Totlandia: Summer (7 page)

“How romantic,” Ally whispered.

“I guess you could say that—unless you knew the whole story behind it. You see, it’s the second of three paintings, done in consecutive years. Despite the notoriety it gave Makovsky, right after the third one was completed his wife divorced him.” He shrugged. “I guess there is only so long you can be enthralled with the ideal, as opposed to the reality.”

His sideways gaze made her uncomfortable. “Are you trying to tell me something, Barry?”

He turned back toward the painting. “Since you asked, yes. Over the past couple of years, you’ve given up a lot, Ally. You gave up your business in order to stay home with Zoe. You gave up your identity to join PHM&T. And you’ve held off on pursuing a relationship with Brady Pierce because you presumed—rightly so, as it turned out—that it would be in direct conflict with your and Zoe’s chance to stay in the club, let alone to pursue a friendship with Brady’s ex.”

“Well put, counselor. Perhaps it’s time for a closing statement.”

He took a deep breath. “It’s not my place to tell you whether what you’ve done is right, wrong, or indifferent. But since you asked my opinion, let me state for the record that I pray you follow your heart.” He paused to take a breath. “As you know, in the past I haven’t been a fan of Brady’s—”

“Duly noted,” Ally murmured.

“That being said, I think it’s time that you allow Brady a chance to prove he’s the real thing. If Jade doesn’t understand that he doesn’t love her anymore, you shouldn’t feel accountable for their failed relationship. It happened long before he met you. As for Lorna, obviously she’s on your side. So, why don’t you let her back into your life?”

“As much as I appreciate Lorna’s loyalty, the last thing she needs to do is throw her lot in with me. Despite all of her hard work on the club’s behalf, if, in fact, Dante has a learning disability and Bettina finds out about it, Lorna will be the next to go. Bettina is itching for an excuse to cut her.”

Zoe was stirring enough to kick her blanket to the floor. Ally stopped to untangle it from the stroller wheel then motioned for Barry to follow her out of the gallery, and back into the museum’s front rotunda. “The same goes for Brady,” she added, “whether he likes it or not.”

As they walked back out the museum entrance and into its enclosed courtyard, Barry took the stroller from her. “San Francisco is a big town, Ally. If the two of you want to have dinner together, I’m sure there’s a restaurant or two that is off Bettina’s radar.”

Her concession came in a hesitant nod. “That may be the case, but there are forty-six moms in the club. If any one of them sees me with the man they presume is Jade’s husband, believe me, Oliver will be out of the club as well.” She sighed. “I know how much that will disappoint Brady. And it will give Jade yet another reason to hate me. It’s her one and only hold on Brady—”

Barry grabbed Ally’s arm. “Wait! Oh, hell,” he muttered. “I take back what I said. San Francisco is smaller than I thought! Isn’t that Bettina, over there?”

Ally looked where he was pointing.

He was right. Bettina was standing in the courtyard, along with Mallory, Sally, Kimberley, and Joanna. The other women were seemingly transfixed as their fearless leader pontificated and gestured at the Rodin statue in front of them.

Ally shoved him and the stroller with her as she ducked behind one of the courtyard’s walkway pillars. “I’ve got an idea on how we can get out of here without running into them. Bettina is oblivious of anyone she feels is unimportant—including all the tourists milling around here. Let’s try to sneak out with the next group that comes by.” She pointed back toward the reception area. “Here comes a group of German sightseers. We can slip right in between them, and Bettina will never see us.”

“Ally, don’t be silly! We have every right to be here, too. We should walk with our heads held high.”

“That’s easy for you to say! You’re dressed in Armani, not some baby-food-stained sweatshirt and yoga pants.” She blew her bangs out of her eyes, but there was not much she could do with the few errant coiling tendrils that had somehow escaped her scrunchie. “Barry, I can’t let them see me like this. It’ll be all over Pac Heights that I’ve let myself go to the dogs.”

Barry took her face in his hands. “Even covered in baby food, you’re beautiful. Why can’t you see that? Hell, I do. It’s dawning on me that Brady does, too. Guess what? I’m okay with that. So you should be, too.”

