Eric took a deep breath and ran his hand over his cropped hair. "Okay, okay."

"The cost will be less than half of what it would cost you to tear out the entire wall and install support beams between the buildings," Oscar said. "You're lucky that the two buildings share a common wall. Eric was so sure you'd love this design, I went ahead and drew up a rough estimate."

Jody took the sheet and studied it. The figures were much lower than she antic.i.p.ated. With a glance at Denise, who was also frowning, she cleared her throat. "Oscar, I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, but these figures seem awfully low to me."

"That's because they don't include labor costs," he said.

Eric piped up, "We're going to be the labor."

"We?" Denise asked, clearly horrified at the idea.

Jody had a vague memory of Eric's talking about them doing the work themselves, but with everything that had been going on, she had forgotten about it.

"We can do it," Jody said.

Denise looked at her skeptically. "How? What do you know about ripping out walls and building things?"

"Not a lot," Jody admitted. "But it doesn't look that complicated."

"We can," Eric said and motioned between himself and Oscar. "You two will continue to run the shop and help out with the manual labor. Oscar and I can do the carpentry work."

"Aha!" Denise said. "There's the problem. I don't do manual labor."

Jody chuckled. "Denise, do you like this design?"

"I love it," Denise admitted.

Jody turned to Eric. "Do you two have enough experience to handle this?"

"I can certainly handle the designs," Oscar said.

"I worked as an a.s.sistant carpenter with my uncle, every summer until I joined the Marines," Eric a.s.sured her. "This is not brain surgery. We'll have to have an electrician come in to complete all of the electrical changes, but the construction is actually minor."

"Then let's do it," Jody said and held out her hand.

Eric quickly placed his hand on top of Jody's hand. Oscar covered Eric's hand with his own.

Denise looked at them and shook her head. "I'm surrounded by crazy people." She laid her hand over Oscar's. "I'm not doing manual labor," she insisted.

Chapter Thirty-Two.

While making deliveries later that afternoon, Jody decided to stop by Leti and Maricela's nursery to pick up the rosebush she would be planting for Ellen.

Inside the nursery, several customers were shopping. She glanced out the large window that filled most of the back wall and spied both Leti and Maricela outside helping customers.

"I'm surprised to see you here."

Jody turned to a familiar voice and saw Sharon. She braced herself for more of Sharon's anger.

"Don't worry, I'm over it," Sharon said and smiled.

Still leery, Jody gave a weak smile. "It's good to see you. I didn't know you were a gardener."

Sharon shook her head. "We didn't learn too much about each other, did we?"

Jody blushed at the memory of why they never talked. Sharon laughed outright at Jody's obvious discomfort.

"What's so funny?" a voice called out.

Jody froze. She could never forget a voice as distinctive as Pat Rodriguez's. Jody held her breath, certain she had stumbled into some version of ex-lovers' h.e.l.l.

Sharon laughed even harder.

Pat stepped from behind a display of wind chimes. The tall, longhaired Amazon was the complete opposite of her short, stocky sister, Maricela. "Well, would you look at who's here? Long time no see, Jody." Pat gave Jody a quick hug.

Sharon wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. "Oh, Jody, the look on your face is absolutely priceless." She gave Jody a long, hard hug.

Jody began to recover her wits. "What are you doing here?" she asked Sharon.

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you."

"Try me," Jody prompted.

"Well, after I left your house that day"-Sharon looked at Jody and grimaced, leaving Jody with no doubt as to which day she was talking about-"I went to Artie's to cry in my coffee."

Jody nodded. Sharon was addicted to coffee. She and Sharon had gone to the coffee shop several times while they were dating.

"I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself and Pat walks in," Sharon said. "The coffee shop was packed. I watched her looking around for a table, and there weren't any, so I invited her to sit with me. One thing led to another, and guess whose name came up?"

Jody cringed, which made Pat and Sharon smile.

Pat picked up the story. "After we had a really good Jody Scott bashing, we went for walk, and then to dinner, and the rest, as they say, is history."

They looked happy and Jody felt a small sense of relief rush over her. "So, you two are together?"

"Yeah," Pat said as she put an arm around Sharon's shoulder. "Ironically enough, we have you to thank."

"I'm glad," Jody said. "You're both wonderful people, and you deserve to be happy."

"What about you and the teenybopper?" Sharon asked.

Caught off guard by her question, Jody hesitated just long enough for Sharon to shake her head and sigh.

"Jody, don't tell me you've already dumped that poor girl."

Jody shrugged. "Actually, she dumped me." To Jody's horror, tears began to stream down her face. She tried to turn away, but both women saw her tears.

Sharon reached over and put an arm around her. "Honey, I'm so sorry."

Tears flowed down her cheeks. The more she tried to control them, the harder she cried.

Customers were beginning to look their way when Pat took Jody's arm and said, "Come on." They led her to the back of the shop, to a small break room furnished with a sofa.

"Get her a gla.s.s of water," Sharon said as she pushed Jody down onto the sofa. "Tell us what's going on."

