Page 28 of Until Joy

“Near the front door is the powder room. You can take off your clothes there and put them on one of the kitchen stools,” July told me.

Nodding, I headed into the house, where I found November, Graham, and two other people I didn’t recognize, talking.

“Hey, Joy,” Graham started. “I want to introduce you to Cobi and his fiancée, Hadley. Cobi is a detective with the Murfreesboro police department.” I held out my hand and both of them shook it.

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“What are you doing in here?” Graham asked.

“I just need to go to the powder room for a few moments,” I mumbled.

“It’s down that hall.” November pointed.

I headed down the hall, found the room, and closed the door. After I undressed, I looked in the mirror one more time and took a deep breath.

Here goes nothing.

As soon as I hit the kitchen, Graham stopped mid-sentence. He stared at me. Just like I’d been afraid of. This was totally inappropriate.

“What a cute suit,” November cooed. “I think I’ve seen April wear something just like it.”

“I love it,” Hadley concurred.

I looked over at Graham, wanting to know his opinion. He was still not talking, just staring. Cobi looked over at him and laughed. “I think Graham is in shock.”

“Looks like,” November agreed.

He shook his head and started to grin. “Really like the suit, Doll. You look dangerous.”

Dangerous? What the hell did that mean?

“Come outside. Let’s get you some food,” he said as he held out his hand to me.

I took it and followed him outside to a table groaning under the weight of the food laid out on it buffet-style. Graham picked up two plates from a stack at one end and handed one to me. As we went down the line, he asked me what I wanted and filled my plate for me, as well as his own. It was nice not having to balance my plate and scoop up food at the same time.

After we were done, we meandered over to a picnic table, where July, Wes, Z, Kayan, and a couple of people I didn’t know were seated.

“Let me introduce you,” Graham said. “This is Jax, his wife Ellie, and somewhere around here is their daughter, Hope. This is Joy Magill. She’s renting a room from Miss Laverne. She’s from Jasper Creek.” Graham looked around. “Where is Hope?”

“Mom and Dad are watching her and July’s two boys. I’m pretty sure that my sister’s helping them.” Jax responded.

“Three people for three kids?” I asked.

“Someone has to keep Hope in line. She tends to boss her cousins around. Since she’s older than them by a year, she thinks that she gets to tell them what to do.” Jax grinned with a proud look.

I giggled. “Do they listen to her?”

“Only when she tells them something they want to do,” Ellie laughed. “The time she told them to take one whole pie to the kids' table and just start eating it with spoons, they listened to her just fine.”

Graham and I both burst out laughing. Jax winced. “Yeah, she was mad at them for getting her dress dirty, so she wanted to get them in trouble.”

“So, she’s sneaky and smart.” Graham grinned. “My kind of girl.”

Ellie sighed. “Don’t encourage her.”

“Sounds like she’s going to be a handful when she gets to be a teenager,” I commented. I thought about some things that my cousin Emmie had done back in the day. She might be the soloist in the church choir now, but she was definitely a hellion.

“You better start eating if you want a chance at any of the desserts,” Graham said, pointing to my plate.