She only listened a second before putting it back. “He says he’ll have to go home and change clothes, but he’ll be here soon as he can. Now come on, Dixie. We got a mannequin to move and a bouquet to make. God, I love this job.”

“Me, too,” Dixie said as she headed toward the kitchen.

“You going to let them move it all by themselves?” Jody whispered.

Mitzi pushed back her chair. “Not only that, but I’m going to turn them loose on redoing the foyer.”

“I’m likin’ this idea of having helpers a lot,” Paula said.

Jody frowned. “But what if they don’t do it to suit us? Will you let them down easy when we have to redo it ourselves? I couldn’t bear to hurt their feelings.”

Memories flooded back of all the times when she’d tried to do something nice for her mother only to have it backfire. No wonder it had been so easy to move in with Lyle and to want to please him so much after living with her mother. Jody remembered one time when she thought it would make Wanda happy if she cleaned house for her while she was at the beauty shop.

Without even realizing it, Jody put her hands over her ears as she replayed the sound of her mother screaming that day: “You’ve washed all the glitter off my precious angel. Now it’s worthless. Why can’t you ever do anything right?”

Wanda had picked up the tiny angel knickknack, thrown it in the trash can, and for years, if she thought about it, she still got angry.

So that’s why I tried so hard to please Lyle, Jody thought.

“Of course,” Mitzi said as she left the room.

It took Jody a while to remember why Mitzi would even say that, but then she remembered the conversation about the foyer.

“She’s still crushing on Graham, isn’t she?” Paula whispered.

“Probably always will.” Jody toyed with one of her long braids. “Is that the reason she wants his daughters around?”

“I don’t think so. She loves kids and they remind her of us when we were in school.” Paula pulled her dark hair out of her ponytail and shook it loose. “I’m getting a headache, so I’m going to the kitchen for an aspirin.”

“Are you all right? Do we need to call the doctor?”

Paula held up a palm. “I’m fine. It’s just a headache.”

“I’ll go with you. I want a soda and one of those candy bars in the drawer,” Jody answered. She had to push back the guilty feelings about eating candy and drinking soda. First her mother had fat shamed her and then Lyle had, too.