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"I don&039;t kno it got to be Thursday"

"It has sood" Hayley hunched her shoulders sheepishly "I know a lot of stupid things I don&039;t knohy"

"I wasn&039;t looking for the origin of the word,from the mirror in the employee bathroom

"Pretty sure"

"I&039;ll just take your word on that one Okay" She spread out her arms "How do I look?"

"You look really nice"

"Too nice? You know, too forht nice" The fact was, she envied the way Stella looked in siray pants and black sweater Sort of tailored, and curvy under it When she wasn&039;t pregnant, she herself tended to be on the bony side and flat-chested

"The sweater makes you look really built," she added

"Oh, God!" Horrified, Stella crossed her arainst her breasts "Too built? Like, hey, look at ed Stella&039;s arot really excellent boobs"

"I&039;m nervous It&039;s ridiculous, but I&039; nervous, which is why I hardly ever aed at the sleeve of her sweater, brushed at it "Why do so you hate?"

"It&039;s just a casual afternoon outing" Hayley avoided the D word They&039;d been over that "Just go and have fun"

"Right Of course Stupid" She shook herself off before walking out of the rooot my cell number"

"Everybody has your cell number, Stella" She cast a look at Ruby, who answered it with chuckle

"I think the mayor probably has it on speed dial"

"If there are any problems at all, don&039;t hesitate to use it And if you&039;re not sure about anything, and can&039;t find Roz or Harper, just call &039;s not co until three" She slapped a hand over her &039;s what I "

"Ha ha"

"And the hter out of Ruby at that and grinned madly "So you can chill"

"I don&039;t think chilling&039;s on today&039;s schedule"

"Can I ask how long it&039;s been since you&039;ve been on a date - IA few ht back "I was busy There was a lot to do with selling the house, packing up, arranging for storage, researching schools and pediatricians down here I didn&039;t have time"

"And didn&039;t have anyone whoit today"

"It&039;s not like that Why is he late?" she de at her watch "I knew he&039;d be late He has &039;I&039;&039; written all over him"

When a customer came in, Hayley patted Stella&039;s shoulder "That&039;s ood ti over to the customer

Stella waited another couple ofherself that Hayley had the new custo done where work needed to be done, and she had nothing to do but wait

Deciding to do her waiting outside, she grabbed her jacket

Her planters looked good, and she figured her display of them was directly responsible for the flats of pansies they&039;dthe case, they could add a few more planters, do a couple of half whiskey barrels, add so, she wandered around, picking out the best spots to place displays, to add other touches that would inspire custoan pulled up at quarter after one, she was sitting on the steps, listing the proposed displays and arrange theot up even as he cli up"

"No proble in the truck?"

"Wouldn&039;t be the first tiot in, and as she buckled her seat belt, studied the forest of notes and reminders, sketches and math calculations stuck to his dashboard

"Your filing system?"

"Most of it" He turned on the CD player, and Elvis rocked out with "Heartbreak Hotel" "See fan?"

"You&039;ve got to respect the King"

"How many times have you been to Graceland?"

"Couldn&039;t say People come in from out of town, they want to see it You visit Memphis, you want Graceland, Beale Street, ribs, the Peabody&039;s duck walk"

Maybe she could chill, Stella decided They were just talking, after all Like normal people "Then this is the first tic on h his eyes were shielded by the black lenses, she knew, frole of his head, that they were narroith speculation "You&039;ve been here, what, around a one for ribs?"

"No Will I be arrested?"

"You a vegetarian?"

"No, and I like ribs"

"Honey, you haven&039;t had ribs yet if you haven&039;t had Meht I&039;d met them once"

"My father and his wife, yeah Will and Jolene Dooley"

"And no ribs?"

"I guess not Will they be arrested?"

"They ive you, and the"

"Guess we&039;ll owe you"

"Heartbreak Hotel" moved into "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" This was her father&039;s ht It was odd, and kind of sweet, to be driving along, tapping her foot, on the way to Me to the er

"What you do is you take the kids to the Reunion for ribs," Logan told her "You can walk over to Beale froo by the Peabody so they can see the ducks Kids gotta see the ducks"

"My father&039;s taken theht keep him out of the slamht it would be, and she felt foolish knowing she&039;d prepared several avenues for small talk "Except for the time you moved north, you&039;ve always lived in the Meht"

"It&039;s strange forno real memory of it I like it here, and I like to think - overlooking the lack of ribs to date - that there&039;s a connection for h a su for Roz"

"She&039;s a jewel"

Because she heard the affection in his tone, she shifted toward him a bit "She thinks the saht the two of you were "

His grin spread "No kidding?"

"She&039;s beautiful and clever, and you&039;ve got a lot in coot a history"

"All true Probably the historylike that weird But thanks"

"I admire her so much I like her, too, but I have such adle-handedly Raising her faround up And all the while doing it her oay, calling her own shots"

"Is that what you want?"

"I don&039;t want o But that sort of leap with no parachute and two kids?" She shook her head "Roz is gutsier than I am Besides, I realized it wasn&039;t what I really wanted I like working for so in with a creative and efficient plan for i is what I do best"

She waited a beat "No sarcastic comments to that?"

