Ben and Ken scooted apart just as Lily’s vapid sisters-in-law, Sheila and Tracee, walked into the living room. Each was wearing a pricey-looking pastel warm-up suit and had her platinum curls pulled back in a perky ponytail.
“Hi,” Lily said, finding it difficult to feign friendliness. One of the numerous downsides to this faux marriage was that the McGillys dropped by unexpectedly any time they felt like it.
“Ken,” Ben said, doing an even worse job of masking his irritation than Lily was, “meet Sheila and Tracee, my sisters-in-law. Girls, I don’t know if you remember Ken Woods. He went to high school with us.”
Sheila nodded at Ken. “Your daddy used to work with State Farm Insurance, didn’t he?”
“Sure did.” Ken was doing an admirable job of being cordial.
“So ... Sheila, Tracee, I was just about to make some coffee. Would you like some?” As grating as these drop-in visits were, Lily was determined not to alienate any of the McGillys through her lack of hospitality. After all, her success in the courtroom depended largely on the McGillys’ continued good will.
“No thanks,” Sheila chirped. “Me and Tracee just decided to have a night away from the boys —
let them stay home with the kids for a change.”
“There’s this new aerobics class they’re starting over at the middle school,” Tracee added. “We thought we’d stop by to see if you wanted to come with us.”
The idea of aerobics— let alone the idea of aerobics performed alongside Sheila and Tracee —
filled Lily with the kind of anxiety she hadn’t experienced since junior-high PE class. It wasn’t that she was adverse to exercise. Back in Atlanta, she and Charlotte had taken long walks every evening, talking about the day’s happenings and pushing Mimi in her stroller.
But walking was a natural exercise—it was something human beings were inclined to do anyway.
There was nothing in Lily’s genetic makeup, however, that gave her the inclination to contort her body in rhythm to outdated top-forty music. “Gosh, guys, I’d really love to, but as you can see, we have company.”
“Oh, you go ahead.” Ben smiled with devious benevolence. “Ken and I can hold down the fort here.”
She looked at her ersatz husband with pure spite. She knew what that twinkle in his eyes was all about. He and Ken would be making out on the couch like a couple of teenagers, while she was forced to skip around a middle-school gym like a moron. “Well, I don’t know, hon. Mimi still needs to be put to bed.”
“Don’t you worry about a thing.” Ken smiled. “Daddy Ben and Uncle Ken will take care of her.”
“Come on, Lil-leee,” Sheila playfully whined, “it’ll be fun.”
Now she was in the position of looking like a total bitch if she declined. “Just a second... let me go get changed.”
In her room, she threw on a baggy long-sleeve T-shirt and some cutoff sweatpants, all the while imagining elaborate ways to murder Ben and Ken. A mere five minutes ago, she had been having such a pleasant evening.
