The Perfect Dress

by Brown, Carolyn

  “Pay?” Tabby gasped. “We don’t need money. This is for fun.”

  “But what if later, someone sees the mannequin display and wants the store to do their flowers? You can’t do that for free. Follow me, and I’ll unlock the van.” Mitzi led the way across the foyer to the kitchen, opened the back door, and pressed a button on her key fob to open the hatch on the van.

  The girls put their heads together and whispered, then Dixie said, “If that happens, we’ll talk about it then. Right now we’re just glad to get out of the house and get to play around in this place.”

  “This is like amazing,” Tabby said when she brought in the first armload of flowers. “We weren’t expecting to have so much to work with.”

  “I guess I got carried away.” Mitzi smiled at their enthusiasm.

  “Heaven must be just like this.” Dixie hugged herself when the countertops were filled with flowers.

  “I’ll leave you girls to it. Could you make the first bouquet in red roses and use some of the black lace on the table in the fabric room for an accent? Then maybe come back the first of the week and do up one in fall colors that we’ll use in October?”

  “We’d come back every day and sweep up the scraps from the floors to get to spend time here,” Dixie said.

  “Could we use some black ribbon, too?” Tabby asked. “We’ll be careful and not be wasteful.”

  Mitzi nodded. “Use whatever you want out of the fabric room. Just keep track of what you use, yardage and price, just in case someone comes in and wants to buy it right off the mannequin. Notebooks are kept in the cabinet to the right of the sink.”

  “Wow!” Dixie’s blue eyes popped. “You really think that could happen?”

  “You never know. Better to be prepared with a price than to stammer and stutter around. Y’all have fun. If you have any questions, I’ll be over in the sewing room.”

  She was proud of the girls for their excitement and willingness to work. If only her last boyfriend had loved Mitzi just the way she was, she could have had a couple of kids by now. She hadn’t realized just how much she did want babies until the girls came into her life. More than just want. Right then it was an aching need.

  The giggling and arguing could be heard across the foyer the rest of the afternoon, and more than once, Jody or Paula stopped sewing and talked about how nice it was to have the girls in the shop. She’d been right—the twins did bring sunshine and happiness into the place. But it also brought home the fact that Mitzi might never have a family if all men were like her last boyfriend.

  Just before closing time, the bell on the front door sounded, and Mitzi pushed back from her sewing machine. She was surprised to see Graham standing in the foyer when she peeked out around the corner of the room. Her heart skipped a beat and then took off with a full head of steam. Her pulse raced and her hands got sweaty. Dammit! Granny should have never teased her about flirting with him.

  “I got off work a little early and thought I’d pick the girls up. Thank you for letting them hang out here. That’s kind of you,” he said.

  “They’re not hanging out. They’re working,” Mitzi said. “I’d be glad to pay them.”

  “For real?” He cocked his head to one side.

  “Sure. They can help out a couple of hours a day and make a little extra money, if you don’t mind.” Just looking at him brought back all those feelings she had when she was fifteen. Even though she wasn’t a teenager anymore, she couldn’t control that giddy feeling.

  “I don’t mind at all,” he agreed. “Who’d have ever thought I’d have feminine girls who don’t give a hoot about sports? But instead of money, why don’t you offer to make them a few items of clothing? Finding things that they like is a real problem sometimes.”

  “That sounds like a great idea. I’ll talk to them about it. I’ve asked them to come back on Monday. And I want them to make another bouquet, if that’s all right with you.” She moved a little closer.

  Dixie stuck her head out of the kitchen. “I thought I heard your voice, Daddy. How’d you get away from work so early?”

  “Had a nice slow day, so I left before five. Thought maybe we’d have supper in the café downtown,” he said.

  “Ta-da!” Tabby came out into the foyer with a huge red-rose bouquet in her hands. “We made it pretty big since the mannequin is a big girl like us. When we get married we don’t want to walk down the aisle with a little old single calla lily in our hands.”

  Fate!

