Queen Bee (Lowcountry Tales #12)(50)

I showered and changed and went out to my apiary to check on the girls. Time to add another box! Gosh, we were going to have tons of honey this year. Of course, I wound up giving them an earful of Sharon, Archie, and Charlie stories. What a week it had been, and it was only Monday!

I worked my shift at Publix, decorating a hundred cupcakes for a bridal shower with white icing and white crystal-looking sprinkles that sparkled but were edible. When they were all lined up they looked like a field of beautiful clouds made of glitter. It sounds simple, I guess, but through this almost mindless work I found some creative satisfaction that left me wanting more. Maybe I’d try some designs that were more intricate.

We were having leftover spaghetti for supper, so there was not much need to grocery-shop. But I did bring home milk and a freshly baked apple pie. If this job hadn’t done anything else for me, it had turned me on to fresh baked versus frozen, although frozen pies were still a wonderful thing to have on hand in case you had to have pie right that minute. Sometimes I felt like that.

I was home about half an hour before the boys would be there. Leslie’s car was back in the driveway, so I left a note on the door for the boys and hurried over to get the latest on Charlie.

“Leslie?” I called her name as soon as I was inside the door.

“In the kitchen!”

Weren’t we always in the kitchen?

“So, spill it, sister,” I said. “What happened with Charlie?”

“Oh, Lord,” she said. “It’s complicated like all hell. Sit down.”

I took a place at the table.

“No kidding. I’m sure.”

“You want tea?”

As you know, in our house that meant iced tea. It could be freezing outside, and we still drank our tea with ice.

“Sure.” She poured both of us a glass and sat, pushing the evil sugar bowl across the table to me. “Thanks. Remember the day I broke this?”

“Are you serious? I thought Momma was going to put you up for adoption.”

“Me, too. So what happened?”

“I thought about what you and Momma said about full disclosure. Y’all were right. Charlie should’ve told me before he married me. I asked him that and he said he was afraid to tell me, afraid I wouldn’t love him anymore, that he loved me. But this other passion of his never stopped him from being all man in the bedroom, that’s for sure.”

“Well, I suppose that’s good to know.”

“We had six years of bliss, him spoiling me to death with cars and jewelry and trips and fabulous dinners, but he never said a word.”

“Do you think he was dressing up all the time?”

“Absolutely.”

“You’ve never told me how this all came about in the first place. How you found out, I mean.”

“Okay, brace yourself. Charlie was out with the guys one night, or so I thought. Anyway, he was really at a club where female impersonators perform. He was dressed up as Cher and lip-synced “I Got You Babe” hoping to win free drinks. He won free drinks, but he also got a DUI on the way home. He was too loaded to change his clothes at the club. He thought I’d be sleeping at that hour anyway, that he could just sneak in and change in the guest room, but the nice policeman took him to jail and then he called me to bail him out.”

“Holy crap! So you go to the jail and there he is dressed up like Cher?”

“All except the wig. He had to take it off for his mug shot.”

“So you were pretty shocked.”

“You could say that. Yeah.”

“Then what?”

“We had words. He felt I was being cruel to him, that if I loved him, I should just love him no matter what he was wearing.”

“You know, that actually kind of sounds fair to me,” I said, “but I’m not the one struggling with it.”

“Well, that’s just it, isn’t it? He’s right. If I love him, I love him. My problem is the deceit. Charlie was always a little bit effeminate. The world knew that. That’s fine with me. He played some sports, tennis and golf, and he got along with the jocks. In fact, I always liked him because he was more compassionate or nicer than the other guys. He was a sweetheart. It’s why I fell in love with him in the first place. But this deceit was so huge, I just freaked out.”

“Well, I understand that. I hate lying. Especially given the nature of the lie. So now what?”

“I don’t know. It turns out that he’s a super talented lip-sync impersonator. Some big producer in Vegas wants to have him audition for some huge lip-sync group. The money is crazy.”

“Are you for real?”

“Oh, yeah. Apparently, there’s big money in this business. And here’s the thing, Charlie doesn’t really need the money. He got oodles from his dad’s estate. But pretending to be Cher makes Charlie happier than I’ve ever seen him. I mean, he’s downright dizzy with happiness!”

“Was Cher at breakfast?”

“Good grief, no! We had breakfast at the Sand Dollar on the Isle of Palms.”

“Yeah, I can see him getting some heat here.” I thought then that perhaps they had made some kind of peace with each other. “So where did you leave it with him?”

“Well, I’m beginning to understand this aspect of Charlie’s personality a little better. And he’s agreed to compromise with me on certain things.”