Hissy Fit (38 page)

I got up, turned with my back to the mirror, and adjusted my dress.

“I forgot to tell you earlier,” he said, standing in the open doorway. “You look amazing. Incredible. Even better than the night we met.”

“Thank you,” I said, blushing at the rare compliment.

“There’s just one thing,” he said, walking toward me with a frown. “It’s been driving me crazy all night.”

“What?” I twisted around to look at myself again in the mirror.

“This,” he said, standing behind me. He looped his finger under the strap of my black lace push-up bra, which had slipped down onto my shoulder. He bent over and kissed my shoulder, and then my neck, and then the hollow of my throat, and then my earlobes, and then, finally, he turned me around and his lips found mine.

With his arms around me, I forgot where I was, and who I was. And I think he forgot too. After a long time, his hand found the zipper of my tightly fitted dress. The dress had begun to fall off my shoulders when I sensed, rather than heard, someone else in the room.

“About goddamn time,” Miss Nancy roared. And then she leaned in, flipped the lock on the doorknob, and gently closed the door.

• 2 cups whipping cream or half-and-half
  
• 8 cups chicken broth, divided
  
• 2 cups grits—not instant or quick cooking
  
• 1 lg. bag frozen collard greens
  
• 2 sticks butter
  
• 2½ cups parmesan cheese
  
• ½ tsp. fresh ground pepper
  
• 1 cup cooked and crumbled bacon
  

Grease 13 × 9 casserole. Combine cream and 6 cups chicken broth and bring to a boil. Stir in grits and cook over medium heat until grits return to a boil, cover, reduce heat to simmer, and stir frequently to keep from burning, 25–30 minutes. Add milk if needed to thicken to proper consistency. If you’re Southern, you know what that is, if not, think of slightly runny oatmeal.

While grits are simmering, cook frozen collards with remaining 2 cups of chicken broth till tender, about ten minutes. Drain well in colander, squeezing out remaining liquid. Add butter, parmesan, and pepper to cooked grits, and stir till butter is melted. Stir in cooked greens, and spoon into greased casserole. Top with additional parmesan, and crumbled bacon. Dish can be served at room temperature, or heated in 350° oven till browned on top.

Many thanks go out to many folks for their invaluable assistance and advice with this book. Frank Garson of Atlanta and Kathy P. Reynolds of VF Intimates patiently explained the bra business to me. Dianne and Patrick Yost of the
Morgan County Citizen
became my Madison tour guides, as did Adelaide Ponder, publisher emeritus of
The Madisonian.
Thanks go to Charles Seabrook of the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
and Lee Glenn of the Georgia Power Company for trying to educate me about Lake Oconee. Sue Ruby of Savannah gave me interior design advice—and a guided tour of ADAC, and Elizabeth Jackson of Back Roads Antique Salvage told me where to shop for antiques in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Any errors of fact are totally mine.

Hissy Fit,
more than any of my other books was truly a collaborative effort. Heartfelt thanks and love go to the best agent in the whole damn world, Stuart Krichevsky, and the fabulous Shana Cohen of SKLA, along with the best editors in the whole damn world, Carolyn Marino and Jennifer Civiletto at HarperCollins who midwifed
Hissy Fit
every step of the way. And last, but never least, thanks and unending love to my family, Tom, Katie, and Andy, who have been putting up with my own hissy fits for many years.