daughter. Mimi would lose her mother and be raised as some kind of psycho-Christian. Everybody wouldlose in that situation. And while I’m uncomfortable with this level of deception ... well, some things arejust too precious to lose, even if it is to make a political point.”
Lily nodded in agreement. “Yeah, sometimes I think I’d be a better person if I’d made myself amartyr for the cause of gay rights, but the thing is, I wouldn’t just be sacrificing myself. I’d be sacrificingMimi, too, and sentencing her to the same miserable, oppressive upbringing her mother had.”
Without warning, the front door swung open, and a female voice drawled, “Knock-knock! Hello?”
Ben and Ken scooted apart just as Lily’s vapid sisters-in-law, Sheila and Tracee, walked into theliving room. Each was wearing a pricey-looking pastel warm-up suit and had her platinum curls pulledback in a perky ponytail.
“Hi,” Lily said, finding it difficult to feign friendliness. One of the numerous downsides to thisfaux marriage was that the McGillys dropped by unexpectedly any time they felt like it.
“Ken,” Ben said, doing an even worse job of masking his irritation than Lily was, “meet Sheilaand Tracee, my sisters-in-law. Girls, I don’t know if you remember Ken Woods. He went to high schoolwith us.”
Sheila nodded at Ken. “Your daddy used to work with State Farm Insurance, didn’t he?”
“Sure did.” Ken was doing an admirable job of being cordial.
“So ... Sheila, Tracee, I was just about to make some coffee. Would you like some?” As grating asthese drop-in visits were, Lily was determined not to alienate any of the McGillys through her lack ofhospitality. After all, her success in the courtroom depended largely on the McGillys’ continued good will.
“No thanks,” Sheila chirped. “Me and Tracee just decided to have a night away from the boys —
let them stay home with the kids for a change.”
“There’s this new aerobics class they’re starting over at the middle school,” Tracee added. “Wethought we’d stop by to see if you wanted to come with us.”
The idea of aerobics— let alone the idea of aerobics performed alongside Sheila and Tracee —
filled Lily with the kind of anxiety she hadn’t experienced since junior-high PE class. It wasn’t that shewas adverse to exercise. Back in Atlanta, she and Charlotte had taken long walks every evening, talkingabout the day’s happenings and pushing Mimi in her stroller.
But walking was a natural exercise—it was something human beings were inclined to do anyway.
There was nothing in Lily’s genetic makeup, however, that gave her the inclination to contort her body in