“Whew!” Paula wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. “And I thought I had evil thoughts today.”
“Not as evil as I did,” Mitzi said.
“I can only imagine.” Paula turned to look at her. “Let’s talk about all that shit about praying for Rita.”
“Graham and I are going to talk about it tomorrow,” Mitzi said.
Paula grabbed Mitzi’s hand in her left one and Jody’s in her right. “Let us pray.”
Without hesitation, both of them bowed their heads. “Dear Lord, I know that You have said that vengeance is Yours, so I’m leaving Clinton in Your hands. I expect You to deliver Your method, whatever You see fit, quickly and with much pain. And while You’re in a vengeful mood, please take Rita out of the picture. I’m not asking You to kill either of them, however, please don’t ever let us have to look upon their faces again. And one more thing, if Kayla has sent up a prayer, go ahead and delete it. It’s not a good one. Amen.” Paula squeezed their hands and raised her head.
“Amen,” Jody said.
“Amen,” Mitzi added.
Chapter Fifteen
Graham grew more anxious as the time with Mitzi drew near. He leaned on the porch post and watched for her. After what had happened in the party store, he should be honest with her, but he damn sure didn’t want to spend all their time together talking about his ex-wife. His heart kicked in an extra beat when he saw her coming down the street. Yesterday morning she’d worn her hair down, but now she’d piled it up on her head in what his girls called a “messy bun.” He wanted to go meet her, take her hand in his, and walk beside her, but he stood still until she started up the steps.
“Hello,” he said. “You ready to get to work? I’ve got all our stuff laid out in the backyard. There’s plenty of room on my screened back porch to store the arch when we get it finished. Did you figure out what size you want it to be?” Dammit! That sounded like something he’d say to a guy, not to a gorgeous woman. He should have at least offered her a cold beer.
“Think we can get it done this evening?” she asked.
“I hope so.” He closed his eyes and kicked himself for being so damned awkward. “That came out all wrong. I didn’t mean that I don’t want to spend time with you. I’m not very good at this. Would you like a cold beer or something to drink before we get started?”
“I’d love one,” she said. “I didn’t know what to bring in the way of tools.”
“I’ve got everything we need.” He opened the door for her. “I’m rambling to cover up being so awkward around you. Leave it to me to mess up in the first two minutes.”
She laid a hand on his arm. “You didn’t mess up anything. I’m every bit as nervous as you are.”
Her touch stilled his nerves. “Thank you for that, Mitzi.”
He led her through the foyer and into the kitchen, where he took two beers from the refrigerator and handed one to her, then realized that he should have opened it for her. He could run a dealership, buy and sell cars, organize and take care of all the departments without blinking an eye, but every day he knew Mitzi, the more tongue-tied and awkward he became.
“Bring your beer and follow me.” He led her from the kitchen out onto the screened porch.
“My granny has a room like this, and I’ve always loved it.”
“It was part of the reason I wanted this house. My grandparents had one like this, too, and I used to enjoy spending time there with my grandpa while he told me stories about his younger days.” He opened the door out to the backyard, where he’d laid out the lumber, the four-by-eight sheet of lattice, and all of his tools.
“Looks to me like you’re pretty organized.” She pulled the tab from the top of her beer, took a long drink, and then set it down on the porch. “Let’s get busy. I think it should be at least six feet wide to accommodate our bride mannequin. If we get to go next year, we may get us a male mannequin and dress him up in a suit or tux.”
He didn’t want to talk about bridal fairs or even wedding arches. He wanted to reinforce what he’d said to Kayla the day before about never getting back with his ex-wife. Mitzi needed to understand that for him to ever be able to ask her out on a date—and that’s what he really wanted to do.
She laid out the plans on the porch. “So we build a frame, then cover it with lattice, right?”
“Yes,” he said. “I did some research and found out that it should be about seven feet tall and five feet wide, but with your model being a big woman, I thought we’d make it bigger.”
I want to ask you out on a real date, he thought.
“That sounds good. What can I do to help?”
“First we build a base for it to sit on,” he said.
Maybe a movie or a play in Dallas after we have a romantic supper.
“It doesn’t have to be really well finished. We’ll be using a lot of flowers and greenery on it,” she said.
I wonder if maybe it would be easier if we did something like a picnic with the girls at first.
“I’ve already sawed the boards for the base,” he said. “I thought we’d make it in five pieces. The two bases, the sides, and then the arched top. That way after the bridal fair, we could take a few screws out and store it flat.”
I’m going to ask her to go out on my pontoon boat before she leaves here today.
He picked up a board and carried it to the chop saw he’d set up on the porch. “If you’ll hold that end and keep it steady, I’ll take a foot off the other end.”
In an hour they had the framework done and the plastic lattice cut to size and bent over the whole thing. She sat down on the back porch and leaned against the porch post. Sweat stuck her hair to her face and forehead, and her arms glistened with moisture.
Dammit again! He should have stopped working halfway through the job and offered her another beer or at least a bottle of water. He was failing miserably as a gentleman.