  That’s exactly what it was. The bouquet was almost exactly what Ellie Mae had described, and Mitzi beamed with pride at the magnificent work they’d done. “I’d like to keep this one back for a week. Could you make another one for the mannequin on Monday, maybe in pink so it would be different than this one?”

  “Why?” Dixie asked.

  “Because one of my customers may want to buy this one, and if she does she may also want you girls to do the corsages and the rest of the flowers,” Mitzi answered.

  “You’re serious? It’s that good? It looks a little oversized and gaudy to me,” Graham whispered.

  “I’m dead serious. See you girls on Monday. We’ll get you measured then. Paula is looking for a pattern that we can adapt for your dresses,” Mitzi said.

  “Can Daddy see the sketches you made?” Dixie asked.

  “And are you tellin’ us that we might get a job doin’ this?” Tabby asked.

  “I’d sure like it if you girls could work for me from three to five each day this summer. We can talk more about it when you get here Monday. Your dad is waiting to take you to supper right now.” She picked up a pad. “The sketches are right here.” She flipped it open so Graham could see.

  His hand brushed hers as he took it from her, sending waves of tingles through her body. She had to get a firm grip on this silly schoolgirl crush. She’d be seeing him often if the twins were at the shop every day. Besides, if he was still attracted to the same kind of woman as Rita, he’d never see Mitzi as anything but an overweight woman who was good to his kids.

  “Those are very nice, girls. I’m glad you didn’t get crazy,” he said.

  “We wanted to,” Tabby said.

  “But we decided to be classy.” Dixie took the bouquet from her sister and tinkered with a few of the flowers before laying it on the coffee table. “When I get married, I want one just like this.”

  “On that note, I’m getting both of you out of here,” Graham laughed. “I don’t want to walk you down the aisle for at least ten years. Fifteen would be better.”

  Mitzi locked up after them and plopped down on the pink sofa. A thirty-two-year-old woman should be over a crush she’d had when she was fifteen, so why was there a picture in her mind of herself in a white dress walking down the aisle toward Graham? She blinked several times to get the visual from her head. She’d have a better chance of waking up a short, skinny blonde tomorrow morning than of Graham ever being attracted to her.

  Chapter Four

  Lyle, I’m home, and we need to talk,” Jody called out as she entered the trailer that Friday night. “Whatever is making you act like a jackass is going to stop, and we’re not selling this trailer to Quincy. It’s our home. It’s paid for. And I’ve worked my butt off to make us a nice garden spot.”

  No answer.

  She knocked on the bathroom door and it swung open. She flipped back the shower curtain and he wasn’t there. She checked the bedroom and looked out the kitchen window to see if he was in the garden, then went back to the front door and opened it. His motorcycle wasn’t there, so that meant he wasn’t home from work.

  “Dammit!” she fumed as she threw herself down on the sofa and shut her eyes. At midnight she awoke to find him still not there, so she took a quick shower and got into bed.

  In her dreams she stood on the front porch of the trailer, looking southwest across the tops of the trees at the dark clouds. As the eerie quietness surrounded her, she had the feeling that the coming storm was going to be the one
that ripped her mobile home apart. Then the tornado alert sirens began to sound. The sky took on a strange greenish color, and suddenly the wind started grabbing everything that it could pick up. She tried to get back into the trailer but froze.

  She opened her eyes to find sweat covering her body and the alarm ringing right beside her ear. She quickly turned it off and reached over to shake Lyle awake. But he wasn’t there. She sat up so quick that it made her dizzy. Pictures of him lying in a ditch with his motorcycle on top of him flashed through her mind. She threw the covers to the side and ran to the living room, expecting to find him on the sofa, but no. She quickly dug through her purse for her phone—no calls or messages, which only meant if he was hurt, he wasn’t in the hospital. He had to be unconscious.

  She hit the speed dial for his number, and it went straight to voice mail. She jerked on a pair of jeans, didn’t even bother with a beaded headband or braiding her long hair, and pulled a T-shirt over her head as she went out the door. She was inside the truck when she realized she hadn’t gotten her purse, so she raced back inside, grabbed it, and ran back to the vehicle. She tried calling Lyle again every three minutes, but it went to voice mail each time.

