“I’m pregnant, not crippled. Women have lived in two-story houses with babies for centuries,” Paula answered.

Mitzi shook her finger at Paula. “But you got to promise that you won’t lift anything heavy. I’ll call that moving company from—”

Paula grabbed her finger. “I will not be treated like an invalid. I’ll concede to not carrying my dresser and mattress up the steps. But I won’t be mollycoddled. Understood?”

“So we’re in agreement about the move and not babying you?” Jody asked.

“Looks like it.” Paula nodded. “But right now we’ve got to get to work. Wedding dresses don’t wait, and we’ve got to get Ellie Mae’s bodice done this week for her first fitting.”

“You’re awfully quiet, Mitzi,” Jody said. “Are you having second thoughts?”

“I’m sorry. I was thinking about whether it would be wise to get a mover to just come take care of it for us or to use your truck and make a dozen trips,” Mitzi answered.

From the slight blush on Mitzi’s face, Jody didn’t believe that was the entire truth and nothing but the truth, but she didn’t argue. “We should use my truck and save the money. No more than y’all’ve got, we can do it in probably five trips,” Jody said. “Get it all out tonight, and then put things away a little at a time.”

Mitzi nodded in agreement. “I’ll call Granny and Daddy. They both have trucks and they’ll be glad to help. Lord have mercy! Our lives have sure changed since we left work on Friday.”

“Thank God I’ve got y’all to help me through it,” Jody whispered. “It seems like Saturday was a hundred years ago.”

“Amen.” Paula laid a hand on Jody’s arm.

As Jody worked that morning, she really tried to keep her mind off the fact that the trailer where she’d lived for more than a decade was being taken to a ranch near Greenville that day. But it was impossible. One minute she tried to figure out what she could have done different—was this partly her fault for not giving him more attention, more sex, less nagging? The very next thought was that the damn stone in her bra was doing nothing to keep her from wanting to tie him to a chair and use him for target practice.

Paula nudged her ankle with a toe. “Penny for your thoughts.”