When at last the meeting ended, Jeanette turned to face her. “What’s going on?” she asked. “You look miserable.”
Mary Vaughn was so used to covering up her feelings, she almost denied it, then sighed instead. “I am.”
“Come on,” Jeanette said. “Let’s go to the spa and get some tea and you can tell me what’s going on.”
“Why?” she asked, bemused by the offer.
“Because you look as if you could use a friend,” Jeanette said simply.
Totally unexpected tears welled up in Mary Vaughn’s eyes. A friend? That was exactly what she needed. After too many years of pouring her energy into finding a man, she realized once again how desperate she was for a friend. She longed for someone who could give her honest advice, share confidences with her and make her laugh the way the Sweet Magnolias all did for each other.
“You don’t need to pretend to be my friend,” she told Jeanette out of habit. She’d spent a lifetime trying not to let anyone see her neediness.
“I’m not pretending,” Jeanette said impatiently. “I thought we’d settled that ages ago. Just because we haven’t managed to schedule time for the movies or lunch doesn’t mean we’re not friends. Now let’s get out of here before someone else, namely your ex-father-in-law, sees you crying and starts asking questions you don’t want to answer.”
“I’m not crying,” Mary Vaughn said with a sniff, then disproved the claim by wiping tears from her cheeks.
Jeanette set a brisk pace for the walk from Town Hall to the spa, then slipped around the side of the building and pointed to a table. “Sit. It’s a little chilly to be sitting outside, but we won’t be interrupted out here. I’ll get our drinks and be right back.”
Mary Vaughn sat down at the wrought-iron table and waited. Jeanette returned with two glasses of sweet tea and two muffins filled with plump blueberries.
“I can’t eat that,” Mary Vaughn protested automatically.
Jeanette set the muffin in front of her anyway. “Comfort food,” she said succinctly. “Now tell me what’s going on. Does this have something to do with Rory Sue?”
It did...and it didn’t. Mary Vaughn tried to figure out exactly how to explain it. She broke off a piece of muffin and thought as she chewed it, practically sighing at the moistness and the burst of blueberry flavor.
“It started with Rory Sue,” she said eventually. “She wanted to go away for the holidays.”
“Skiing,” Jeanette recalled.
“Exactly,” she said, then distractedly put more of the muffin into her mouth. “And since I didn’t want her to go, I got together with Sonny and we started making all these plans, you know, to make this the best Christmas ever.”
Jeanette nodded. “Okay. I’m with you so far. Hasn’t that turned out the way you wanted it to? Isn’t Sonny cooperating? You told me he had been.”
“Sonny’s been great,” she said, then added with emphasis, “Really, really great.”
Jeanette’s eyes widened. “You’re sleeping with him?”
“No,” she admitted, though she could feel heat climbing into her cheeks. She lowered her voice, even though there was no one else on the patio. “But I want to. All of a sudden I want my ex-husband. How bizarre is that?”
“Come on, Mary Vaughn, there’s nothing bizarre about it. Did you see me act shocked when you told me the other day that you wanted him back? He’s attractive, successful, funny,” Jeanette said, not sounding nearly as horrified as Mary Vaughn had expected her to be. “Finding yourself attracted to him shouldn’t be a huge shock.”
“But I wasn’t this attracted to him when we were married,” Mary Vaughn confessed before swallowing another bite of the blueberry muffin. “I didn’t appreciate him. He was just Sonny, the guy who’d loved me forever, my safe haven.”
“And now?”
“He’s sexy. He makes me laugh. And he gets me, you know? He knows my whole history. I used to think that was a drawback, but now I really value not having to explain myself or hide what I’m feeling. I can be completely open with him because I know he’ll never judge me.” She buried her face in her hands. “I told you all this before, didn’t I? You must be sick of listening to me. It’s just that there’s no one else I can talk to about it, try to work it out, you know? Sometimes you have to say things aloud, test them out. Walking around the house talking to myself isn’t getting the job done. It’s just not the same.”
“I know,” Jeanette said soothingly. “Sounds to me as if you’ve grown up and fallen in love.”
Mary Vaughn sighed heavily. “Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Afraid? Why?”
“Because Sonny’s moved on. I told you I saw him with a woman, didn’t I? I still don’t know exactly what’s going on with the two of them. I’ve tried to find out, but no one I’ve asked seems to know anything about it. All I know for sure is that he doesn’t want me anymore. I killed whatever it was he once felt for me.”
“How can you be sure of that if you haven’t told him how you feel?” Jeanette asked reasonably.
“I just know, okay?” Mary Vaughn said. “He’s not picking up on any of my signals.”
“What are they? Smoke signals?” Jeanette joked. “Come on. He’s a guy. You have to be direct.”
Mary Vaughn shook her head. “Look, I floated the idea past him, asked him if he’d ever thought the divorce was a mistake and he said no. I can’t push this. I won’t let him laugh in my face.”
“Maybe he won’t laugh now that you’ve spent all this time together,” Jeanette countered. “Relationships evolve. People change. They start looking at things differently over time. Whatever was true
