“I’m glad my dad has a life and that Granny is so independent,” Mitzi said.

“Count your blessings. I think I’ll just run by Mama’s for thirty minutes and get it over with. I’ll see you at the house,” Paula said.

“Tell her that we have plans and you have to get home. I’ll get everything here locked up and shut down for the night and be there by the time you make it home,” Mitzi yelled over her shoulder as she left the kitchen.

Paula had moved in with Mitzi when they started the shop. They’d thought about living in the upstairs part of the shop but wanted to keep work and home separate. When Mitzi stepped out into the blistering hot heat, she wished all she had to do was walk up the stairs to get home—not drive a couple of miles out of town and mow the overgrown lawn that afternoon.

Moving to Celeste last winter had seemed like the right thing to do. They’d really wanted and needed Jody to join them in the new business, and there was no way she’d move to another location. So Paula had given up her job as a librarian in Tulia. Mitzi gave notice at the exclusive bridal shop in Amarillo where she’d worked in the back room altering wedding dresses. And Jody quit her job as a waitress at the Celeste Café.

Mitzi’s dad, Harry, had insisted on giving her the money that had been saved for her college education—that she’d only dipped into for one semester—to set up shop. At the time, Mitzi had thought it would be fun to have a roommate, but she hadn’t figured on Paula’s mother issue. Gladys Walker was only seventy years old, but with all her imagined problems, she acted more like ninety.

The small two-bedroom house they had rented was a short drive, but it was long enough that the van had just cooled down when Mitzi pulled into the driveway. She hated to turn off the engine and step out into the heat again, so she just sat there a few minutes. The place fit them perfectly, with a great room serving as living room, dining room, and kitchen separating bedrooms on either end of the house.