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She nods, and I know she’s afraid I’m prolonging my breakdown. I tend to do that. But I’m not; honestly, I feel nothing. All I want is to love my girls and make sure I give them both all the happiness I can provide. Starting with the best damn dance party they’ve ever had.
“The hem is coming out.” Lora Randall holds up the dress. “I never should have bought this thing, it’s been a mess from the second I got it home. The rhinestones are falling off. The sleeve stitching came loose and now this.”
She points toward the bottom hem and my gaze follows her movements.
“You do know I could have made you a dress that would have held up?”
Immediately she hangs her head. “I know this.” She looks ashamed. “But I was visiting my cousin and had a buy now-think later moment. Like I said…regret. I am drowning in it. Can you help?”
“When do you need it by?”
“Saturday.” It’s doable. “I have to leave by nine to make it to Mobile in time for the pageant check in.”
“I can have it ready for you to pick up by six, Friday. Will that work?”
“You are a life saver, Zoey.” She passes me the dress. “And I will never buy a dress again for a pageant unless it’s a custom-made Zoey creation.”
She practically skips out the front door just as it comes open and my father steps in carrying two cups of coffee. I can sense by the look on his face he’s less than pleased. When he’s irritated or angry, he gets this squinty eye thing going on. His brows are scrunched, his lips pursed.
“Hey,” I stay behind the counter wondering what I could have done to piss him off as I start to run through the last couple days.
“Busy day?”
“Working on a custom-made flower girl dress and a few other orders that I’m trying to finish up.” He approaches the counter and offers me one of the cups. “Picked you up one of those fufu drinks you like.”
“Fufu?”
“Yeah.” He waves his hand. “The caramel, whipped with sprinkles shit.”
I smile, wondering how he actually ordered it if he couldn’t say it now. Then realize he most likely had my mother write it down or she texted it to him. Maybe ordered ahead, but he definitely got help on this one.
“Thank you,” I offer with a smile.
“I saw Emma at Jitterbug.” He eyes me, and I am still not getting it. “Seems you got a call last night from a certain someone.”
I will kill her!
“I guess she thought I would already know.” He seems disappointed.
“He called, I pretty much told him to go to hell, end of story. Didn’t seem like a big enough reason to activate the phone tree.”I shrug. “Seems he’s got himself in some trouble and doesn’t have anyone to bail him out. Not sure why he thought I’d be that person.”
“Is this something I need to handle?”
“I already called Reece this morning, I’m pretty sure Carson won’t be calling me anymore.”
“Did I tell you I had a talk with Jayson?”
“What?” Now I’m interested.
“We ran into each other outside of Willy’s one night.”
I remain silent, unsure of exactly where this may be going. My father doesn’t dislike him, but after all the sneaking around when we were kids, the jury is still out on his true feelings.
“You ran into each other? Or you sought him out?” I ask, staring at him raising a brow in question.
“Ran into him and saw it as my opportunity to clear some things up.” I wait, knowing there is more. “He’s not the man I thought he was.”
“Meaning?”
