Next to her sister was Sharon, her cousin, who had somehow been roped into all this. She looked like she’d rather be anywhere but there on that porch. Her eyes pleaded with Lizbeth to understand. She had no choice. When Mary Grace got on the warpath, you either got on board or got run over. In the back, looking sheepish, was Mazie. When they made eye contact, Mazie shrugged, as if to say, “I couldn’t stop her.” Lizbeth narrowed her eyes at Mazie. She knew she’d let the cat out of the bag. Someone had said something and Mazie had dropped the bomb on them just to see the reaction. Lizbeth would deal with her later. Right now, she was holding the door handle so her mother couldn’t turn it.
Mary Grace glared at her through the glass. “Open the damn door this instant, Lizbeth!”
Lizbeth had no choice. Her mother would rant and rave on the porch until she got her way. She wasn’t above throwing a chair through the window, so Lizbeth let go of the handle. She turned her back on the door and walked to the couch, where she was surprised to still find Gray. Although she looked stricken with panic, she had stayed behind to stand with Lizbeth. How long she would remain was the question.
Mary Grace charged into the room, followed by the rest of the Jackson women. Lizbeth’s mother was in a rage. Her wide eyes searched the room for a place to vent and settled on Gray.
“What have you done to my daughter? Did you drug her or something?”
A strange calm fell over Lizbeth. She had avoided confrontations with her mother by always doing what Mary Grace thought was best. She had allowed her mother to dictate her choices, but not anymore. She wasn’t angry or scared. She was amused. It was such a freeing feeling not to care what her mother thought of her. She smiled and stepped in front of Gray, shielding her from the oncoming fury that was Mary Grace Jackson.
“Mother, I believe you know Gray O’Neal. She’s the girl who tied Annie and me to the tree out back.”
“I know who she is and I know what she is. Wipe that smile off your face. This isn’t funny, Lizbeth. What in the hell is wrong with you?”
Lizbeth couldn’t help it. She giggled. Gray pinched her in the back. Trying desperately not to laugh, Lizbeth said, “There’s nothing wrong with me, Mother. I’ve simply discovered what I’ve been missing all these years and I gotta tell ya’…” She lost it. She could control the laughter no longer. She finished her statement through streams of giggles. “… It’s fucking fantastic.”
Sharon and Mazie got caught up in Lizbeth’s giggles and joined in. Annie was shocked, her mouth hung open, but a tiny hint of a grin was creeping onto the corners of her lips. Mary Grace turned twenty shades of red, before settling on a bright beet color. Gray wasn’t amused and said, “Shit,” under her breath.
“You watch your language, young lady,” Mary Grace spat.
Lizbeth, still giggling, replied, “That’s just it, Mother, I’m not a young lady. I am a grown woman. I’m not sure what you thought you were going to accomplish by sounding the alarm and gathering the troops, but I assure you, nothing you say will have any bearing on how I live the rest of my life. I love you, Mom, but I don’t have to listen to you.”
Mary Grace wasn’t to be deterred from her mission. She growled at Lizbeth, “James did something to your brain. You’re sick. I’ve got enough signatures in this room to lock your ass in the psych ward until you straighten up.”
“That’s funny,” Lizbeth said, not intimidated by her mother’s threats. “Till I straighten up, that’s quite clever.”
Mary Grace stepped closer, glaring at her youngest daughter. “Lizbeth, I will not let you embarrass this family.”
When Lizbeth heard Gray’s big sigh behind her, she knew Gray was thinking she had told Lizbeth this was going to happen. Lizbeth didn’t want Gray to think for one moment any of this made a difference in Lizbeth’s feelings about their relationship.
Lizbeth looked at Mazie. “Mazie, am I embarrassing you?”
Mazie smiled. She’d been waiting for her chance to speak up and now she had it. “No, Mom. I am not the least embarrassed by this. Dad has done so many embarrassing things, there’s no way you could compete with that. I’m glad you found someone that makes you happy. That’s all that’s important to me.”
Mary Grace scoffed at her. “She’s young. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
Mazie didn’t like that at all. She shot back, “I may be young, but I know the difference in Mom now and before she met Gray is phenomenal. Look at her. She’s standing up to your bossy crap for once.”
