I looked around to see if there was a Mercedes parked somewhere in the space we'd just entered, but all I saw were several doors and a glass wall in front of an office that held a computer, filing cabinets, a massive desk, and a couple of leather-covered chairs.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"My business.

"Well, pardon me," I snapped.

"No, I didn't mean that it wasn't your business and mine only. I meant it literally; it is my business, Trudy. This is Tucker Custom-Made Furniture. It is my place of business."

"You make furniture? For how long?"

"Fifteen years. After I got my degree, I figured out what I really enjoyed was building furniture. Gramps had a nice life-insurance policy, and it didn't seem right to squander it, but I gave myself a year to do what I liked before I made up my mind what to do with my life. One of my professors commissioned me to build a few pieces of furniture, and word got around."

"I'm amazed"

"Anyway, you said you wanted a sleigh bed for your new room, so before you go to the furniture store ..:'

"Billy Lee, are you offering to make me a special bedroom suite? That would be wonderful. I wouldn't have to waste time and energy and ..

He slung open a door off to my left and flipped on a light. My breath caught and held. There before me was the most gorgeous bedroom suite I'd ever seen. I didn't care if I had to sell all of Aunt Gert's good jewelry to the man in Oklahoma City. I had to own it.

"Can you make me one just like that?" I whispered. To talk aloud in front of such splendor was sacrilege worse than taking the Lord's name in vain.

.,No, I only make one-of-a-kind furniture. That's why it's called custom-made," he said.

I was unable to tear my eyes from the beautiful queen-size sleigh bed, hutch-topped ten-drawer dresser with matching chest of drawers, bedside tables, and even a tall, skinny lingerie chest. All of which was really too lovely even for the White House. Why had he brought me out here to show me the very essence of my dreams if he wasn't going to make me a set like it? I blew the bottom out of that commandment about not coveting right there and then. It wasn't my neighbor's donkey, which the Good Book said I shouldn't covet, but rather that bedroom suite.

I moaned. "Billy Lee, I could strangle you. Why'd you bring me over here to show me something I can't have?"

"I didn't say that. I said I can't make another one just like it, Trudy. If you want this one, it's yours," he said.

I grabbed him in a fierce hug and stopped just short of kissing him passionately right on the lips. "I was willing to make a deal with Lucifer to get it. How much? I'll write you a check when we get back to the house"

"You cannot buy it. It's already paid for. Gert said to help you fix up the house. This is part of the deal."

"God doesn't have that much money," I protested.

He finally laughed. "God doesn't need money. So you like it?"

"Yes, I do. I really, really want this furniture, and I want you to build more. I want my whole house filled up with your work."

"Honest?"

"Cross my heart"

"Good. I won't have to give back any of Gert's money. I could have the painters help me move it in today. You could probably get a good mattress and box spring down at the furniture store here in town"

"Yes, yes, yes," I singsonged as I ran my hands all over the furniture.

"I measured the spaces you'd have for the dresser and chest, and there was that little place over there in the corner beside the window I thought the lingerie chest might fit into."

"Billy Lee, you are an artist. The next thing I'm going to start talking about is my office. But is all this going to take away from your business?"

"No, the joy of having your own business is that you can take a sabbatical year whenever you want to. I reckon we'll have the house done in about that long. You ready for breakfast? We could make some omelets and French toast if you've got eggs over there"

I was hungry, but I hated to leave my new furniture alone. I wanted to sit there until the men moved it to my bedroom, then spend the rest of the day admiring it.

"There are plenty of eggs. Want biscuits and gravy to go with an omelet instead of French toast?"

He grinned, and I really wanted to kiss him, but I led the way back through the hedge and into my kitchen, where we fell into making breakfast together. He browned a handful of sausage in a cast-iron skillet while I made biscuits. We decided on scrambled eggs rather than omelets. It was as if he read my mind when we worked in the kitchen. If I needed a spoon, he handed it to me before I spoke. I melted butter to just the right temperature, and he had the eggs ready the moment I needed them.

"I bought the new wood, the aspen down in Dallas, for your cabinets in the office. That room isn't as big as the other two bedrooms, so we'll make the most out of all the available space."

I reached up and framed his face with my palms the way Momma did with me when she wanted the truth. "Billy Lee, be honest with me. Did Gert really leave you that much money?"

He looked right into my eyes and said, "Yes, ma'am."

The notion was crazy, but I wanted to talk about something a lot more personal than my office and had no idea how to begin the conversation. I dropped my hands and poured gravy into a bowl.

"Maybe we'd better measure the room," I suggested. "I've been meaning to get a tabletop and a laptop, but I've been too busy to go shopping for either."

"It shouldn't be much bigger than the one in my office. Towers and the new flat monitors don't take up as much real estate as the old ones did. So we can measure my equipment and make the built-ins to fit them"

When had I begun to think of Billy Lee as more than a neighbor? When he'd asked me to stay at the church dinner? Was that the day a friendship had been born? It seemed as if it had evolved slowly from neighborliness to friendship. I vowed I wouldn't ruin it with coveting more, so I started loading my plate with food. But it would have been very easy right then to stop coveting the bedroom suite and start coveting my neighbor.

That evening after we'd stripped paint all day, I took a long bath and went to see Momma. I hoped she was having another good day, because I really, really needed someone to talk to about Billy Lee and my changing feelings.

Lessie shook her head when I opened the door into the lobby. It had not been a good day. I sat down beside Momma on the settee near the piano and patted her leg.

"Crystal came today," Lessie whispered.

My heart dropped all the way to my aching, tired toes. "Crystal was in town?"

"Ungrateful child," Momma said in a strong voice. "You raised her wrong, Trudy. Gave her everything, and now nothing is good enough. What's the matter with young girls today? Want the world laid at their feet. You should send her to Gert for six months. That woman could straighten out the spawn of the devil."

"Gert is dead. Remember?"

Her eyes brimmed with tears that fell down her wrinkled cheeks. "Oh, no, when did Gert die? I must shop for a new suit for the funeral. Is it tomorrow?"

"Momma, Gert died back in May. Remember? I inherited her house, and you came to visit me and helped me decide where to put the quilts." I tried to bring her back to the present gently.