  Driving slowly and stopping every time she saw a black skid mark veering off the road, she just knew that she’d find him dead somewhere between Celeste and Greenville. When she reached the outskirts of town, she drove straight to the ranch where he’d worked as a hired hand for the past eighteen months. The only time she’d been there was for the Christmas party last year, but it wasn’t hard to find. A few times he’d worked very late and then stayed in the bunkhouse with the guys. She hoped that was the case this time, but his motorcycle wasn’t there, either. Still, she parked in front of a long, low building where three guys were sitting on the porch, having their morning coffee. They all waved when she rolled down the window.

  “You done passed the ranch house, darlin’,” one of them yelled.

  “I’m looking for Lyle Jones,” she said, raising her voice.

  “He ain’t comin’ in today, honey. He left at noon yesterday. He’s got a big weekend planned. He’ll be back on Monday if you want to come back,” the guy said.

  “What kind of weekend?” she asked.

  “A huge one. If you’re his sister, you were supposed to meet him at the courthouse yesterday. Guess you’re too late.”

  “I’m not his sister,” Jody said.

  One guy chuckled. “Then, honey, you’re too late for anything.”

  “What’s that mean?” she asked.

  “Ask Lyle,” another one laughed.

  “Thank you.” Jody rolled the window up and turned the truck around. Sister, huh?

  His older sister lived in Houston and never had liked Jody. She seldom came around and when she did, she stayed in a hotel. She was trouble on wheels, and pretty often, after Lyle spent time with her, he was hard to live with. However, he did always tell Jody when Brenda was coming to visit. Why would he withhold that information now?

  She was still fuming when she got back to the trailer. Thank goodness it was Saturday and the shop was closed or she’d be late getting to work. She tried calling him again but didn’t get an answer, so she went inside and brewed a pot of coffee. She poured a cup and carried it to the sofa. She’d only taken one sip when her phone rang. She grabbed it so fast that she fumbled the cup and spilled it on the carpet. She forgot all about the stain it would leave when she saw Lyle’s number come up on the caller ID.

  “Where in the hell are you? Did you and Brenda hit the bars last night? If you’re in jail, I’ll be damned if I come bail y’all out. You can just rot in there, and why did you take off work yesterday? What’s so big that you can’t even tell me why you aren’t coming home?” She stopped long enough for a breath. “Did you go and sell our place to Quincy? Is that why you didn’t come home?”

  “Jody, slow down,” he said. “We need to talk.”

  “What do you think we’ve been doing?” She finally got control of her shaking hands. Even if he sold the property, he was alive and not lying in the morgue. They could deal with anything if he was alive, right? “I’ve been out looking for you and was about to start calling hospitals. Why didn’t you come home last night?”

  “Because I got married,” he blurted out.

  “You did what?” Jody shook her head. Surely she’d either heard him wrong, or else he was trying to make her laugh so she wouldn’t be angry.

  “We haven’t been doin’ so good the past six months. You know that, Jody. I want kids. You don’t know what the hell you want. I kind of had an affair,” he said.

  “You did what? How do you kind of have an affair? Either you cheated on me or you didn’t. Which one is it?” Her voice shot up an octave with every word.

  “The ranch foreman’s daughter and I—”

  “You mean that teenager, the one I met at the Christmas party? Katy, or was it Kristin?”

  “Her name is Kennedy,” Lyle answered. “She’s almost twenty, Jody.”

  “You’re serious, aren’t you? This is not a joke?” Her hands trembled and her stomach twisted into a tight little knot.

  “Yes, Jody, I’m serious. We’re on a weekend honeymoon right now,” he said. “She told me a couple of days ago that she’s pregnant, so I’m doing the right thing. We’re moving the trailer to the ranch. It’d be real good if you could get your things out by tomorrow evening. The movers are coming Monday evening to take it away. You can have the travel trailer. I can’t pull it with my motorcycle anyway.”

