Noah got up from the chair and picked up his shirt. “I was raised in a fairly good environment and became an alcoholic, and you were raised in a horrible situation and don’t drink.”
“Don’t matter if you’re brought up in a rich, comfortable world or a poor one, whatever your home life is like, it definitely will affect who you become,” she said.
“You got that right.” He started toward the door. “Thanks a lot for ironing my shirt. This looks like it came right from the professional cleaners.” He nodded and stepped out into the hallway.
“Hey, where are you off to?” Kayla asked him as they crossed paths right outside her door.
“My friend talked me into taking care of one last PI case, but this is absolutely the very end. I took it because it’s right around here,” he said.
“Who does it involve?” Teresa called out. “Do we know them?”
“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you and Kayla, because you’d talk about it to each other.” He laughed and kept walking.
Kayla giggled at his comment and went on into the bedroom. Her hands shook and her pulse raced. Had she been out of her mind to let Teresa and Miss Janie talk her into going to that damned reunion? It was still two weeks away, but she couldn’t sleep for thinking about it. What if she hated that dress Teresa offered to let her borrow? She would be obligated to wear it or hurt her foster sister’s feelings.
Well, you sure never minded hurting her feelings before, the niggling voice in her head reminded her.
She never did anything nice for me like this before, Kayla argued right back as she took a deep breath, crossed the hallway, and knocked on the edge of Teresa’s open door.
“What do you need?” Teresa hung the last duster on a hanger.
“I was wonderin’ if . . . ,” Kayla stammered. Dammit! She hadn’t thought it would be so hard to ask to simply try on a dress. “I don’t want to wait to the last minute to try on that dress you said I could borrow.” Asking for help did not come easy for her.
“Sure thing,” Teresa said. “But sit down and let me press it first. Cotton wrinkles real easy, and it needs a good ironin’ before you try it on. Just remember, it’s not a hanger outfit.”
“What are you talking about?” Kayla asked.
“Some things look fantastic on the hanger, and when you put them on, they look like crap,” Teresa explained as she brought the dress out of the closet and began to iron it. “Never judge the way an outfit will look on you by the way it looks on the rack.”
“Where did you learn that?” Kayla asked.
“I bought my scrubs for work at a secondhand shop, and I overheard the lady who owned the place telling a customer that very thing. I got to paying attention and found out she was right.” She sprayed each section with a light layer of starch. “Even older things take on a new life if you get the wrinkles out.”
“Kind of like our lives, right?” Kayla asked.
“How’s that?” Teresa moved on to the next section of the full-skirted dress.
“Our regrets and sins are the wrinkles. If we can get all that smoothed out, then our lives are better,” Kayla said.
“Never knew you to be a deep thinker.” Teresa would have never believed that she and Kayla would be having such a serious conversation.
“Didn’t think I was until I came back here, but it seems like every day I turn loose some of my anger. Sometimes it scares me, though. That was what I’ve always had to fall back on when things got rough. It’s been my salvation even if it did take me a long time to get mad enough to leave Denver,” Kayla admitted.
“Me too.” Teresa finished the last of the ironing. “There you go. All ready to try on. I’ll get the wide belt out that goes with it.”
“Are you crazy?” Kayla raised her voice. “I do not wear wide belts or any kind of belts for that matter.”
“You’ve got a tiny waist, so you should accentuate it,” Teresa told her. “Trust me. I’m thinking that we should get you some wedge heels to go with this.”
“Are these shoes going to float out of heaven?” Kayla asked. “I’m not spending any part of my paycheck on shoes I won’t wear but one time.”
“And new underwear.” Teresa acted like she didn’t even hear her. “Who says you won’t wear any of that again? Someone at the reunion may ask you out on a date, and you’ll be glad you’ve got good underbritches and nice shoes to go with this dress.” Teresa pulled a bright-red belt from her dresser drawer. “Maybe we should find you some red high heels instead of wedges, and red earrings. Those big ones that will almost touch your shoulders. Remember watching that old movie Dirty Dancing with Miss Janie?”
