matter,” Tammy insisted. “Not only has it been six months since you purchased the garment, it was altered. It can’t be returned.” She pushed the dress across the store counter, adding with patently false regret, “Store policy, you know. One my regular customers completely understand.”
The condescending glance she swept over Ally’s worn jeans and John Deere T-shirt—clean and green and bought on sale at the feed store—made Ally lift her chin. Ally had known Tammy Pitts (née Peale) all her life. After trapping William Pitts, a man twice her age, into marriage, Tammy had convinced her henpecked husband to let her open a boutique which—since most of the town refused to pay the prices Tammy charged—primarily served as a front for Tammy’s shopping addiction.
But when planning her wedding to Cole, Misty’d been determined to give her hometown as much business as possible. So she’d herded her bridesmaids to Tamara’s Treasures. Although the others had been dismayed by Tammy’s “hick-town slim pickin’s,” as one anorexic redhead had put it, Ally’s only dismay had been the cost of the final selection. Emptying her small savings account for a dress she’d probably wear once had scandalized her thrifty soul. But she’d bitten back her protests, not wanting to embarrass either herself or Cole in front of the other women, for whom price was obviously not a consideration at all.
Serves me right for not speaking up then, Ally thought bitterly. Because sure as stink on a cross-eyed skunk I’m going to be embarrassed, anyway, once Tammy tells everyone in town that I tried to return the dress.
Before she could grab the dress and escape, the bell above the door to the shop chimed.
Tammy directed a broad smile at the person entering. “Hello, Misty,” Tammy said, then glanced at Ally with speculative interest.
Ally turned to see Misty Sanderson hovering in the doorway, looking as startled to see Ally, as Ally was to see her. Although they were the same age, Ally had never known the petite blonde very well, since rather than the public school in Tangleweed Ally had attended, Raymond Sanderson had sent his only daughter to a private boarding school in the east.
During Misty’s engagement to Cole, the two women had become friends but Ally loved her brother—warts and all—and she couldn’t forgive the blonde for the pain she’d caused him. So neither woman had seen the other since the breakup.
For a fleeting second, Ally thought Misty would ignore her now. But after the barest hesitation, Misty smiled briefly at Ally, then returned Tammy’s greeting with a casual hello.
“I’ve come to pick up that jacket I ordered. Has it come in yet?” Misty asked Tammy as she walked toward the counter.
“Oh, yes. It’s in the rear.” Tammy’s inquisitive gaze flicked from Misty’s face to Ally’s, before she added with obvious reluctance, “I’ll go get it.”
As soon as the sharp tippety-tip-tap of Tammy’s high heels faded in the back room, Misty turned to Ally, asking politely, “How are you, Ally?”
“I’m fine,” Ally responded in the same tone. “And you?”
“Doing great,” Misty said emphatically, widening her lips in a smile that didn’t quite reach her dark brown eyes. “I’ve been busy, what with—” Her smile faltered as she recognized the dress on the counter. “Oh! It’s your bridesmaid dress.” She looked at Ally, tilting her head questioningly. “Why did you bring it here?”
“I’m returning it,” Ally said bluntly, as she started to bundle the blue froth of material into her arms. Not bothering to soften her tone she added, “I don’t need it, after all, since there’s never going to be a wedding. Not between you and Cole, anyway.”
Misty stared at her while the tippety-tip-tap signaling Tammy’s return grew louder. Then suddenly her face crumpled. She whirled toward the door.
Shaken by the raw anguish in Misty’s eyes, Ally dropped her dress to chase after her. Misty sped outside and Ally reached the door just as Tammy called out, “Wait! Where y’all going?”
“To get coffee.”
She caught up with Misty in front of Virgil’s Hardware two stores away, and grasped the other girl’s arm to stop her, aghast at the sight of the tears on Misty’s cheeks. Misty had always appeared so sophisticated and in control to Ally. And smiling— Ally couldn’t remember a time when perky Misty had been sad or upset. But Misty was definitely upset now. Sobs shook her slender shoulders as she leaned against the hardware’s brick siding, tears seeping from beneath the trembling hand she’d lifted to cover her eyes.
Ally felt terrible. “I’m sorry, Misty,” she said softly. Not knowing what else to do and afraid Tammy would appear at any moment, she added, “Look, can we go someplace and talk? Have coffee?”
Misty hesitated, then nodded.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Ally steered the smaller girl toward the truck she’d parked a few yards away. Ally unlocked the passenger door for Misty to climb in, then went around to the driver’s side. Once inside, Ally rolled down her window to relieve some of the relentless heat, and Misty listlessly followed suit as Ally started the motor and put the truck in gear. They traveled the four blocks up Main Street to Daisy’s Diner, passing the Deer Processing Plant and the bank without exchanging a word.
When they reached the diner, Ally parked beneath a withered pecan growing by the curb. The shade of the tree was welcome, easing the heat, and for a minute or two after Ally cut the motor, the two sat while a hot breeze drifted through the cab, Misty cried, and Ally tried to decide what to do.
She glanced over as Misty sat up a little straighter to open the handbag in her lap. The blonde fumbled around inside, then pulled out a tissue to stem the tears still trickling from her eyes. It didn’t help; the tears kept coming, and the sight of her obvious distress finally shattered the reserve Ally’d been determined to maintain.
“If you still care so much, Misty,” she blurted out, “then why did you break up with him?”
“Is that what he said?” Misty whipped around to face her so fiercely that Ally shrank involuntarily against the door. “That I broke up with him? Because if he did, your brother is nothing but a liar!“
The door handle was gouging Ally’s back but she stayed put, alarmed by the hot flare of anger in Misty’s eyes. “Yes—well, no. Cole never talked about it. I just assumed—”
“You just assumed I was the kind of woman who would dump a man on a whim weeks before the wedding.” Misty’s lips quivered and she pressed them firmly together. “Well, I didn’t. I love—loved Cole with all my heart. There was nothing I wanted in this world more than to be his wife.”
The sorrow in Misty’s voice, the hopeless yearning in her face, was unmistakable.
Ally said helplessly, “But I know Cole loves you….”
“Apparently not.” Bitterness tainted Misty’s sweet Texas twang as she added, “Or at least, not enough to marry me.”
“But he does, I know he does,” Ally insisted. “I just don’t understand why he broke up with you.”
“Oh, don’t you? Well, his excuse was Troy O’Malley.” Misty blew her little nose defiantly. “He refused to believe me when I assured him there’s
