to cause so much trouble that she drove her father away and then embarrass me in front of all my friends by living in sin,” Wanda said through clenched teeth. “And now she’s gettin’ her comeuppance.”
“I’m standin’ right here, Mama,” Jody said.
“Maybe so, but I’m choosing not to see you. God says we should hate what He hates and love what He loves. He doesn’t love the way you’ve lived,” Wanda told her.
“Well, I’m sure glad God loves you even when you’re self-righteous,” Jody replied.
“You’re sure showin’ a lot of Christian love, Wanda. You should be supporting your daughter in this tough time,” Fanny Lou snapped.
From the expression on Wanda’s face, Mitzi expected her to plumb stroke out. But she whipped around and stormed out of the church by a side door.
“Reckon she’ll get into heaven if she dies this week since she didn’t shake the preacher’s hand?” Fanny Lou giggled.
“Granny!” Mitzi scolded, but she couldn’t keep the twinkle from her eyes.
“I might have voiced it, but you were thinkin’ it. Lyle wasn’t much of a man to tell Jody about his affair and marriage on the phone. If you ever have a feller like that, I’ll kill him and drag his body down Main Street behind my old pickup truck,” Fanny Lou whispered. “I’m tempted to go out there and do it to Lyle.”
“And I’ll help you.” Mitzi’s father, Harry, motioned toward the side door. “Let’s take our chances on not dying this week and skip shaking the preacher’s hand. Whoever gets to the café first should save a table for the five of us.”
“Granny, you want to ride with me? Jody came with Paula this morning,” Mitzi said.
“I was just about to suggest that. Then afterwards you can bring me back here to get my truck,” Fanny Lou answered.
As soon as the van doors were closed, Fanny Lou started firing questions. “So how long do you think this affair was going on? Was he sleeping with both women? Is there a chance that Jody is pregnant, too? Now wouldn’t that be horrible.”
“He’s been cheatin’ on her for about six months,” Mitzi answered. “I don’t know if she’s pregnant, but Jody confided in us years ago when we were still young that she has a fear that she’ll be a bad mother like Wanda. So that’s probably why they didn’t have children.” Mitzi sent up a silent prayer for Jody to not be pregnant, even though she hadn’t been on birth control. That would be too much of a burden for anyone, even her strong-willed friend, to carry.
“Jody is nothing like her mother,” Fanny Lou argued. “She’d make a great mama if and when she ever decides to have children, but I hope she’s not expecting a baby now. That wouldn’t be a bit fair to her, to have to raise up a child to a man who broke her heart.”
Mitzi drove from the church straight downtown and groaned when she saw how many cars were parked on Main Street. “We’re going to have at least a thirty-minute wait,” she fussed as she parked a block away from the Celeste Café.
“I should’ve slipped out before the benediction and saved us a table,” Fanny Lou said. “But I wasn’t about to leave you to deal with Wanda alone. I could see she was fuming all through church.”
“How? She sat behind us.” Mitzi unbuckled her seat belt.
“I kept a watch on her out of the corner of my eye,” Fanny Lou said. “She came loaded for bear and someone was going to get it.”
“Well, we’ve got time.” Mitzi flipped the rearview mirror around and applied fresh bright-red lipstick to match the dress she’d chosen to wear that morning. “No need in getting in a hurry since we’ll have a long wait anyway.”
“But we might as well go on in and get our name on the list. There’s your dad parking right beside us,” Fanny Lou said. “When he and your mama married, I didn’t think I was going to like him, but he was so good to my daughter that I came to love him like a son. I hope you find a man as good as he is someday.”
“Me, too, Granny.” Graham’s image flashed through her mind.
Harry was out of his truck and tapping on the window before Mitzi put her lipstick away. She opened the door, and he said, “Let’s go on inside.”
He ran his fingers through his thin gray hair and cleaned his glasses on a snowy white