“I’m just teasing you, Benny Jack. You want three eggs or four?”
“Mother, I’ve told you a thousand times that I don’t eat eggs anymore. I know the doctors in Versailles haven’t heard of cholesterol yet, but —”
Jeanie rolled her eyes. “I know all about cholesterol, Benny Jack. I just thought you might want a real breakfast this mornin’ since it’s a special occasion. I mean, if a man don’t wake up after his wedding night with a good appetite, then there’s somethin’ bad wrong —”
“Two,” Ben mumbled.
“What was that, honey?”
“Two eggs, Mother.” He sank into a kitchen chair.
Mimi pulled herself to standing and leaned against Ben’s knee. She grinned up at him with her jack-o’-lantern teeth. “B-Jack,” she crooned.
Jeanie looked up from her cooking, delighted. “What was that she said?”
Lily laughed. “I think she just called him Benny Jack.”
Jeanie grinned. “Now, Mimi, honey, you don’t call him that. You call him daddy, just like always.”
Mimi gave Jeanie a puzzled glance. Daddy was not a familiar concept to her. She looked back up at Ben, giggled, and repeated, “B-Jack.”
Ben slammed down his coffee mug in exasperation. “Ben! Why can’t everybody just call me Ben?
It’s just one little syllable! Is that too much to ask?”
“Now, now, honey,” Lily cooed with mock affection. “I think Benny Jack is an adorable name.” She thought it only fair that if she had to suffer the indignity of being named Lily McGilly, Ben should also be saddled with a name he hated.
Jeanie brought Ben’s breakfast to the table. “Your daddy wants y’all to meet him down at the mill at eleven. He’s got y’all a one-thirty appointment with Buzz Dobson, but first, he’s got a little surprise.”
Lily wondered with some trepidation what the surprise could be. Surprises weren’t really what she craved these days.
“And I was hoping,” Jeanie said, “that you might leave Mimi with me. I’d just love to show her off and maybe take her shopping. The poor little thing barely has a stitch of clothing to her name.”
Lily looked down at Mimi, who was wearing a plain white T-shirt and a pair of tiny denim shorts.
Lily had bought most of Mimi’s clothes at Goodwill, and her main criteria for selecting infant wear was that it would not be permanently stained by milk, cereal, spit-up, or pee. “I’m sure she would love to go shopping with you,” Lily said, against her better instincts.
At five after eleven, Lily and Ben pulled into the gravel parking lot of the Confederate Sock Mill.
As they went in the side entrance of the building, with Lily toting Mimi and a bag full of baby supplies, the all-female clerical staff descended on them and crowed, “Oh, is this the new grandbaby?” “I want you to look at her!” “Isn’t she the sweetest thing?”
