Dixie pulled out a chair and sat down. “Or us. We figure our mama knew when we were only a year old that we weren’t going to be petite little blondes like her, so she left.”
Tabby leaned on the back of her sister’s chair. “Of course, there was the old boyfriend who came back into the picture. Daddy doesn’t know that we know about him, but we figured it all out. She left us before our second birthday and was remarried within three months to the guy she dated before Daddy. It don’t take a genius to do that math.”
“Three months?” Jody gasped. “The divorce wouldn’t have been final.”
Dixie frowned. “They got married in Arkansas. We didn’t even see her again until last year.”
“And then we felt like she was ashamed of us,” Tabby said.
Mitzi could have strangled Rita and enjoyed watching her turn blue. Gladys and Wanda were both a piece of work, but to leave your children and let them think it was because they were big girls—that should be a cardinal, go-to-hell sin.
“Well, darlin’s, we love you just the way you are,” Jody said. “Don’t ever change to suit someone else’s vision of what they want you to be. I tried that and it don’t work. I was just about your size when I started living with Lyle. I’d just gotten out of high school, and I’d been a big girl my whole life. But he wanted me to be slim, and he insisted that we be vegetarians and grow our own food like hippies. So I did and look what it got me.”
“We heard that he told you on the phone he’d done married someone else. What kind of man does that and why?” Dixie asked.
“Because his girlfriend is pregnant.” Jody’s tone was icy cold.
Dixie moved over to Jody’s chair and hugged her. “My daddy knows just how that feels, except Mother wasn’t pregnant. She didn’t ever have any more kids, thank goodness.”
“So you never want any little half brothers or sisters?” Mitzi asked.
“Not from Mother. She’d probably want us to come live with her so she’d have live-in babysitters. We used to wish Daddy would remarry so we could have a brother or sister because we love babies, but not from our mother. That would be a nightmare,” Dixie said.
Tabby barely gave her sister time to finish the sentence. “But he works all the time anyway, and never has time for dating.”
“Whoa!” Dixie said. “He dated that one woman for a year.”
“And we hated her,” Tabby reminded her. “We had to really work at making him see how mean she was when he wasn’t around.”
“Mean?” Mitzi knew she was fishing for information, but she couldn’t help herself. If someone had hurt the girls physically, she might still go after them.
“We were only thirteen then,” Dixie said. “She tried to boss us around and one time she even slapped Tabby.”
“No!” Paula’s hand went over her mouth.
“Yep, she did and said if we told Daddy that we’d get worse. We told him anyway, and we never saw her again,” Tabby said. “But now we’ve got to get back to work. We want to get our room all organized before quittin’ time today.”
The business phone rang about the time they cleared the room, and Mitzi grabbed it, saying, “The Perfect Dress.”
“Miz Taylor, please,” a masculine voice said.
Mitzi crossed her fingers. “Speaking.”
“This is Rayford Thompson. We spoke earlier about the Dallas Bridal Fair. Are you still interested?”
“Yes, sir, we are,” she said.
“We have an opening if you want to join us on June fifteenth. It’s an all-day affair. If you’re having someone model for our red-carpet show that evening, it costs a little more, but the prices will all be on the form I can send you.”
“We’d love to take that spot and yes on modeling the dress.” Mitzi was already picturing one of the twins in Paula’s sister’s wedding dress.
“I’ll send you the link to the form. You fill it out and pay at that time,” Rayford said. “It will have all the information about setting up and the day’s schedule included, along with the dimensions of your space. Thank you, Miz Taylor. We’re glad you can join us.”
“Thank you.” Mitzi tried to keep her cool, but she wanted to jump up and down like a little kid at Christmas. As soon as she hung up, she whipped around and practically yelled, “We’re going to the Dallas summer bridal fair. And we’ve been invited to put a model on the runway.”
“Holy smokin’ hell.” Jody’s eyes grew bigger and bigger. “I can’t model it for sure, not now. Give me a year to get my weight back up, and if we get to go next year, I’ll do it.”