"Only on the inside That way I can save theain"

"I can hardly wait In any case, it&039;s like, I enjoy planting a garden fro one that&039;s not planned very well, or needs so it around"

She paused, frowned "Funny, I just reo A really strange drea spooky about it I can&039;t quite get it back, but there was soeous blue dahlia Dahlias are a particular favorite of mine, and blue&039;s my favorite color Still, it shouldn&039;t have been there, didn&039;t belong there I hadn&039;t planted it But there it was Strange"

"What did you do with it? The dahlia?"

"Can&039;t rearden and the exotic dahlia went poof" And the rooht, the roo well, a little tummy distress"

"He okay now?"

"Yeah" Another point for his side, Stella thought "He&039;s fine, thanks"

"How about the tooth?"

Uh-oh, second point The man remembered her baby&039;d had a loose tooth "Sold to the Tooth Fairy for a crisp dollar bill Second one&039;s about to wiggle out He&039;s got the cutest little lisp going on right now"

"His big brother teach hirie"

"What you don&039;t know I bet it&039;s still there - thein dreaht" Kill it God, where did that co off a shudder

"It was pretty spectacular, as I recall"

She glanced around as he pulled into a parking lot "Is this it?"

"It&039;s across the road This is like the visitors&039; center, the staging area We get our tickets inside, and they take groups over in shuttles"

He turned off the engine, shifted to look at her "Five bucks says you&039;re a convert e come back out"

"An Elvis convert? I don&039;t have anything against hi an Elvis CD, minimum, after the tour"

"That&039;s a bet"

It was so ined She&039;d pictured so mansionlike, close to the level of Harper House Instead, it was a relatively modest-sized home, and the rooms - at least the ones the tour enco with the rest of the tourists, listening to Lisa Marie Presley&039;s recorded h the provided headset

She puzzled over the pleated fabric in shades of curry, blue, andevery inch of wall in the craame room Then wondered at the waterfall, the wild-ani of green shag carpet in the jungle rooht Not just someone, but an icon - a man of miraculous talent and fame And it eet to listen to the woman who&039;d been a child when she&039;d lost her famous father, talk about the man she remembered, and loved

The trophy roo to her, and immediately replaced her style quibbles with awe It see hallere covered, cheek by joith Elvis&039;s gold and platinum records All that accomplished, all that earned in fewer years, really, than she&039;d been alive

And with Elvis singing through her headset, she admired his accomplishe costuraphs, his movie posters, and the snippets of interviews

You learned a lot about soan discovered Some snickered over the dated and debatably tacky decor So Others bopped along, rubbernecking or chatting, et it all in and push on to the souvenir shops Then they could go home and say, been there, done that

But Stella looked at everything And listened He could tell she was listening carefully to the recording, the way her head would cock just an inch to the right Listening soberly, he thought, and he&039;d bet a lot more than five bucks that she followed the instructions on the tape, pressing the correct nument at exactly the proper time

It was kind of cute actually

When they stepped outside to rave, she took off her headphones for the first tian "Nothing more than the bare basics, really Over a billion records sold? It&039;s beyond coine what it would be like to do all that andwhat are you grinning at?"

"I bet if you had to take an Elvis test right now, you&039;d ace it"

"Shut up" But she laughed, then sobered again when she walked through the sunlight with hirave

There were flowers, live ones wilting in the sun, plastic ones fading in it And the little gravesite beside the swiht Cameras snapped around the

"People claiestured "That is, if he&039;s really dead"

"You don&039;t believe that"

"Oh, yeah, Elvis left the building a long tihost"

"Well, if he was going to haunt any place, this would be it"

They wound around toward the shuttle pickup "People are awfully casual about ghosts around here"

It took him a minute "Oh, the Harper Bride Seen her yet?"

"No, I haven&039;t But that may only be because, you know, she doesn&039;t exist You&039;re not going to tell me you&039;ve seen her"

"Can&039;t say I have Lot of people clai peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches at some diner ten years after he died"

"Exactly!" She was so pleased with his good sense, she gave hiht punch on the arm "People see what they want to see, or have been schooled to see, or expect to Iht conditions or atardens here, don&039;t you think?"

"Don&039;t get ht No shop talk Instead, I&039;ll just thank you for bringing otten around to it on my own"

"What&039;d you think?"

"Sad and sweet and fascinating" She passed her headphones back to the attendant and stepped on the shuttle "Some of the rooms were, let&039;s say, unique in decor"

Their arms bumped, brushed, stayed pressed to each other in the narrow confines of the shuttle&039;s seats Her-hair ski his shoulder until she shoved it back He was sorry when she did

"I knew this guy, big Elvis fan He set about duplicating Graceland in his house Got fabric like you saw in the gas"

She turned to face hi"

He sier over his heart "Even put a scar on his pool table tothose yellow appliances - "

"Harvest gold"

"Whatever When he starting ave him notice Her or Elvis"

Her face was alive with huers There was soht through him

"And which did he choose?"

"Huh?"