Ain’t She Sweet?

“Maybe you’d better get home before that happens.”

She looked down at her shoes, stubbed the chunky heel against a splintery floorboard. “I was sort of hoping maybe we could talk.” Her head came up, a trace of defiance in her eyes. “Because you’re my aunt and everything.”

“I don’t think your parents would be too happy about that.”

“They’re not the boss of me.”

Sugar Beth took in the mulish set of her jaw, suppressed a sigh, and stepped back to let her in. Sooner or later, there’d be hell to pay for this, and sure as anything, Sugar Beth would be the one standing at the cash register.

“Really? I can come in.” She nearly knocked Sugar Beth over in her eagerness to get inside.

Gordon hopped back up on the porch and followed her. “Just for a few minutes,” Sugar Beth said as she shut the door. “I’m sure you have homework to do.”

“No, ma’am. It’s Friday night. And I was suspended.”

Sugar Beth couldn’t imagine Ryan and Winnie having a daughter who’d do anything serious enough to get suspended. Ryan had never gotten into any trouble, and Winnie wouldn’t even turn in homework late. “I imagine your parents are thrilled.”

“They hate me.”

Despite her defiance, Sugar Beth thought, she looked lost. “I sincerely doubt that.”

“Maybe not hate exactly, but they’re really mad.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“You can’t take their side!” Her small fists knotted at her waist. “You just can’t.”

Sugar Beth studied her more closely. Her face was flushed, her brow furrowed with tension. She looked as though Sugar Beth had betrayed her.

Her empty bed beckoned, and Sugar Beth took the path of least resistance. “All right. I’m on your side.”

Gigi bit her lip, her silvery eyes filling with anxious hope. “Really?”

“Why not?”

“I knew you would be.”

Terrific. Now what? “You want a Coke?”

“Yes, ma’am. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”

Good Southern manners beneath that angry defiance.

Sugar Beth headed into the kitchen where she extracted two cans of Coke from the refrigerator. As an afterthought, she unwrapped a Devil Dog and dropped it on one of Tallulah’s Wedgwood plates. She considered the matter of glasses but decided late-night hospitality had its limits.

Gigi followed her into the kitchen, then crouched down to rub Gordon’s stomach. He splayed his legs, ears flopping on the linoleum, his expression one of basset bliss. “You have a very nice dog.” She rose as Sugar Beth set the cans on the table. Gordon hopped up, too, and rubbed his head against the girl’s ankles, the friendliest pet on the planet. Gigi gazed back toward the living room. “You have some very nice antiques, too.”

“They were my Aunt Tallulah’s.”

“I know. Mom used to bring me here sometimes. She didn’t like kids very much.”

“Tell me about it.” She gestured toward the chair across from her.

Gigi moved a little awkwardly, as if she still hadn’t quite gotten used to the new growth in those long legs. “It’s hard to believe she was the object of Lincoln Ash’s passion.”

Sugar Beth smiled. “You know about that?”

“Everybody does.” She settled at the table and began fiddling with the Coke can. The Seth Thomas clock ticked away in the next room. She reached down to scratch Gordon’s head.

“How old are you, Gigi?”

“Thirteen.”

Sugar Beth remembered thirteen. She’d grown real breasts that year and made Ryan Galantine realize there was more to life than sports and Donkey Kong. She pushed the plate with the Devil Dog across the table. Gigi broke off a corner but didn’t put it in her mouth.

“So how did you get suspended?”

“I never got suspended before, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I wasn’t thinking anything. I don’t know you.”

“It’s sort of complicated.” The Devil Dog disintegrated into a pile of crumbs as the story spilled out, slowly at first, then gathering momentum. Kelli Willman’s betrayal. Gigi’s friendship with Chelsea… The argument… The locker… The broken wrist… Gigi had a disconcerting way of mixing teenage slang with adult word choices. Her mother’s daughter. As she wound down, she looked both miserable and defiant. She knew she’d done wrong, but she wasn’t ready to cop to it.

If Sugar Beth had knocked somebody into a locker when she’d been thirteen, Diddie would have blown a smoke ring and said that well-bred young ladies didn’t push people into lockers, even girls who deserved it. A lady simply walked away, threw a divine party, and neglected to invite the offending party.

Thanks a big heap, Diddie. Really useful advice.

This was as good a time as any to see what Gigi Galantine was made of. “I’ll bet Chelsea’s sorry she called you stuck-up.”

Gigi liked that, and she nodded vigorously. “I’m not stuck-up. I mean, it’s not my fault we’re rich.”

Sugar Beth waited. Gigi began chewing on her lip again, no longer looking quite so self-satisfied. “I wouldn’t have said Chelsea was fat if she hadn’t already been mean to me.”

“But Chelsea is fat, right?”

“Her mom lets her eat a lot of junk.”

Sugar Beth suppressed the urge to hide the Devil Dog under her napkin.

Gigi took another sip of Coke and kept her eyes on the can as she set it back down. “My mom drove me over there and made me apologize, but Chelsea wouldn’t even look at me. Her wrist was in this cast.”

Sugar Beth shoveled a little more dirt into the grave Gigi had dug for herself. “I guess people get what they deserve.”

Gigi looked less certain. “I don’t think she was feeling too good that day. And she doesn’t have as many, you know, advantages as I have. Like a dad and being affluent and everything.” Another storm cloud formed. “But her mom’s like her best friend. Her mom understands things.”

Unlike Gigi’s mom who apparently didn’t… “So what are you going to do?”

Gigi lifted her head, and Sugar Beth’s skin prickled. For an instant, she felt as if she were looking into her own eyes.

“That’s why I came here. So you could tell me.”

“Honey, I’m the last person anybody should turn to for advice.”

“But you’re the only one who knows what it’s like. I mean, we’re sort of the same, aren’t we?” Once again her words rushed out. “You were the richest girl in town, too, and I bet everybody thought you were stuck-up and egotistical. All the other kids’ parents worked for your dad, just like they work for mine, and they must have said things you didn’t like behind your back. But nobody ever messed with you like they do with me. And I want to be like that. I don’t want people to mess with me. I want to be, you know… powerful.”

So that was it. Sugar Beth bought some time by taking a sip of Coke. Gigi thought they were alike, but they weren’t. This child didn’t have Diddie telling her that she was better than everyone else, or letting her believe that unkindness was acceptable. Unlike Sugar Beth, Gigi had a decent shot at growing up without having to learn everything the hard way.

Her niece. Sugar Beth had gotten used to thinking of Delilah as her only family, but she and this child shared blood. She turned the idea over in her mind. “So you want me to tell you how I did it, is that right? How I manipulated people so they’d do what I wanted?”

Gigi nodded, and one part of Sugar Beth felt like applauding. Good for you, baby girl. You’re after your share of power in the world. And even if you’re not going about it the right way… good for you. She tucked an ankle under her hip. “You’re sure about this?”

“Oh, yes,” Gigi replied earnestly. “All the Seawillows say you were the most popular girl in school.”