“Well, I dang sure can’t. I’m pregnant, and besides, that dress is a sixteen. I haven’t seen that size since I was in junior high,” Paula said.
“Me, either, but one of the twins would fit into it perfectly,” Mitzi said.
“Fit into what?” Dixie asked.
“That wedding dress out there. We got our invitation to the Dallas Bridal Fair.” Mitzi thought about pinching herself to see if she was dreaming, then she thought of the rose quartz in her bra. Did it bring good luck as well as love? If so, she might keep it next to her skin forever.
“Tabby can do it. I’m too clumsy. But I want to go and help. Maybe even make a few corsages to take along?”
“I can do what?” Tabby wandered into the room. “Y’all got so loud. What’s going on in here?”
Dixie gave her a short version of the story.
“Oh. My. Gosh! Am I dreaming? I really get to walk on a runway. I’ve got to practice my pivot.”
“You’ll have to ask your dad before we set anything in stone,” Mitzi said.
“He’ll say yes. I know he will,” Dixie said. “And he’ll probably even come so he can see us.”
“He’s a pretty good father, isn’t he?” Mitzi said.
“The best,” Dixie said.
Chapter Nine
Jody put the final pin in the lace around the edge of a chapel-length veil and laid it to the side. “I wish I’d been more like Dixie and Tabby when I was fifteen. When I was that age, I’d just entered the rebellious stage. Lyle and I’d started having sex, and we thought we knew everything. I wish I’d known then what I know now. To see them this excited about the bridal show is . . .” She searched for the right words. “It’s the way I wish I would have been, but then no one ever took much interest in me, other than when I was allowed to come visit at your house, Mitzi. I used to wish your mama and daddy belonged to me.”
“I wasn’t as focused as they are when I was twenty-five.” Paula finished basting two long pieces of skirt together and stuck the needle into a pincushion. “It is something else to see two fifteen-year-old girls so excited about everything, including the bridal show.”
“Don’t put them up too high on a pedestal.” Mitzi gathered elastic through a blue-satin wedding garter.
“Why? They’ve kind of earned their position on it.” Jody’s thoughts slipped back more than half a lifetime before. The summer she was fifteen and, according to her mother’s standards, too young to date, she’d snuck out the bedroom window and met Lyle at the park every chance she got. They were young and stupid, and no one, not even adults, could tell them how to live their lives.
“Because it will be painful when one of them does something stupid and falls off their pedestal,” Mitzi said.
Jody was so far into her own thoughts that she didn’t hear what Mitzi had said.
“Earth to Jody,” Mitzi teased. “You looked like you were a million miles away.”
“I was,” Jody admitted. “Do you think it was because we weren’t skinny that our self-esteem was low when we were Dixie and Tabby’s age?”
“No, it was because two of us had dysfunctional families,” Paula answered. “We weren’t the only big girls in Celeste schools.”
“Yes, but we were the only ones in our class,” Mitzi reminded them. “Twelve boys. Ten girls. The biggest of the other seven girls was a size six. And every family is dysfunctional. It just matter
s to what degree.”
“Not yours,” Paula said. “Your dad is a sweetheart.”
“Yes, he is.” Mitzi stood up and rolled the kinks from her neck. “And my mama would’ve fought an army for me using only a kitchen butter knife, but she could manipulate the devil into letting her set up a snow-cone stand in hell. And Lord, don’t even get me started on the guilt trips she could lay on a person.”
“You didn’t have to live with an ultrareligious mama who made you pray twice a day on your knees for thirty minutes,” Jody said.
“Or parents who argued constantly over Mama’s hypochondria and Daddy’s superstitions,” Paula added.
“Like I said, there’s no such thing as a perfect family. But don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t take a million bucks for my family.” Mitzi started out of the room. “It’s break time, and since I didn’t take time for breakfast, I’m warming up a sausage biscuit. Y’all want one?”
Jody was on her feet in a second. “Yes, and thank you. I’d forgotten how good meat tasted. I may have two. Do we have grape jelly? And we are going to have to lay aside that vow we made about closing shop at five o’clock. Some folks take a whole year to get ready for a bridal fair, and we’ve only got a little while. We need to make a really good impression, and get our name on the list for next year.”
