The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(40)

She stopped in her tracks right there in front of the Yellow Rose and read it at least ten times before she put it in her purse. In big scrawling letters it said, “Have a wonderful day . . . Rhett.”

Agnes startled the hell out of Piper when she said, “What in the hell have you got there that would make you stand out here in this broilin’ heat and stare at it like it was a viper about to bite you on the ass?”

“Where did you come from?” Piper asked.

“I walked down here to see if you brought something good to eat again this morning. The chocolate cake is all gone. I guess I’ll have baked beans for breakfast if there’s any left since you’ve let me down,” Agnes said.

“Talk to Stella. She might have brought some of your lasagna.” Piper opened the door and stood to the side to let Agnes enter first.

“My lasagna?” Agnes said.

“Is in the back room on the table. Help yourself. The salad is in the fridge with the leftover strawberries,” Stella said.

Agnes headed to the back room and returned in a few minutes with a loaded plate. “Well, praise the Lord. I didn’t want breakfast food or I’d have gone to Clawdy’s. All is quiet on the home front this morning. My snitch didn’t have much to report except that the colors for the ball are pastel shades of yellow, which of course is because it’s the Yellow Rose Barbecue Ball, blue because the Blue Ribbon Jalape?o Society is helping with it, and pink because Heather’s new signature color for her ministry is pink. Sounds like a damn overgrown baby shower to me.” She stopped and caught her breath before going on. “I just hope that Heather don’t insist that all the unmarried women wear white. If she does, I’ll have to bleach out a pair of my overalls.”

Charlotte spun around in her chair and caught Piper’s eye. “What were you reading out there? You are absolutely glowing.”

“A note from Rhett.” She pulled it from her purse and handed it to Charlotte.

Stella tiptoed to read it over Charlotte’s shoulder.

“Awwww,” they both said at the same time.

“I told you he’s interested in you,” Charlotte said.

“But it makes me so nervous just thinking about the dating world again. I never dated anyone but Gene. We started liking each other back when he sent me one of those notes that said, ‘If you like me, check the box with yes,’ and I did.”

“We’ll teach you,” Stella said.

“Not me. I’m just like you. I’ve only dated Boone. Stella will have to teach you unless Agnes wants to,” Charlotte said.

“Is that boy stalkin’ you? I saw a thing about that on NCIS last night. I can put out a hit on him if he is,” Agnes said.

“No, he’s just trying to take her out to dinner,” Stella answered.

“Well, what the hell are you waiting on? He’s sexy. He’s got money. He’s got a job at the fire department in Sherman just like Boone does. He likes your boys and evidently he likes tall women if he’s askin’ you to dinner. Y’all seen that movie Pretty Woman?”

They all stared at her with big eyes.

Agnes giggled like a little girl. “Hell, you think I only watch cartoons. I’ve seen raunchy movies. What I was about to say is that you remember when the hooker says that about having eighty-something inches of therapy in her long legs, well, maybe Rhett is in need of some therapy.”

“Agnes!” Piper gasped.

“I’m old. I’m not dead. Bert Flynn liked that kind of therapy when he was alive even if there wasn’t eighty inches of it. I reckon Rhett would, too, and it’d sure put you in a better mood. Plus, it would show that dirtbag ex-husband of yours that you ain’t still whinin’ around wantin’ him to come home,” she said. “Who made this lasagna?”

“You did,” Stella said.

“Not me. It tastes like what Cathy makes at Clawdy’s.”

“Guess that’s where you got it, then.” Charlotte smiled.

“I got it in the back room,” Agnes said as she shoveled a forkful into her mouth.

Piper put the note back in her purse and headed for her workstation. Agnes could be secretive about her snitch and the food, but they all knew that she’d figured out a way to get into Stella’s house and leave it there. She probably had bought it at Clawdy’s, but she wasn’t fooling Piper one bit.





CHAPTER NINE

Stella turned the air conditioner thermostat down a few degrees to cool the shop and got ready for a long day. Every slot in her appointment book was filled, which meant she’d hear about what everyone was wearing to the Fourth of July festivities that night, who was coming with whom, who’d never be seen with whom, and who was cheating on whom after the festivities were over.

When the customers had worn that out, they’d talk about the barbecue ball and what kind of dresses they were thinking about or had already bought. To Stella’s way of thinking, it was a big girls’ prom and Heather was the high school principal who’d keep the kids all in line. Agnes was the rebel who’d bring vodka for the punch bowl, and when the ball was over then the gossips could all settle down until the fall, when the Blue Ribbon Jalape?o Society Jubilee would fire up.

“Hey, I figured we’d be in for a busy day, so I ran up to Walmart and picked up some lunch meat, bread, and staples so we wouldn’t starve. I got those barbecue chips that you like and a gallon of sweet tea,” Charlotte yelled as she put food away in the back room. “Oh, and I picked up a dozen doughnuts at that little shop for breakfast. You better get one of the maple-iced ones in a hurry. I think they’re Agnes’s favorite kind, too.”