Page 29 of The Wives of Hawthorne Lane

Georgina

Hawthorne Lane

“Hannah! Mark! Over here!” Georgina calls, the gold bangles on her wrist jangling as she waves across the Sterling Valley High School gym.

It’s crowded tonight, the annual goodwill auction being one of the larger community events.

Fairy lights have been hung from the ceiling, and tables draped in white and navy blue—the school’s colors—line the space.

At the center of the room is a long row of tables crowded with numbered baskets, each brimming with goods donated from local businesses to be raffled off in a silent auction.

This year, the funds will be put toward building new playing fields for the high school.

The school’s new principal, a former college football player, had practically insisted on the upgrade.

He’d reminded parents of the importance of Sterling Valley remaining a top-tier district, a name that will continue to stand out to the competitive Ivy League colleges.

Georgina sees recognition crest over Hannah’s face as she spots Georgina in the crowd, and she picks her way through the throngs of people, leading Mark by the hand.

Georgina has taken quite a liking to the younger woman.

Hannah feels like a breath of fresh air in this town—she’s real, genuine.

With her, there’s no undercurrent of competition the way there is among so many of the Sterling Valley mothers, who Georgina knows smile to her face but will cut her down the second her back is turned.

When she’s talking to Hannah, Georgina never gets the impression that she’s biding her time, waiting for her turn to speak; she never feels judged or scrutinized.

Hannah simply listens in that quiet, thoughtful way of hers.

She hopes she never loses that, that this place doesn’t change her.

“Hi, Georgina,” Hannah says as she reaches the table. “I love your dress.”

“Thank you.” She’d chosen a fitted sheath dress in emerald green because Colin had once mentioned that it complemented the red of her hair.

Hannah and Mark make the rounds, hugs and handshakes offered to Colin and Libby, who are already seated.

Things have been tense with Libby since they went out for brunch last week.

Georgina worries that she might have accidentally offended her when she mentioned that she wasn’t keen on the idea of Christina and Lucas spending time alone together.

She hadn’t meant it as a personal affront to Libby’s son—Georgina doesn’t like the idea of her fifteen-year-old daughter wandering off into the woods with any boy.

Georgina might be forty, but she’s not too old to remember what it was like to be a teenage girl.

To want things you don’t understand, to be worried about how to say no to the things you don’t.

As they all take their seats, Georgina senses a strange charge crackling over the table. She knows that Libby is probably still upset with her, but even Hannah doesn’t seem like herself tonight. She’s fidgeting in her seat, smoothing her napkin on her lap over and over again.

“I had a chance to play that golf course you recommended,” Mark tells Colin.

Colin smiles delightedly. “What did you think?”

The two men are quickly lost in conversation about fairways and putting greens, and Georgina looks over at her friends. Libby has her nose buried in her phone, and Hannah is looking out over the crowd, her gaze distant and unfocused. She hates that they both seem so unhappy.

Georgina is reminded once again of her childhood home. All of them—Georgina, her parents—miserable in their own ways, orbiting one another in concentric circles beneath the same roof.

When Georgina left for culinary school, she’d promised herself she would never set foot in that house again. But Colin had insisted. He said they should deliver the news of their engagement in person. He felt it was the proper thing to do.

Georgina looked at Colin then, the handsome young lawyer who’d just asked her to spend the rest of her life by his side, and felt her excitement over their impending nuptials fade.

She hated the thought of him in that house, surrounded by the dust and the dirt—the sagging cardboard boxes, the half-finished renovations her father would start but could never afford to complete.

He would see her differently then. She could no longer project the image of herself she so desperately wanted him to see, the ambitious culinary student, the proper lady with the impeccable manners that had impressed his mother so much.

Now she’d just be the girl who’d come from that sad, awful place.

A girl pretending to be more than she was.

As they stood on the doorstep, hand in hand, a box of pastries tucked under Colin’s arm, Georgina braced herself for disaster.

Colin didn’t understand. Her family wasn’t like his, loud and excitable, his mother calling all of their distant relatives to share the happy news of Colin’s engagement the moment she saw the ring on Georgina’s finger.

Georgina’s parents had always been, at best, coolly indifferent toward her, and she expected that news of her engagement would be met with much of the same.

But she’d been wrong. As Colin introduced himself, lifted Georgina’s hand to show her parents the two-carat ring that sparkled on her slim finger, her father clapped him on the back, and her mother hugged him, wishing them both the best of luck.

Who were those smiling, laughing people? She hardly recognized her own parents.

They’d stayed for coffee, Colin politely ignoring the piles of junk that seemed to have multiplied since Georgina’s departure, and shared the pastries Colin had brought from the nice bakery across town.

It was the happiest she’d ever remembered being inside her parents’ house.

It was the first time they’d ever looked at her like they were proud.

As they gathered their things to leave, coffee cups soaking in the sink, Georgina’s mother grabbed her, her bony fingers encircling Georgina’s arm. “He’s going places,” she’d whispered in her ear, her voice suddenly nasty and pinched. “You better not screw this up.”

Georgina had wanted to yell, she’d wanted to scream, she’d wanted to remind her mother that she was putting herself through culinary school, that she was going places too.

But being back in that house had made her revert to the girl she once was.

The girl who’d learned to stay quiet, to make herself so small that she wouldn’t be noticed. And so she’d just nodded.

As much as she hated to admit it, a part of Georgina knew that her mother was right.

With Colin and the illustrious legal career ahead of him, she could have a different kind of life.