“I have a pontoon boat,” he blurted out as he sat down beside her. “The girls have been begging me to take it out. Want to go with us next Sunday after church? You can invite Harry and Fanny Lou and Paula and Jody if you want.” He held his breath, waiting for her to say something.
“That would be fun,” she said slowly.
“Want a drink of something?” Lord, nothing he said came out right. “I mean . . .”
She laid a moist hand on his sweaty knee. “Graham, I’m a little . . . what’s the word . . . discomfited is what Granny would say . . . around you, too. I had a crush on you in high school, you know.”
“Well, I’ve got one on you now.” He wiped his face on the tail of his T-shirt and hoped that she thought all the sweat was from the weather.
“For real?” Her eyes widened.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “It took all the courage I had to ask you to go on a boat ride next Sunday.”
“Bullshit!” she said and then put a hand over her mouth. “You were so popular in high school, and so self-confident.”
“That’s just the way you saw me,” he said. “I’m going to get another beer. Want one?”
“Yes, I do, and let’s have it inside. It’s damn hot out here.” She wiped her face on her shirtsleeve.
“Okay.” He stood up and offered her a hand.
See there, that wasn’t so hard to admit, was it? His dad’s voice was in his head.
She put her hand in his and let him pull her up to a standing position.
“I want you to know that I meant it when I told Kayla it’s over between me and Rita. My ex-wife came by my office yesterday, and I told her the same thing.” He kept her hand in his all the way to the kitchen, only letting go of it to get the cold beers.
She sat down on a barstool and sucked down several gulps before she came up for air. “That really tastes good, and you don’t owe me any explanations about Rita.”
“I like being with you, Mitzi, and I want to be honest with you. All I felt was relief that I wasn’t still with her.” Graham turned his head and t
heir eyes locked. “I realized that I never really loved Rita, and that makes me feel guilty in a way.”
“Why?” Mitzi asked.
“I married her, and you’re supposed to love someone if you vow to be with them in sickness and health,” he answered.
“You’ve grown since she left. You had the girls to take care of and a business to run. Now you see things clearer than you did back then,” she said.
“Thank you for that.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, without the need for words to fill the vacuum. Then Mitzi finally asked, “Did you ever want to do something with your life other than stepping into your father’s shoes at the dealership?”
Graham shook his head. “No, ma’am. I didn’t even want to go to college, but Mama wanted me to have that experience. After Rita left, I got my business degree by taking online courses at night. Experience and what my dad taught me was far more helpful. How about you? Ever want to do something other than what you do?”
It was her turn to shake her head. “Mama wanted me to be a high school home economics teacher, only they don’t call it that anymore. I think it’s called FCCLA. Never can remember what all the letters stand for, but it’s the same as the old home economics classes. I made it through one semester of college, wondering the whole time why in the hell I needed American History 101 to teach young girls and boys how to cook and sew.”
“Or English Composition 101 to learn how to run a car dealership,” Graham chuckled again. “So what did you do after that semester?”
“I got a job doing alterations in a fancy wedding-dress shop in Amarillo,” she answered. “Paula, Jody, and I’d dreamed about putting in our own shop and catering to plus-sized women for years. Then”—she frowned, as if she wasn’t sure if she should go on—“Paula was dating the father of her baby and it became a bad breakup. She needed a change, and after we’d made her sister’s wedding dress, we really got serious about wanting to put in our own shop. Jody was more than ready for us to come home and put in a shop, so we finally said it was now or never and we did it last December. We figured we’d have to build up the business for two years before we’d start seeing enough profit to pay our salaries, but we were wrong. We’ve made dresses for women from four states already, and we never lack for something to keep us busy. I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”
“Well, y’all have been a godsend to my girls. I’ve never seen them this happy,” Graham said.
“Daddy!” Dixie’s voice blasted through the walls.
“In the kitchen,” he called out.
“I should be going,” Mitzi said.
“No need to rush off because the girls are home. They’ll be excited to see you.” Graham laid a hand on her arm.
“Hey, Daddy, guess what!” Dixie stopped in her tracks as she burst out onto the porch with Tabby and Alice right behind her. “Hi, Mitzi!”
Tabby pushed around Dixie and gave Mitzi a hug. “We didn’t go to the movies. We went to the fabric store instead and got stuff to make us some shirts. We bought two patterns, and we want you to tell us which one is easiest.”
“Can you come inside and look at the stuff right now?” Dixie asked. “You’ll be the first one other than Aunt Alice to get the tour of the house, too.”
“I’d love to see what you’ve bought.” Mitzi set her empty can on the table and stood up.
Graham was a little jealous of his own daughters for being able to steal Mitzi from him right when they were getting into a more comfortable place with each other.
Alice reached out and grabbed Mitzi’s wrist. “Next time you take them to the fabric store. I was bored to death.”
“Be glad to,” Mitzi agreed without hesitation. “It’s like taking a trip to heaven for me.”
“Baseball, basketball, or even football is my piece of heaven. Give me anything that bounces or can be thrown, and I’m good. Plaids, florals, patterns, and all that kind of thing—not so much,” Alice said. “I can only stay a little while. There’s a game on television I want to see.”
Dixie grabbed Mitzi’s hand and pulled her into the house, leaving Alice and Graham still on the porch with the rest of the cookies between them.
