Page 74 of Stone Heart
“Fine! You should beashamedof yourself.” Jackie didn’t hesitate to launch the next salvo. “He’s married! Bad enough that you slept with him back in high school before you were married! What are people supposed to think?”
Lauren’s eyes flashed. “People should mind their own fucking business.”
“Language! You know I don’t allow profanity in my house!”
“Danny and I have… a complicated relationship.” Lauren gritted her teeth.
“Complicated? Please. You’ll spread your legs for him at the drop of a hat.”
“Excuse me?” Lauren was stunned. That was the most vulgar thing Lauren had ever heard Jackie say in their entire lives.
Jackie barreled on. “But I’m not surprised. I mean, look at you. A life of one disaster to the next, one scandal to the next. Living like a gypsy. Drinking, drugs, who knows how many sexual partners… And now sleeping with a married man. He took vows, Lauren. Sacred vows. And you’re making him break them.”
“I’m notmakinghim do anything.” Lauren’s voice got louder as she got angrier. “Not everyone lives by your rules, Jackie. For Chrissakes, do you even hear yourself?” She started to turn away, tired of defending herself, a little part of her wondering if she deserved Jackie’s contempt. But that moment of remorse was overwhelmed an instant later.
“You don’t even care that you’re going to hell, do you?”
“Oh, you nailed it,” Lauren said. “That’s me, the unrepentant sinner! If I’m already going to hell, what’s one more sin—I mean, c’mon, if I’m going, I may as well walk in like I own the place.”
The cheeky disdain made Jackie huff. “You only care about what you want—doesn’t matter what happens with everyone else.”
This felt like the confrontation with Danny’s mother all over again. She flung her arms in the air. “Oh, that’s right. It’s all my fault. I mean, it isn’t possible that I might actually still love him? No, no, I only want the sex—must be that broken moral compass of mine. I mean, why else would I befuckingDanny-goddamn-Padovano?”
Lauren deliberately used the f-word again, knowing it would push all of Jackie’s buttons.
“Falling back on crassness. So typical!” Jackie raised her chin, wrapping herself in an invisible mantle of superiority.
“No, it’s so typical ofyou, Jackie. You totally buy into the idea that sex is bad and something to be ashamed of. God forbid you want it before you get married. Or that it feels good and you enjoy it!”
Jackie’s face turned blotchy. “I saved myself! Saved myself for my husband. You… you just threw your virginity away.”
Lauren hated the way Jackie made it sound like trash. “I didn’t throw anything away. I gave it to someone I loved.”
Behind Jackie, stuck to the refrigerator with two big daisy magnets, was the annual St. Catherine’s calendar. The school sold them every year as a fundraiser. August featured a picture of Jackie’s younger daughter in her cheerleading outfit.
“Shit, I wasKristie’sage when I gave it up to Danny,” Lauren said, goading her sister even harder.
“Kristie wouldnever!”
Lauren wasn’t proud of it, but she took perverse pleasure in watching Jackie seethe at the thought of her sixteen-year-old daughter having sex. Knowing the daughters were a soft spot, Lauren dug in.
“You keep telling yourself that. Keep telling yourself that your girls are going to be precious little virgins when they get married. Just like you—”
“—Enough!—” Carolyn shouted to no avail.
“—Not like their screwed-up aunt who did it when she was sixteen and proceeded to fuck her boyfriend every chance she got after that. You know, we even did it at Mom and Dad’s once, when they were out, and you were supposed to be ‘in charge.’” Lauren made quote marks with her fingers. “And you never even knew.”
“Shut your mouth! Just shut your mouth, you… youslut!”
Lauren’s face jerked to the side as Jackie’s hand cracked against her cheek. For a split second, the only sound in the room was stunned silence. When did Jackie grow a big enough pair of brass ones to slap her? Lauren put her own hand up and gently touched the stinging red welt on her cheek. That broke the spell.
“Youbitch!” She lunged forward and grabbed Jackie by the front of her shirt. Lauren forced Jackie to back up while her sister flailed, unable to break away. It had been a long time since Lauren had been in a bar fight, but she knew how to hold her own. Only her surprise at the entire altercation, and the fact Jackie was her sister, kept Lauren from punching her as hard as she could. Repeatedly.
“STOP IT! Both of you, stop it!” Stephanie hollered at the top of her lungs. The anguish in her voice broke through the red haze, and Lauren let go of Jackie’s shirt. She stepped back, vibrating from the anger and adrenaline coursing through her. All four women looked at each other.
“Get out of my house,” Jackie said.
Lauren grabbed her purse and keys from the kitchen island. “Fine.”