would gladly take the girl in,” Ruby interrupted, “but my place is smaller than Clara’s.”
Marilee jumped up from her chair and started toward the kitchen. “I’ll call Bobby Benson right now and explain.”
Clara turned to close the door, then paused at the sight of splintered wood. Instead of saying anything, she merely shook her head, as though nothing would surprise her at this point.
Ruby followed Marilee. “Bobby left town this afternoon for a week-long fishing trip.”
“How could you do this to us?” Clara repeated. “I’m so mad I can’t stand it. Why, I feel like slapping somebody.”
“Slap Marilee,” Ruby said, “if it’ll make you feel better.”
Marilee stepped closer. “Go ahead. It certainly beats having my head chewed off.”
Clara drew herself up proudly. “I happen to be a lady, and I prefer to act like one, even if you did let us down.”
“Enough, already!” Marilee cried, feeling as though she might pull her hair out any minute. “You’ve made your point. I blew it!”
Both women stared at her openmouthed. “Dear, you don’t have to shout,” Clara said. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with our hearing.”
Marilee planted her hands on her hips. “I know the two of you are going to find this hard to believe, but I’ve been preoccupied the past few days. My life has completely fallen apart, so I’d appreciate it if you’d cut me some slack.”
“What Grady did was despicable,” Ruby said gently, only to have Clara nudge her hard. “Oh, Clara, stop it. We have to talk about it. We can’t just pretend it never happened.” She walked over and hugged Marilee. “Honey, how did you find out?”
“Grady told me,” she said calmly. “Said he had feelings for another woman and was tired of living a lie. Said he didn’t belong on the pulpit. Josh overheard the whole thing. By the time Grady met with the church board and received his dismissal, Josh had packed his father’s clothes, as well as his own.”
“Oh, Marilee, how awful for you,” Clara said.
“You must’ve started packing as well,” Ruby said. “By the time Clara and I heard the news, you’d already up and gone.”
“I was too embarrassed to stay. All I could think of was coming here.”
Clara’s look softened. “I wouldn’t really have slapped you.” She paused. “Marilee, what happened to your neck?”
“What I want to know is what happened to that ceiling beam?” Ruby said, glancing up.
Marilee gave a grunt of disgust. “I tried to hang myself.”
Clara gasped. “Marilee, how can you say such a thing?”
Ruby shot her a dark look. “That’s not a bit funny. Not one bit.”
“Hang yourself, indeed,” Clara quipped.
Marilee realized she’d gone too far. She must be hysterical. “I’m sorry. Truth is, I have termites. As for my neck, I think my mother’s pearl choker caused a rash.” She was surprised how easily the lies slipped from her lips.
“That’s the very reason I don’t wear jewelry,” Clara announced. “It makes me break out every time. As for those termites, you’d better have someone take care of it right away. I’ve heard what kind of damage they can do. You wouldn’t believe what happened to my cousin.”
Ruby frowned and shook her head. “Hush, Clara. The last thing Marilee needs to hear is one of your horror stories about what happened to somebody in your family. Can’t you see the poor girl has enough on her mind? Her husband has dumped her for a woman with tangerine-colored hair, and her son wants nothing to do with her. Why, folks can talk of nothing else. I don’t know how poor Marilee will ever be able to show her face in public again. I think she can wait a couple of days before worrying about stupid termites.”
Marilee’s look was deadpan. “Thank you, Ruby. I feel much better now that you’ve put it all into perspective for me.”
“You’re welcome, honey.”
“I suppose we shouldn’t have been so hard on you because you forgot the benefit,” Clara said. “I wouldn’t be so upset if Esmerelda hadn’t caused such a ruckus. And then those pregnant girls had to get into a snit with one another. I had to break it up. Which reminds me—”
“Grady has lost his mind,” Ruby declared. “It’s that blood pressure thing. The minute a man has health problems he has to go out and prove to himself he’s still got what it takes. You ask me, I think the scare brought on his midlife crisis. Either way, he’ll come around.”
Marilee hitched her chin high as she thought of all Grady had put her through the past few days. She had been so hurt at first she couldn’t stop crying. Well, the hurt and self-pity were gone. Now she was mad as hell.
“He’d better not come around here. He’s going to rue the day he moved my son into that…that trollop’s mobile home.”
Clara nodded, but she looked distracted. She fidgeted with her hair again. “Uh, Marilee, we have a small problem.”
“He’s vermin,” Ruby continued. “Worse than vermin. And everybody knows LaFonda Bonaire is white trash. Why, that’s not even her real name. Her real name is Betty Clump, but she paid to have it changed because she thought it would give her class. Ha! She’s still trash, and the only reason Grady fell for her is because she’d let him eat anything he wanted whenever he came into the Tick-Tock. And here you were trying to see that he ate a healthy diet and got plenty of exercise.”
“Ruby, what are you talking about?” Marilee asked, her face masked with confusion.
“LaFonda was stuffing him with pecan pie behind your back.”
Marilee’s look turned to disbelief. “Are you telling me that my husband walked out on our marriage because another woman fed him pecan pie? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Well, that’s part of it,” Clara replied. “My friend Janie Gilbert who works at the Gazette said it was almost sickening the way LaFonda carried on around him. Janie said LaFonda had been giving Grady the come-on for weeks.”
“A man can only take so much temptation, Marilee,” Ruby said. “Even a fine, upstanding minister like Grady.”
Marilee felt foolish that everybody in town had known about her husband and LaFonda long before her. “Why didn’t the two of you say something?”
“Because Grady was a man of God,” Clara said. “I thought he was way above that sort of thing.”
“Ruby’s right,” Marilee groaned. “I’ll never be able to show my face in this town again.”
Clara waved the comment aside. “Stop talking like that. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Marilee’s in a lot of pain right