“So what’s this all about?” Alice asked as soon as they were alone.
One of Graham’s wide shoulders popped up in a shrug. “I’m not sure. Maybe friendship that could work into something more later. Right now, it’s a nice pleasant afternoon with a beautiful woman.”
“Well, good for you. It’s about damn time you moved on with your life,” Alice told him. “And I like Mitzi. She fits in with the family and she loves the girls. I’ve got to get home or I’ll miss all the pregame stuff.”
“When are you going to move on and settle down?” Graham asked. “You’ve still got time to have a couple of kids of your own.”
“Probably never.” She picked up his beer and downed what was left. “I heard Rita came to see you at the shop yesterday. Please tell me . . .” She looked genuinely worried.
He stood up and draped an arm around her shoulders. “You have nothing to worry about, sis. That ship sailed and probably sank in the middle of the ocean a long time ago.”
“The girls told me you said that, but I had to hear it from you. See you later.” She hugged him and left by way of the back door.
Graham followed the buzz of the conversation upstairs. He leaned on the doorjamb to Dixie’s room for several minutes before anyone noticed him.
Mitzi was talking about patterns and what would be the easiest one for them to start with. She even gave them some advice on how important ironing was when they were sewing. Four pieces of fabric were stretched out on the bed along with a couple of packages that must be patterns. Mitzi picked up one long piece and gathered it in her hands, then held it up to Tabby’s face.
“Beautiful color for you. Brings out the color in your eyes and the floral pattern is small, so it won’t overpower you,” she said.
Tabby took the fabric from Mitzi and draped it around her neck like a scarf. She crossed the room to look at herself in the mirror. “It does bring out my eyes. I love big flowers, but I feel like I’m a whole botanical garden when I try on a shirt with them. Why do companies make big girls things in horizontal stripes and huge roses, anyway?”
“I know, darlin’.” Mitzi patted her on the shoulder. “And heaven forbid, buying a bathing suit. The designers think if we wear anything bigger than a size ten, it should have flowers the size of dinner plates on it.”
“Or like you say, stripes that go around our bodies,” Dixie said. “That’s why we want to design and make our own things.” She turned and flashed a bright smile at her father. “Oh, hi, Daddy. We didn’t hear you coming up the stairs.”
“I avoided that squeaky step,” he said.
“Tabby and I’ll have to remember that when we’re old enough to date next year and break curfew,” she teased.
“I don’t intend to be late.” Tabby elbowed her sister.
“And I’ll be waiting in the living room with the lights on until you get home, so you don’t need to worry about that step.” Graham shifted his eyes over to Mitzi. “Did you get the house tour or were they so excited about all this that you came right up here?”
“I got the tour,” she answered. “You have a lovely home.”
“Thank you,” he said. “We would have liked one more bathroom, but the girls are learning the art of sharing.”
“Not gracefully.” Tabby shot a look toward Dixie. “She takes like for . . . ever to do her hair. Even to come to work at the shop, it takes her hours to put it up in a ponytail. Every hair has to be just right.”
“Well.” Dixie popped her hands on her hips. “Miz OCD here takes even longer to make her bed. If there’s a wrinkle it drives her crazy.”
“You’re going to waste your time with Mitzi by arguing?” Graham asked.
“Sorry about that,” Dixie apologized. “So we thought we’d make a shirt for the Fourth of Ju
ly out of red-and-white stripes.” She held up a length of the fabric. “And then we’d put a ruffle around the bottom of the star material. We even thought we’d really be twins that night and dress alike. What do you think?”
Mitzi picked up a pattern. “Using this one?”
Tabby nodded. “It’s only got a few seams.”
Mitzi loved spending a little time with the girls and talking fabrics and patterns, but she would have rather stayed in the kitchen and visited with Graham longer. He’d said he had a crush on her. That was a big enough deal to tell Paula and Jody about, but she didn’t want to jinx it. She wanted to hold it tightly in her heart and enjoy the thought for days, rather than hours.
“So what do you think?” Dixie asked.
Mitzi almost asked About what? before she remembered the pattern in her hand. “This one would be good to start with. If you have any questions, just holler at me. Right now, though, I should be going. Paula and Jody will be home soon, and I’ve got plans with them this evening,” Mitzi said.
“I’ll walk you out,” Graham said. “And if you two start up that tiff after I’m gone, be sure there’s not blood involved.”
“Daddy!” Dixie and Tabby said at the same time.
“Okay, then, if there’s blood, clean it up before bedtime,” he said.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, she said, “You’re really good with them.”
“So are you.” He traced her jawline with his fingertip, his touch sending shivers down her backbone.
She reached up and touched his face in a similar way. Time stood still, and the only sound was the beating of her heart. His eyelids fluttered shut and she moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. One of his hands gently traveled down her arm while the other one cradled the back of her head. His touch created a ball of heat in the pit of her stomach, and it grew even larger, warming her from the inside out when his lips met hers in a fiery kiss that rocked her world. Her arms snaked up around his neck, and he pulled her closer to his body.
When it ended, he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time. I’ll walk you home.”
The Perfect Dress Page 17