Lily smiled. “I’ll have to do that.”
“Anyway,” Jack said as she spooned up another serving of grits, “I reckon I got room for a pig inmy collection, if you and Mimi promise to come visit her.”
“I promise.”
“It sure takes a lot of money to feed all them animals without you making any profit off ’em,” Edsaid, pushing his plate away.
“Aah, it’s not that expensive,” Jack said. “Besides, I gotta spend my money on somethin’. It’s notlike I go out and blow it on new dresses.”
Ed and Vina laughed. Lily was amazed at how comfortable they were with Jack’s masculinity.
When they climbed into the truck to go home, Lily said, “Thank you for the pig.”
“It was no skin off my nose. I’d been thinking about getting me a pig anyhow.” She started thetruck. “And I can understand why the thought of slaughtering that pig bothered you. I mean, I’m novegetarian, but it does seem like a shame that a critter has such a hard time coming into the world, only toget taken out of it so quick.” She watched the road for a minute. “There was somethin’ I wanted to askyou, though.”
“Yeah?”
“About that joke you made when you were about to invade that sow’s privacy.”
“Oh, that. I hardly even knew what I was saying. I’m always make dumb jokes when I’mnervous.”
“Well, it’s probably none of my business. It just seemed like an odd joke for a married lady to bemaking ... at least for a married lady who’s married to a man.”
The biscuits in Lily’s stomach congealed into a heavy clump. How could she be so stupid as tomake a joke like that? Apparently waking up before the sun wasn’t conducive to her secret-keepingabilities.
“It’s okay,” Jack said. “Like I said, it’s none of my business. You don’t have to tell me anything.
But if you ever decide you wanna talk, your secrets — if you’ve got any — are safe with me.”
What was it about Dr. Jack that made Lily decide to trust her? Was it because she was the first reallesbian Lily had seen since she hit Faulkner County? Or was it Jack’s obvious kindness — the part of herpersonality that made her rescue abused dogs and swaybacked horses?
Whatever it was, it made Lily talk. She talked all the way back to the house and then sat talkingwith Jack in her truck in the driveway.
When Lily finished, Jack breathed, “Whoa. That’s quite a story.”
Lily laughed. “You’re telling me.”
“So ...” Jack looked her square in the eye. “You lonely?”
Lily quickly broke eye contact. “Lonely? Of course I’m lonely. I lost my wife, my best friend —
but if you’re, like, coming on to me, I’m not interested. The only thing that could possibly make my life