They were on their way down the stairs when Fanny Lou yelled from the kitchen, “I’m here. Is Mitzi going with us?”

“No, she’s got another date with Graham,” Paula called out as she and Mitzi made their way across the foyer. “Mitzi’s going to tell us everything this evening. Jody and I told her our stories from yesterday, but we ran out of time,” Paula answered. “I’ll tell you what happened to me over lunch. Jody can tell you about her new friend, Hazel, who happens to be Quincy Roberts’s four-year-old daughter, this evening. And if we have to stay up until midnight, Mitzi is going to give us all the details of her weekend.”

“Fair enough.” Fanny Lou held up her fingers. “Three, two, one. Yep, I hear him on the porch and the knock on the door should be coming . . . now. He was loading up stuff when I drove past his house. I figured he’d be right along.”

Mitzi opened the door and Graham stepped inside. “Hello, Fanny Lou and Paula. Y’all goin’ to join us?”

“Nope,” Fanny Lou said. “We’ve got plans. You kids just go on and have a good day with the girls. Be sure to keep this one lathered up with sunscreen. She can burn on a dark night. It’s that red hair and white skin.”

“I’ll take good care of her,” Graham promised.

“If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t let her go off with you,” Fanny Lou told him.

“Well, thank you for that,” he said.

He held Mitzi’s hand all the way to the vehicle and opened the door for her. “Maybe I’d better just buy this thing. I’m outgrowing my truck for anything but going to work.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Mitzi asked.

“Oh, darlin’, it’s a great thing,” he assured her.

“Did you bring a bathing suit this time?” Tabby asked.

“No, sweetie,” Mitzi answered. “But maybe one day next week, y’all can go with me to shop for one.”

“That would be like really great,” Dixie said.

Graham pulled the seat belt across her body and whispered, “I’d rather go skinny-dippin’ with you.”

“Shhh . . .” she shushed him and blushed at the same time.

“Drive fast, Daddy. We ain’t even goin’ to swim until we eat today. I’m hungry to death,” Tabby giggled.

“Well, that brings back memories.” Graham winked at Mitzi. “She used to say that when she was about three years old.”

“Speaking of little girls, y’all have to meet Hazel,” she said.

“Who’s that?” Dixie asked.

Mitzi told them about the little dark-haired girl with blue eyes who had completely stolen Jody’s heart. “I only got to see her for a minute this morning when Quincy came for Jody, but with her looks, she could be you girls’ younger sister.”