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.
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.