Ada was trying not to smile. “At that age? Yes. You, on the other hand . . .”
“Europe was interesting,” Lillian said to me. She turned back to Ada. “And I married him after all.”
“Yes, well, we didn’t all have that option.”
“Can I hear that story?” I asked.
“Absolutely not,” Ada said.
I tried to picture her at thirty years old, having an affair with a soldier during a war. Then pieces of a puzzle fell into place. My eyes widened. “Ada—did you have an affair with Ernest Hemingway?”
Both women looked at me as if I had grown a second head. “With whom?”
Lillian laughed. “The bell tolls.”
“He was an ambulance driver in the war—you were a nurse. That’s basically the plot of A Farewell to Arms. You have a house in Key West—so did he. And you said you met the Fitzgeralds. You had an affair with Hemingway, didn’t you?”
Ada shook her head. “You have some imagination, I’ll give you that. No. It wasn’t Hemingway.”
“Come on—there’s no way you didn’t cross paths with him with all that in common.”
She shrugged. “If I did during the war, I wouldn’t know. He wasn’t Hemingway then. He was just a kid driving an ambulance.”
“Yeah . . . I’m not buying it.”
Ada shook her head. “Suit yourself,” she said. But she winked at Lillian, who wouldn’t quite make eye contact with me.
I tried to remember if I had seen any Hemingway books when I had been in her room, but nothing stood out. I decided I was going to sneak in and look again the next time she left the house. His writing would definitely not be her style, so if they were there, it was evidence enough.
And even if it wasn’t true, the story in my head was too good. I wouldn’t use Hemingway himself, but the aunt’s wartime affair was absolutely going to find its way into my book somehow.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Lillian and Ada kept up a running commentary while I prepared for dinner with Dan.
“She’s wearing the fuchsia dress,” Lillian called down the hall after peeking into my room.
“Tell her the dark green is better,” Ada yelled back.
“Don’t yell room to room,” I shouted.
Lillian laughed, and I heard Ada’s footsteps. “I don’t know why I tolerate that sass.”
“Yes, you do,” Lillian said. “She’s just like you.”
I ducked my head. It was a compliment I would take even if I’d pretend not to. “Only about a million years younger.”
“Watch it,” Ada said mildly, coming to sit on my bed. “And change into the dark green.”
“I like the fuchsia.”
Ada made a face.
“What’s wrong with the fuchsia?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said, reaching into the pocket of her dress. “But it’d clash with this.” She held out the Guerlain lipstick.
I stared at her for a moment before I reached for it, but she pulled it back. “The green,” she insisted. “You can’t wear red lips with a fuchsia dress.”
Reaching up to undo the zipper, I stripped out of the pink, hung it carefully in the closet, and pulled out the dress she preferred. Once it was on, I went to the mirror. She was right, of course. It brought out the green in my eyes and was a much better choice. I turned around—they were both sitting on my bed now, Sally between them—and held out my hand. Ada placed the lipstick in my palm, and I looked in the mirror to apply it.
“Ada, how did you know I took it before?”
“I didn’t.”
“Then how—？”
“I was fishing. You took the bait.”
I looked at her in the mirror. “You’re the most aggravating—”
“Careful or I’ll take it back.”
I pursed my lips at my reflection. “Thank you for the lipstick—even if you originally stole mine.”
Lillian held Sally up—Sally hadn’t been more than a few inches from Lillian since she returned, and I had begun to wonder whose dog she actually was. “Ada just likes to be the alpha dog, doesn’t she, sweet girl?” Sally licked Lillian’s nose, and Ada made a face.
I expected Ada to have a snappy reply, but she said nothing. It dawned on me that Lillian may have been the real alpha of this house. Ada didn’t fight her decision that Dan would stay here, and I doubted she would give me the lipstick without Lillian’s prompting.
“How do I look?” I asked, twirling around.
Ada frowned. “Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.”
But Lillian shook her head. “Don’t listen to her. You look lovely.”
All three of us looked up at the sound of a car outside the open window. “That’ll be him,” Ada said.
“I’ll get it,” I said, moving past her to the door.
“Don’t be silly,” Ada said. “He’s going to be our guest after all. Come on, Lillian. I’ll introduce you.”
“Wonderful,” Lillian said, heading into the hall. Sally jumped down and followed her.
I trailed after them, wondering if the lipstick was worth the price.
Ada reached the door just as Dan was raising his hand to knock, two bouquets of flowers in his other hand. “Welcome,” she said, suddenly all sunshine and rainbows. “Come on in. I’d like you to meet my friend Lillian.”
Dan shook her hand warmly, but looked down, biting the inside of his cheek. “I would have brought a third bouquet if I’d known.”
“Don’t be silly,” Lillian said. “We can happily share.”
Ada took both from Dan and handed them to me. “Go put these in water,” she said, taking Dan’s arm and leading him toward the living room.
He looked over his shoulder at me helplessly. “Hi. You look beautiful.”
I smiled, then went to the kitchen, where I attempted to hand the flowers off to Frannie. “What on earth do you want me to do with those?” she asked, a hand on her hip. “We’re out of vases.”
“I don’t know. Use a milk jug?”
“Were you raised in a barn?” She shook her head and stormed into the dining room, returning a moment later, her arms laden with three vases full of extravagant blooms. “Miss Ada better not mind me consolidating some of these.”
“I doubt she will.”
Frannie shook a finger at me. “It’s on you if she does.”
“I didn’t bring the flowers!”
“No, but you brought the boy who brought the flowers.”
I shook my head. “Love you too, Frannie.”
She grumbled something that might have been “Too much trouble” or “Go blow a bubble.” Either way, I wasn’t her favorite person, and she attacked the flowers.
Dan was seated on the sofa, Lillian and Ada opposite him in chairs. “Shall we go?” I asked.
Dan started to rise, but Ada stopped him with a look. “Go?” she asked. “He just arrived. No. We have arrangements and rules to discuss.”
I looked to him in alarm, but he didn’t seem concerned. “Arrangements?”