Georgeanne dropped her hands and looked over her shoulder. “I told you she wasn’t talking. That’s not at all like her either.” She walked toward Mae and set her pruning shears on the table. “I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried to talk to her, but she just ignores me. At first I thought that she might be angry because she was having so much fun at the beach and I made her leave. Now I know that was just wishful thinking on my part. She must have heard John and me arguing.” Georgeanne sank down on the chair beside Mae, a ratty lump of misery. “She knows I lied to her about her father.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“I have to make an appointment to talk to a lawyer.” She yawned and propped her chin on her fists. “I don’t know who yet, or where I’m going to get the money for the legal fees.”
“Maybe John won’t really go through with custody. Maybe if you talk to him, he-”
“I don’t want to talk to him,” Georgeanne interrupted, suddenly alive. She sat up straight in her chair and her eyes narrowed. “He’s a liar and a sneak, and he has no principles at all. He played on my weakness. I should have had sex years ago. I should have listened to you. You were right. I just kind of exploded and became a nymphomaniac. I guess sex isn’t the sort of thing you should put off until you explode.”
Mae felt her jaw drop. “Get out!”
“Oh, I’m out. I’m way out.”
“With the hockey player?”
Georgeanne nodded.
“Again?”
“You’d think I’d have learned the first time.”
Mae didn’t know what to say. Georgeanne was one of the most sexually repressed women she knew. “How’d that happen?”
“I don’t know. We were getting along and it just did.”
Mae didn’t consider herself promiscuous. She just didn’t always say no when she should. By contrast, Georgeanne always said no.
“He tricked me. He was nice and so good with Lexie and I forgot. Well, I didn’t really forget what a jerk he could be, I just sort of let myself forgive.”
Mae didn’t believe in forgiving and forgetting. She liked the Old Testament wrath-of-God stuff and believed in an eye for an eye. But she could see how a good-looking guy like John could make a woman overlook a few things-like being dumped at an airport after a one-night stand-if the woman was attracted to two-hundred pounds of solid muscle, which, of course, Mae was not.
“He didn’t have to go that far. I was giving him everything he asked for. Each time he wanted to see Lexie, I arranged it.” Anger mixed with the tears in Georgeanne’s eyes. “He didn’t have to sleep with me. I’m not a charity case.”
Even on her worst hair day, with dark circles and chipped nails, Mae really didn’t believe any man would consider Georgeanne a charity case. “Do you really believe he made love to you because he felt sorry for you?”
Georgeanne shrugged. “I don’t think it was a real hardship for him, but I know he wanted to keep me happy until he and his lawyer could get together and decide what to do about getting custody of Lexie.” She covered her cheeks with her palms. “It’s so humiliating.”
“What can I do to help?” Mae leaned forward and laid her hand on Georgeanne’s shoulder. She would take on the world for the people she loved. There were times in her life when she’d felt as if she had. Not so much anymore, but when Ray had been alive, she’d fought both their battles, especially in high school when big, athletic guys had thought it funny to beat him with wet towels. Ray had hated PE, but Mae had hated the jocks who ruled gym class. “What do you want me to do? Do you want me to talk to Lexie?”
Georgeanne shook her head. “I think Lexie needs time to sort everything out in her mind.”
“Do you want me to talk to John? I could tell him how you feel and maybe-”
“No.” She wiped her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “I don’t want him to know how badly he’s hurt me again.”
“I could hire someone to break his knees.”
Georgeanne paused before she said, “No. We don’t have enough money to hire a professional hit man, and it’s so hard to find good help without ready cash. Look what happened to Tonya Harding. Thanks for the offer, though.”
“Ahh… what are friends for?”
“I’ve been through this heartache once before with John. Of course, Lexie wasn’t an issue then, but I’ll get through it again. I don’t know how yet, but I will.” Georgeanne pulled her robe securely around her and frowned. “And then there’s Charles. What am I going to tell him?”
Mae reached for her espresso. “Absolutely nothing,” she answered, then took a sip.
“You think I should lie?”
“No. Just don’t tell him.”