The restaurant was crowded enough so they would have to wait thirty minutes at the bar if they wanted to stay. Jolly and Ricky gave Mimi the only barstool left as they stood next to her and talked about the dove tailed drawers Jolly had made for Mimi's bedroom dresser.

"Guys, could we talk about something other than woodworking techniques? It makes me feel useless if all I can contribute to the conversation is, my underwear looks really nice in there."

"What would you like to talk about?" asked Jolly accepting a nacho chip covered in salsa from Mimi.

"The gazebo you're putting in the backyard would be a good start," said Mimi backhanding Jolly in the stomach. She kept the smile on her face as her eyes looked toward the door of the restaurant.

Christina was talking with the host as the older couple with her stood back a few feet. She turned to them and said something that got them to nod their heads and close the door. Mimi dunked another chip into the salsa and held it up for Jolly. With any luck Christina and her guests would head to the other side of the bar and Jolly wouldn't notice them.

Mimi wasn't the only one who noticed the joy that broke across Christina's face when she saw Jolly standing at the bar. Ricky took a second to size up who he now considered the compet.i.tion. The casual outfit made the blonde look impossibly more beautiful to Mimi, who cursed her rotten luck.

"h.e.l.lo, Jolly, how've you been?"

Almost for the second time in one night Jolly came close to losing another beer bottle. It was weird, Christina had hurt her by her actions, but that part of her brain that liked really pretty girls didn't care when she looked at the gallery owner.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend, Jolly?" asked Ricky getting Jolly to look at him.

"This is Christina Griffin, she's the owner of the sheet rock we'll be hanging tomorrow. Christina, this is Ricky Mulle."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Mulle." Christina shook his hand then held it up to Mimi. "You been busy?"

"I'm working on some new stuff, thank you for asking." The answer was curt and Mimi hoped Christina would take the hint and be on her way. If not she couldn't make any promises as to not adding the entire contents of the salsa container to the nice sweater the gallery owner was wearing.

Having gotten the niceties out of the way, Christina was free to turn her attention back to Jolly. "I want you to meet my parents, Dell and Hillary. I've bragged so much about you, I'm sure they thought you weren't real."

Jolly smiled and shook hands with the couple before introducing Mimi and Ricky. Dell was about to offer to buy them another round when the host called out Jolly's name signaling that their table was ready. She held up a hand to help Mimi off the barstool and didn't let go when she was on her feet.

"Are you in the mood for a burger?" Jolly asked holding Mimi's coat up again.

"I could use a little protein in my diet tonight. How about you, daddy?"

"A burger sounds good, baby. Why don't you give these nice folks our table," Ricky told the host. The young Spanish guy nodded and used the menus in his hand to point Christina and her parents to the waiting table.

Jolly paid their bar tab and shook hands with Dell and Hillary again before they stepped away. "Nice seeing you again, Christina. I hope Tim's keeping you informed of all the stuff we're doing. Now that the outside is done on our end, the interior will start to take shape. With any luck you can be celebrating Christmas in front of the fireplace in the den."

"We'd have left if you feel uncomfortable, Jolly."

"I'm not uncomfortable, it's Ricky's first night in town and I wanted Mimi to enjoy dinner," Jolly looked over Christina's head and smiled at Mimi while she waited for her change.

"Can we have a drink or something soon? I can't stand that you hate me because of what happened."

"I don't hate you. Like I said before, you're a big girl, free to see or sleep with whomever you please. You don't have to answer to me for any action you take."

"No forgiveness in here for me, Jolly?" Christina reached out and tapped Jolly's chest over her heart.

"What's to forgive? You want to have a drink with me, call me."

"Really? It's that simple?"

"Really, it's that simple. Have a nice night." The bartender handed over Jolly's seventy dollars getting a ten back as a tip. She patted Christina's shoulder before walking to Mimi and her father.

The rest of the night went as Jolly had planned, with Mimi loving having her dad home. Ricky was so different from her own clean-cut father that Jolly wondered how Kelly, Mimi's mother, really felt about Anthony. How Anthony felt about Ricky was crystal, the words 'long haired hippy freak' coming to mind.

"Night, kids," said Ricky as Mimi closed the front door. "You coming to get me in the morning?"

"I'll be here at seven. Don't worry, I won't forget you, you know how much I love hanging drywall," answered Jolly. Ricky nodded his head and laughed before kissing Mimi good night. No one in their right mind liked hanging sheet rock.

"You want some coffee?" Mimi asked Jolly as she shed her coat and dropped it on a chair.

