“Selena is here, too.” Gladys’s voice sounded happy.
“I brought Mitzi and Jody, and we can only stay a little while.” Paula didn’t know what to do with her hands. She wanted to hold them over her stomach to protect her child from what was about to happen, but instead she dropped them to her sides.
“Oh.” Gladys’s tone changed instantly. “Well, y’all have a seat. I was hoping that you’d go to the drugstore for me before they close. Selena can’t stay long. She has to get home and cook supper for her husband.” Gladys shot Paula a dirty look. “I don’t guess you’re ever going to need to go home and cook, are you?”
“Probably not,” Paula said. “Hello, Selena.”
“What’s this big occasion?” Selena smiled. “Are you dating—better yet, are you engaged? We’ve been planning your wedding for the past half hour. I’d offer to let you wear my dress since that would get some use out of it other than dressing up a mannequin.” Her brown eyes started at Paula’s toes and traveled to her neck. “But then again, I’m so much smaller than you, it wouldn’t be possible.”
“I told Selena talking about you ever finding someone was just a pipe dream.” Gladys’s cold stare made Paula feel like a piece of trash.
Paula took a long look at her mother. One side of her chin-length gray hair was pulled back with a bobby pin. She wasn’t a big woman, but then she wasn’t a thin person, either. If someone put her in a crowd, there wasn’t one feature that would make them take a second look. Too bad she’d been a churchgoing woman all her life, because she would have made an excellent bank robber.
She smiled at that idea, and Gladys shot a dirty look her way. Paula was never going to make her child feel guilty for having a good time or even for smiling. She’d grown up with negativity her whole life, but things were going to be different for her baby. It was going to come into the world with so much love, it would never feel like she did right then.
“What’s so funny?” Gladys asked. “I’m an old woman who lives alone and has to beg her children to come see her a few minutes every so often.”
“I was thinking about your pretty red roses.” Paula knew better than to sit on the embroidered pillow in the rocking chair, so she laid it on the sofa before she sat down. The coffee table, the side tables beside every chair, and even the back of the sofa were covered in crocheted doilies of one size or another. And knickknacks ranging from clowns to angels were scattered everywhere. When she was a child, she could feel their little black beady eyes staring at her, and even now they seemed to be condemning her for not being a better daughter.
“If it weren’t for Selena, they’d die. She’s the one with the green thumb and knows when to spray and when to fertilize. You would kill a silk flower arrangement. And I don’t see what’s funny about red roses, so wipe that grin off your face.” Gladys’s very tone was demanding.
“Mama, let Paula tell us what she’s got to say so I can go home.” Selena tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear.
“Paula might not know much about roses, but she makes beautiful wedding dresses,” Mitzi defended her.
“Glad she’s good at something.” Gladys glared at Mitzi.
“And she was a damn fine librarian before that. You should be proud of her for getting her degree,” Jody said.
Gladys waggled a finger at Jody. “Don’t you cuss in my house.”
“Mother, I need to tell you—” Paula said.
“Are you dying?” Gladys turned the finger to point at her. “If so, Selena will need to buy me a new black dress. My old one is so worn from going to funerals that it’s faded something terrible.”
Jody gasped. “Mrs. Walker! Paula is your daughter. You’re talking about her like she’s a stranger, or worse yet, a dead stranger.”
“Thank you.” Paula shot a dirty look toward her sister. “It’s nice someone will stand up for me.”
“Hey, don’t go shootin’ daggers at me. I’ve stood up for you lots of times,” Selena said.
“Name one, please.” Paula could hear the coldness in her own voice.
Gladys tipped up her chin and looked down her nose at Jody. “Young lady, don’t you use that tone with me or Paula’s sister, who was good enough to drive up here. So watch your smart mouth.”
“I’m pregnant,” Paula spit out.
Gladys turned her focus to Paula. “You are what? And you didn’t even invite me to the wedding or tell me that you got married? What kind of daughter are you anyway?”
