a few steps toward her old truck. “What do I do? Well, Mr. Roberts, I’m not sitting at home, wasting away to nothing. I’m a strong woman, and I’ve got good friends. If you see Lyle you can tell him that. If you’re asking what I do for a living, I make custom wedding dresses for plus-sized women.”
“What are plus-sized women?” He got up and followed her to her truck.
She turned around. “Larger ladies. Everyone deserves a perfect dress.”
“Everyone deserves a perfect life. Guess you didn’t get it, did you?”
“Bit of a smart-ass, aren’t you?” She leaned against the truck. “Do any of us ever get a perfect life? Is there even such a thing?”
“Not in my world,” Quincy chuckled. “And I’ve been called worse. So where are you living now?”
“My partners in the business and I live above the shop. It’s in an old two-story house on Main Street. Shop is on the ground floor,” she told him.
His eyes went to the pitiful garden. “What happened to that little garden is a shame. I know what it takes to keep one weeded and watered.”
According to what she’d heard, Quincy could buy the town of Celeste, have it bulldozed, and then turn the whole thing into a hog pen. Why would he even have a backyard garden?
“You looked surprised. I told you I like to get my hands dirty,” he said.
“Me, too, and I’m sure I’ll miss having a place for one next spring,” she said. “It’s nice to have met you, Mr. Roberts.”
“My friends call me Quincy,” he said.
“But we’re not friends,” she told him, but she wondered what it would be like to get to know him better.
“We could be, Jody.” He settled his hat back onto his head. “Is it okay if I call you Jody?”
“Sure,” she agreed. “Like I said . . . Quincy . . . it’s a pleasure to meet you. And just a heads-up, Lyle is anxious to sell, so hold out for those mineral rights.” She didn’t care if Lyle even got fair market price for the place, because she’d never get anything out of it.
“Oh, I will. I don’t give up easily.” He tipped his hat toward her and turned around.
She could see a white pickup truck on the far side of the property. She’d probably been thinking so hard about how she’d like to strangle Lyle that she hadn’t even heard it when Quincy drove up.
She stopped at the snow-cone stand on her way back through town and got three with lids—all rainbow with cherry, coconut, and grape—then drove straight home so she’d get there before they all turned to nothing but liquid.
“Hello! Y’all home?” she called out as she kicked the back door shut with the heel of her cowboy boot.
“Up here in the living room,” Mitzi yelled.
Jody took the stairs two at a time. “I brought snow cones.”
Paula reached out a hand as soon as Jody was in the room. “Bless your heart. I wanted one but the line was so long that I didn’t stop on the way home. Where have you been?”
“You first,” Jody said. “What’d you do? Shop for the baby?”
“I saw a movie today that made me feel much better about everything. Clinton is a first-class bastard. I feel sorry for his wife, but he’s her husband, not mine.” She dipped into the snow cone with the plastic spoon that came with it. “I’m glad you’re here. Mitzi wouldn’t tell me a blessed thing until you arrived.”
“I didn’t want to tell it twice. Graham asked me for a date next Sunday. We’re taking his pontoon boat out on the lake, and y’all are invited,” she said before she took the first bite of her snow cone.
“I believe you’re old enough to go on a date without chaperones,” Paula said.
“The girls are going and so is Alice. You might as well come with us,” she said.
“It’s not a real date until it’s just the two of you, but I’d love to go out on the lake, so I’m in. Now your turn, Jody?” Paula said.
Jody curled up in the recliner across the room from the sofa where the other two sat. She needed a few minutes to talk without tears or cussing, so she turned to Mitzi. “I’ll tell you in a minute, but I want to hear more about you and Graham. I know it was hot out there building the arch. How did it turn out?”
“It was a sweaty job but I’m pleased