Jolly took off her own jacket and nodded her head. It was still early and her place seemed so empty lately.

"Light a fire and I'll be right back," ordered Mimi. When she came back Jolly had a small fire going and was staring into it as if the flames were mesmerizing. Jolly noticed the leather outfit had been replaced by flannel pajamas when Mimi handed her a mug.

"You have fun tonight?"

"Yeah, I love having daddy around. When he disappears on me, I worry about him." Mimi smiled when Jolly moved over and let her sit on the spot she had just warmed up on the leather sofa.

"If he wants, I can keep him busy for months. I like your dad, he's the most genuine person I know aside from you."

"He loves you too, Jolly. You're the only person in your family he can say that about," Mimi kidded. "You doing ok?"

"I was thinking about what I'm going to do when you fall in love and hook up with someone. My Mondays will be all shot to h.e.l.l."

Mimi put her head down on Jolly's shoulder and got more comfortable. "I'm not going to fall in love with just anyone, so our Monday night dates are safe. How about you, Jolly?"

"How about me what?"

Jolly watched the small hand running up and down the top of her leg. She was sure Mimi didn't even realize she was doing it they were so comfortable with each other. "Do you think about falling in love?"

"After seeing what my parents went through and how my father is, I don't know if I'd be the best partner for anyone."

The coffee cup spilled over a little when Mimi put it down in a hurry and swung around to face Jolly. "You'd be great, Jolly, don't say that about yourself. Think about how happy a pack of little kids would be to have you as a parent, not to mention the lucky woman who'll have them for you."

"Wow, how do you figure?"

"Are you kidding? Having the best carpenter and architect for a parent can only mean the best tree houses in the city."

Jolly laughed at Mimi's always optimistic look of the world. "I'll tell you what, when you have that gaggle of kids, I'll be here to build a tree house."

From your lips to G.o.d's ear, thought Mimi as she leaned against Jolly again. For the moment it didn't matter that Jolly had skillfully side stepped her question. There was always time later to think about Christina and ways to keep her away from Jolly.

CHAPTER 3.

"WHEN'S THE MUD guy coming?" asked Ricky. They had stopped to eat lunch after most of the first floor was done. The crew Jolly had working with her was good, fast and didn't need a lot of direction to get things done.

Jolly swallowed the mouthful of sandwich Mimi had packed for them and pointed to a truck that looked even worse than hers. "Already here. Pacho and boys are fast and the best in the business. Once they're done they come back and do the painting if that's what Christina wants."

It was the best opening Ricky could hope for from Jolly. "What's her story?"

"Christina is the owner of the gallery that hosted Mimi's show. Small world huh? I didn't figure who she was until the night I went to Mimi's opening. Long story short, we went out for a while then she f.u.c.ked up."

"f.u.c.ked up?" asked Ricky.

"I went over one night and she was f.u.c.king an old girlfriend. Jolly don't play that."

Ricky laughed at the joke and continued with his fact-finding mission. "You had feelings for her though, am I right?"

"When have you ever known me to see someone for more than a week? Doesn't matter anyway, there's no going back."

You've had Mimi tied in knots for years, so that's not true, Jolly, thought Ricky as he finished his soda. "I don't know, Kelly was s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g big Tony behind my back and I still have feelings for her," fished Ricky.

"Murderous?"

"Sometimes."

"That's a different situation, Rick, Kelly's the mother of your children. That's a bond no amount of animosity can break or change. Christina's someone who cooked me dinner a few times."

"And would like to again," Christina said from behind them.

Ricky looked at the skirt and figured she wasn't there to learn the art of applying mud to drywall. Here was a woman on the hunt and she had painted an imaginary bull's eye on Jolly's forehead.

"I'll be getting back to it, boss," said Ricky as some of those murderous thoughts Jolly had mentioned ran through his head. "Ma'am."

"He doesn't like me, does he?" asked Christina.

Jolly looked up from her seat on the gra.s.s and laughed. "Do you always anoint yourself with so much self-importance?"

"What do you mean?"

"Ricky doesn't know you, so why would you care if he likes you or not?"

"Can we start over? Maybe you could give me a tour, then go out for that drink you promised?" asked Christina.

Jolly took her around the house with a pad in hand making notes of any changes Christina wanted. The blonde approved the hiring of the painters and hung on every word out of Jolly's mouth. It thrilled her that Jolly even walked her back to the car when she had run out of excuses to stay.

"Want to come over tonight and have that drink?"