The need to talk overwhelmed Jody. She told them everything that had happened since the day Sharon had arrived to find her and Ellen in robes. After finishing her story, she felt a small sense of relief. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the back of the sofa.

The room was silent for several seconds, before Sharon finally spoke. "I don't know what to say."

"Is there anything we can do to help?"

Jody's eyes flew open. She turned to find Leti and Maricela standing in the doorway. She hadn't heard them come in. Leti was waiting for Jody to answer her question. Afraid the tears would return if she opened her mouth, she shook her head.

Leti came over and sat on the arm of the sofa next to her. "My sister had breast cancer," Leti said. "That was about eight years ago, and she's fine now. She just celebrated her fiftieth birthday."

A bell dinged in the shop, letting them know they had a customer.

Maricela patted Leti's shoulder. "I'll go," she said and went out.

"What are you going to do?" Sharon asked.

Jody shrugged. "What can I do? If she doesn't want to see me, then I have to respect her wishes."

"Are you sure she doesn't want to see you?" Leti asked.

Jody looked at her and frowned. "I think I can be safe in answering yes to that."

Leti shook her head and said, "I don't know, Jody. Sometimes we say one thing but mean something totally different. I remember when Rachel, my sister, was diagnosed. She withdrew from everyone. Later, she told me, she couldn't bear to see the fear in our eyes. Our fear became an extra burden for her. It was easier to avoid us completely. Solitude provided her with the luxury of focusing totally on herself. We grow up believing that it's selfish to dwell only on ourselves, but I think sometimes we have to."

"How did you get her to start talking to you again?"

"We waited and gave her the s.p.a.ce she needed. It took time, but she eventually found her own way back."

The chime on the shop door rang again. Jody glanced at her watch and said, "I've got to get going. I still have deliveries to make." She looked up as Maricela came back in. "Sorry I blubbered all over everyone."

Sharon patted her shoulder. "We all need to blubber sometimes."

Jody smiled and started to leave. "I almost forgot why I came. I wanted to buy another Belinda's Dream rosebush."

Leti instantly went into her gardener's mode. "Did something happen to the other one? If it died, we'll replace it."

"No," Jody said. "My roses are fine. I wanted to get one to plant in Denise's yard." She suddenly felt embarra.s.sed by what she was about to do. She looked up to find Sharon peering at her and smiling. "What?"

Sharon chuckled and said, "Jody Scott, you really are a romantic at heart. I don't believe it. You're not planting this rosebush for Denise, are you?"

Jody shook her head and told them the story about Ellen's childhood imaginary friend named Belinda and how Ellen had felt protected whenever Belinda was around. By the time she finished her story, tears glistened in everyone's eyes.

Maricela rubbed her hand roughly across her face. "I'll go get the rosebush," she said.

Jody hugged the remaining three women and pulled out her wallet.

"No," Leti said, pushing the wallet away. "This one is on the house. You just make sure you don't let Ellen slip away from you."

Jody tried to speak around the lump in her throat caused by Leti's words. All she could manage was a nod. She left quickly before she started crying again.

Maricela was standing by Jody's delivery van with the potted rosebush on the ground beside her. She picked it up as Jody approached. "I watered it earlier this morning, so it'll be fine while you make your rounds. Just make sure you don't leave it in the van afterward."

Jody nodded. "Thanks for everything," she said as she took the plant.

Maricela slid one hand into her back pocket and rubbed the other one over her short black hair. "Call if you need anything," she said.

Surprised, Jody looked at her. "I thought you didn't like me."

Maricela shrugged. "Until I met Leti, Pat was the only family I had. Our parents were killed in a car wreck when I was twelve and Pat was five. An aunt took us in, but she was always kind of cranky, and two kids didn't do much to improve her disposition. I always sort of looked out for Pat."

Jody nodded and placed the plant in the back of the van.

As she walked back around to get in the truck, Maricela gave her a small slap on the shoulder. "You take care of yourself."

Jody smiled. "You too, Maricela." She crawled into the van and rolled the window down. "Pat's a lucky woman. The world could use more sisters like you."

A blush raced across Maricela's face, but she smiled slightly and nodded.

As Jody drove away, she looked into her side mirror. The four women stood in a small huddle staring after her. A few hours ago, she wouldn't have considered any one of them a true friend, but something had changed. They had all come to support her in a moment of need. Suddenly, she didn't feel quite so alone, and a tiny spark of hope flared within her. If her differences with these women could be resolved, maybe there was still some hope with Ellen.

Chapter Thirty-Three.

Jody was in bed watching television later that night when the phone rang. She s.n.a.t.c.hed it up, hoping it was Denise, who hadn't returned to the shop after taking Ellen for her radiation treatment. Jody had been out on deliveries when she called the shop to say she wouldn't be back.

"Hi, it's me." Denise sounded tired.

"Is Ellen all right?"

"Yes. She wasn't feeling well after the treatment and I didn't want to leave her alone. She's doing better now. I'm sorry I'm calling so late, but I waited until she went to bed."

"How much longer is she going to keep me away?" Jody asked, frustrated.