“Is this about the right size for Ellie Mae? If I make her too small, she’ll be disappointed with the finished product, but I don’t want to make her any bigger than she is.” Mitzi turned it around so Jody could see.

“Looks about right to me, but you’re the one who can look at someone and guess their measurements within two inches. I betcha we get a run on black dresses after this wedding,” she answered. “You goin’ to get married in black?”

“Nope, not me.” Mitzi shook her head. “What about you? If you and Lyle ever go to the courthouse, what color are you going to wear?”

Jody shrugged. “Don’t know, but it won’t be black lace.”

Mitzi laid the drawing down and removed a pattern from an envelope. Cutting the pieces out, she let her thoughts wander back to Graham. He hadn’t changed so much since high school. There was a little gray in his temples, and he wore his dark hair styled shorter than he had in high school. But that made him even sexier. The new glasses only added to his good looks.

At the sound of a long sigh from Jody, all Mitzi’s thoughts of Graham were replaced with worry.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

Jody shook her head. “What are those bad years in a marriage?”

“I’ve read that it’s the seventh, thirteenth, and twenty-fifth,” Mitzi answered.

“Makes sense. Daddy left Mama for a younger woman just before their twenty-fifth anniversary. Of course, it wasn’t her fault. Nothing has ever been or will ever be.” Jody’s tone held a lot of sarcasm. “It was all my doing. They didn’t even want kids, so I was a big surprise. She should drop down on her knees and give thanks that she had me. That way she had someone to blame for everything that went wrong.”

Mitzi wasn’t sure how to answer that.

“Me and Lyle had a rough patch about our seventh year. We’re into the fourteenth. Maybe he’s just slow and this is really like our thirteenth.”

Mitzi laid her scissors down and asked, “What exactly makes you think something is wrong?”

“Sex only twice in the last six months. Once at Christmas and then a couple of weeks ago but the second time was when I insisted,” she said.

“He’s pretty young to need Viagra,” Mitzi said.

“Oh, he didn’t need that. Before Thanksgiving it was two, three, or more times a week, then boom.” She snapped her fingers. “He was too tired, or he fell asleep on the sofa.”

“Maybe he was working overtime and really was too tired,” Mitzi suggested.

“Oh, he was doing that a lot.” Jody nodded. “So maybe you’re right. I’m probably worried for nothing.”

“Yoo-hoo, where is everyone?” Ellie Mae’s shrill voice floated down the hall.