“I’m going out ... to get some mangoes.”
“What do you mean, mangoes? You can’t buy mangoes in Faulkner County”
Lily grabbed her car keys and walked out the door without bothering to explain. There might be no mangoes in Faulkner County, but she did remember something from her breakfast with Jack. Like a mango, it was sweet, juicy, and succulent. There were no mangoes in Faulkner County, but there were peaches.
CHAPTER 17
Jack opened the door of her farmhouse and surveyed the new, prim Lily. “Isn’t it kinda late for Jehovah’s Witnesses?”
“Jack, it’s me.”
“Lily? Omigod, what happened to you?”
“The Chatterbox beauty shop happened to me. Can I come in?”
Still slack-jawed, Jack backed away from the door so Lily could enter.
Once the door closed behind her, words started spilling from Lily’s lips faster than she could control them. “I don’t even know why I came here, really. I just feel so...weird. Before all this shit happened, my outside always matched my inside, but now nothing matches. Buzz Dobson told me it would improve my chances with the judge if I tried to look respectable, and now when I look at myself in the mirror I don’t even see me anymore.”
She didn’t realize she was crying until Jack offered her a handkerchief. “I’m scared, Jack. I’m scared of losing Mimi, and I’m scared of losing myself. What if my insides change to match what’s on the outside, Jack? What if I pretend to be a bird for so long that I forget I’m a fruit bat?”
Jack’s brow knitted. “A fruit bat?”
“It’s just a metaphor.”
“Come here.” Jack pulled her close in a tight, warm hug. “You’re still you, Lily. You’re just wearing a costume. Think of it as Halloween in July.”
Lily buried her face in the collar of Jack’s soft coveralls. They smelled of sweet hay and horse flesh. “I need to be reminded of who I am by someone who understands, by someone who’s ...”
“A fruit bat?”
Lily smiled. “Yeah.”
“Lily, what I said the other night ... I know I did a bad job of saying it, but I still meant it. I know you still love Charlotte — that you always will love her, but where she is right now, she can’t help you.
And since she can’t, I’d like to be the person who does, who looks after you, helps you with Mimi, gives you the love I know you’ve been missing. I’d like to be that person. Even if it’s just for right now, I’d like to be that person.”
Lily looked at Jack — her broad shoulders, her strong, square jaw, and her clear blue eyes.
Looking at Jack, Lily felt kindness and kinship, but she also felt something else — a stirring she hadn’t felt since her wedding night when she had dreamed of Charlotte. Standing on tiptoe in her frumpy, Sunday school-teacher shoes, Lily kissed Jack on the lips, resting one hand on the back of Jack’s head to feel the velvety stubble of her close-cropped hair.
