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“There you are!” Brenda called through the screens as she came up the walk, Evie following with Maria behind her, looking cautious. “Evie and I had lunch and talked over things, and then we called Maria and came back out to see you all for a moment.” She came up the steps and caught sight of Lisa Livia. “And there you are, honey,” she said, smiling. “I was wondering when you’d get here.” She bent to kiss Lisa Livia on the cheek, but LL stiffened away so that it turned into an air kiss. When Brenda straightened, her smile was still in place, but it was tight and fixed.
Ouch, Agnes thought. Would it kill you to let her kiss you, LL?
“So, Ma,” Lisa Livia said. “How’s the country club? Tell you what, I’ll create a disturbance, and you grab the flowers.”
“Hello, Lisa Livia,” Evie said, with no warmth. “Welcome home.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Keyes,” Lisa Livia said. “Always a pleasure to be here.”
Brenda smiled at Maria. “We brought Maria because we wanted to talk about the wedding. About her theme.”
“Theme?” Lisa Livia said dangerously. “What theme?”
“We feel strongly,” Evie said to Lisa Livia, “that a flamingo theme, while adventurous and young and ... uh, funky, might be something Palmer and, of course, Maria might regret in years to come when they look back at their wedding pictures.”
“A flamingo theme?” Lisa Livia said, looking staggered.
“Forgot to mention that,” Agnes said to her. “There was a lot to catch you up on.”
Evie nodded. “And that, in fact, this entire wedding has gotten out of hand. So Brenda and I have decided that something more classic?—”
“At the country club,” Brenda said, patting Maria’s arm.
“—would be more appropriate,” Evie said. “Wait a minute,” Agnes said, rising from her chair as fast as her temper.
“And since I am not without influence in the community and over my son,” Evie was saying, intent clear in her voice, “I am in a position to insist. I’m sorry, Maria, but there will be no flamingo theme, and the wedding will be at the country club.”
The hell it will. Agnes opened her mouth, but Lisa Livia got there first.
“My daughter wants a flamingo theme here,” Lisa Livia said quietly. “And I believe it’s her wedding.”
“Ma,” Maria said, warning in her voice.
Agnes shook her head slightly at Lisa Livia. Fight for the location not the theme. The theme’s a joke. “So we’ll compromise,” she began, and Maria nodded, but Evie overrode them.
“Maria is very young,” Evie said, smiling at Lisa Livia with the kind of smile that came on crocodiles. “She needs guidance. No flamingos.”
Maria opened her mouth, looking eager to agree, but Lisa Livia missed it, crossing her arms under her red tube top. “Guidance, you say,” LL said softly.
“We need to talk about this,” Agnes whispered to Lisa Livia, trying to signal her off.
“Oh, no, it’s decided,” Brenda said, happily. “And really, darlings?—”
“The hell it’s decided,” Agnes snapped at her, and Brenda blinked at her, shocked.
“Maria wants flamingos.” Lisa Livia smiled at Evie, the Fortunato smile that had launched a thousand cement overshoes.
Maria evidently saw the same thing, because she said, “No, Ma, it’s okay, I—” just as Agnes said, “LL, you?—”
Lisa Livia jerked her head up toward the second floor of the house. “You know that second window from the right up there?” she said to Evie in a conversational tone that fooled no one. “That was my bedroom window when I was a kid. I got stuck up there a lot when Ma had her parties. You wouldn’t believe what I saw.” She tilted her head, looking Evie right in the eye. “Like Simon Xavier feeling you up underneath our big oak tree. And that wasn’t all. ...”
Brenda said, “Lisa Livia!” Evie stiffened, and Agnes sat down and poured herself another glass of wine.
“I’m trying to remember if you were married then or not,” Lisa Livia was saying to Evie, sounding genuinely puzzled. “I’d have to ask around. You know. For guidance. To get my dates straight.”
“Wine?” Agnes said to Maria, who nodded and sat down next to her, equally resigned, picking up her mother’s wineglass.
Evie pressed her lips together so tight, they made a white line in her face.