Just then Zoe’s eyes popped open. The look of mutual admiration in her parents’ eyes brought a squeal to her lips.

Shocked, Ally and Barry looked down at her. In unison they whispered, “Shhhhh!”

That, and their furtive glances at Bettina, had the child’s gaze moving toward the Rodin.

Seeing the women, she gave a bloodcurdling scream.

I know just how you feel,
her mother thought.

Bettina stopped midsentence. She frowned as she scanned the courtyard for the culprit. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted Ally, Barry, and Zoe.

They were trapped.

Ally felt as if she were going to throw up.

Barry must have felt fine because he was smiling as he plucked Zoe from her stroller and stroked her head to comfort her. “Sweetheart, if she says anything to you, just let me do the talking. Bettina Connaught Cross is about to find out that the biggest, baddest queen in this town is not her!”

Every instinct Ally had told her to flee. But Barry headed toward the women with such speed that all Ally could think to do was to follow him.

“I’m certainly shocked to see you here. I hope you’re not stalking me. Otherwise, I’ll have to take out a restraining order on you.” Bettina’s eyes seemed to drill right through Ally. Even the Top Moms were nervous enough to step back.

They parted like the Red Sea when Barry stood nose to nose with Bettina.

“Bettina Connaught Cross, isn’t it?” Barry’s words came out in a deep, congenial baritone, but he did not hold out his hand.

“The surrogate, I presume?” Seeing Bettina’s frosty smile, the other women actually shivered.

“Right now, my role on Ms. Thornton’s behalf is that of legal counsel. As such, I must warn you that any libelous remarks made in public, against either her or myself, will land you in court”—his gaze moved to the other women—“and we will subpoena your friends here as witnesses—not to mention other members of your private club.”

“I beg your pardon?” The way Bettina put it was more of a dare than a question. “The First Amendment of the Constitution clearly states that this great country’s citizens have ‘freedom of association.’ The fact that our club is indeed private excludes you and your…your
friend
there, from using anything we say or do against us, no matter what takes place during club meetings.”

Barry clapped vigorously. “Bravo. Your eighth-grade American history course has served you well. But you’re wrong. The founding fathers intended to protect only the association of small, closely knit social groups, not
any
organization that holds itself out to be private. In fact, private
clubs
are specifically excluded.”

“But…but our club has a right to vet its members privately!”

“Not if it’s based on discrimination, be it gender, race, sexual orientation, or even whether or not the member can squeeze into a single-digit designer couture.” Leaning in, he whispered loudly, “By the way, I’m male, gay, and I look fetching in a size eight.” He shrugged as she recoiled in disgust. “If you don’t believe me about the illegality of your little club, perhaps a judge can enlighten you.”

“Well…I…” For once in her life, Bettina was at a loss for words.

Even if what this person was saying was false, the last thing she needed was to embroil her family or the club in protracted litigation just to prove him wrong. Money in the Connaught Cross household was tight enough as it was, what with the recent implosion of Art’s latest financial transactions. And if a suit was to be filed against the club, its members would quickly head for the exits.

Already her so-called Top Moms were inching away from her.

Suddenly the image of watching each of them, one by one, reciting on the witness stand some of her pithier, albeit crueler, asides regarding members and wannabes overwhelmed her.

They’re all a bunch of stool pigeons,
she thought.
They’d turn on me and never think twice about it.
Well, I’ll be damned if I’m taking the fall alone.

The fact that she hovered over Barry in her four-inch Louboutins gave her the confidence to say, without a waver in her voice, “Then I suppose we’ll see you in court.”

The others gasped.

Right then and there, she could have pummeled each of their heads against Rodin’s
The Thinker.

Without another word, Bettina turned and walked back to the parking lot.

Her hands were shaking on the steering wheel as she pulled away from the curb.

When she realized she’d left the rest of her so-called friends at the museum, she laughed hysterically. In order to retrieve their cars parked around Lafayette Park, they’d have to wait for the Number 1 California Line Muni bus. Perfect. As far as she was concerned, they could suffocate in that mosh pit of working-class humanity.

