Ben flipped the light off. “Let’s go back to sleep, okay?” He rolled over, and soon the snoring resumed.
Lily crawled back into bed. She hated Ben for waking her up, because she knew that dreams were the only place she’d ever feel Charlotte’s touch again. Lily’s six years with Charlotte had been a blur of bliss, and now in two short weeks, Lily’s life had altered until it was no longer recognizable.
She lay awake, crying softly to herself and praying that Mimi would be safe, until beams of sunlight shot through the bedroom window.
Lily slept just long enough to awake feeling extra groggy. The only thing that’ll make you feel worse than not sleeping at all is sleeping just a couple of hours, she thought as she padded stiffly down the hall to check on Mimi. Mimi was in her crib, sleeping with a soundness that Lily envied. She walked down the hall to one of the McGillys’ numerous bathrooms.
As she emerged from the shower, she heard Mimi crying. She pulled her clothes on over her damp skin and ran down the hall. By the time she arrived, Mimi was in the throes of a full-blown hysterical fit.
“It’s okay, baby. Mama’s here.” She lifted Mimi out of the crib and hugged her. “You don’t like waking up in a strange place any more than your mama does, do you?” She laid her down on one of the bunk beds. “Let’s get you out of this pee-pee diaper and see if we can scare you up some breakfast.”
Lily carried Mimi downstairs and followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen. “Good morning, Lily!” Jeanie said brightly, dropping two slices of bread into the toaster. “How many eggs can I fix you?
Three? Four?”
Eggs first thing in the morning weren’t Lily’s favorite thing. Her usual breakfast was a piece of fruit washed down with copious amounts of coffee. “One egg is plenty.”
Jeanie looked her up and down. “I guess it would be, wouldn’t it? You’re a tiny little thing. I’m used to feeding boys, and it’s a sight how much they eat. When all three of my boys was home, we used to go through six dozen eggs a week.” She handed Mimi a sippy cup of milk, Lily a mug of coffee.
“Speaking of my boys, I bet that sorry husband of yours ain’t turned over in the bed yet.”
“He was still pretty out of it when I got up.” She sipped from the mug. “Good coffee.”
“He always was slow to wake. I used to pour ice water on him to get him outta bed for school.” Jeanie set a plate of scrambled eggs and toast in front of Lily. “Hmm,” Jeanie said, “I reckon I should just go on and wake him up. I can’t just wait around all day to cook his breakfast.”
Lily nibbled toast and spooned egg into Mimi’s open, baby-bird mouth while Jeanie hollered up the stairs, “Benny Jack! You better get on up! It’s going on nine o’clock!”
Lily smiled. Back in Atlanta, Ben rarely rose before eleven.
From upstairs Lily heard Ben yell back a response that sounded like, “oh, for god’s sake, Mother.” But in two minutes, he was in the kitchen, his face shadowed with stubble and his hair standing on end as if he were a cartoon character who had stuck his finger in a light socket.
“Welcome to married life, Lily,” Jeanie said, dropping two more pieces of bread in the toaster.
“You might go to bed with a good-looking man, but when he wakes up in the morning, he’s gonna look like holy hell.”
Lily laughed, while Ben muttered an incantation against the female sex and helped himself to some coffee.
