The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(55)

“A word, Gene?” she said.

“I got nothing to say that my sons can’t hear.” He smiled. “Might I add that you look fetching this morning?”

“No, you might not. And what is all this about?”

Gene was an inch shorter than Piper, had thinning hair that he kept cut short, hazel eyes, and a square jaw. He’d played football in high school but slowly over the years he’d put on a few pounds here and there and now he had a spare tire above his belt.

“Divorce papers say that I should have had them for the July Fourth holiday and then for my two weeks in the summer. I can’t reclaim the time from Friday until now, but they’re mine for the next two weeks from right now until the twentieth of the month. Then we will begin our every-two-week schedule, which means they come with me on July twenty-fifth, so you might want to write this down. I wouldn’t want to surprise you again,” he said with a wicked gleam in his eye. “I should bring them home Sunday at six o’clock on the twentieth, but my folks have plans that Sunday to go away and I have plans for the company picnic so I’ll bring them to you on Saturday evening at six o’clock. I do get them for Thanksgiving this year and you have them for Christmas, but I get them for Christmas Eve until six o’clock that evening. I will be going strictly by the papers from now on, Piper.” He spouted off the words like he was reciting a school lesson that he’d memorized the night before.

She sat there in stunned silence. The company picnic was a family affair. Whom was he taking and why couldn’t he take the boys?

“There’s nothing you can do about it, Piper. Your only option is to let me move back in here and we can be a family again. What do you say, guys? Want us to be a family again?” he said.

Tanner tiptoed across the room and whispered in Piper’s ear, “Is he teasing?”

She hugged Tanner and whispered back, “I don’t know.”

“I see that you’ve turned them against me,” Gene said through gritted teeth.

“You haven’t been around much the past six months. Their trust is a little slim,” she said. “But they do have a little bit left. I don’t and this family idea—it ain’t happenin’.” She chose her words carefully since the boys were in the room.

“Okay, guys, we’ll be spending two weeks at Grandma’s house after we have pancakes,” Gene said.

“Will you be there?” Luke looked from his mother to his father.

Gene flipped two pancakes onto a plate and set them on the bar. “In the evenings I will be. I have to work in the daytime.”

“And Rita?” Tanner asked.

“Rita and I are not together anymore, so I’m living with Grandma and Grandpa until your mama comes to her senses. But I do have a new friend I want you to meet. She has a couple of little boys a little younger than you are and she goes to church with your grandma,” Gene said gruffly.

“What’s her little boys’ names?” Tanner asked.

“Her name is Ramona and her boys are Tommy and Freddy.”

“How much younger?” Luke asked.

“Tommy is three and Freddy is two,” Gene answered.

Tanner rolled his eyes at his mother. “They’re babies. They can’t play ball with us.”

Luke popped his forehead with his palm. “I bet they still wear diapers.”

“Are you using them for bait or babysitters?” Piper asked Gene.

He pointed an egg turner at her. “You did the same thing.”

“Not hardly,” she said. “Hey, guys, I’m going to make sure you’ve got everything you need to spend two weeks at Grandma’s. Y’all enjoy your pancakes. I’m not hungry this morning,” she said and then said out the side of her mouth for her ex’s ears only, “I’m having the locks changed tomorrow. You can drop the boys off at the shop when you bring them home, and from now on that’s where you will pick them up and drop them on your weekends.”

“I paid for this house,” he started.

“No, we split the payment every month and I bought you out in the divorce settlement between us. It’s mine. Hey, guys, do you want to take your gloves and baseballs so your dad can play catch with you?”

Luke popped his head again. “We forgot that. And our Frisbees, too, Mama.”

“I’ll pack up a duffel bag of your favorite things,” she said around the lump in her throat.

“Stuffies?” Tanner asked.

She smiled at him. “Oh, yes. I wouldn’t want you to go to bed without your Hoppy Bunny.”

Tears were flowing down her cheeks when she reached her bedroom. She picked up her phone from the nightstand and dialed Charlotte’s number first.



Boone left a sweet note on Charlotte’s pillow saying that he’d just spent five minutes watching a princess sleep and that he was going to work and he’d see her that evening for dinner and a movie in Sherman.

She hummed the song that they’d danced to on Sunday while she applied her makeup. It had been a glorious weekend and she couldn’t wait to talk about it with Piper and Stella.

“I’m going to miss Agnes popping in and out of the shop telling us the latest gossip,” she muttered and smiled. “I wonder what kind of devilment she’s been up to at the hospital this weekend.”