“Nobody puts baby in the corner,” Kayla recited her favorite line.
“That’s right. You walk into that reunion like you own the place. Now, take off your jeans and shirt, and let’s try this on you,” Teresa said.
Kayla peeled off her clothing. “I’ll be surprised if they don’t assign one of the cheerleaders to watch me the whole time I’m there to make sure I don’t steal the plastic forks. I guess I could use part of my money for shoes and a new bra. How much do you think is in that trust fund? Wouldn’t it be something if we could save up enough in a year to open our business?” Kayla asked as Teresa helped her into the dress.
“We’ll figure it all out in good time,” Teresa said.
Kayla smoothed the dress over her hips. “I’ve never had anything fit me like this, and the material has some stretch.”
“Now this.” Teresa held out the belt.
Kayla tucked her head down to her chest and raised both eyebrows. “I’m not so sure about that thing. I usually wear baggy things to cover up my butt and boobs.”
“Would you put it on? It came with the dress and matches the trim around the top. I would have never thought that red and army green would go together, but it does.”
“Kind of like two foster kids who can’t stand each other.” Kayla smiled as she roped in her waist with the shiny red belt. “Oh. My. Goodness! Would you look at that? I could run Dolly Parton a race for a tiny waist in this.”
“Yes, you could,” Teresa agreed. “Now, sit down in the rocking chair, and let me pull your hair up into a messy bun. You need to own your curls, not fight them.”
Kayla didn’t argue but did what Teresa asked. Who’d have ever thought they’d bond over a silly red belt?
Teresa combed Kayla’s hair with her fingers and tied the bun with a piece of leftover ivory lace. “Stand up, close your eyes, and walk backward to the door.”
Kayla wasn’t ready to look in the mirror, so she had no trouble following Teresa’s orders. She’d never been good at hiding her emotions. Her mother had told her time and time again that anyone could look at her face and see exactly what she was thinking.
Teresa slowly turned her around and then said, “Open your eyes.”
Kayla couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Was the mirror lying? Her hands went to her cheeks as she stood in awe. “Is that really me?”
“It is.” Teresa smiled. “Those girls who made fun of you are going to be so jealous, and the guys are going to need bibs for their drool.”
“This is better than all the money in the world,” Kayla whispered as she turned around slowly to catch all the angles. “And it’s even comfortable. I love it.” She whipped around and wrapped her arms around Teresa. “You are a genius. Did I tell you that I talked to Will Barton and he said he might go to the reunion if I was going? He manages the grocery store where we shop in Sulphur Springs. Do you think he might ask me to dance with him?” Kayla gushed.
“Will Barton was the biggest nerd in your class. I can’t imagine him even showing up unless he brings his mama with him,” Teresa said.
“Believe me, he’s changed. I’ve talked to him when it’s been my turn to go to town for groceries. He’s pretty dang sexy these days, and he’s so nice,” Kayla told her.
“Why didn’t you mention him before now?” Teresa asked.
&nbs
p; Kayla ducked her head. “I didn’t want you to tease me about him.”
“Well, honey, if you want to dance with him and he’s too shy to ask you, then you ask him,” Teresa said seriously.
“I might do that,” Kayla said.
Locating Prissy Carlton wasn’t difficult. Noah put the address into his GPS, and a nasal voice directed him right to her house. He wasn’t even surprised to find that she lived right in the swankiest part of town in the biggest house on a cul-de-sac, or that two huge Dobermans roamed loose inside the ornate wrought-iron fence that surrounded the place.
He was surprised, though, when tall, blonde Prissy herself came out of the house in jogging clothes and took off down the street. He’d figured that she would’ve had a gym in that fancy place, with all kinds of equipment to keep her fit. He kept her in sight but followed at a discreet distance, driving slowly a block behind her. She ran about a quarter of a mile and then went into a house in a much more modest neighborhood. He parked across the road and got out one of the maps from his back seat, unfolded it, and spread the thing out across the steering wheel. If anyone stopped and asked, he was a guy in a truck who might need directions.