“I’m not married. I’m not getting married. I will be a single parent. And now that I’ve told you, I’ll be leaving.” Paula’s hands knotted into fists as she glared at her sister.
“I knew it was terrible news.” Selena hopped up and went nose to nose with Paula. “You’re ruining the family name. We’ll never be able to hold our heads up in Celeste again. God almighty, Paula, don’t you even know how to use birth control?”
“Well, I expected it years ago, with the friends you ran with. Do you even know who it belongs to?” Gladys screeched.
“I do, but I’m not marrying him,” Paula said.
“If you’re going to raise up a bastard child, I’d just as soon you didn’t bring it around here,” Gladys snapped. “Matter of fact, why don’t you just stay away from now on. Selena, I’ll need you to sit with me to be sure I don’t have a heart attack over this. Oh, sweet Jesus,” Gladys moaned. “They might even throw me out of my church. Girl, get me an extra nerve pill right now.”
“Look what you’ve done,” Selena spat.
Gladys pointed at the door. “You can go now. And don’t come back. You are dead to me.”
Paula had expected her mother to yell at her, but to disown her completely cut to the center of her heart. “But Mama—”
Gladys sighed dramatically as if it were her last breath. “Just go. Selena will take care of me.”
“If you change your mind, you’ve got my number.” With tears in her eyes, she started outside.
“Just get out,” Selena yelled. “You’ve done enough damage for one day. If Mama dies, this is on you.”
Paula could hear her riffling through the multiple pill bottles on the cabinet. She could have told her what the “nerve pills” were called, but instead she kept walking.
“I won’t change my mind this time. You’ve gone too far. I hope it’s a girl and she deals you nothing but misery,” Gladys screamed after her. “Now I know how poor Wanda has felt all these years. You and Jody are both horrible, mean daughters.”
By the time they were close to the van, tears were flowing down Paula’s cheeks and dripping onto her shirt, leaving big, round wet spots. “Well, that went horrible, but I’m not really surprised at any of it except that”—she broke down into sobs—“that she said I’m dead to her.”
Both Mitzi and Jody drew her into a three-way hug.
Jody wiped the tears away from Paula’s cheeks with her own shirtsleeve. “We love you, and we’ll love this baby so much it’ll never know that its grandmother was so hateful.”
Paula hugged them back. “At least it’s over—now I can move forward.”
Jody was the first one to step back. “And now Selena gets to jump at her every beck and call. I thought my mother was bad, but good Lord, that was brutal,” Jody said.
“A mother should never say things like that to her daughter.” Mitzi crawled into the driver’s seat of her van.
“The way she feels about me, I don’t know why she didn’t drown me at birth.” Paula’s chin quivered. “But at least I don’t have to come over here every evening for a while.”
“Or ever,” Mitzi said. “You never told us that things were that bad at your house.”
“I was too ashamed, and I blamed myself. It wasn’t until I went to college and got some therapy that I came to terms with it,” Paula said. “Jody, will you drive my car? My hands are shaking so bad, I’m . . .”
“Of course.” Jody followed Paula to her vehicle and slid in under the wheel.
Paula handed her the keys and then leaned her head back on the seat. “It’s over. Tell me that I’ve told her and that I’m not having one of my recurring nightmares about it.”
“It’s over,” Jody assured her as she started the engine. Mitzi pulled out onto the street in her van and Jody fell in behind her. “Gladys is downright batshit crazy. If she hated both of you, it would be one thing, but to despise one just means she’s got problems that go beyond sleeping pills. Why did you even agree to move back here?”
Paula grabbed a tissue from the console and blew her nose loudly. “I’m so damned emotional right now. Thank God I’ve got you and Mitzi to help me get through it.”
“This shouldn’t be happening to you.” Jody drove the rest of the way to the shop and parked behind Mitzi’s van. Paula couldn’t make herself get out of the car—not yet.
