The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(48)

Stella glanced across the table at Piper. “Did you give the boys a bath before you put them to bed in my guest room?”

Piper nodded. “Towels are in the washer.”

“You might as well sleep on the sofa. Call Lorene first thing in the morning and tell her to pick them up here.”

“Thanks. I didn’t want to go home,” Piper said.

Stella locked the door behind Charlotte and pulled out the sofa to make a bed. Piper brought pillows and a set of sheets from the linen closet.

“I had a shower, too. You know I keep a go bag in my van for times like this.” Piper smiled. “I’ll make the bed, and thanks for always being here for me. You inviting your boyfriend to the fish fry?”

“Why would you ask a thing like that?”

“Well, Boone will be there for Charlotte. And Rhett is coming whether I like it or not. You’ll be a fifth wheel.”

Stella patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I’m just fine the way I am.”

Half an hour later, Stella stretched out on her bed and picked up her phone. She sent a text: Awake?

One came right back: Safe?

She typed in: No. Piper and the kids are here for the night. Gene problems.

The next one said: Good nite, darling. I love you.

She typed: Me, too.

She fluffed up her pillow and went over the whole night’s events as she stared at the patterns the shifting clouds created on the ceiling and whispered, “Life can sure get to be a complicated thing, can’t it? Thank goodness for good friends . . . even Agnes Flynn!”

She shut her eyes but she was too wound up to sleep. Agnes was in the hospital and Stella’s hip hurt with sympathy pains. Thinking about Piper’s tears moistened her own eyes enough that she had to blink several times to keep from going into a crying jag. And the business with her mother wouldn’t leave her alone. Finally, she picked up her phone from the nightstand and dialed the home phone number.

Nancy answered on the second ring. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Mama. Did I wake you? Oh, my Lord!” Stella glanced at the clock and realized it was almost two a.m. “I didn’t realize how late it is.”

“If you are all right, it’s fine. I was watching an old movie because I couldn’t sleep. What’s on your mind?”

“All this shit going on in town.”

“This, too, shall pass,” Nancy said. “We’ve lived through worse. I’m glad to hear your voice, Stella Joy.”

“Are we okay, Mama?”

She heard her mother yawn. “I think we’re workin’ on it and that’s the first step. You aren’t backin’ out of the fish fry, are you?”

“No, ma’am. Piper and Charlotte might unfriend me if I did.”

A long pause made Stella check the phone to be sure she hadn’t lost the connection. “Mama?” she asked.

“I love you, Stella. Now I’m going to say good-night and we’ll talk more at the fish fry when we can do it face-to-face.”

“Okay, Mama. Good night.”

Stella ended the call and shut her eyes. Sleep came immediately and with it dreams of Jed sitting beside her in rocking chairs on the porch of the parsonage. Children played on the grassy lawn and the sound of their laughter put a smile on her face, both in her sleep and in reality.





CHAPTER ELEVEN

Something gnawed at Charlotte’s soul. It was more than the wedding bouquet, and Boone had made a big breakfast that morning before he went to Sherman for his shift at the fire department, so it wasn’t hunger. Still, she couldn’t put her finger on the reason she was so antsy that morning as she drove to the Yellow Rose.

Stella and Piper were already there, waiting on their first customers and talking about Gene. She sat down in her chair, spun it around, and the more she heard, the worse the jittery feeling inside her felt. She thought about knitting but she’d probably drop so many stitches she’d have to start all over again. Her head was going to explode if she heard another word about secret boyfriends, a barbecue ball, or cheating ex-husbands.

“So what’s your last appointment today?” she asked when she could sneak a word in edgewise.

“Noon. Most of my regulars scheduled for yesterday,” Stella said.

Piper checked her book. “One o’clock. Why?”

“I’m to the saturated point with everything. I’m either going to start crying or kill someone if I don’t get away for a little bit,” Charlotte said.

“Afternoon at the lake?” Piper asked.

“More,” Charlotte said.

Stella picked up her purse and riffled through it. “Spa and girls’ night out at the bar in that hotel we went to for Piper’s bachelorette party?”

“I’ll call Lorene and see if she wants the boys for the night. We can be back in time for the fish fry tomorrow, right?”

Charlotte nodded. “That might work.”

“You said that your knitting relaxes you,” Piper said.

“I threw three balls of yarn at the walls this morning and ripped out every bit of that green blanket I started working on,” Charlotte said.

Stella picked up her phone, hit a few icons, and said, “Check-in is at three and checkout at noon tomorrow. Will that keep our shop from going up in flames?”