The Perfect Dress(87)

Hazel smiled up at her dad. “Daddy, can we keep Jody?”

“For a little while today. How about we go make dinner and then Jody might read to you until you fall asleep for your nap?”

Hazel nodded and then held out her hand to Jody. “Mac and cheese and hot dogs?”

“Sounds great to me.” Jody got to her feet and allowed Hazel to lead her into the house.

“Make yourself at home,” Quincy said. “Hazel’s room is the first door on the right down the hallway. I’m not much of a cook, but I do a fine job with what she always wants for dinner. But maybe for supper we can take you out for something a little better, like pizza.”

“We’ll see. I might need to get back to the shop,” Jody said, just in case she decided to leave before too long. She kept going through the small foyer, the living room, and down the hall to where Hazel took her into a pretty room all done up in pink and lace. The child patted the cushion in a rocking chair, and Jody sat down, expecting Hazel to crawl up in her lap with a book. But instead, she showed Jody every toy in her room, including a dozen books.

What in the name of all the saints in heaven are you doing? Jody’s mother’s voice popped into her head. Have you lost your mind? This man could be a serial killer who lures his victims in with that little girl.

Hazel handed her a baby doll. Jody hugged it to her chest and set the rocker in motion with her foot. “Twinkle, twinkle little star,” she began to sing to get her mother’s voice out of her head.

“How I wonder what you are.” Hazel picked up a doll and sat down in a child-size rocker beside Jody. “Up above the world so high,” she sang and then started the song all over again as she cuddled her doll.

Jody felt a presence and looked up to see Quincy leaning on the doorframe. “Shhh,” she said. “You’ll wake our babies.”

Hazel kept rocking and singing while Jody carried her doll to the miniature cradle and laid it down. As gently as if she were covering a real baby, she pulled a little blue blanket up over the sleeping doll. Following her lead, Hazel took her doll to the canopy bed and laid it on the pillow, then covered it with the edge of the bedspread.

“You’re good at this. I’m surprised that you don’t have kids of your own,” Quincy whispered.

“How do you know I don’t?” Jody asked.

“I asked Lyle when I bought the property,” he answered. “He and his new wife both had a burr in their saddles the day we signed the papers. Something about a bridal fair?”

Hazel put one tiny hand in Jody’s, quieting her urge to laugh, and the other in Quincy’s and pulled them both toward the kitchen, where boxed macaroni and cheese and hot dogs awaited. “He and his new wife were at the event and . . .” She told him the story of what Tabby had done.

“After what he did to you, I’d say that doesn’t begin to be enough humiliation,” Quincy chuckled.

“Maybe not, but it sure was a step in the right direction,” she said. “Well, Miz Hazel, this looks like a fine meal your daddy has made for us.”

“The best.” Hazel patted the chair beside hers. “You sit here. Daddy sits here.” She pointed to the one on the other side. “Dinner is ready now.”

“I ate a lot of this but not with hot dogs. Usually with pork ’n’ beans right out of the can,” Jody said as she waited for Quincy to prepare Hazel’s plate.

“Oh?” Quincy raised an eyebrow.

“My mother isn’t much of a cook.”

Quincy raised a palm. “Enough said. I was raised in foster care from the time I was six years old. And we always had dinner and supper, not lunch and dinner.”

“Us, too,” Jody said. “I guess you’re a self-made man, then?” she asked as she made herself a hot dog with mustard and relish.

“Started at the bottom when I was eighteen. Had a few lucky breaks and worked hard. It isn’t an overnight success story, but here I am at forty, and I still like a dinner like this,” he said.

“Thank you, Jesus, amen,” Hazel said loudly and then picked up her hot dog with both hands and took a bite from the end.

“Her nanny is religious,” Quincy chuckled.

“So’s my mother.” Jody laughed with him.



Paula was only going to look around in the baby stores that Saturday morning and then get back to the store. Mitzi had gone to Dallas for the whole day with Graham, and they weren’t on schedule at the shop, so Paula had planned to spend the afternoon doing some catch-up work.

The smell of baby powder wafted across the first store she walked into. She wondered how they’d done that until she saw a little boy dumping a whole container out on the floor. The manager, a tall lady with pink-and-blue streaked hair, and the child’s mother found him at the same time. The mother started to apologize profusely, and the manager kept reassuring her the whole time she swept up the mess that it was all right.

“Clay, why did you do that?” the very pregnant mother asked.

Paula recognized Kayla immediately. Hoping that she hadn’t seen her, she tried to sneak out of the store unnoticed. But she’d only gone a few steps when Kayla called out. “Well, hello, Jody—or is it Paula? I remember meeting you at the party store, but I’m rattled over this mischievous son of mine, and I never can remember names very well, anyway.”