The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(78)

“Why?”

“You have to stay in there thirty minutes and you can’t talk to anyone but yourself. You can yell, rant, rave, or just sit there with your thoughts, but I’ll guarantee you, just like Claudia’s mama promised me almost thirty years ago, that you will have your mind made up when I knock on the door,” she answered.

Charlotte handed over her cell phone. Piper stepped to one side when she started down the hall.

“What’s that all about for thirty minutes?” Piper asked.

“She’s gone to do some serious soul-searching,” Nancy answered. “Now, what time are y’all going to start packing tomorrow night? I’ll bring over a Crock-Pot of potato chowder and a loaf of fresh bread so you don’t have to stop and eat. You don’t have to move appliances. We left those in the trailer in case Stella ever wanted to live in it but she’s bought the house in town.”

Stella thought about life without Jed. Seeing him around town with another woman. Her feelings with another man after having slept with the love of her life. Her heart was as empty as the drawer had been before he put his things in it. Suddenly, she wanted to tell the world that they were married. That she was a preacher’s wife and she trusted Jed to never break her heart—but would she ever have second thoughts?

She shut her eyes and tears welled up at the horrible feeling of never seeing him again, or worse yet, seeing him with another woman. Thinking of his hands roaming on someone else’s body the way they had touched Stella’s was agony. Thinking of life without him tore her heart into a million pieces.

God, she prayed earnestly, please don’t ever let me experience this pain for real. It’s excruciating in thoughts. I can’t imagine it in reality.

Suddenly a visual of him lying beside her, sleeping with those thick lashes fanned out on his cheekbones, appeared like an answer to the prayer. Then he woke slowly and a brilliant smile covered his face as he looked up at her, like he’d done dozens of times. All the ideas of second thoughts were gone when she felt someone poke her on the shoulder.

“Stella!” Piper raised her voice.

“What?” Stella didn’t want to leave that picture of Jed behind but she had to open her eyes.

“I asked you what time your last appointment is tomorrow so we’ll know when we can start packing.” Piper reclaimed the recliner but she didn’t prop her feet up.

“Five o’clock.” Her voice sounded hollow.

Nancy nodded. “Then I’ll have supper at your house right after that and you can eat when you want as we all four get some work done. I’ll get Everett to break down a bunch of boxes and put them by your back door. I’ll bring the tape and the Magic Marker.”

Ten minutes later they heard mumbling coming from the bathroom. Five more and the weeping started.

Nancy checked her watch. “She’s tough.”

“It’s only been fifteen minutes,” Stella said.

“I lasted fourteen and Claudia’s mama said that I was the toughest she’d ever seen. That she’d about decided I was going to call off the wedding and give that pretty dress to my sister when she got married,” Nancy said.

“Then you aren’t going to make her stay in there thirty minutes?” Piper asked.

“If she does, y’all better be ready to go tell her mama there won’t be a wedding after all,” Nancy answered.

Stella couldn’t take her eyes off the clock. Dammit! She didn’t want to deliver that kind of news. It might be the only time in history, but she had no doubt she’d never leave the Miller property alive after all the money that had been spent and the work that had already been done.

Twenty-eight minutes after she went into the bathroom, Charlotte came down the hall. “I’m going home to Boone right now. I won’t be staying here another night, Stella. And, Nancy, thank you.” She held out her hand for her phone, wiped her wet cheeks, and marched out the door.

Stella wiped the sweat from her forehead. “That was a close call.”

“She’s tougher than she looks. That don’t mean she won’t argue with him, bitch at him, or make him sleep on the sofa some of the time. It does mean that she’s in this for the duration and nobody better mess with her marriage because she’s sure about what she wants now.” Nancy sighed.

“Why the sigh?” Stella asked.

“Doesn’t that make you happy?” Charlotte asked.

“Yes, it does. I care about all three of you girls and I want you all to be happy. I was just thinking, though, that I thought Claudia’s mama was ancient when she gave me that advice. Now that I look back she was about my age.”

“And you’re thinkin’ you are old?” Stella slung an arm around her mother’s shoulders.

“Hell, no, I was thinking that Claudia’s mama was pretty young to be that smart.” Nancy laughed.





CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Stella woke at midnight and reached for Jed. She opened her eyes and realized he was gone, picked up his pillow, and threw it against the wall. She was wide-awake, her stomach growled with hunger, and she had to go to the bathroom.

Slinging her legs over the edge of the bed, she heard a noise at the window and her heart did one of those crazy dances like always when he arrived. She quickly turned, but it was just a tree limb scratching the window.