The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(20)



“Miz Agnes, if you don’t obey the law, they’ll take your license away from you.”

Agnes harrumphed loudly. “I don’t give a shit. Hell, I’ll give my license to them or cut it up right in front of them. I don’t need a damn license to drive. Hell, girl, I was drivin’ a truck when I had to sit on a pillow to see over the steering wheel back when I wasn’t but nine years old. Daddy needed an extra field hand to bring in the hay and I wasn’t big enough to throw the bales up on the truck, but I could damn sure drive. So they can have my license. I don’t need it to drive.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Stella said.

“Here we are. Take a deep breath. If that ain’t the best-smellin’ fish I’ve got a whiff of in years, then my name ain’t Agnes Flynn.” She bailed out of the truck and looked over her shoulder. “You bring the chairs. Well, would you look at that? Preacher Jed is here. Did you invite him? How come he didn’t bring you if you did?”

“I did not invite him, and why would he bring me to the fish fry?” Stella said.

Agnes turned around and came back to the truck. She leaned on the fender and whispered, “Well, you should have. I heard that your mama said they could give them money orders for haircuts to anyone but Preacher Jed or Rhett Monroe. The preacher is the one I think you should set your hat for. That’d really be the highlight of the war.”

“Why wouldn’t Mama want me to marry Rhett or Jed?” Stella asked.

“One’s a skirt chaser, which might make her grandbaby a skirt chaser, too. The other one is a preacher and you know what they say about preacher’s kids bein’ the meanest kids in town. I don’t reckon she wants either one, so she’d best be tellin’ God some real specific instructions about that husband you need so bad,” Agnes answered.

“Agnes!”

“Well, they would.” Agnes giggled. “Come on, girl. Let’s go have some fun. Tomorrow I might just let it slip at Clawdy’s when I go over there for breakfast that I saw you and the preacher flirting. Or maybe I’ll start a rumor that you are seeing both Jed and Rhett and that you might be sleeping with both of them to see if a holy man or if a devil in tight blue jeans does it better.”

Stella stopped in her tracks. “Agnes!”

Agnes slapped her thigh. “I’m just jokin’. I don’t care if you have a feller but don’t tell nobody who it is. Well, you could tell me but nobody else or it would end all the fun.”

Stella grabbed the chairs. Her father waved so she had no choice but to head toward the picnic table where he and Jed sat. Everett met her halfway and took the chairs from her, carried them the rest of the way, and popped them out.

“Boone invited Preacher Jed to the fish fry. I didn’t know that he was a fisherman until tonight. We’re going out tomorrow evening on my boat after it cools down to see if we can catch some crappie. I hear they’re runnin’ pretty good,” Everett said.

“That mean we might have another fish fry before long?” Agnes asked.

“If we catch enough, we’ll get Boone to bring his fryer and have one in a couple of weeks at my place. That way Nancy can be there. She’s at some kind of church foo-rah tonight talkin’ about that prayer shit they do on Thursdays. Looks to me like one night a week would be enough. Just pray and leave it in the good Lord’s hands, but oh, no, we got to talk about prayin’ before we do it,” Everett said.

Jed touched the tip of his baseball cap. “Miz Agnes. Miz Stella. I believe summer has arrived.”

“It damn sure has. How long are you going to leave that sign up down at the church?” Agnes asked.

Stella fought the blush turning her cheeks bright crimson, but she lost.

“Heather takes care of that sign, so you’ll have to ask her.” Jed smiled.



“Brother Jed! Brother Jed!” Piper’s boys jumped out of her car and went running before she could make them help her carry food and paper plates to the pavilion where Boone and Charlotte were frying fish and hush puppies.

Piper saw both Charlotte and Stella wore jean shorts and tank tops. Why hadn’t she called them before she went to all the trouble to iron the red-and-white-checkered dress that made her feel like she was wearing a picnic tablecloth now that she was at the park? Charlotte had pulled her brown hair up in a short ponytail and Stella had a baseball cap on.

Piper had curled her hair and now it was sticking to her neck. She’d put on makeup and was sweating it all off. All she needed was a bow and a quiver of arrows on her back and she could be one of those Amazon women from the jungle who’d overdressed for a damn picnic in the park.

“They’re too excited to see Jed to help me carry things and y’all should have told me to wear shorts,” she whispered when they arrived to help carry the food to the picnic table.

“You look great,” Charlotte said. “The way that Luke and Tanner are all excited about the preacher, maybe you should use the fact that you’re the prettiest one here tonight to flirt with him.”

“I should’ve worn shorts,” she whispered.

Stella picked up a huge bowl of potato salad. “We feel like ugly ducklings up beside you. Maybe we should go home and change.”

Using two oven mitts, Charlotte picked up the oversize Crock-Pot of baked beans. “These smell scrumptious. Wait until the preacher realizes that you cook as well as you look.”

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