” Ben gave her a little pat before he headed to his car. “I’ll see you back at the house, okay?”
“Okay.”
Lily slid into the driver’s seat. “So Mimi-saurus,” she said, “how ’bout we go back to the house and take a nap?”
“No nap!” Mimi screamed from her car seat. “Go McDonald’s!”
CHAPTER 8
When Ben, Lily, and Mimi returned to the big McGilly house, a huge black animal was sprawled on the porch. “Oh, shit,” Ben swore. “Mordecai’s gotten out of his pen again.”
“Excuse me?” Lily said.
“The dog. Mother and Daddy’ve been keeping him in the pen out back since we got here. They were afraid he’d scare Mimi.”
Lily paused before opening the car door. “Is he dangerous?”
“He was when he was younger, but now he’s just old and cantankerous. He sleeps and farts most of the time. He’s always been good with kids, though, and if you call him by his name, he knows you’re friendly and won’t bother you.”
Just to be safe, Lily carried Mimi extra high on her hip when they reached the porch.
“Mordecai!” Ben called when they approached the door.
The rottweiler raised his huge head, glanced at Ben, and lowered it again.
“Cow!” Mimi exclaimed delightedly.
“He’s a doggie, sweetie,” Lily corrected her, “but he’s just about big enough to be a cow. His name’s Mordecai.”
At the sound of his name, Mordecai looked up at Lily and wagged his stumpy tail.
“Wow,” Ben said, unlocking the front door, “that’s the most energy I’ve seen him expend in years.”
When they walked into the house, Mordecai followed Lily close behind. At the stairs she said,
“You wait here, Mordecai. I’m gonna put Mimi down for her nap.”
When Lily came back downstairs, Mordecai was still sitting there dutifully. When she sat on the living room sofa, he joined her there, his bulky body occupying the length of the sofa, his huge head in Lily’s lap.
“That’s amazing,” Ben said. “I’ve never seen him act that way around anybody.”
“Well,” Lily said, stroking Mordecai’s huge head. “I’m afraid he scores more points than you do in the doting-husband category.” She sighed at the thought of having to contact the Maycombs. “But if you want to improve your score, you can hand me the phone. I believe we have a dinner invitation to proffer.”
Lily dialed the Maycombs’ number and waited nervously for an answer. After three rings, Charlotte’s mother trilled a melodic “Hello.”
Shit, Lily thought, before she dialed, she should have figured out what she was going to say. “Um, hi, Mrs. Maycomb? This is Lily.”
“Lily Fox?”
How many Lilys do you know, old woman? she thought, but she said sweetly, “Yes, although that’s not my last name anymore. I...married recently.”
“Married?” Ida Maycomb squawked like a mynah. “To a man?”
Well, sort of. “Why, yes, of course. I’m Mrs. Ben McGilly now,” Lily said, gagging slightly. “The thing is ... Ben, Mimi, and I are living up in Versailles now, and his family and I wanted to invite you to dinner some night. You could spend some time with Mimi, meet her other grandparents ... and we could talk. I know we’ve had our differences in the past, and I was hoping we could sit down to a meal together and maybe straighten things out.”
“Well...um, I don’t know, Lily.” Ida’s voice quivered with the uneasiness of a person who never makes her own decisions. “I’d have to ask Charles, of course. And Mike ... would he be invited?”
“Sure,” Lily said cheerily, even as her stomach lurched at the thought of this horrid gathering.
“And when would this dinner be?”
“How about Saturday at six? Ben can meet you at the interstate exit to show you the way to the house.” Ben glowered at her, and she stuck out her tongue at him.