The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(10)

“I vote that Rhett gets one, too. God can always turn his life around just like he’s going to do Stella’s.” Heather turned the conversation back around to the bake sale. “Now let’s decide who is making what for the biggest bake sale Cadillac has ever seen.”



Stella liked Agnes Flynn. She really did. On any other day she’d be happy to see the old girl and listen to her colorful stories, but not that day. But there was Agnes pushing her way into the Yellow Rose—red hair, bibbed overalls, flip-flops smacking on the tile floor until she stopped and stood under the air-conditioning vent for a minute before she sat down in Piper’s chair.

“I need a little color applied to the roots. This short hair is a hell of a lot easier to take care of, but I have to get y’all to touch up the roots twice as often and that’s a real bitch. But before you put me in the shampoo chair, I heard that Nancy is down at Ruby’s with Heather, Floy, and Beulah. And they are plotting against Stella.”

Stella dropped the broom she was using to sweep up hair. “Well, shit!”

“That’s exactly what I thought, but don’t worry. I’ve got a connection who feeds me information and here in a few minutes we’ll know the rest of what they’ve got up their sleeves. Who are you knitting that baby blanket for, Charlotte? Is that why Stella needs a husband?” Agnes asked.

“I hope not,” Charlotte said. “It’s for your niece, Cathy. I wanted to make it pink, but Cathy is doing the nursery in yellow checks. I’m going to add a border of pink and then make little booties, a sweater, and a hat to go with it.”

“Why would you tell me what your connection says?” Stella asked.

“Because I can’t stand Violet Prescott, and she is Heather’s aunt, so she’ll be all up in the middle of this soon as she hears. And whatever she’s working for, then by damn, I’ll be working against. Besides, I figure we got to get you off that prayer list or else they won’t pray for me if I get cancer,” Agnes told her.

“You’re too damn mean to get cancer.” Stella smiled for the first time that morning.

“That’s the gospel truth, darlin’. And Violet is too big of a bitch to get it, but if she does, I’m joining that angel crew and praying for her.” Agnes chuckled.

“You’d pray for Violet?” Piper gasped.

“I’ll pray that the devil comes on and claims her soul before she milks all the attention she can get out of her disease. The Good Book doesn’t say you got to pray nice prayers.” Agnes giggled.

“Well, shit!” Piper muttered. “I lost an opportunity there.”

Agnes nodded and went on, “Heather is not stupid, Stella. Chances are if you get married, you’ll have to leave Cadillac; then she takes over as piano player at the church. That’ll put her a notch higher in this new scheme she’s cooked up called the marriage ministry. Who in the hell ever heard of a marriage ministry? Ministry is standing up there in the pulpit and preachin’ like Darla Jean does at her church and like Jed Tucker does at his.”

Darla Jean was the preacher at the church on the corner, just up the street from the Yellow Rose. Everyone in town knew that she was a former call girl. When she inherited an old grocery store from her uncle, she was in a quandary about whether to put in her own escort business or to start a church. One look at the storefront said that it wouldn’t do for an escort business but it would make a right nice church, so she took it as a sign from God.

“I’m not leaving Cadillac,” Stella said. “And what is a marriage ministry?”

“Heather has this crazy notion that she’s sent to earth from heaven to get all the women in the world married and happy. She probably thinks she’ll get rich with her idea. Since you are a spitfire and you don’t take no shit off nobody, then it would be a feather in her cap to get you married off first, plus it would put her in the piano seat at the church. Hell, honey, if she can succeed in her mission, then all the little wallflowers will flock to her side and she’ll be right important. She might volunteer to play for all their weddings as a side bonus. Besides, she can’t stand you because you don’t drop down on your knees and kiss her ring,” Agnes explained.

Charlotte laid her knitting to the side again. “Remember, they’ve got God on their side, and now that I think about it, you are really getting into the”—she held up her hands and made quotes in the air—“old maid status.”

Stella raised her voice at least five octaves. “Old maid, my Texas ass! I’m not close to thirty and you and Piper are as old as I am. Are y’all old maids?”

“Well, according to our mamas that’s getting to the age when you should be starting a family or at least wearing an engagement ring,” Charlotte said.

“Some folks don’t start families until they are forty these days,” Stella reminded her.

Piper waved a hand in the air. “We need to take a lesson from the cat family. Tomcat comes along and screws the mama cat when she’s in heat and then goes on his way. Mama cat has the babies and raises them, kicks them out of the laundry basket or wherever the hell she has them when they are old enough, and that’s that. She don’t have to worry about no son of a bitch breakin’ her heart. And while I’m at it, Stella, you need to make things right with Nancy. Things go on too long, they fester, and believe me, if something happened to her tomorrow, you’d be sorry that it ended with y’all mad at each other.”