A slight chuckle from Gray, behind her, set Lizbeth to giggling again. Mary Grace’s mouth hung open. Annie’s eyes flew back and forth between Mazie and her grandmother. She appeared to believe there was going to be physical contact any moment.
Lizbeth drew the attention back to herself. “Well, there, you see. The only person whose opinion I do value is okay with it, so I guess the rest of you can just go away, if that’s what you want.” Lizbeth stopped giggling and leveled her eyes on her mother. “If you can’t accept me for whom I am and accept Gray as part of my life, then to hell with you.”
To Lizbeth’s great surprise, Annie began to clap. Sharon joined her. Mazie ran to Lizbeth and hugged her. Mary Grace was frozen in place. Lizbeth still held her with her gaze, waiting for the next explosion, but there wasn’t one. The air slowly went out of her sails and she began to accept defeat, which totally caught Lizbeth by surprise. She released Mazie from the hug and went to her mother.
“Mom, I don’t want you out of my life.”
Mary Grace looked at Lizbeth; a tear hung in the corner of her eye. “I just don’t understand, Lizbeth.”
Lizbeth answered her softly, “I don’t understand it either, but I know I love her and she loves me and that’s all that really matters. Gray makes me happy and I deserve that.”
“Yes, you do,” Mary Grace answered, “but are you sure this is going to make you happy in the long run? Do these things last?”
“These things, as you call it, are just like any relationship. Some last. Some don’t…”
Gray, who had been nearly silent through the whole ordeal, interrupted Lizbeth, “This one will.”
Lizbeth smiled back at Gray. “See, Mom. She really loves me. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Somebody who would love only me. Be happy for me, please. I’m not shutting the door on you, but I’m not going to listen to your opinion on this. It’s going to take some time for you to come to grips with it, I know, but in the end, I think you’ll come around. After all, you did introduce us.”
A knock on the open door startled everyone. It was Molly.
“Sorry, I hope I’m not interrupting.”
Lizbeth went to greet her. “No, Molly. Come on in. We were just having a little family discussion. You know my mother.”
Molly stuck out her hand to shake Mary Grace’s. “Yes, how lovely to see you, Mrs. Jackson, and of course I know Annie.”
Annie smiled and nodded. Lizbeth suddenly wondered how well Molly did know Annie, but she moved on.
“And this is my cousin, Sharon.” Molly shook Sharon’s hand. Then Lizbeth led her to Gray. “Molly Kincaid, I’d like for you to meet Gray O’Neal.”
Molly shook Gray’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Gray. I’ve heard a lot about you. It was all good.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Gray said.
Lizbeth could tell all the attention overwhelmed Gray a bit. She slid over close to her and took her hand. Lizbeth looked around the room and decided the best thing to do was to try to get Gray alone for a minute, so she could make sure she would make it through this impromptu Jackson family reunion.
“Mazie, why don’t you take everybody back to the kitchen and make some coffee? I’ll be right there.”
Mazie got the rest of the women to follow her to the back of the house and Lizbeth pulled Gray by the hand upstairs. When they were alone, Lizbeth kissed Gray and then looked up into those scared blue eyes.
“Honey, I told you I didn’t care what they thought. I know that was uncomfortable for you, and I would have headed her off if I had known she was coming. I’m sorry, but it’s over now. Are you okay?”
Gray grinned at her. “Yeah, I’m a big girl. I can take it. I was just surprised, that’s all.”
Lizbeth laughed. “I thought you were going to run there for a second.”
“I thought about it,” Gray said, chuckling.
“So, you’re okay? Do you want to go to Fanny’s while I deal with this?”
“No, I’ll stay. How would it look if I went and hid across the street after you just told your mom she could go to hell if she didn’t like it?”
Lizbeth giggled. “I did, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.” Gray hugged her, saying, “I love you, Lizbeth.”
“Good, because I need to tell you something about Dana and Mo….”
Her sentence was cut short by Fanny’s, “Yoo Hoo!” at the front door.
