The Liar

“I was hoping you’d say that. Are you cold?”

“No.” More than nerves, she thought, and glanced—suddenly uneasy—over her shoulder. “A goose walked over my grave, I guess. But I’m glad you brought the towels.” She rose, water sluicing off her skin, reached for one. “I didn’t think about drying off.”

He tipped her face up. “Do you have a problem meeting my parents?”

“No. It makes me a little nervous, but that’s natural, isn’t it? It’s . . .” She hunched, shivered. “Something between my shoulder blades, and now I’ve got the willies for no reason I can name.”

She wrapped the towel around herself, felt marginally better. So she leaned into him. “I’m nervous about meeting your parents, but I’m glad I will. I think it’s nice they’d come down here to help you with the house, spend time with you. And I think they must be good people to have made someone like you.”

“You’ll like them.”

“I bet I will. Let’s go in, all right? I can’t settle this itch between my shoulder blades.”

He took the other towel, then her hand.

Field glasses followed them through the trees, across the lawn.

28

Shelby let her mother talk her into a facial. She should’ve known better as being next to naked on the reclining chair under a blanket was kin to being in a closed box when dealing with Ada Mae.

“It’s nice Griffin’s people are coming down this summer. I told you how we met them last fall.” Having done the cleansing, the toning, the gentle exfoliation, Ada Mae used her truly skilled fingers to apply a thick layer of energizing mask.

“They couldn’t have been nicer. I took over a basket of tomatoes from my garden, and we sat down and had some sweet tea on the front porch where his mama’d been working on some of the garden. Why, she’d hacked and cut and dug away at that scrub and tangle like a woman on a mission from God. Poison ivy in there, too. I showed her how you pull up some jewel weed, use the juice of it when you get poison ivy on you. Being from Baltimore, she didn’t know about that.

“We had a good chat.”

“You took tomatoes over so you’d get invited to sit on the porch.”

“Neighborly is, neighborly does. I’m saying Natalie—that’s his mama’s name—is a good woman. And his daddy—that’s Brennan—he’s a fine man, fine-looking, too. Griff favors him to the life, I swear. You know what else?”

“What else, Mama?”

“They’re just as fond of Matt, just like he was one of their own, and Emma Kate right along, too. That tells me something about a person, that they can embrace somebody into the family, blood or not. This mask’s just going to set awhile. I’m going to do your hands and feet while it does.”

Shelby might have said not to trouble, but no one in the world gave a foot rub like Ada Mae Pomeroy.

“You need a fresh pedicure, baby girl. And don’t say you don’t have time. Everybody who works here has to show off the products and services—you know how your granny feels about that. You need some pretty summer toes, that’s what. We got that Wistful Wisteria. It’s a good match for your eyes.”

“All right, Mama.” She’d see if Maybeline or Lorilee could squeeze her in for a quick one.

“Your skin’s looking just beautiful, and so are you. It does my heart a world of good.”

“Home cooking, steady work and seeing my own baby girl thrive.”

“And regular sex.”

Shelby had to laugh. “I guess I can’t say that’s not a factor.”

“I know you still have worries, but they’re going to pass. That Jimmy Harlow person, he’s thousands of miles away doing God knows what to who. But I say if the FBI hasn’t found him, he’s taken himself off to somewhere foreign. Gone to France.”

Eyes closed, her feet already in bliss, Shelby smiled. “France?”

“First place popped into my head. But he’s gone.”

She slipped booties onto Shelby’s rubbed, creamed and very happy feet. And started on her hands.

“Just like that no-good Arlo Kattery’s gone, maybe for five years in jail, I hear. And Melody Bunker, too. Word I get is when she gets out of that fancy rehab place, she might be moving up to Knoxville, where Miz Florence’s brother lives.”

“I don’t care where she goes or what she does. I swear, all that trouble from her seems years ago. It’s hard to believe it was only weeks. I wonder at someone like her, Mama, who thinks so much of herself she can’t see she doesn’t leave much of a mark on anyone’s life.”

“She tried leaving one on yours.”

“Well, she didn’t.”

“You’re doing something with your life, Shelby, and we’re proud of you.”

“I know you are. You show me every day.”

“Tell me what you want, baby. I know you’ve got something going on in your head. I can see it.”

Relaxed, drifting, Shelby sighed. “I’ve started taking some classes online.”

“I knew it was something! What classes?”

“On interior decorating. It’s just a couple little courses, but I’m doing pretty well, and I like it. I thought I’d take another when it’s done and I can afford it, and a business course, too. Get the experience and education.”

“You’ve got a talent for it. You sign up for those other courses, Shelby Anne. Your daddy and I will pay for them.”

“I’m paying, Mama.”