“Give me a minute. Just one all by myself. You and Mitzi can go on inside. I’ll be there in a little bit.” Paula needed a little time to settle her nerves. A fast-beating heart, a racing pulse, and a brain that was about to explode couldn’t be good for the baby.
“You got it,” Jody said. “Holy shit!”
Paula looked up to see a new white double-cab truck pulling in behind her car and Lyle getting out of the driver’s seat. She slung open her door, anger replacing hurt, and went to Jody’s side.
Jody exploded out of the car, meeting Lyle halfway from his truck. “How dare you even show your face on this property.”
“Hey!” He held up both palms.
He was dressed in a fancy western shirt with pearl snaps, creased jeans, and if his boots didn’t cost five hundred dollars, Paula would eat that big silver belt buckle. “I just came to get your signature on the title to the motorcycle. It’s in both our names, and I’m selling it.”
“Why?” Jody asked.
He handed her a piece of paper. “I’ve got this truck and don’t need it. Besides, I’m going to be a father and my image has changed.”
Jody ripped it in half and handed it back to him. “You can wipe your sorry butt on that. I’m not helping you with anything.”
All of the emotions that Paula had felt at her mother’s house were suddenly transferred to Lyle. How dare he show up looking like a fancy rancher in his new truck and ask her friend to sign any damn thing?
“You best get your sorry ass out of here,” Paula growled.
Mitzi joined them. “Or else you could get blood on your fancy new truck seats.”
“So you have to have your fat friends take up for you these days, do you?” Lyle sneered.
Jody took several steps forward. “I can fight my own battles. I’m not signing any papers, so leave.”
“Come on, Jody. You know things weren’t good with us for a while, and I can’t sell the cycle without both our names on the title. Thank God your name isn’t on the property,” he said.
“And what does that mean?” she fired back at him.
Lyle crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. “It means that I’m working on a deal with Quincy Roberts. When he buys the land, I’m going to use the money for a down payment to have a house built on the ranch. Kennedy deserves something better than a trailer house. Her dad gave us an acre of land for a wedding present.”
“And whose name is that in?” Jody asked. “Is your new bimbo going to work her ass off to pay for it like I did ours?”
“Don’t call her names. She’s my wife.” If looks could kill, Jody would have been nothing but a greasy spot on the grass.
You never were the wife, her mother’s voice taunted her.
“I’ll always have a special place for you in my heart.” He held out his arms as if he would hug her.
She glared at him. “You can light a match, stick it up your rear end, and burn that special place and that damned motorcycle at the same time.”
Paula and Mitzi both giggled.
Lyle shot them a dirty look and stepped closer to Jody.
Paula took a step forward, her hands clenched into fists. “I think it’s time you left.”
“Me, too,” Jody said.
“You always did like your friends more than you loved me,” he growled. “That’s what was the matter with our relationship.”
“Bullshit!” Jody said. “You not being able to keep your jeans zipped was what destroyed us and you know it. Get out of here and don’t come back.”
She turned around and stormed into the house, leaving him standing there. He jumped into his truck, slung gravel against the house, and disappeared in a cloud of gray dust.
“Are you okay?” Paula and Mitzi asked at the same time when they made it inside.
“I’ll be fine when I cool off,” Jody said. “The bastard had no right comin’ up here in his fancy clothes and new truck to ask me to sign so he could sell his motorcycle. Who does he think he is?” Jody said in a rush before she took a deep breath. “Special place in his heart, my ass—he was just butterin’ me up so I’d sign the title.”
“You keep that attitude,” Mitzi said. “If you ever have a doubt about any of that shit being your fault, just remember the way you feel right now.”
“I promise I will.” Jody took a beer from the refrigerator, twisted the cap off, and took a long gulp. “Too bad you can’t have one of these, Paula.”
“Honey, I’d rather have a double shot of Jack Daniel’s on the rocks,” Paula laughed. “But you deserve that after the way you stood up to him.”
“And you deserve a whole bottle of whiskey after what you endured tonight.” Mitzi pulled the tabs on two cans of root beer and handed one to Paula. Then she raised her can in a toast. “To friendship.”
