Dixie stuck her head out of the kitchen. “I thought I heard your voice, Daddy. How’d you get away from work so early?”
“Had a nice slow day, so I left before five. Thought maybe we’d have supper in the café downtown,” he said.
“Ta-da!” Tabby came out into the foyer with a huge red-rose bouquet in her hands. “We made it pretty big since the mannequin is a big girl like us. When we get married we don’t want to walk down the aisle with a little old single calla lily in our hands.”
Fate!
That’s exactly what it was. The bouquet was almost exactly what Ellie Mae had described, and Mitzi beamed with pride at the magnificent work they’d done. “I’d like to keep this one back for a week. Could you make another one for the mannequin on Monday, maybe in pink so it would be different than this one?”
“Why?” Dixie asked.
“Because one of my customers may want to buy this one, and if she does she may also want you girls to do the corsages and the rest of the flowers,” Mitzi answered.
“You’re serious? It’s that good? It looks a little oversized and gaudy to me,” Graham whispered.
“I’m dead serious. See you girls on Monday. We’ll get you measured then. Paula is looking for a pattern that we can adapt for your dresses,” Mitzi said.
“Can Daddy see the sketches you made?” Dixie asked.
“And are you tellin’ us that we might get a job doin’ this?” Tabby asked.
“I’d sure like it if you girls could work for me from three to five each day this summer. We can talk more about it when you get here Monday. Your dad is waiting to take you to supper right now.” She picked up a pad. “The sketches are right here.” She flipped it open so Graham could see.
His hand brushed hers as he took it from her, sending waves of tingles through her body. She had to get a firm grip on this silly schoolgirl crush. She’d be seeing him often if the twins were at the shop every day. Besides, if he was still attracted to the same kind of woman as Rita, he’d never see Mitzi as anything but an overweight woman who was good to his kids.
“Those are very nice, girls. I’m glad you didn’t get crazy,” he said.
“We wanted to,” Tabby said.
“But we decided to be classy.” Dixie took the bouquet from her sister and tinkered with a few of the flowers before laying it on the coffee table. “When I get married, I want one just like this.”
“On that note, I’m getting both of you out of here,” Graham laughed. “I don’t want to walk you down the aisle for at least ten years. Fifteen would be better.”
Mitzi locked up after them and plopped down on the pink sofa. A thirty-two-year-old woman should be over a crush she’d had when she was fifteen, so why was there a picture in her mind of herself in a white dress walking down the aisle toward Graham? She blinked several times to get the visual from her head. She’d have a better chance of waking up a short, skinny blonde tomorrow morning than of Graham ever being attracted to her.
Chapter Four
Lyle, I’m home, and we need to talk,” Jody called out as she entered the trailer that Friday night. “Whatever is making you act like a jackass is going to stop, and we’re not selling this trailer to Quincy. It’s our home. It’s paid for. And I’ve worked my butt off to make us a nice garden spot.”
No answer.
She knocked on the bathroom door and it swung open. She flipped back the shower curtain and he wasn’t there. She checked the bedroom and looked out the kitchen window to see if he was in the garden, then went back to the front door and opened it. His motorcycle wasn’t there, so that meant he wasn’t home from work.
“Dammit!” she fumed as she threw herself down on the sofa and shut her eyes. At midnight she awoke to find him still not there, so she took a quick shower and got into bed.
In her dreams she stood on the front porch of the trailer, looking southwest across the tops of the trees at the dark clouds. As the eerie quietness surrounded her, she had the feeling that the coming storm was going to be the one that ripped her mobile home apart. Then the tornado alert