“Grape jelly is in the fridge.” Paula pushed back her chair. “Living in the house does have benefits. Like sleeping a little longer and real food in the office fridge. And you are right about burning a little late-night oil. This bridal fair is huge, and for us to get to show off our plus-sized idea? Well, darlin’s, that’s out of this world.”
“On another note, thinking of cooking in here, we should put one of those wax-burning candle things in the foyer. Maybe one that smells like roses or vanilla. Some food smells just don’t say that you’re in a bridal shop,” Jody suggested.
“Great idea,” Mitzi said. “Ellie Mae sells those. When she comes in for her next fitting, I’ll order a couple. Maybe one for the fitting room, too. Wonder if they have a cute one that looks like a wedding cake?”
Jody took five sausage biscuits from the freezer and popped them into the microwave. “Wedding cakes make me think of the bridal fair. I wonder if Graham is going to let Tabby model for us, and are we buying, renting, or talking Harry into building an arch for us?” Her thoughts went back to the idea of a wedding and children. When she found closure, would she ever trust a man again?
“I hope so. That dress should fit her perfectly. She’s even the same height as Selena, so we won’t have to shorten it.” The oven dinged and Mitzi removed the food. “Now that we’re moved in and settling down, how are you, Jody? We’ve been so busy that it seems like months instead of days since Lyle left.”
“I got up real early this morning and drove out to the place. That sumbitch dragged the trailer out right over my garden, so there’ll be no fresh vegetables. All that’s left out there is a couple of beat-up old lawn chairs. I sat down in one and cried like a baby.” Jody choked up but refused to shed another tear. “Lyle was my life. I gave him my heart, my soul, and my virginity when I was fifteen. Not even steaks and sausage can heal the pain.”
Paula hugged her tightly. “You should’ve woken us. We would have gone with you.”
“I needed to do it all alone,” Jody said and then jumped back a few inches at a sharp nudge from Paula’s stomach. “The baby just kicked me.”
Paula laid a hand on the spot. “It’s been really active lately. I just hope it’s willing to let me know today if it’s a boy or girl so our little party can be a gender reveal. In some ways I envy those girls who have a baby bump. I just feel fatter than usual.”
“How much weight have you gained?” Mitzi asked.
“Fifteen pounds. The doctor says that twenty should be my limit,” Paula answered.
“Getting to feel the baby kick like that made it real,” Jody said. “Are you sure you’re not going to tell the father? He’s missing so much.”
How quick would you tell Lyle if you find out you’re pregnant? the pesky voice in her head asked.
Jody shook her head to push the voice away. I might even tell him that it didn’t belong to him.
Paula picked up one of the biscuits. “I’m positive. He’s experiencing it with his wife, and I don’t want to share other than with y’all. It might be selfish, but he lied to me about his marriage. Mama’s right about at least one thing that she preaches all the time. Every choice has consequences. Mine is this baby for having sex with a guy without checking out his story. His is that he’ll never know he has this child because he lied to me.”
“I’d feel the same way—my mama said that same thing so often that I felt like it was branded on my brain.” Mitzi opened her biscuit, added grape jelly to it, and then passed the spoon and jar over to Jody.
“Mine, too, only she had it cross-stitched on a pillow she insisted on keeping in my bedroom,” Jody said. “Maybe I should’ve paid more attention to that pillow, but I never thought Lyle could do something like this.”
“We were both pretty gullible,” Paula said. “It just took you years to figure it out. I didn’t get but a few months.”
“Count it as a blessing.” Jody finished off her first biscuit and unwrapped the second one. “I didn’t know how much I missed having meat in my diet. I wonder if the new wife is vegetarian.”
“I hope that she eats meat six times a day and she makes him cook it,” Mitzi said. “Whatever made y’all decide to go vegetarian anyway?”