The kind of life where she wouldn’t have to clip coupons to go to the grocery store, where she’d never have to decide whether to pay the water bill or the electric bill that month, where her children would never have to feel like they were a burden.

She’d wanted that so badly that it felt like an ache in her chest. To have a family of her own, to create a home for them that didn’t feel as gray and hopeless and suffocating as the one she’d always known.

There would be home-cooked meals in a clean kitchen; there would be a garden full of life and color; her kids would always know how much they were loved and wanted.

They would go to the best schools, the kinds that would open doors for them.

Her children would have all the opportunities that Georgina didn’t.

She was going to do things differently, and she couldn’t deny that marrying Colin was going to help her get there.

“How about a round of drinks?” Colin asks now.

“I’ll get them,” Georgina is quick to offer, happy for the distraction.

“Do you need a hand?” Mark asks, already pushing his chair away from the table.

“No, I’ve got it,” she assures him. “I have to finish putting in my tickets for the silent auction anyway. But thank you. You two carry on discussing nine irons or what have you.”

Mark laughs as he adjusts his glasses. “Oh, if we must.”

On the outside, he and Hannah seem a strange pairing.

There’s the age difference, for one thing, and her looks, which far outshine his, for another, but Georgina sees why they work so well together.

She notices the way Mark casually rests his hand on Hannah’s knee, even while he’s talking to Colin, the way he looks at her while she’s speaking, like every word that comes out of her mouth is the most interesting thing that’s ever been said. They make their own kind of sense.

“Last call before the silent auction begins!” one of the volunteers announces into a microphone.

Georgina stands from the table and makes her way to the display in the center of the gymnasium.

She looks at each basket as she passes, but she already knows she’s going to put all of her tickets toward the one from Lily Lane.

Georgina sighs as she drops her tickets into the box in front of Libby’s basket.

She knows Libby is going through a difficult time as she navigates her separation from Bill.

She suspects this is part of the reason she got so angry at Georgina’s comment over brunch.

Georgina, of course, knows that Bill moved out of their house—it’s hard not to notice when a U-Haul truck pulls into your neighbor’s driveway—but she finds herself wishing that she and Libby were closer.

That Libby felt like she could talk about these kinds of things, that they both didn’t feel the need to keep up pretenses, to cover everything with a smile.

“Well, hello, Georgina.” Beth Patterson sidles up next to her.

Georgina smiles politely. “Hi, Beth. How are you?”

“Good, good. And you? How are the plans for the fall festival going? We’re all really looking forward to it.”

“Oh, it’s all coming together nicely. I have a few vendors lined up to hand out treats to the little ones, and I’m just waiting on the permits for the fireworks display.”

“A fireworks display! How fun!” Beth exclaims with what feels to Georgina like a put-on level of enthusiasm.

“Ah, Ms. Pembrook!” It’s Principal Skinner. He approaches them and slings his arm over Georgina’s shoulder. “Just the woman I was hoping to find!”

Georgina’s face burns as she sees the scandalized grin crack across Beth’s face, her eyes glittering.

“I suppose I’ll just leave you two to it, then,” Beth says.

She slinks off toward the other mothers, who are already looking in Georgina’s direction, their whispers rolling in like fog, swirling around Georgina.

The new principal’s slight southern drawl, laid-back demeanor, and larger-than-life presence has made him a favorite topic of discussion among the women in town.

“You said you were looking for me?” Georgina asks, trying to think of a way to politely extricate herself from beneath Principal Skinner’s arm.

“Yes, indeed I was.” He smiles down at her, all dashing southern charm. “I wanted to thank you for your generosity this evening. The donation you and Mr. Pembrook made will go a long way toward funding the new athletic fields.”

“Oh,” Georgina says, her eyes flitting back to her table, to her husband. “You’re very welcome, but it was actually Colin’s—”

“Please,” he says, his arm still draped casually around Georgina’s neck. “Let me introduce you to some of…”

He’s still speaking but Georgina is no longer listening. All she can focus on is the weight of his arm around her shoulders, the closeness of his body to hers. She feels herself begin to sweat, her dress sticking to her skin, her feet sliding in her heels.

And then Colin is there, his hand outstretched toward Principal Skinner.

“Colin Pembrook,” he says by way of greeting.

“Arnold Skinner.” Principal Skinner takes Colin’s hand in his larger one, pumps it up and down in an exaggerated motion. “I was just thanking your wife for your family’s generosity this evening.”

Colin smiles in that handsome, charismatic way of his, but Georgina can see through it. She can see the frost in his blue eyes, the darkness behind his bright white teeth.

“Of course,” Colin replies coolly. “You’re very welcome. Now, if you don’t mind, might I steal my wife for a moment?”

Principal Skinner laughs affably as he steps away from Georgina. “Of course, of course. Y’all enjoy the rest of the evening now.”

As Principal Skinner disappears back into the crowd, Colin leans close to Georgina’s ear. “Let’s get some fresh air, shall we?” He laces his fingers through hers.

Georgina knows how it looks to everyone else.

She knows that tomorrow all the other mothers will be talking about how lucky she is.

How her handsome, successful husband took time out of his busy schedule to join her at a school event when so many of theirs hadn’t, how sweet and romantic Colin is, the way he still holds Georgina’s hand in a crowd.

But they don’t see how he squeezes her fingers so tightly that the band of her wedding ring digs into her skin, how, more than anything, she wishes he’d just let her go.