The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(70)

“It’s beautiful. My mama’s pearls would look good with it.”

Charlotte pushed the cart closer to Nancy. “Throw whatever you find in here and we’ll all go to the dressing rooms together. We’ve already told Stella that your pearls would be good with the dress. I’m leaning toward this pale green and Piper is looking at the dark green.”

“Well, I’m damn sure not wearing pink or blue or yellow, since that’s the colors of the whole shebang. So it could be that green will be my color, too.” Nancy started going through the dresses in her size.

Stella held up a cute little white eyelet lace sundress with a defined waistline and a full skirt. “I like this for the shower on Sunday. What do y’all think?”

“It’s cute, but it’s a wedding shower. You think you should wear white?” Nancy asked.

Piper pulled another one from the rack. “Here is the same dress in green. It matches your eyes and you could wear your cowboy boots with it. The ones that have that green Celtic cross in relief on the front.”

“That’s a great idea. Y’all buyin’ something for the shower?” Stella asked.

“I’ve got a new capri set I’m wearing,” Nancy answered.

“I’m buying. You know how I love clothes, and a shower is a wonderful excuse to get something brand-new,” Piper said.

Stella saw a grass-green dress on the rack and pulled it out. “Mama, what about this one?”

“Oh, honey, I’m too old and my arms are too flabby to wear something sleeveless, much less a spaghetti strap like that.” Nancy smiled.

“How about with this?” Piper held up a short-sleeved off-white jacket trimmed in satin ribbon the same shade of green.

“It goes with it,” Stella said. “See, right here, it says that it’s a two-piece outfit. Someone must’ve knocked the jacket off and then it got hung on a separate hanger. And for the record, Mama, you work too hard on the farm to ever get baggy arms.”

Nancy beamed. “Thank you, honey. Let’s go try on all this finery and then go across the highway and have us some catfish. I’m treating tonight because y’all are helping me buy something I don’t want to go somewhere I don’t want to go.”

Stella had been planning on finding a way to buy a pregnancy test that evening, but with both her friends and her mama in her company that wasn’t going to happen. She hadn’t mentioned a word about it to Jed and she hadn’t thrown up again, so maybe, just maybe, it was nothing more than nerves that kept her from having a period. And hopefully it was eating leftovers that had made her sick.

Charlotte pulled the cart back and quickly added two more dresses. “Thank you, Nancy. But don’t forget we have to buy shoes to go with these dresses or we’ll have to come back again.”

“Well, crap! I forgot about shoes. Good thing you remembered, Charlotte, because I’m not wasting another night on the most boring thing we’ve ever had in Cadillac.” Nancy sighed.

“It could turn out to be a riot.” Stella laughed.

“Maybe we should have an ambulance there just in case?” Nancy followed the three women and the cart to the fitting rooms at the back of the store.

“Heather has the television station from Sherman coming down to cover it,” Piper said.

“Was that girl born stupid?” Nancy frowned.

“It’s the big-city ideas coming out of her. She has visions of grandeur because she moved from Tulsa to little bitty Cadillac,” Piper said.

“Honey, that girl lived in Ripley, Oklahoma, population less than five hundred. She went to college in Tulsa but she wasn’t raised there,” Nancy said.

“So Ripley.” Stella giggled.

“Believe it.” Charlotte laughed with her.

“Or not!” Piper finished the sentence.





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Alma Grace wore a chin-length wedding veil attached to a glittering tiara with a cute little floral sundress. Rick was decked out with a bow tie, a garter around his arm, and a top hat. They had the place of honor under a decorated arch in the huge living room.

Tansy swept across the room and hugged Nancy. “I’m so glad you and Stella came today. Come over here and sit beside me.”

Tansy was a self-proclaimed psychic and her predictions were right about 50 percent of the time. The other half she blamed on her crazy cockatiel not doing his part in being her muse. As usual, she looked like a gypsy in a flowing multicolored skirt, dozens of gold bangle bracelets up her arm, and fancy sandals that laced around her ankles.

Charlotte and Piper arrived and Tansy ushered them to seats right behind Nancy and Stella. “This way we can all be in a group. I’ve got dozens of questions about the ball.”

Stella took one look at three eight-foot tables stacked full of presents and whispered to Nancy, “Mama, swear to me that you won’t let anyone give me a wedding shower. I’ll allow a bridal shower with lots of pretty things from Bless My Bloomers, but I don’t need ten toasters.”

“No, ma’am. We like our parties in Cadillac too well for that, but I will promise you that I’ll help write thank-you notes. And so will Piper and Charlotte. That’s what bridesmaids are for. Do you have a fellow or maybe a date in mind?” Nancy asked.