I almost cried at how smart and logical she had become. I stuck my hand across the table. "Deal"

She shook it firmly. "Now, let's go take care of the rest of this. Might as well finish up the year by throwing out the old and starting off tomorrow with a clean slate."

"What are you talking about?"

"Get into the truck. We're going to see Daddy."

My stomach did two flips, and my gag reflex almost lost the war. "I can't. Let's just go home"

She opened the passenger's door of the truck and literally shoved me inside. "Nope. He's at Grandmother Williams' place, and you can unload on the whole bunch at one time. Don't hold a single word back, either. Cuss, rant, rave, even throw one of her fancy-pants vases at him if you can get your hands on it. It'll cleanse the soul-believe me"

Later, I'd wonder how she knew where Drew was that day, but at the time I was so nervous over confronting him and my in-laws that I wasn't sure I could utter a word when we got there.

Crystal parked the truck in the circular driveway as if it was a limo and jumped out, motioning for me to follow. I made it to the front door of the house at about the time she pushed the doorbell.

The housekeeper, Elise, opened the door. "Miss Crystal. Miss Trudy ... oh ... my!"

My ex-mother-in-law, Ruby, peeked out the den door into the foyer. "Who is it, Elise?"

Crystal marched right in, and I followed.

"Neither of you are welcome in this house," Ruby said. "And, Elise, if you let her in here again, I will fire you."

"When she does, come see me, and I'll put you to work," I said.

"Tell me why we aren't welcome," Crystal said.

"Because you broke your father's heart"

"Is he here?" I asked.

"We are all in the den, but you aren't coming in."

"Yep, Grandmother, we are. Come on, Mother."

I followed her even though Ruby looked like she was about to drop dead of a heart attack.

"What are you doing here?" Drew's eyes shot pure hatred at me.

"Momma has something to say," Crystal said.

"We don't want to hear anything you have to say," Ruby said. "This is my home, so get out, and don't ever come back."

"You'd better sit down, because Momma ain't leavin' until she speaks her mind," Crystal said.

Ruby pointed a finger at me, but she didn't sit down. "You've changed. You are no longer the woman we chose for our son. You have been nothing but vindictive and mean."

"Me? I've been mean? Lady, you'd better wake up and smell the coffee burning. Your son cheated on me most of our married life. He's bought fancy cars and gifts for his bimbos and even coerced his daughter into covering for him."

"If he did those things, it was because you weren't a good wife. A man will find happiness. If not at home, then away from home," Ruby said.

That lit the fuse and loosened my tongue. I slapped her finger away. "I'll get to you later."

I pointed a finger at Drew. "I can't think of anything vile enough to call you, Drew Williams. I was a complete innocent when we married, and-"

Ruby's temper flared. "Don't you call my son any names!"

One look from me and she grabbed her mouth.

"I said I'd deal with you later. This one is between me and Drew." I raised my voice an octave or two or forty. It sure felt good to be standing in her living room yelling like a fishwife.

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"Like I said, I was an innocent and thought you walked on water. I ignored the signs right in front of my nose and didn't face up to what you were doing. Right up until Gert's funeral, when my two cousins came into the ladies' room talking about all your affairs. How could you treat someone so badly? Why didn't you just leave me when you found out you didn't love me?"

"I never did love you! I never wanted to marry you!" he yelled back.

"Shut up!" Ruby whispered.

"Well, I didn't. I didn't want to be tied down to a wife or a baby. But Mother and Father thought I needed stability, that if I married, my law practice would be more solid. And it was. They were right."

"So you stole twenty years of my life to make your law practice solid?" I shouted even louder. "Did you ever give a thought to how I might feel?"

"I liked the way you took care of things, and you had a place in society. You had been trained well."

"You really are a coldhearted bastard," I said.

"Don't you call him that," Ruby said.

I shook my head in disbelief. How could I have been so naive? "He's just like you"

"Be careful, Trudy. She's my mother," Drew warned.

"She had to have known what you were doing. Everyone knew."

"I didn't care what he did as long as he was discreet. I told him he could have all the mistresses he wanted, but he needed a good woman to serve as his wife. You were that, Trudy, until you went off the deep end," Ruby said.

"What about you? Did you know?" I asked my former fatherin-law.

He shrugged.

I looked back at Ruby. "I suppose you'd be fine with Andrew flaunting a mistress and you being the good woman to serve as his wife?"

"Get her out of here. She's nothing but trash," Ruby said.

I shook my head. "I've said my piece. Now I'm leaving of my own accord"

I marched out of the house.

Crystal followed me. "Feel better?" she asked, when we got to the pickup.

,.You will never know how much. Thank you"

Acold north wind stirred the lake into frothy whitecaps. Wrapped up in blankets, Billy Lee and I sat on the deck watching the old year die after we'd feasted upon grilled steaks and stuffed baked potatoes. I loved the lake house and could live there forever, if only Billy Lee would sell it to me.

I was glad that Crystal had forced me to face my past and that Billy Lee had wanted to drive the Caddy to the lake house to ring in the New Year. Peace reigned deep inside of me in a way it never had before.

"It's because we were raised only children," Billy Lee finally said.

"What?"

"That's why we hate fighting. We didn't have siblings so we could learn how to do it properly. But sometimes we don't have a choice. You feeling better or worse for clearing the air earlier today?"

"Much, much better."

"Good. I'd hoped everything about Drew would go away and never bother you again, but that's unrealistic. You two share a child, so there'll always be that"

"I suppose so. What time is it?"

"Eleven thirty. Another half an hour and this year will be finished. What's been the good, the bad, and the ugly for you this year?" he asked.

I had to think about it for a while, but he waited patiently for my answers.

"The biggest ugly was the episode in the ladies' room at Gert's funeral, for sure."

"And that was?" he asked.

What is said in the ladies' room generally stays in the ladies' room. A guy would never understand. Still, I told Billy Lee the whole story, even about wiggling at the funeral and putting a hole into my panty hose.