“I’ll cross that bridge when I have to. Maybe I’ll tell her that he died.”

Mitzi gave Paula a sideways hug. “Which might be the truth if he messes around with another woman with a temper hotter’n yours.”

“We can always keep an eye on the obituaries from that part of the state,” Jody said.

Paula leaned forward and hugged Jody. “Or I could make a voodoo doll and poke pins in all the appropriate places.”

“Now that sounds like a good thing, only I’d rather take him out in the woods, nail one of those appropriate places to a tree stump, and give him a knife. When he’s brave enough to cut it off, he can try to make it home before he bleeds to death,” Jody said.

“Whew!” Paula wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. “And I thought I had evil thoughts today.”

“Not as evil as I did,” Mitzi said.

“I can only imagine.” Paula turned to look at her. “Let’s talk about all that shit about praying for Rita.”

“Graham and I are going to talk about it tomorrow,” Mitzi said.

Paula grabbed Mitzi’s hand in her left one and Jody’s in her right. “Let us pray.”

Without hesitation, both of them bowed their heads. “Dear Lord, I know that You have said that vengeance is Yours, so I’m leaving Clinton in Your hands. I expect You to deliver Your method, whatever You see fit, quickly and with much pain. And while You’re in a vengeful mood, please take Rita out of the picture. I’m not asking You to kill either of them, however, please don’t ever let us have to look upon their faces again. And one more thing, if Kayla has sent up a prayer, go ahead and delete it. It’s not a good one. Amen.” Paula squeezed their hands and raised her head.

“Amen,” Jody said.

“Amen,” Mitzi added.

Chapter Fifteen

Graham grew more anxious as the time with Mitzi drew near. He leaned on the porch post and watched for her. After what had happened in the party store, he should be honest with her, but he damn sure didn’t want to spend all their time together talking about his ex-wife. His heart kicked in an extra beat when he saw her coming down the street. Yesterday morning she’d worn her hair down, but now she’d piled it up on her head in what his girls called a “messy bun.” He wanted to go meet her, take her hand in his, and walk beside her, but he stood still until she started up the steps.

“Hello,” he said. “You ready to get to work? I’ve got all our stuff laid out in the backyard. There’s plenty of room on my screened back porch to store the arch when we get it finished. Did you figure out what size you want it to be?” Dammit! That sounded like something he’d say to a guy, not to a gorgeous woman. He should have at least offered her a cold beer.

“Think we can get it done this evening?” she asked.

“I hope so.” He closed his eyes and kicked himself for being so damned awkward. “That came out all wrong. I didn’t mean that I don’t want to spend time with you. I’m not very good at this. Would you like a cold beer or something to drink before we get started?”

“I’d love one,” she said. “I didn’t know what to bring in the way of tools.”

“I’ve got everything we need.” He opened the door for her. “I’m rambling to cover up being so awkward around you. Leave it to me to mess up in the first two minutes.”

She laid a hand on his arm. “You didn’t mess up anything. I’m every bit as nervous as you are.”

Her touch stilled his nerves. “Thank you for that, Mitzi.”

He led her through the foyer and into the kitchen, where he took two beers from the refrigerator and handed one to her, then realized that he should have opened it for her. He could run a dealership, buy and sell cars, organize and take care of all the departments without blinking an eye, but every day he knew Mitzi, the more tongue-tied and awkward he became.

“Bring your beer and follow me.” He led her from the kitchen out onto the screened porch.

“My granny has a room like this, and I’ve always loved it.”

“It was part of the reason I wanted this house. My grandparents had one like this, too, and I used to enjoy spending time there with my grandpa while he told me stories about his younger days.” He opened the door out to the backyard, where he’d laid out the lumber, the four-by-eight sheet of lattice, and all of his tools.

“Looks to me like you’re pretty organized.” She pulled the tab from the top of her beer, took a long drink, and then set it down on the porch. “Let’s get busy. I think it should be at least six feet wide to accommodate our bride mannequin. If we get to go next year, we may get us a male mannequin and dress him up in a suit or tux.”

He didn’t want to talk about bridal fairs or even wedding arches. He wanted to reinforce what he’d said to Kayla the day before about never getting back with his ex-wife. Mitzi needed to understand that for him to ever be able to ask her out on a date—and that’s what he really wanted to do.

She laid out the plans on the porch. “So we build a frame, then cover it with lattice, right?”

“Yes,” he said. “I did some research and found out that it should be about seven feet tall and five feet wide, but with your model being a big woman, I thought we’d make it bigger.”