“Benny Jack! You ’bout scared me to death. You didn’t tell me you was coming!”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
Mrs. McGilly pulled down her sunglasses and regarded Lily and Mimi. “Well, hon, ain’t you gonna introduce me?”
“Uh...sure, Mom. This is Lily, my wife, and Mimi, my daughter.”
Mrs. McGilly sat bolt upright, upsetting the air mattress, and fell into the pool with a splash— sunglasses, grapes, romance novel, and all.
CHAPTER 5
“I didn’t mean to act so shocked,” Mrs. McGilly said, as they sipped lemonade in the living room.
“It’s just that from the time he was a little boy, we never thought Benny Jack was the marrying kind.”
“Well, I guess he just had to meet the right woman.” Trying to act extra-wifely, Lily reached for her husband’s clammy hand. She could tell that Ben was offended by his mother’s insinuation about his proclivities. Despite Ben’s rather obsessive penchant for color coordination, he liked to think he could pass for a hetero he-man.
“And I just can’t believe this precious little doll here is my grandbaby!” Mrs. McGilly bounced the giggling Mimi on her knee. “Mamaw just can’t wait to take her little granddaughter shopping, no, she can’t.” She looked up at Ben and Lily. “Of course, I’m absolutely scandalized that y’all got married at the City Drug. Why, we coulda had the biggest wedding Faulkner County’s ever seen.”
“You know I hate stuff like that,” Ben said. “Besides, we thought a discreet marriage would be more appropriate — what with Mimi and all.”
“Now, Benny Jack, you know good and well nobody in this town woulda said a thing about it if you’d had a big church wedding. You’re a McGilly!” She smiled at Lily. “And now, so are you. We’re glad to have ya, hon.”
“Thank you, Mrs. McGilly.”
“Now you’re gonna have to drop that formal stuff. You’re family now. The least you can do is call me Jeanie.”
“Okay, Jeanie.” Lily was finding it impossible not to like Jeanie McGilly. Despite the wealth that the obscene diamonds on her fingers attested to, she was completely devoid of pretension. Her attitude said: My husband and I worked damn hard for all this money, and by god, we’re gonna enjoy it.
“You know what we oughta do tonight?” Jeanie said. “We oughta have a big barbecue to announce your marriage. Y’all are gonna be in town for a while, right?”
“Actually,” Ben said, “we were talking about getting a place here.”
Jeanie clapped her hands with little-girl delight. “Oh, nothing would make me happier than having all my boys right here in Versailles, all my grandbabies here where I can spoil ’em rotten!” She ran a French-manicured finger under her eyes. “Lord, I’m fixing to cry”
Lily was beginning to wonder how a person as open and natural as Jeanie could have produced a son as stuffy and uptight as Ben. “Well,” said Lily, “I guess we should see about finding a motel —”
“Motel!” Jeanie yelped, as if the word were blasphemy. “No family of mine ever stays at a