“I guess it’ll have to wait,” Gray said. “This should be good. Your mom and Fanny go back a ways.”
They hurried down the stairs. Lizbeth ran into the back of Gray when she abruptly stopped at the bottom of the steps. Lizbeth peeked around her to see Fanny standing there with Dana.
Fanny said, “Look who I found walking down at the end of Howard Street.”
Dana smiled, but Lizbeth could tell Fanny had made her come. Dana didn’t want to be there any more than Lizbeth wanted her there. She made eye contact with Lizbeth.
“Hey, Lizbeth. Glad to see everything worked out okay,” Dana said weakly.
Lizbeth stepped around Gray and turned to look at her. Gray was definitely confused.
“Honey, that’s what I was going to tell you,” Lizbeth said, distracting Gray from staring at Dana. “Dana and Molly are… well, seeing each other. They met at my house.”
By this time, the women from the back of the house had flooded the room again. Molly looked at Lizbeth.
“I swear I told her not to come here,” Molly offered in her defense.
“It’s okay, Molly. I think Miss Fanny here had a lot to do with it.”
Mary Grace broke across the room to hug Fanny. “Oh, Fanny! It’s so good to see you.”
Fanny laughed. “I guess we’re related a bit now, with these two.”
Mary Grace was taken aback. “You know about them and you approve?”
“Yep, I think my Gray there finally got her head on right. Lizbeth’s a fine woman and I’m proud to call her family.”
Mary Grace then turned her attention to Dana. “And who is this beautiful creature?”
Lizbeth answered, “Dr. Dana Fox, this is my mother Mary Grace Jackson and that’s my sister Annie and my cousin Sharon. Mother, Dana is Gray’s ex and Molly’s new friend.”
“Oh my God, are you swapping?” She directed her next question at Lizbeth. “Were you and Molly….involved….before this?”
Molly laughed and then covered her mouth. Lizbeth grinned at her and shook her head. “No, Mother. Molly and I are just friends and nobody’s swapping. Dana and Gray split up years ago. She was just visiting.”
Mary Grace was still having a hard time. She shook her head, looking around the room. “All these beautiful women and they all like girls. Was there something in the water? What happened? Are there just no good men left out there?”
Fanny saved the day. “Oh hell, Mary Grace. They don’t need a man to make ‘em happy. They’re takin’ care of each other, not fallin’ round behind some man that don’t appreciate ‘em. Let ‘em be. They love each other.”
“But Fanny, the Bible…”
Fanny raised her hand to silence Mary Grace. “Don’t come at me with what the Bible says, Mary Grace Jackson. I ‘magine I know most every word in it. Some I take as the gospel and some I got sense enough to know was put there by man and ain’t got squat to do with the word of God. It says, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’ I try to live by that. And I seen with my own eyes how God brought these two together and he had to have a reason. They were meant for each other like two peas in a pod, ain’t my place to argue with that.”
Gray slid her arm around Lizbeth and said, “Amen.”
Others in the room followed with their own, “Amen.” Even Annie and Sharon added their affirmation. Mary Grace was outnumbered.
“Well, I guess if she’s going to carry on with some woman, I’d rather it be Gray than anyone else. I always liked you, kid.”
The room erupted in laughter. Lizbeth was so happy she started crying. She looked up at Gray, who was looking down at her. It was done. She had given herself over to Lizbeth, all of her, even the places she had sworn never to allow to see the light of day. When Lizbeth first met Gray, she wondered if she’d ever really know what she was thinking. Looking in her eyes now, she knew without a doubt Gray loved her. Waking up Gray had been a challenge, but from the look in those crystal blue eyes, it was most definitely going to pay off.
Lizbeth graduated in December with honors. Gray met her with a wide grin when she stepped out of the mass of graduates being rushed by proud families. Lizbeth took a research job with the North Carolina Language and Life Project, working to preserve the Carolina Brogue, allowing her to work from home. Shortly after graduation, on an unusually warm day in January, Lizbeth and Gray took the recently restored Fanny Gray out on the Sound. Gray made a promise to Lizbeth just as the sun began to set over the slick calm water.