“Amen.” Jody touched her bottle to Mitzi’s can.
“Halle-damn-lujah!” Paula raised hers to join them.
Chapter Eleven
Mitzi sat up straight in bed that Friday morning when the alarm went off. Until she slapped the alarm clock, she wasn’t sure if she was awake or still in that horrible dream. She’d dreamed that Paula’s baby was stillborn and they were planning the baby’s funeral.
She blinked several times and then caught the aroma of bacon and coffee finding its way under her bedroom door. She was awake, thank God, but she hoped that was one dream that never came true.
Throwing back the covers, she got up and dressed in a sundress. She even applied a little makeup. When she reached the end of the stairs, she called out, “Hey, I’m following my nose.”
“Me, too,” Jody said from right behind her.
“Bacon, biscuits, and western omelets.” Paula pointed to the counter. “I woke up hungry, so I made enough for all of us.”
“Thank you.” Mitzi picked up a plate and heaped it up with food.
“I didn’t even realize how much I missed this kind of breakfast,” Jody said as she filled her plate and carried it to the table. “I love pastry, but it takes second place to this.”
Mitzi carried her plate to the table and sat down. “So how are y’all this morning?”
“Much better,” Paula answered. “I wasn’t surprised at the way Mama reacted, but I wasn’t ready for the pain that it caused. Selena called last night to rake me over the coals, again. I let her go on for a few minutes, then reminded her that I’d been disowned, so that leaves her to jump every time Mama said frog.”
“What’d she say about that?” Jody asked.
“She hung up on me,” Paula answered. “She and I’ve been down this path before. She’s so much like Mama that they can’t get along for long.”
“That ought to be a circus,” Jody said.
Paula shrugged. “Mama’s disowned me many other times before.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell us all this?” Jody asked.
“It was too embarrassing to tell anyone, even y’all,” Paula said. “But I’m fine this morning. Now that telling them is over, I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.”
“Remember me tellin’ y’all that my mama made m
e pray on my knees twice a day for thirty minutes?” Jody asked.
Mitzi’s eyes widened so big that they hurt. “I remember, but I still can’t figure out why she’d do that.”
“Evidently she thought I was going to be a bad child and was hoping that would help me be good.” Jody set about eating breakfast.
“How old were you?” Mitzi asked.
“I can’t remember when I didn’t do it. I thought everyone did it. Mama said you didn’t talk about what you did in secret because that was a sin,” she said between bites.
“That’s just downright mean,” Paula said.
“Holy crap! I said ‘Now I lay me down to sleep’ when I was a little girl, but thirty minutes would be an eternity to a kid,” Mitzi said.
“It was.” Jody nodded and turned her attention toward Paula. “When did Gladys disown you the first time?”
“When I accepted the scholarship to West Texas A&M in Amarillo. She wanted me to commute the fifteen miles to Commerce and go to Texas A&M there. She said I owed it to her and Daddy to live close by and take care of them,” Paula answered. “She didn’t speak to me the whole first semester. At Christmas I’d planned to stay on campus, but Selena guilted me into coming home.”
“That’s when you stayed with me the last few days of the break, and we told my parents that I was quitting school and going to work full time at the bridal shop in Amarillo, wasn’t it? I was sure glad you were there when I told them,” Mitzi remembered.
Paula finished her breakfast and carried her plate to the sink. “Best holiday I’d ever spent. Made me kind of glad that Mama kicked me out.”
“Speaking of the holidays, are we going to your dad’s this Christmas?” Paula asked. “Or will we invite all of them to join us here?”
“I vote we have it at Graham and Mitzi’s down the street,” Jody teased. “And before we get into that, I want to apologize for that hateful remark Lyle made yesterday. Him calling y’all fat made me madder than him telling me that his precious Kennedy deserved something better than a trailer house. I fumed about it all night, even dreamed that I burned the trailer to the ground before he could move it.”
The Perfect Dress Page 13