“Jefferson, Texas. We should be there not long after lunch. I figure we’ll park the motor home, and this afternoon we’ll catch the little shuttle bus they run downtown to the antique stores. They open at one o’clock on Sunday, and if y’all want to, you can probably take a tour of the Gone with the Wind Museum. It’s by appointment on Sunday, but I think I can make a call and get you in today,” Tootsie said.
“Have you been there?” Luke asked.
“Several times. Smokey knew that was my all-time favorite book, so we have the movie and the book, plus the new books about Rhett Butler and Scarlett. I’ll have to show you my party dress sometime,” Tootsie said between bites. “I wore it to the first big military party that Smokey and I had to attend. Smokey had his dress uniform, but I was a little country girl who didn’t have a damn thing to wear to a formal dinner. So I pulled a Scarlett O’Hara.”
“And that is?” Luke asked.
“You didn’t!” Diana gasped.
“I really did. I took a panel of the green velvet curtains down off the living room windows, thanked Smokey’s aunt Gertrude for giving them to us as a wedding gift even though I hated them at the time, and made myself a beautiful dress for the party,” she said. “Just like Scarlett O’Hara did in the novel.”
“I’d love to have seen that.” Carmen had been to several fancy parties with Eli. But she’d always felt like a wallflower and had kept to the shadows or visited with Joanie and Diana, back when she was still going to the events. Looking back, Eli hadn’t paid a lot of attention to her at those affairs. She’d always chalked it up to him needing to mingle, but now she wondered.
“And I bet you were the belle of the ball,” Diana said.
“Smokey thought so, and his opinion was the only one that mattered to me,” Tootsie said. “I’ll make arrangements for whoever wants to go see it if anyone is interested. I’m planning on hitting the antique stores myself. I always pick up a little something to take to the house. Last year I got a lovely pink Depression-glass bowl. I’d love to find another piece like it.”
What Tootsie said about Smokey stuck in Carmen’s head—when was the last time Eli had paid her a compliment? She drew her eyebrows down and tried to remember. It was more than a year ago. They’d gone to the traditional July Fourth cookout at Tootsie and Smokey’s. He’d kissed her and said that she looked nice. But when they got to the party that evening, Smokey had said that Tootsie was more beautiful than the fireworks show would be. It kind of put a damper on what Eli had said, but then he’d never been one to gush.
To get her mind off that, Carmen kept sneaking looks across the table to see if there were sparks between Diana and Luke. He might not be a hunky black-ops soldier like Gerald—with his dark hair, square-cut chin, and broad shoulders—but Luke really was a handsome guy with that cleft in his chin and those clear blue eyes. His sandy hair and the scruff on his face reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t remember who—maybe someone she’d seen on one of the television series she liked to watch or the cover of a book.
She almost clapped her hands when she remembered where it was. Natalie had gotten into a reading binge after graduation, and there was a duke on the cover of one of the books in her room that looked enough like Luke to be his brother.
“What?” Diana finally caught her staring. “Do I have egg on my face?”
“I was just looking at your hair with the sun shining on it,” Carmen lied. “It looks like copper.”
“Exactly what I was thinking.” Luke smiled and nodded.
Diana had never been attracted to blond men, but after what Carmen said about her hair, she was fascinated by the gold streaks that the morning sunrays created in Luke’s. The little vibe between them when his shoulder touched hers was further proof that she really needed to get back into the dating world. Maybe when she got back home, she’d go out with that doctor from the hospital where Joanie volunteered, if he was still single. It had been at least six months since Joanie had tried to fix her up with him, and