In hindsight, how fortuitous that Jade hadn’t been part of her entourage. The last thing she needed was for the Pierces to think that the club wasn’t worth their time and effort, and to pull their investment in Art’s financial management account.

Would Ally Thornton’s faux-husband-slash-attorney follow through on his threat? Only time would tell. In the meantime, she’d have to keep up her poker face and whip her girls into line, remind them who was boss.

The whip analogy brought Art to mind.

Perhaps Mother will take Lily off our hands tonight,
she thought.

She sighed. A few well-placed lashes across Art’s backside would certainly quell her angst over today’s little conundrum.

For once, she couldn’t wait to see him.

“That went well, don’t you think?” Barry looked sideways at Ally.

Frankly, the fact she hadn’t spoken to him since they’d got in the car should have been a big hint to him that, no, she didn’t think so.

And if he was still in doubt, the way she was driving—too fast, and practically missing every stop sign between the museum to where they now were, just a few blocks from home—she had no doubt he already knew the answer to his question.

She swerved to the curb and stopped short, knowing that would leave absolutely no doubt in his mind.

“Jesus, Ally! I think you gave me whiplash!” He rubbed his neck.

“Apropos, you’re the biggest pain in my neck, too.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

She turned to him. “Barry, do you really plan to sue Bettina and the club?”

“Sure, why not? It would teach her not to mess with my girl.”

“‘Your girl,’ as you so quaintly put it, would prefer that you didn’t.”

His draw dropped open. “Everything I told Bettina was legit. And even if your pretty little nose is too uppity to detect it, the smell of Bettina’s fear was even stronger than her Chanel No. 5. So can you at least give me a reason why we shouldn’t?”

“We shouldn’t because I don’t want to!”

“You don’t want to…what? Ensure that future club plebes aren’t stomped into the ground? Be known as the woman who took down the town’s cruelest diva?”

She shook her head. “I don’t want the other mothers to stare and whisper and snicker at me when they see me at the grocery store. I don’t want their children to run away from Zoe because of the mess I got us into, and because you’re a noble, sweet, loyal fool who wants to be my knight in shining armor. I just want to…I guess I want to…” The tears glistened in her eyes. She said nothing for the longest time. Then, finally she whispered: “I want to disappear.”

She wasn’t going to sob in front of Zoe. Thank goodness their daughter was too busy babbling to her Stella Sweet doll.

Barry shrugged. “Okay, have it your way—on one condition. If that high-priced skank or any of her henchbots dare to even whisper either of our names in public, all bets are off.”

Ally threw her arms around his shoulders. “Thank you. Believe me, it’s for the best.” She started the car again and pulled into the street.

“I don’t know about that, but I reserve the right to keep our options open.” He rummaged in Zoe’s diaper bag, found a bottle, and handed it to the little girl. “Speaking of loose ends, I presume you haven’t changed your mind regarding a suit against Bracknell Industries.”

“Heck, no! They had no right to terminate me. I was fulfilling my consulting obligations at Foot Fetish, so full steam ahead.”

“That’s my girl! It’ll be a slam dunk, and you can live like a hermit in style.” His pause was accompanied with a grimace. “Not to bring up yet another sore subject, but what about the pie shop?”

“What about it?”

“Now that you’re not talking to Jillian, do you want to sever ties with her as well?”

She said nothing, but kept driving until she was on their street.

If anything could keep her speechless and dumbfounded, it was seeing Jillian standing in their driveway with a pie in hand and her twin daughters cooing in their double stroller.

Once again, the car lurched to a halt. Whatever Barry was yelling—something about his neck—was lost on her as she jumped out of the car. She started out running to her friend, but as badly as she wanted to hug Jillian, she didn’t want to crush the beautiful golden pie in her hands.

Jillian held it out to her. “A peace offering—for my stupidity. It’s something new for the bake shop. Chocolate with cherry and apricot, and a splash of brandy.”

Ally laughed. “All my favorites.”

“I know.” Now Jillian was smiling, too. “And I also know you wouldn’t have fallen in love with Brady if you could have helped it. And that you’ve done all that you can, not to betray Jade. Can you forgive me for jumping to all the wrong conclusions, and for comparing you to all the wrong people?”