The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(31)

She carried the hot dogs out to the backyard and Rhett and the boys joined her before she could get the gas grill fired up. He took the platter from her hand and said, “Grillin’ is our job. We talked about it and since you’ve been cookin’ all day, we’ll do the hard work, won’t we, guys?”

Tanner nodded seriously. “Yes, sir. You sit right down here”—he patted the picnic table—“and we’ll do the cookin’, Mama. Rhett is going to teach us when they are just right, like the street vendors in New York City get them. We’ll help you carry out the rest of the food when the hot dogs are done.”

Piper smiled. Oh, yes, she would take a very good report back to Stella the next morning. Rhett was a good man and Stella had done well when she started seeing him, even if it was on the sly and she should have told her two best friends all the details.

“New York street vendor, huh?” She sat down and used the picnic table as a backrest.

“Oh, yes. It’s a wonderful place to visit for a few days. The guys would love it. They could see a game at Yankee Stadium and take a tour out to the Statue of Liberty, and there are Broadway plays if you like things like that,” Rhett said.

Piper smiled. “Sounds like a wonderful trip to take someday.”

“You mean a real baseball game?” Luke asked.

Rhett ruffled his hair. “Yes, I do.”

“Can we go this summer?” Luke asked.

Piper shook her head. “We’ll have to be satisfied with backyard baseball this year, guys.”

“Okaaaay,” Tanner said. “We really don’t mind, Mama, because we got Rhett right here in Cadillac and we got hot dogs just like they make and we can go fishin’ with Grandpa and if that Broadway stuff is like them singin’ movies, I wouldn’t like it, anyway.”

Rhett smiled at Piper. “Good kids you got here.”

If it had been late enough for stars to pop out, they would have paled in comparison to the flash of his grin. With that kind of charm, it was no wonder that Stella liked him. She couldn’t wait to tell her that she’d figured the whole thing out and that she approved.





CHAPTER SEVEN

I’ve been giving this a lot of thought,” Heather said from the podium in the fellowship hall where the whole Prayer Angels group had met to discuss the upcoming ball. “I will put the gents’ names into one fishbowl and the ladies’ into another. They will assemble up in the buyers’ loft and as I draw their names they will come down the steps together. The gent will lead the lady out onto the dance floor, where they will wait until everyone is on the floor, and then the music will begin a nice slow waltz and everyone will start dancing together. It’s going to be simply lovely.”

“What about Carlene and Jack? They’re engaged and they sure wouldn’t want to dance with someone else,” Beulah asked.

Heather sucked in a double lungful of air and blew it out noisily. “Okay, the ones that are formally engaged can have their names put on a ticket in a third bowl. Aunt Violet has three gorgeous crystal bowls that I can use. I’d planned on borrowing two of them, but now the third one can be used also. This is a wonderful idea. It might encourage some of those who are thinking about proposing to get on the ball before the ball.” She giggled at her own joke but everyone else just stared at her.

“And the ones who are married already but want to participate in the ball?” Floy asked.

“Maybe the third bowl can just be for all of the already taken people?” Beulah said.

“I’ll second that,” a lady said from the back of the room.

“Then write it in the minutes.” Heather nodded. “One for the unmarried gentlemen. One for the single ladies. And a third for the already taken. It’s going to be a grand sight, all the women dressed up and the men in their black ties. I’m planning to talk to the television crew from Sherman and see if they’ll come down and shoot some footage.”

Floy fiddled with her collar. “Not tuxes. There won’t be a single man who’ll come if he has to rent a tux. This is small-town Texas, not Tulsa. You’ve got to take baby steps or you’ll never get this idea to take root. You’d better not bill it as black-tie but as jacket and tie. That way they can wear a string tie or a bolo and still be dressed up. You won’t have a problem with the ladies. They’ll be glad to go buy something fancy.”

Heather flashed her new gold fingernail at Nancy. “Is Stella coming? This all started to help her. It would be a shame if she didn’t show up.”

Nancy wished she could sprout wings and fly out of the room or that she had a hand grenade in her purse. “Yes, ma’am, she will be there.”

“And Charlotte and Piper?”

“Yes, and all the girls from Bless My Bloomers and several of their customers, including the Fannin sisters, who are already shopping for fancy dresses. The ladies from Clawdy’s are all excited about a ball and Agnes is planning on coming, too, and since she’s a single woman you’ll have to put her name in that fishbowl.”

Nancy deliberately mentioned Agnes just to rile Heather.

“If she pays her fee, I can’t keep her from attending, but she’d better be on good behavior or I will have my cousin Ethan escort her right out the door. My poor sweet aunt can’t come to the ball.” Heather clucked her tongue and shook her head slowly. “Bless Aunt Violet’s soul, she will be having a knee replacement very soon and will probably be in rehab during that time. It is so nice of her to let us use her barn for our ball, though, isn’t it? Especially since this town doesn’t have anything big enough for an event like this.”