The Perfect Dress(96)

Graham stood and then extended a hand toward Mitzi. She took it, but the whole time she thought that even he, with all his strength and size, might not be able to pull her to her feet in another two weeks. They’d had a destination wedding in Florida the previous September. Her perfect dress had been a creation in blue lace. Tabby was her maid of honor. Dixie was the best man. They’d made their own matching dresses in off-white satin, styled a lot like the ones they’d worn to Lizzy’s wedding. And all three of the ladies had gone barefoot. She and Graham had an amazing four-day honeymoon, but she’d felt a little guilty leaving Paula and Jody with so much work at the shop. They’d been such a hit at the Dallas Bridal Fair that they’d been invited to the Oklahoma City Bridal Fair in December. Between the first fair and the last, they now had a waiting list for custom-made dresses.

The first display lit up the sky within seconds after the music stopped, and everyone took their seats again. Just thinking of the heat made her very aware of the sweat puddle around the band of her bra. As if he could read her mind, Graham pulled a white cotton handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed the moisture from her face. Fanny Lou noticed and whipped out a cardboard church fan.

“Here, use this. Don’t you dare go into labor or pass out in this heat,” she said.

Graham took it from her and kept a breeze going across Mitzi’s face. “Want to go on back home and sit under the air-conditioning? We don’t have to stay for the whole thing.”

She shook her head. “I’m not a delicate flower. I’m more like a big old wild sunflower growing out on a fencerow. And Daddy made ice cream for afterwards. That’ll cool us all down.”

“Ice cream?” Hazel squealed. “We get ice cream, too?”

“It’s part of the July Fourth tradition. We watch the fireworks and then go back to the shop for ice cream,” Jody explained.

Mitzi glanced over her shoulder. The diamond engagement ring on Jody’s finger sparkled under the football lights. In another few weeks, after the baby was born, there would be another destination wedding.

Jody and Quincy were going to be married in West Virginia as soon as Mitzi could travel after giving birth. When Quincy had found out that Jody wanted a mountain wedding, he’d offered to take her to the Alps, but she’d refused. The hotel she’d found in Morgantown, West Virginia, had exactly the kind of place she wanted—a nice little veranda overlooking the mountains in the distance.

Mitzi visualized Jody in the dress that hung in the fitting room. A lovely cream-colored watered silk, it hugged her now curvy body and then belled out at knee level. When she’d tried it on the last time, she’d taken her braids down, and loose curls fell to her waist. Quincy was going to be speechless when he saw her on their wedding day.

The twins had offered to keep Hazel after the wedding. They’d made a spreadsheet of plans to keep her occupied and happy for a couple of days so that Quincy and Jody could get away for a short time in a nearby honeymoon cabin.

Paula would be the only one living above the shop after Jody moved out to the house with Quincy, and even that probably wouldn’t be for long. She’d met a male nurse when she was in the hospital giving birth to Ivy Jane, and things were getting serious. He was sitting at the end of the row with the ten-month-old baby in his lap, smiling every time she clapped her hands over the fireworks show.

“If someone had told y’all last year at this time what would be happening in a year, would you have believed it?” Fanny Lou asked.

Mitzi shook her head. “Not in a million years.”

“Looks to me like y’all need to be figuring out what Paula’s perfect dress is going to look like,” Fanny Lou said from behind her hand.

“That’s her decision, and she’ll tell us when the time is right,” Mitzi said and then gasped during the last beautiful display in the sky.

“It is pretty, isn’t it?” Graham leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

“Yes, it is, but . . . this is a little embarrassing.” She felt heat traveling into her cheeks.

“What?” he asked.

“My water just broke,” she answered. “I guess what I’ve been having all day isn’t false labor at all. Don’t make a big deal out of it. I already look like I wet my jeans.”

Graham helped her up with a hand and then pretended to stumble and, in the process of righting himself, spilled half a bottle of water in her lap.

“I’m so, so sorry, darlin’,” he apologized. “Let’s get you home. Alice, can the girls ride to the shop with you?”

“You are a genius,” Mitzi whispered as they slowly made their way to the van. “I love you more right now than I did an hour ago.”

He helped her inside and then raced around the back of the van to get into the driver’s seat. “Keep those words in mind when you start to push.” He grinned. “Just think, we get to meet our son in a few hours.”

“Let’s get me to the hospital and settled in before you call the rest of the family, okay?” she asked as a contraction took her breath.

“Anything you want, darlin’,” he said. “But we’ll have to let them know soon. If we don’t show up at the shop for ice cream, they will panic.”

“And there’s another pain. That’s only two minutes from the last one.”