The flash of the tall naked blonde standing in the hallway ran through Jolly's mind making her shake her head. "I don't think so, Chris. Just give me some more time and we'll see, ok?"

The shortening of her name made Christina smile. It was the first time Jolly had done it in weeks. "I'm sorry, Jolly." The blue eyes similar in color to Jolly's filled with tears at what she had thrown away. It would be so great to share the new house with the woman who was building it.

"Come on now, don't cry. You should be glad I'm p.i.s.sed with you. The mental experts say it means I care. I got angry because I thought we were going somewhere special," said Jolly reaching down to wipe a tear running down Christina's face. Seeing her like this made Jolly wonder if she had been too rash.

"Will you just come when you think you're ready? I'm willing to wait."

"Let's not put any expectations on ourselves." Christina nodded to that, knowing it was better than goodbye for good.

Upstairs Ricky stepped away from the bedroom window so Jolly wouldn't see him on her way back up. "The tears gets them every time. Come on, Jolly, you're smarter than that."

Jolly drove pa.s.sed Christina's apartment four times in the next week never slowing down much less stopping. A part of her wanted to try again since Christina was the first person she felt as comfortable with as Mimi. The feeling came so naturally to compare everyone to Mimi that Jolly never took the time to a.n.a.lyze why she did that.

The one good thing that had happened was a painting Mimi had placed as an entry for the No Aids Task Force's Black and White Ball had been accepted. The honor meant it would be made into signed and numbered prints and the original would be sold at auction the night of the ball. All the money raised would go to the leading organization in New Orleans that cared for all the needy suffering from the disease. It was a good cause, and the exposure the event would get would give Mimi's career as an artist an incredible boost.

Jolly had been thrilled and shocked that the talkative Mimi had been able to keep the whole thing a secret. The best part Jolly guessed was Ricky would be there to share in Mimi's achievement. No matter how much Mimi said she didn't mind Ricky always being gone, Jolly knew better. The pet.i.te blonde craved her father's approval as much as she wanted him to be a part of her life.

The pencil in her hand dropped to the floor as Jolly thought about everything that had happened. Maybe it was time for her to move on because she was tired of being alone. More than one night had been spent thinking about Christina, only to have her morph into Mimi in the leather outfit she had worn to dinner the night Ricky got back to town.

"You look like you're lost," said Ricky stepping into one of the guestrooms upstairs. Like the master suite down the hall, the room had a great view of the lake.

"Just thinking."

"About that pretty blonde thing who keeps sniffing around here like a b.i.t.c.h in heat?"

"Ricky, you're nothing if not blunt," said Jolly bending down to pick up her pencil. She had been in the process of measuring and marking crown molding when the water in the distance had caught her attention.

"Jolly, you know I love you, right?" Jolly nodded her head slowly not knowing where this was going. "I say this with love then, you're a f.u.c.king blockhead."

The pencil she had just picked up snapped in her hand. "Excuse me?"

"You have a wonderful girl who's loved you from the day you two met and you're standing here pining away for some scank who slept with someone else. In my book that makes you a f.u.c.king blockhead." G.o.d, Mimi, please forgive me if this doesn't work, thought Ricky as he waited for the blowup.

"What in the h.e.l.l are you talking about?" Jolly's voice had gotten low and glacial.

"Wake up, Jolly, and take a look at Mimi."

"What does she have to do with anything?"

"Madeline's so in love with you she doesn't see anyone else. As her father, I want you to either do something about it or let her go. I know you care about her but as long as you're there all the time, she's not going to open up to anyone else."

The piece of pencil still clutched in her hand snapped in two again when Ricky was done. "You're crazy, Mimi's not in love with me. She's just a kid for pete's sake!" The thought of that black leather outfit popped into Jolly's head for the thousandth time and she tried to ignore it.

"She's almost twenty three, Jolly. It's time you gave her a life, or the freedom to find one. Making her furniture isn't enough anymore. My kid deserves a life and someone who makes her happy. She wants more than anything for that someone to be you."

Ricky calculated how far he could get on a quarter of a tank when Jolly just walked out. If Mimi found out he had gone back on his word, it wouldn't be far enough. He may not have always been there for her, but he had never broken his word. Not until now.

That night and for the next three Ricky watched Mimi as she stood vigil by the front door waiting for Jolly to come walking through it after work. One more night and he would have to tell her Jolly wasn't coming to work either. The lessons he had learned in Vegas should have taught him the evils of gambling, but Ricky figured it was too late now. He'd gambled on Jolly sweeping Mimi off her feet and he'd failed.