“Lyle wanted us to live off the land,” Jody explained. “We didn’t abuse our bodies with liquor or with tobacco, and we didn’t eat anything that had a face. I loved him enough that I went along with it. Truth is, I was so tickled to have a boyfriend in high school and to move in with him that I would have stood on my head in hot ashes to please him.”
“Well, I supported you and the way you wanted to live, but if I had to give up my double-bacon cheeseburgers, I could get real bitchy real fast,” Paula said.
“Are we tellin’ your mama tonight?” Mitzi asked. “And when are you tellin’ Selena?”
“Might as well get it over with,” Paula said. “My appointment is at four thirty and it’s only for the ultrasound, so it won’t take long. Why don’t y’all close up shop and then meet me at her place? I think I’ll call Selena and have her meet us there. That way I can kill two birds with one stone. Then we’ll celebrate.”
“Celebrate what? That we know if it’s a boy or girl or that we were there when you told your mama?” Jody asked.
“Both,” Paula replied. “Will y’all please be my birthing coaches? Classes start in a few weeks.”
“Of course,” Jody and Mitzi answered at the same time.
“What do you really want this baby to be? A boy or a girl?” Jody asked.
“I’m not saying because I’m afraid I’ll jinx it,” Paula said. “I know nothing about boys and very little about raising a child at all, so I suppose I should say the old thing about ‘as long as it’s healthy,’ but in my heart I really want . . .” She hesitated. “I can’t say it out loud. What if I say a boy and it’s a girl, and somehow she hears that I said that when she’s about fifteen and thinks I didn’t want her at all? Or if I say I want a girl, and it’s a boy and he does the same?”
“Whatever it is, we’ll learn as we go,” Mitzi said.
“Yes, we will,” Jody agreed.
Paula was the only one in the ultrasound waiting room that afternoon until Ellie Mae came in. Heat started on Paula’s neck and crept around to her cheeks. She tried not to look at Ellie Mae, but there were only so many ceiling and floor tiles that she could study.
Ellie Mae finally broke the awkward silence. “Guess we’ve both got a little secret, unless you’re here with Jody.”
“What makes you think that Jody is pregnant?” Paula asked.
“That’s the gossip around town. That Lyle left her because she’s been cheating on him and got
herself pregnant,” Ellie Mae answered.
Paula lowered her chin, inhaled deeply, and let it out slowly. “Lyle left her because he was cheating and his baby mama is also practically a baby. He’s probably the one spreading that rumor to cover his own guilt.”
“Sorry bastard,” Ellie Mae muttered. “Then it must be you. When are you getting married?”
“I’m not. Is this your first ultrasound?”
Ellie Mae nodded. “Yes, and no one knows about the baby except me and Darrin. So please, please keep my secret. My mama is going to stroke out over the wedding dress. If she knew I was pregnant, she’d lay down and die from the embarrassment. So why aren’t you getting married?”
“I don’t want to marry the guy. I found out that he’s as big a bastard as Lyle,” Paula answered. “When are you due?”
“The end of October. Being a big girl does have its advantages, doesn’t it? We don’t look like we’ve swallowed a watermelon,” Ellie Mae said. “How about you?”
“First of September. I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine,” Paula said.
“You got a deal. When are you tellin’ your mama?” Ellie Mae asked.
“Tonight,” Paula answered.
Ellie Mae chuckled. “Looks like I get the best end of the deal. We’re not tellin’ anyone until we get home from the honeymoon. Honeymoon babies cook fast!”
A lady in green scrubs opened a door and said, “Paula, are you ready?”
“Yes, ma’am.” She got up and patted Ellie Mae on the shoulder. “Hope you find out that it’s what you want it to be.”
“Me, too. And thanks for keeping my secret.” Ellie Mae ducked her head as if she were embarrassed to even say that. “If you want to tell Jody and Mitzi, it’s okay. I trust them. And I’ll need the dress to expand.”
“Thank you.” Paula picked up her purse and waved over her shoulder.
“Right in here. You’ve already had this done once, so you know the drill,” the lady said. “Do you still want to know the gender?”
The Perfect Dress Page 11