He thought it strange that three identical cars were parked in the driveway and against the curb. He took down all the license plate numbers and sent them to Daniel, and then he waited. Thirty minutes later, a tall red-haired woman wearing a business suit came out of the house Prissy had gone into. The skirt stopped at midthigh, and the top of a black lacy bra showed at the top of the snug-cut jacket. She got into a gray car that was parked in the driveway and drove away, never knowing that Noah had taken a dozen pictures of her.
Two more women—a blonde and a brunette—left the house in the next hour. Each drove away in one of the gray cars. Whatever Prissy was doing, she must have a thing for economy cars that were basically nondescript. Noah took pictures of each woman and fired all of those off to Daniel, too. Then he pretended to study his map some more.
He’d almost dozed off when his phone rang, causing him to jump and drop the map. He saw that it was Daniel and answered on the second ring. “Hey, did any of that help?”
“Not much,” Daniel replied. “The women must be local. The cars are all rentals for the day and will be returned by midnight tonight. Looks like they’re all pretty, rich girls, so it seems strange that they’ve rented cars. What kind of news have you got?”
Noah told him what he’d done and gave him the address of the place where Prissy was holed up. “Whoa! Wait a minute. Got some action going on. Don’t hang up.”
Prissy came out wearing a bright-red suit, cut pretty much like the others had been, with the short skirt, only her bra was ivory and matched her high-heeled shoes. She drove away in a little low-slung sports car. That seemed strange to Noah. Why would the other three use rental vehicles and Prissy drive something different?
“I’ll get back to you in a little while,” Noah told Daniel and ended the call. He flipped the map over into the back seat without folding it and drove off behind the sleek black Corvette.
He followed her all the way to Paris, Texas, where she got off the highway and nosed the fancy little car into a parking spot in front of a hotel, right beside the three gray vehicles that had driven away from the house in the first place. She took time to check her makeup in the rearview mirror before she got out, flipped all her luxurious blonde hair over her shoulder, and went inside.
“Probably some kind of woman thing, like a makeup party,” he grumbled as he nosed his truck into a spot at the back of the lot and walked up to the lobby.
“Can I help you?” the cheerful little lady behind the counter asked.
“My friend will be checking in pretty soon. I came from a distance and got here early. All right if I wait in the lobby?” he asked.
“No problem,” she answered. “There’s coffee and cookies.”
“Thank you.” He sat down in what looked like a comfortable chair, but it turned out to have a hard seat and a back so straight that he couldn’t find a good position no matter how he wiggled. He situated his phone on his lap so he could take pictures with a touch, picked up a magazine from the coffee table, and pretended to look at it.
After two hours the shift changed, and a guy took the girl’s place. Evidently, he thought that Noah was a guest because he simply nodded at him and started reading a book between phone calls.
At six o’clock on the button, the redhead got off the elevator and took a seat beside him. Within five minutes, the blonde and brunette joined her. Then Prissy came through the lobby, and they all three followed her outside. Each of them handed Prissy something that looked like an external hard drive, and they drove off in their cars.
Noah waited another five minutes, and then a man stepped out of the elevator, turned in his room key, and left. Over the next several minutes, three more did the same thing, and not a single surreptitious photo showed a smile. After what evidently had gone on upstairs, he’d have thought they’d be a lot happier. Once the last one had gone, Noah went straight to his truck and fired all the pictures off to Daniel.
“Looks like the client was right. His wife is having an affair, but not like he thought. Those are credit card machines that the women gave her. Priscilla has been very naughty. She’s running a little escort service on the side.”
“My! My!” Daniel chuckled.
“Are you going to turn all this over to her husband?” Noah asked.
