I knew that sow had to throw in a dig at one of us. “Yvonne appreciates all your help, Joyce,” I said with a smirk, which I’m sure she didn’t even notice. That was the way it was with people wrapped up in themselves like her and Odell. I set the jar on the coffee table and scurried into the bedroom. Yvonne was making the bed. “Baby, Joyce just brung you some nutmeg.”

“That’s nice to hear. Tell her I said thanks.”

“Come tell her yourself. If I got to listen to another one of her digs, I don’t want to be by myself.”

Yvonne let out a disgusted sigh and scrunched up her lips. “Whatever she said this time, I don’t want to hear it. They low-rate us enough.”

“Don’t worry, sugar. We still got the upper hand. They just don’t know it yet. Do you think we should go in there and invite her to go out for supper now?”

“Now? Uh-uh. We still got almost two weeks before we get our first big payout from Odell. If we ask her too soon, something could happen that’d make her change her mind. She could tell Prince Charming and he might insist on going with us.”

“Yvonne, you know me. I already thought of that. We’ll tell her we asked Mr. Cunningham if we could borrow his truck to go out in, but he can’t let us use it until sometime next month. We’ll pick a Friday, so Odell won’t be able to go when she tells him about it. He wouldn’t cancel a visit to Betty Jean’s house to go to heaven, let alone to go have supper with us.”

“That’s for sure. But if we tell Joyce we want to eat at that place in Hartville, you know she’ll mention that to Odell. And what do you think will go through his mind?”

“I got that covered, too. Girl, I’m always on the ball,” I said with my chest puffed out. “We’ll make her think we’re going to supper at a restaurant in Branson or Mobile. At the last minute, we’ll tell her we want the supper to be even more special; so, we decided to go to one in Hartville that’s real popular with our guests. Now come on and let’s talk to her together.”

When we got to the living room, Joyce was dusting the coffee table with a handkerchief. That heifer! “I can’t stand to be around a lot of dust. It makes me sneeze and it looks so nasty,” she complained with a grimace on her face. “Yvonne, if you don’t have any furniture cleaner, you can use vinegar and water, or just plain water.”