The Perfect Dress(78)

“Are you sick? You all look like hookers after a tough Saturday night!” Fanny Lou burst in the back door before Mitzi could finish the sentence. She’d already changed from her Sunday dress into a pair of baggy jeans that had been rolled up to the knees, sandals, and one of the promotional T-shirts advertising The Perfect Dress across the back.

“Granny!” Mitzi gasped.

“I’m here to get y’all’s tired asses in gear. Me and Harry decided that we’re going to the lake with everyone. We’re supposed to meet the Harrisons at the lake marina at twelve thirty. They’re providin’ a fried chicken dinner, and I’m starvin’. Graham and Alice both asked about you this mornin’ at church, and the twins looked like they’d been drug through a knothole backwards. Y’all plumb wore them out yesterday. That video with Lyle and the spilled drink was so funny, I almost peed my underpants. Tabby showed it to me while we were passing the plate.”

“We thought maybe we’d stay in this afternoon,” Jody said.

“The hell you will,” Fanny Lou said loudly. “After what them girls did for y’all yesterday and with no money changin’ hands, you’re goin’ to all three get your asses up them stairs and come down here lookin’ bright eyed and bushy tailed. It would disappoint them kids, and I ain’t havin’ it.”

They all looked at each other, but no one moved.

Fanny Lou raised her voice another notch. “If I got to tell you again, it ain’t goin’ to be pleasant.”

Mitzi grabbed her Diet Coke and carried it with her. “I’ll be down in fifteen minutes. No need to put on makeup since I’ll just sweat it off.” She turned around at the door and asked, “Did you bring sunblock, Granny?”

“Plenty enough to go around.” Fanny Lou nodded. “Don’t any of us need to get skin cancer. Now get a rush on it. Harry is on the way, and we’re all going in the van.”

Mitzi hurried up the stairs with Paula and Jody right behind her. “Sorry I got y’all into this.”

“Fanny Lou is right. It would be downright rude to beg off after the girls helped out so much,” Paula said.

“And God knows I owe Tabby for what she did,” Jody agreed. “I like to float around in a pontoon boat. Maybe I’ll catch a nap while you flirt with Graham.”

“Oh, hush!” Mitzi grumbled. “I’m not in the mood for jokes or flirting.”

“Not even one little kiss?” Paula asked. “You can’t tell me you’d turn that down.”

Mitzi made it to her room before the other two, grabbed a pillow from her bed, and hurled it toward Paula. It landed just short of the door that Paula slammed shut. Paula peeked back out and stuck her tongue out at Mitzi.

Mitzi pulled her hair up into dog ears right above her own ears, put on a pair of denim shorts and a nice loose-fitting cotton shirt. She’d thought about stopping at the Galleria on the way home from Dallas, but she was too tired to even look at bathing suits, much less try them on. Besides, she wasn’t ready for Graham to see that much of her skin.

She tossed her phone and wallet into a tote bag along with a rolled-up towel and more sunblock, even though her grandmother said she had brought plenty. It might be enough if she’d been a small woman, but Mitzi had a lot of lily-white skin to cover. Sun had never been her friend, not with the traditional pale skin that went with red hair. She stared at her reflection in the floor-length mirror on the back of her bedroom door. She was certainly not a petite little thing like Rita, so what did Graham see in her anyway?



“Have I got a bunch of sailors in this house ready to go to the lake for the afternoon?” Alice yelled as she entered her brother’s house by the kitchen door.

“Not sailors,” Tabby said. “We’re pontooners. We got our bags packed with sunscreen and books. Daddy said we had to leave our phones at home.”

“Smart man,” Alice said. “Got your bathing suits on under those oversized shirts?”

Dixie pulled up her shirt to show off a bright-red suit. “How do you like it?”

“Looks fabulous. I’m wearing the same color under this caftan. We still on for a swimming race?” Alice asked.

“You bet we are,” Tabby answered. “But we’ve got to give Daddy and Mitzi some privacy so he can ask her out on a real date.”

“Hey now, I said I’d ask her. I didn’t say when,” Graham argued. Sometimes he had to set his heels or the girls would overrun him completely. He’d enjoyed the time and the kisses he’d shared with Mitzi, but something kept whispering to him that he should take it slow and not go too fast with her.

“It’ll be your own fault if you let her get away from you. There’s probably a dozen men just waiting in line at her back door to ask her out,” Dixie declared with a toss of her hair. “Now let’s get this show on the road. It wouldn’t be good if our guests like had to wait on us to get there, would it?”

“‘Guests,’ nothing,” Tabby argued. “Those people are family, not guests.”

“Well, pardon me.” Dixie did a head bobble that rivaled those crazy bigheaded dolls.

“You got everything you need, brother?” Alice asked.

“Yep, I do.” He picked up a tackle box.