“Clinton?” Jody said. “The sumbitch who went back to his wife, right?”

Paula nodded.

“You stayed in bed for a whole weekend after he left. We ate half a gallon of ice cream and used more than two boxes of tissues,” Mitzi said.

Another nod.

“And I drove out there to be with y’all,” Jody said. “That’s part of the reason we decided we should put the business here in Celeste to get you out of that area.”

“I couldn’t have gotten through it without y’all. I really loved him.” Paula’s chin quivered.

“Does he know about the baby?” Mitzi asked.

Paula shook her head. “No, and he’s not going to, so that can’t leave this room.”

“Why can’t he know?” Jody asked.

Heat traveled from Paula’s neck to her cheeks. “His wife is pregnant. He’s a bastard, but I won’t ruin her life or the baby they’re going to have. She went through in vitro twice just to have a child. It’s complicated, but they were only separated, not legally divorced. Y’all know the story. It’s not her fault that I loved him, but he didn’t really love me.”

“Remind you of anyone?” Jody asked.

“Of course it does,” Paula said. “That’s what came to my mind immediately when you told me about Lyle. I wondered if you might be pregnant, too.”

“We’ll know in a few days. I’m regular as clockwork,” Jody said.

“Well, we won’t worry about that right now.” Mitzi took control. “What we’re going to plan for now is a new baby, which means we need a bigger place.”

“I vote that we move into the upstairs of the shop,” Jody said.

“But we decided that we needed a house so that we’d have a life and not work every day until bedtime,” Paula said.

“But,” Jody argued, “there are five good-sized bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small room that the previous owners used for an office. One for each of us and one to make a nursery, and we can put a sofa and television in the other and call it a living room.”

“It might work.” Mitzi stood up and began to pace the floor. “But the only way would be if we vowed to separate work and our personal lives.”

“The smaller room could be the nursery,” Paula offered.

“I think we should use a bigger one and give the little one to the girls to do their flower business,” Jody said.

“Sounds good to me,” Mitzi said.

“Rent’s up on the fifth, so we’d have to do it in a hurry, like in two days,” Paula said. “Maybe we should think about it for a few weeks and give a notice. We’ll lose your deposit if we don’t.”