Page 97 of Best Kept Vows

“What are you doing here, my dear?” Dolly asked primly.

“Attending Betsy Rhodes’le salon,” Ada replied smugly. “Were you invited? I didn’t see you in there.”

She knew very well they weren’t invited, and they knew thatsheknew they weren’t invited—and the fact was that…well, they werenot invitedto the most prestigious gathering of Savannah society women—while I had been asked tospeakat the event.

“Mama gave such an amazing speech,” Ada continued like my in-laws weren’t losing their minds.

I wiped my hands with a fluffy white towel and dropped it into the basket meant for that exact purpose. I mean, this wasn’t the kind of restroom with an air dryer or one of those paper towel dispensers.

“Speech?” Coco blustered.

Dolly scoffed. “I hope you didn’t embarrass the Boone family, Lia.”

Ada cocked an eyebrow. “Now, why would you say something so downright mean, Grandma?”

Oh boy! The shit had hit the fan!

“Excuse me?” Dolly glowered.

“That was a mean thing to say,” Ada persisted, and then the door opened, and Aurora walked in.

Now, Aurora came from the wrong side of the tracks.She was half black, but she was Betsy Rhodes’ beloved daughter-in-law and the mother of her granddaughter. The Savannah bitches may have messed with herbeforeshe married Gabe Rhodes, but not after, not if they wanted to survive Savannah society.

The entire room shifted to look at Aurora, who was smiling, her eyes lit up with mischief. “Dolly, Coco…ah…well, hello.”

“Aurora.” Dolly leaned in, and they did the kiss in the air nonsense and so did Coco. All the societal niceties had to be maintained, after all.

“Ah…were you invited to Betsy’s salon?” Aurora looked perturbed. “I did the invitations so….”

“No, they weren’t,” Ada interrupted, her tone crackling with razor-sharp amusement. “Aurora, Grandma just told Mama that she hoped Mama didn’t embarrass her with her speech. Don’t you think that was mean?”

Both Dolly and Coco gasped.

I smothered a laugh.

Aurora, to give her credit, kept a straight face.

“Well, Dolly,” Aurora said with a bright smile, “you’ll be happy to know that Lia did such an incredible job today that two women in the audience—Lemon DeWitt and Magnolia Hart, I’m sure you know them—have decided to launch their own back-to-work initiatives for stay-at-home mothers, all because of Lia’s speech.”

She’d obviously name-dropped Lemon DeWitt, the heiress of DeWitt Jewels, and Magnolia, the owner of HartGalleries, on purpose because they wereold-money Savannah and in Dolly’s age group.

“Well…ah…that’s nice,” Dolly managed to say.

She’d love to be included in a circle where Lemon DeWitt and Magnolia Hart belonged.

“Isn’t it?” Aurora then walked into a stall.

Coco rolled her eyes. “Well, one expects you to be liked bythatkind of woman,” she whispered, tilting her chin to the stall where Aurora was.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded, crossing my arms.

“You know what it means.” Coco huffed, dramatically tilting her head.

“Not really,” Ada chimed in, irritated. “Please tell me you weren’t talking about Aurora’s race.”

“Hush,” Dolly snapped. “Do you want the world to hear?”

“Yeah, I kinda do, Grandma, because Auntie Coco, in this day and age, your racist comments are?—”