Queen Bee (Lowcountry Tales #12)(20)

Hunter was oblivious to my feelings, but Tyler knew I was upset. When my eyes met his, I could see that he wasn’t too happy, either. It was odd for Archie to ask someone other than me to watch the boys while he went somewhere. Maybe he hadn’t wanted me to know he had a date. I regrouped immediately.

“Tyler? You know it’s good for your father to have some female company, don’t you?”

“Why? He doesn’t need anybody else,” he said. “He’s got us. And we’ve got you.”

I could almost feel my heart split in two. This little fellow in front of me had no idea about the needs of men. He was so innocent, but savvy enough to understand that a girlfriend threatened what status quo he had with his Dad and brother and yes, in his sweet mind, even with me. He liked things well enough as they were. A potential stepmother was very likely an enemy.

I knelt down to face him at his level and said, “And you will always have me, Tyler. No matter what happens, you and Hunter will always have me.”

Tyler threw his skinny arms around my neck and hugged me so hard. There was nothing to compare to a child’s pure affection, but more, this was a little boy who needed love he could rely on, too. He knew what he had with me. So did Hunter. I stood and ruffled Hunter’s hair and he looked at me with big eyes that told me he was pretty worried, too.

I smiled at them and said, “Listen to me, boys. This is not the time to panic. And there may never be a time to panic. If there is, I’ll let you know, okay? Now, y’all run on home.”

I watched them run up their front steps and when I knew they were safely inside, I took a deep breath and climbed my own. So, Archie was dating a dentist. Well, so what. At the moment, I had my own life to deal with. Drama was waiting for me in the kitchen.

My mother, in a bathrobe, of course, sat facing me as I came into the room. She had a very stern look on her face. Leslie’s back was to me, but I could see that she had her face in her hands and a box of tissues in front of her, and many balled-up ones were strewn across the table. Ew, I thought, nasty. If I’d ever desecrated my mother’s table with a used tissue, she would have chased me the whole way to Siberia with a belt.

“Hey, Leslie! Welcome home!” I said in my most chipper voice. “How was your trip?”

“Hey,” she whispered and sniffed. I handed her another tissue. “It sucked.”

“Well, it is a long drive,” I said.

“Why don’t you get your poor sister a glass of water,” Momma said. “She’s been through a terrible ordeal.”

I bit my tongue. Then I took a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water from the tap. In the thirty seconds I’d been in the room, our old family paradigm was resurrected and reinstated. Our mother was the evil queen bee, Leslie was her princess, and I was Cinderella. How stupid, I thought. How stupid.

“Don’t we have anything bottled?” Leslie said.

“No. I’m afraid we’re living on love around here. No frills,” I said. “Just happy faces.”

“Now, Holly, don’t you come in here and start trouble,” Momma said.

“I never should have come home!” Leslie wailed. “Oh, God! What have I done?”

With that, Leslie took her dramatis personae exit like Joan Crawford in some angry-wronged-woman role of hers and slammed the door to her bedroom so hard, it almost jumped off the hinges.

“Well, I hope you’re happy,” Momma said.

“What are you talking about?” I said.

“This is no time for sarcasm, Holly.”

“Did she tell you the whole story?”

My mother sighed so hard then that the National Weather Service issued small craft warnings.

“I imagine certain things were left out. What she did tell me is mortifying enough. Don’t you think so?”

“I guess so. I mean, if that’s what Charlie wants to do, he should go on and do it. It’s still a free country the last time I checked.”

“And I’d like to know why you didn’t tell me why she called last night. You knew it was important.”

“I probably should’ve left you a detailed note, but you know what you always say about bad news traveling fast. Besides, I thought a story of that magnitude should come from Leslie.”

“Well, I suppose you’re right, but I would’ve liked to have had time to prepare myself for the knife she twisted into my heart.” Momma had the strangest expression on her face. “In all my days, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Yeah.” I couldn’t disagree with her. “It’s a whopper, all right.”

She was staring at the table as though it was taking notes.

“Holly?”

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you a peculiar question?”

“Ask me anything.”

“If Charlie wants to be a woman now, but he says he still loves Leslie, does that make him a lesbian? In his head, I mean.”

I spun around on my heel and literally gasped.

“Close your jaw,” she said. “You’ll swallow a bug.”

I closed my mouth for a brief moment.

“Good grief! Momma? I don’t think he thinks he’s a woman. How should I know? I just don’t think so. I think he just likes to dress up. But I don’t know much about that stuff. I mean, I keep bees, I work at Publix icing cakes, and I volunteer at the library. We hardly ever discuss cross-dressing and gender identity. But I’m not judging here. Maybe he’s just having a midlife crisis.”