The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(60)

Piper stopped at door into the storeroom. “So no overalls for Stella?”

Rosalee’s laughter filled the whole shop and bounced off the walls like a sugared-up six-year-old who’d just spent the day with her grandparents. “I’ve got a pair of overalls. I think I’ll take them down to Bless My Bloomers and get her to make me a ball gown out of them. She could cut the legs off and sew a skirt tail on them, put all them shiny stones on them like she’s doing Agnes’s overalls, and it would be a fancy dress, right? I hadn’t planned on going, but y’all done got me excited about it. Heather didn’t make a rule about nobody over fifty not being able to go, did she?”

“Hell, no!” Nancy said. “Just call Carlene and tell her what you want. Maybe you ought to have her stick a label on the bib pocket that says Bless My Bloomers so everyone can see where you got your custom-made ball gown. Kind of like them fancy labels that the hoity-toity folks like to show off.”

Piper could have kissed Rosalee and Nancy. They’d taken her mind off her troubles and given her something to laugh about.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The temperature gauge on the dash of Nancy’s truck said that it was a hundred and one degrees, but until the air-conditioning kicked in, it felt like six degrees hotter than hell’s furnace. She’d barely cooled down when she parked in front of Violet’s house that Friday afternoon, quickly crossed the well-manicured lawn, and rang the doorbell.

Two weeks and the whole damn thing would be over. Well, two weeks and a day, since the ball was planned for the last Saturday in the month.

With eagle eyes, Heather scanned her from toes to head before she stepped aside and said, “Come in, Nancy. You are the last one. We went ahead and started the meeting without you but we’ve only had time to discuss one thing and we’ll fill you in.”

Nancy felt like a kid on the way to the principal’s office as she followed Heather down the short foyer and into the den. She’d worn her best slacks and ironed her shirt. Maybe the fact that it was sleeveless didn’t set well with Heather, who was dressed in a pink suit with short sleeves, a silk shell under it, and high-heeled shoes. And holy shit, the woman was wearing hose on a hot summer day.

Heather took her place behind her aunt’s massive desk, shuffled some papers, and motioned for Nancy to sit beside Floy on the sofa. “I was just telling Nancy that we discussed the mode of dress that will be acceptable to the barbecue ball. At our last meeting, we had voted that the gents must wear a coat and tie and the ladies have to wear a dress, and it was in the minutes for old business. Today we’ll talk about new business.”

“Coat and tie. They’ll suffocate,” Nancy gasped.

“We have ordered several commercial-size portable refrigerated air conditioners to keep things cool.” Heather did a little huff that said she didn’t really appreciate Nancy’s comments.

“Do all the dresses have to be white?” Nancy asked.

Annabel looked up from a chair right in front of the desk and frowned at her. “This is not a debutante ball but the first annual Yellow Rose Barbecue Ball. Heather has decided that we will use pastel blue, pink, and yellow for our colors. Yellow for the idea of the roses, blue since the Blue Ribbon Jalape?o Society is helping us out, and pink because it’s the signature color for the marriage ministry. I do believe that you already knew that, Nancy.”

“I suppose you’re going to change the name of the Angels to the Yellow Rose Prayer Ladies?” Nancy wondered how that thought had gone from her mind to right out in the room for everyone to hear, but once it was out there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.

“Of course not. I wish we would have given our ball a name other than the Yellow Rose, but since it is a popular Texas song and since this all started to find a husband for your daughter, it seemed appropriate.” Heather inhaled and let it out slowly. “And to answer your question, the ladies can wear whatever style dress they want in whatever color they wish. Hopefully the Angels will try to find something suitable in yellow. I have chosen a pink dress screen printed with Texas bluebells on the silk. The fabric and pattern is at my seamstress’s place of business even as we speak and”—she paused for effect—“I shall save each of my gowns from all the balls we’ll have through the years so that when my ministry is really big they can be auctioned off to make money for more elaborate balls in the future. I foresee a huge ballroom on the ground floor of a gorgeous hotel in Cadillac within the next ten years.”

Shit! What had Heather been smoking right before the meeting? They’d be lucky if one or two of the boarded-up buildings on Main Street had new life in them in the next ten years.

“So the color scheme is now formally decided?” Floy asked.

Heather put a finger next to her lips. “I think so. No, I know so. And for everyone’s information here, I want to tell you that Aunt Violet is doing very well after her surgery and that any mention of dementia is just gossip. Now that rumor is buried, we will go on. Annabel, will you please be in charge of the petits fours we will serve for dessert at the ball?”

Annabel glowed. No, that was understating the look on her face. She lit up the whole damned room with her smile.

Can I please kiss your fingernail for letting me work my fingers to the bone on little cakes for the first annual Yellow Rose Barbecue Ball? Nancy didn’t say those words, but she could hear them rattling around in her head like marbles in an empty soup can.