Yesterday's Magic by Beverly Long Page B

loss.” Elizabeth
looked at her brother. “If I hadn’t had Jedidiah, I’m not sure I’d
have made it.”
    Jedidiah McNeil looked like he wished for a
hole to swallow him up. “I’ve got to get to the office,” he said,
his voice gruff with emotion. “You want me to see you home
first?”
    Elizabeth shook her head. “No. Now that I’m
here, I think I’ll pick out some material. It’s been a long time
since I’ve thought about a new dress.”
    Bella heard a noise behind her and Aunt
Freida came out of the back room. “Morning, Jedidiah,” she said.
She walked over to the stove and sat the coffee pot on top of it.
“If you’re interested in a dress, Elizabeth, I’ve got a few
ready-made ones on the rack in the corner. They been going fast,
you know, with tomorrow night being the big dance and all. I’m glad
I picked one out for myself before I…uh…put them out for sale.”
    Elizabeth cocked her head. “You got yourself
a dress for the dance?”
    “Yes.” It appeared as if the word had been
pried out of her aunt’s mouth.
    “I didn’t know you knew how to dance,” Jed
said. He looked genuinely puzzled.
    Aunt Freida straightened up, adding another
inch to her already tall frame. “I’ll have you know, Jedidiah
McNeil, that my Herbert and I were very good dancers. And just
maybe I’ve missed having music in my life?”
    It was a question but she said it like it was
a challenge. “Christ, Freida,” Jed said, irritation now showing in
his gray eyes. “You can’t blame me for asking the question. I meant
no harm.”
    “You’re just damn surprised this old woman
got asked by a man to go to the dance on Saturday night.”
    Jed frowned. “What man?”
    Bella remembered her aunt’s hesitation. “You
don’t have to tell him,” she said quietly.
    Evidently not quietly enough because Jed’s
jaw stiffened and he shot Bella a look. The meaning was clear. She
might be family but he’d been Freida’s friend for years. Aunt
Freida saw the look too and stepped forward.
    “Not that it’s any of your business Jedidiah
McNeil, but if you must know, it’s Thomas Bean,” she said, her tone
just shy of belligerent.
    To his credit, the sheriff didn’t react. He
nodded, like he was considering the information. Then Bella caught
just the hint of a wicked gleam in his eye. “You don’t think he
plans to bring along his mother, do you?” he asked, ever so
innocently.
    Elizabeth took four very quick steps toward
her brother and shoved the heel of her hand into his shoulder.
“Shush,” she said, with all the authority of an older sister
warning a younger brother.
    He rolled his eyes but he didn’t say
anything. Bella understood. She had an
older sister, after all.
    “It doesn’t matter now, anyway,” Freida said.
“I’m not going.”
    “Why not?” Bella asked.
    “I’m just not.” Aunt Freida started to fiddle
with cans of vegetables and fruit and, oh ick, meat. She
stacked and rearranged and generally just created more
disorder.
    What the heck? How was Freida ever going to
know if she and Thomas had the real what ? The woman had
surely planned to go. She’d bought a new dress.
    Suddenly it dawned on Bella why her aunt was
backing out. ‘You don’t want to leave me alone?” she asked.
    Aunt Freida shrugged. “That doesn’t hardly
seem the right way to be treating family.”
    This was wonderful. She was a fifth wheel in
a time when people didn’t even have four wheels. It was even worse
than her friend Tara’s last dinner party. It had occurred shortly
after she and Bradley were no longer a thing. There’d been six
darling couples and her. The table would have set twelve
comfortably—thirteen was a squeeze, and just why did every set of
china come with twelve plates?
    “Please don’t change your plans because of
me, Aunt Freida,” Bella said. “I’ll be quite happy at your house,
with a good book.”
    “No…I really couldn’t—”
    “Jed,” Elizabeth said, interrupting