law office, the decor of which consisted of half a dozen dusty football trophies and one bedraggled plasticplant. “Let’s just pray that the air-conditioning in the courthouse is working.”
Lily sighed and looked down at Mimi, who was getting positively filthy playing on the lawoffice’s unmopped floor. “I’m afraid the temperature in the courtroom is the least of our worries.”
Buzz shot Ben a conspiratorial grin. “She’s the nervous type, ain’t she?”
“Well,” Ben said, attempting a macho attitude, “you know how women get about babies.”
Lily sat quietly with her hands in her lap, but her fists were clenched so tightly she doubtedanyone would be able to pry them apart.
Buzz pasted a condescending smile across his face. “Now, Mrs. McGilly, I don’t think you have athing to worry about. We just need to establish that you and Benny Jack love each other and that you loveMimi and take good care of her. And if Benny Jack here is Mimi’s real father like he says he is, you’vegot no worries.”
“Right,” Lily said, clenching her fists even tighter. “No worries.”
“Now if you wanna do something that’ll turn the odds even more in your favor, I have a couple ofsuggestions for you, Mrs. McGilly.”
“Yeah?”
“Well...” Buzz shuffled some papers uncomfortably. “When you’re up there on the stand, youcould try to look like a nice girl.”
“A nice girl?” Lily looked down at her cutoff Levi’s and Doc Martens, which were separated bypasty white legs whose unshaven state was due to apathy rather than feminist politics. “Well, I wasplanning on wearing a dress, if that’s what you mean.”
Buzz smiled self-consciously and reshuffled his papers. “Um, well, yes, that’s part of it. But I wasalso thinking you could take that ... that thing out of your nose and maybe do something with your hair.”
“My hair?” Lily was proud of her hair. Very few white girls had such soulful braids.
“Yeah, I mean ... somethin’ respectable.” He was still staring at his desk. “Look, Mrs. McGilly,I’m not a fashion expert, and the last thing I wanna do is tell a lady how she should fix herself up. I’m justsaying that in these parts, a judge might look more sympathetically on a lady with a more ... conservativeappearance.”
Lily flinched at the sound of the word conservative but muttered, “I’ll see what I can do.” As longas she was the same person on the inside, it didn’t matter what clothes she wore or how she styled herhair. Or so she tried to convince herself. If the only way she could keep her daughter was by deceivingpeople with misleading appearances, then deceive them she would.