“He’s my client and he’s paid for the information, so the answer is yes, I will. What he does with it is his business. He can cause a dustup with the guys or the girls, involve the police or whatever, but he gets all this. It’s not on us to judge or make decisions,” Daniel said. “That’s the dirty little side to this business. I did some digging while I waited on you to send more pictures. That house they left from used to belong to her grandmother and was left to her when the old gal died last year.”
“Then my job is done?” Noah asked.
“Not really, because we didn’t actually catch her in the act,” Daniel said. “She could make up all kinds of excuses about what she and those girls were doing in that hotel. Follow her back to the house and see if they have any more business tonight.”
Noah rolled his blue eyes, but he’d said he’d do the job, and he understood the need for undeniable proof. He drove back to the house, got out his map, and spread it out over his steering wheel, again.
The little sports car pulled into the driveway not long after he’d parked, and all four women got out. Evidently, the rentals had been taken back. The women all went into the house, and three of them emerged a few minutes later in jogging clothing and took off in different directions. Noah was about to leave when a ratty old pickup that reminded him of the one Teresa drove parked out on the curb. The guy who got out of the vehicle unzipped his coveralls and let the top hang to his waist. When Prissy met him at the door, she was wearing a filmy little teddy. With a little hop, she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, and they were locked together in a kiss when the man kicked the door shut with a heel.
Noah got out his camera and put a long lens on it. Right through the bedroom window, when the wind blew the lacy curtains off to the side, he shot several pictures that were proof positive Prissy was not a faithful wife.
“You should have pulled the blinds, lady,” he muttered as he sent the pictures to Daniel.
“Now your job is done,” Daniel said when he called a few minutes later. “You can’t trust women. They’ll nail your heart to the outhouse door every time.”
“If you’re ever up this way, come see me,” Noah said.
“Will do, and thanks again,” Daniel told him. “Same goes for you. Anytime you’re in my area, we’ll go out to dinner and talk shop.”
They ended the call with goodbyes, and Noah sat there for several minutes with the words You can’t trust women running through his head. That went for trusting men, too. He wanted Teresa to believe
that he would continue to be a recovering alcoholic and that he would never go back to that lifestyle. She deserved someone to love her enough to stay sober and treat her right.
Chapter Thirteen
I can’t believe that Miss Janie is giving us this much. Do you realize we might put in our business before long if we can find a decent place to rent?” Teresa hugged the copies of the papers the bank had given her close to her chest. She’d be getting twice as much every month as she’d made working at the nursing home, and she’d have room and board for as long as she wanted to live in Birthright.
“Don’t pinch me,” Kayla said as she got into the back seat of Noah’s truck. “If I’m dreaming, I don’t want to wake up.”
“You aren’t dreaming, and if there are a few more moments when Miss Janie is lucid, you should tell her what your plans are.” Noah got behind the wheel and started the engine.
Teresa adjusted the air-conditioning and fastened her seat belt. “Does what Miss Janie left you have any bearing on what you intend to do with your life?”
“Yep,” Noah answered. “For a long time, I thought that after she was gone, I’d rent out the property—if y’all didn’t want to live in the house—and move to either San Antonio or Houston and keep doing PI work, but I’ve changed my mind.”
“For sure, or are you toying with an idea?” Kayla asked.
“Pretty positive right now about changing my profession.” He put the truck in reverse and backed out of the bank parking lot. “I’m going to hang out my shingle and do pro bono work. I don’t really need the money, so I can choose the cases I’m passionate about, whether the client can pay or not. The words giving back to the community keep running through my mind. That’s what y’all are doing, you know.”
“That’s pretty generous of you,” Kayla said. “I can’t believe I don’t have to work anymore, or for some rich lady who acts like I’m something she tracked in on her shoes. To get to be help to people who will appreciate it just blows my mind.”
“Me too.” Teresa’s voice was barely above a whisper.
Miss Janie’s Girls Page 16