  Her whole world was crumbling beneath her feet. She was going to drop into a deep sinkhole any minute, but he sounded like he was discussing whether they should put in ten or twenty tomato plants that year. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, but it happened, and I’m not letting my child grow up without a father like I did.”

  Her coffee cup crashed to the floor from her hands and broke into dozens of pieces. She opened her mouth to give him a stinging tirade of cuss words, but nothing would come out. She was every bit as frozen as she’d been in the dream.

  “Are you there?” he finally asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Jody. In some ways I’ll always love you, but . . .” He paused.

  She could imagine him raising a shoulder in a shrug. A picture flashed in her mind from the Christmas party the year before. Kennedy, the daughter of the foreman on the ranch, had worn a tight red dress that barely covered her underpants. She was curvy, like Jody had been back when she and Lyle first started dating.

  Jody hadn’t had a honeymoon, but then Lyle had declared that a marriage license was just a piece of worthless paper that the government used to make money. When she moved in with him, he was living in a one-room garage apartment. They’d lived there for four years while they saved enough money to buy a used trailer house and a couple of acres of ground from his aunt.

  “How long has this been going on?” Jody’s knees buckled and she fell backward onto the sofa. This couldn’t be true. She would have known if he was having an affair. She was his wife, even if it wasn’t on paper.

  “Since Christmas,” he answered. “We kind of got together out in the barn the night of the Christmas party.”

  That’s when she hung up, and tears began to stream down her face like a raging river. She curled up in a fetal position on the sofa and cried until her sides ached, her head pounded, and there were no more tears. Her phone pinged, and she opened it to find two messages. The first one was from Mitzi, asking her if she wanted to join her and Paula for a girls’ night out that evening. The other was from Lyle.

  She opened the latter and read that he was sorry, but he was happy and he hoped that someday she would forgive him. Evidently, tears could be replenished at the drop of a hat—or maybe in this case, the opening of a message.

  Jody got a fistful of plastic grocery bags from a cabinet drawer and headed back down the narrow hallway. Like a bolt of lightning,
it hit her—Lyle had to have taken money from their savings to pay for their little weekend honeymoon.

  Strewing bags the whole way back to the living room, she started to cuss instead of cry. Her hands shook as she typed in the right codes for her online banking account. Yesterday, there had been more than three thousand dollars in the joint checking account. Now there was only a thousand. And the savings account was gone, all but for one hundred dollars.

  She sank down to the floor and leaned her head on the sofa, hoping to stop the room from spinning. There wasn’t a thing she could do about it. She and Lyle weren’t married, and they’d opened the joint accounts years ago. But come Monday morning, she’d be at the bank when it opened, and the meager amount still there would be transferred to one in her name only.

  Her phone rang and she almost didn’t answer it. No way was she talking to him again—not right then or maybe ever. But then she saw Mitzi’s picture.

  “I need you and Paula. It’s an emergency,” her voice quavered.

  “Are you sick? Did someone die?” Mitzi asked.

  Jody started to sob uncontrollably again. “Just come out here, please.”

  “We’ll be there in five minutes. Don’t do anything stupid until we get there,” Mitzi said.

  “Okay,” Jody blubbered.

  She was still sitting on the floor, staring at her phone, when Mitzi and Paula burst through the front door. “Look.” She held it up. “He didn’t sell the property to Quincy. He was having an affair with a younger woman. And he took all our money to take her on a honeymoon and God knows what else, and all I’ve got is a travel trailer. It leaks and it doesn’t even have a bathroom. I gave up everything for him! His sister even came from Houston for the wedding. I gave up steaks and fried chicken so I’d be thin like he wanted, and he married a chubby woman who dresses like a hooker. I became a vegetarian!”

  Mitzi sat on the floor with her and took the phone from her hands. “Who is this a picture of?”

  “Remember I showed it to y’all after the Christmas party at the ranch last year? Lyle married her yesterday,” Jody screamed. “He’s on his honeymoon with our money right now. Married her. Because she’s pregnant, she gets a honeymoon and a damn marriage license.” Her voice came back down to a whisper. “What am I going to do? And look at this.” Jody tapped the phone a few times and handed it to Mitzi.