“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.”

“It’s Paula.” She turned around and even managed to smile. “Kayla, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they could come up with a scent that really smells like baby powder for these places? Customers would flock in and buy more than they planned.”

It wasn’t Kayla’s fault that she was married to a philandering fool. But that didn’t stop Paula’s stomach from knotting into a pretzel at the sight of her enormous baby bump.