The Dirty Book Club(20)

“Garlic?” Kelsey raised an overplucked brow at buttery round rolls. “Michael did just bury his father, so it’s not like he’s going to get frisky tonight, right?” She took an investigatory nibble, swallowed, and paused, as if evaluating a fine wine. Then with a suspicious squint said, “Is this from Mama Rosa’s?”

“How did you know?”

“Round bread, roasted garlic, and real Parmesan,” Kelsey said. “It’s a small town, M.J. You can’t get away with anything.” She tilted her plate and released a piece back onto the dish. “They have a gluten-free option. You know that, right?”

“Ha.” Britt’s lips curled into a vicious smile. “Now you have a yeast problem, too.”

“We should say hi to Gloria,” Dan suggested. This time M.J. agreed.

They found her in the living room, sitting on a love seat between two women who flanked her like bookends as they pored over her wedding album. There was young Leo licking icing off her finger during their wedding reception, the happy couple in a chauffeur-driven Paramount Pictures golf cart. The sign on the back bumper read, MARRIED: TAKE ONE.

Gloria smoothed the air bubbles in the plastic sheet that bound the faded images to the cardboard page. “We made it, my love,” she sniffled.

The bookends held her close.

“We should come back another time,” M.J. said to Dan, feeling morbidly voyeuristic peering down at them like that. She never could stand the hot, heavy burden of being watched while she cried. The sympathetic pouts, the frustrated sighs, the wishing aloud that there was something, anything, the watcher could do. But of course there was nothing. And so M.J. would stop her sobbing midstream and their pained expressions would soften with relief. It was a selfless gesture. One that ultimately meant M.J. would have to pack up her emotional blue balls, endure their throbbing while she searched for a private moment to empty herself out. And why put Gloria through that?

But Dan didn’t shy away from the awkward or infirm. He injected himself into the main artery of the moment with a syringe’s precision. “I wish I could have been there for him,” he said, hugging his way into their intimate huddle.

Gloria lifted her glistening eyes and surrendered to Dan’s professional embrace. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there,” he said, holding her while she shook. “So, so sorry.”

“Aortic aneurism,” she told the wet spot she’d left behind on his dress shirt. “The coroner said it happened fast. There was nothing you could have done.”

“The flowers are beautiful,” M.J. said, for no good reason, as she hugged the widow.

“Did you tell Dan about Gayle’s offer?” Gloria whispered into her ear.

M.J. shook her head, surprised that she had the wherewithal to remember their little secret, let alone concern herself with it at a time like that.

“Good.” Gloria winked and then motioned for her friends to stand. “M.J. and Dan, meet my girls.”

The one on the right was Liddy Henderson. Tall and broad with a gray pixie cut and red-framed glasses, she had a no-nonsense way about her. Dotty Crawford, however, was the opposite. Dressed in a tunic and leggings, she had the merry plumpness of a grandmother who never grew tired of licking the bowl.

“Dotty’s responsible for the flowers,” Gloria said. “She’s the florist at the Majestic Resort.”

“Well, I won’t be for long if I don’t return those vases,” she said, palming the back of her grayish-blond bob.

“You stole them?” Liddy asked, punctuating her inquiry with a melodramatic gasp.

“Borrowed. I promised Jules I would have them back by three.”

“Why so early?” Gloria pouted.

“Anniversary dinner.”

“Congratulations.” Liddy beamed. “How long have you two been dating?”

“The dinner is for our guests, smart-ass,” Dotty said. “Jules and I are curating it.”

“And what? The Liaison of Love can’t set a few tables without you?”

“She’s allergic to flowers.”

“Wait,” M.J. turned to Dan. “We know her!”

“We do?”

“Yes, the blond with the Southern accent. She was there the day we met, remember? She sprinkled glitter on our heads and said we were going to be together forever.”

“That would be Jules.” Dotty beamed. “The last of the true romantics.”

“Shhh, look, it’s the surgery sisters,” Liddy interrupted, her red-rimmed glasses fixed on two women in the front foyer.

Dotty squinted. “Is that Daphne Bic?”

Liddy pulled back her cheeks until her mouth morphed into bulbous fish lips. “We can’t be sure without her dental records.”

Gloria covered her mouth to suppress a giggle. “It was kind of her to show up.”

“What about Betty Bic?” Dotty said. “One more facelift and she’ll have a beard.”

They made a purring sound, then laughed.

M.J. watched as they tried to compose themselves, amazed by Gloria’s lightness during such a dark time. Were her friendships that strong, or had her relationship with Leo been that weak?

She glanced at Dan, wondering if their giddiness surprised him, too. But his attention was on a text message from his old surfing buddy Randy.