The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(50)

Alma Grace laughed out loud. “God bless the gossiping mongers. They do keep Cadillac interesting. I got to give them that. And as long as they’re spreading rumors about Violet and that horrible Heather, then they’re leaving us alone down at Bless My Bloomers.” Cathy shook her head. “We were in the hot seat a while back when I was engaged to Ethan.”

“You dodged a bullet there,” Alma Grace said.

Cathy shuddered. “Don’t I know it! Violet for a mother-in-law? I get hives thinkin’ about it.”

Charlotte shivered. Mother-in-law? Sweet Jesus. Two mothers interfering with everything. No wonder she had the jitters.



Soft, soul-soothing music played in the background and a lady with magic hands gave Charlotte a facial straight from the courts of heaven. Her mind drifted from Boone to the wedding, to Piper and her problems, and then to Stella and that stupid prayer list that had started another uproar in Cadillac. Some of the anxiety had subsided when Piper drove east and then south toward Dallas, but there was still something stirring up her insides like butterflies fluttering around a flame.

It was a miracle but Stella had managed to get all three of them into the Ultimate Spa Day program if they could be in Dallas by one thirty. It took some fancy packing and faster driving, but they handed the valet the keys to Piper’s van and the bellboy their room number with five minutes to spare. Charlotte looked at the clock when they entered the spa and it was exactly one thirty.

They’d been led to a changing room, where they donned white robes that Stella swore were made from clouds that were harvested in heaven’s courts. As soon as they finished their facials, they would be taken to the garden for a late lunch.

“I’m starving,” Piper mumbled.

“Ten more minutes. They are preparing your lunch now,” the lady doing Charlotte’s facial said.

Right on schedule they sat down at a small table for three with a beautiful lunch consisting of cold gazpacho, finger sandwiches, fruit, and salad. A tray of petits fours and tiny bite-size cheesecakes waited on a rolling tray beside the table. A woman dressed in a soft white caftan poured wine into stemmed glasses.

“I feel like a princess already. Can we come back to this place the weekend before my wedding?” Charlotte asked.

“Then you aren’t ready to blow up the shop anymore?” Stella asked.

“No. I’m still jittery like I’ve had too much sugar and caffeine, but it’s not physical. It’s in my soul,” Charlotte said.

“I got like that before I married Gene,” Piper said.

“Wrong thing to say,” Charlotte groaned.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s normal. Stop fretting and enjoy the day,” Stella said.

Charlotte shrugged. “Easy to say. Hard to do. What if my marriage turns out like yours, Piper? What if someday Boone has papers served to me at the shop like Gene did and I fall apart? What if he decides that he wants to chase other women? We’ve been together since we were kids and we were each other’s firsts. We’ve never had sex with anyone else. What if when he’s middle-aged he regrets not being wild like his brother?”

“Can’t answer a single one of those questions,” Stella said. “All I know to tell you is what Daddy tells me. Follow your heart. What does it say?”

“That I love Boone. That he’s my soul mate and I want to spend my life with him,” Charlotte said.

“Then that’s what you do,” Piper told her. “Confession time. Two weeks before I married Gene I caught him with one of my cousins. They didn’t have sex, but they were at the river in his car making out in the same spot where he and I always went. She swore to me that he said I had called off the wedding or she wouldn’t have gone riding around with him that evening. She was just trying to console him. He swore that she was lying and it had been her idea to go get a snow cone over in Bells. I believed him and didn’t speak to my cousin again until last week.”

“You didn’t tell us? Why?” Stella asked.

“I was too embarrassed. Now I wonder if he’d been a little older if he would have gotten all that out of his system. So I know the feeling you have, Charlotte,” Piper said.

Charlotte touched her arm. “You should have told us.”

“I know, but I wanted to trust him so bad. Do you trust Boone?”

Charlotte nodded. “With my whole heart, but what if he changes?”

“What if you do?” Stella asked.

“That’s what scares me.”



Stella picked up a grape and popped it in her mouth.

Piper poked her on the arm. “You are awfully quiet.”

“Just thinking about what Charlotte said.”

“Which time?” Charlotte asked.

“That a woman doesn’t change at our age.”

“Drink some more wine. Get drunk and tell us who your boyfriend is and then we’ll tell you how much change is needed. You plannin’ on putting in a beer joint next door to the Yellow Rose or maybe a house of ill repute? I suppose that would require that you change a whole lot.” Piper giggled.

“Maybe I’m going to marry a preacher and lead the choir at church,” Stella said.

“Yeah, when pigs fly. You’d never, ever in a million years be a preacher’s wife, especially in Cadillac.” Charlotte giggled.