The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(82)

Piper’s spoon was halfway to her mouth with soup dripping back into the bowl. “Yes, it is, and you didn’t tell us until tonight?”

“I didn’t mean to tell you tonight. It just slipped out. Not that it matters now,” she said.

“I’ll be gone after Saturday night. He can come on in the front door after that for sure,” Piper said.

“With the whole town watching every door and window in my house? Hell, I wish I had moved out to Granny’s trailer. At least there were no neighbors for miles.”

“Announce who he is and the gossip will die down,” Nancy said.

Piper scooped up more soup. “This is delicious, Nancy. What’s your secret?”

“Half a cup to a cup of homemade picante sauce in it after it’s cooked. Who is it, Stella Joy?”

Stella wanted to tell her mother but she flat-out couldn’t that night. Not while they were moving Piper and not until she talked to Jed. They should be together when they announced to the world that they’d been married before that sign went up at the church. “I will tell you the night of the barbecue ball, I promise.”

Nancy’s eyes twinkled and she wiggled her shoulders. “The Angels did a good job after all.”

“Don’t give them an ounce of credit for anything but creating a big mess over all this. I”—she stopped midsentence before she said “married him” and quickly finished—“was seeing him long before you put my name on that damned old list.”

“And you didn’t bring him home to meet me and your dad. Shame on you!” Nancy fussed. “All this could have been avoided if you’d just told me.”

“Oh, but Cadillac needed something new to fuss about, so it’s not all in vain,” Piper said.

“Sometimes it takes magic to make things clear.” Charlotte smiled. “Who would have thought a half an hour in a dark bathroom could turn my life around?”



Rhett was the first of the guys to make it to the kitchen. He washed his hands in the sink and dried them on a paper towel. “Soup looks good. Did you make it, Piper?”

“Nancy did,” she said.

Their eyes met and the heat in the room went up twenty degrees. Not even when they were young and their hormones raged had she felt like that with Gene. He smiled and she did the same.

“You still going to the dance out at Violet’s barn?” he asked.

She nodded. “She’s calling it a ball and it’s a cultural affair.”

Rhett chuckled. Lord, he even chuckled with a deep drawl. “She can call it those things if she wants, but it’s a barn dance. Want me to pick you up for it? Since it’s formal, shall I bring a corsage?”

“Agnes and Rosalee have rented a limo for us ladies.”

“A chariot will bring you, then. I’ll be there to help escort you inside,” he said.

“It’s a far cry from a chariot, Rhett. It’s a Hummer that’s painted camouflage.”

Rhett laughed out loud. “That ought to cause a stir. What color is your dress?”

“Dark green, but it’s not camo.”

He blinked a few times but his eyes never left hers. “I’ll have your corsage delivered to the shop.”

She looked down at the floor. “What if my name isn’t drawn with yours?”

“I’ll cut in on every dance and manage to sit beside you at dinner anyway. I’m sneaky that way,” he whispered.

“Hey, don’t eat all the soup,” Jed said. “We worked as hard as you did.”

According to the clock, the conversation had lasted less than two minutes. If that short time brought on the jitters, she wondered if her heart could take a whole evening with Rhett.

“Hey, Piper,” Stella called from the back of the house. “Come help us. We forgot to pack up the bathroom last night.”

“See you later,” Rhett said.

She nodded and floated down the hall toward the bathroom.

“I flirted with Rhett and it didn’t feel awkward,” she whispered.

“It shouldn’t. Boone says that he really likes you,” Charlotte said.

Stella whipped the shower curtain back. “Mama, your prayers bypassed me and hit Piper.”

Nancy was carefully setting everything from the medicine cabinet in a small box. “Well, I’m glad someone is benefiting. I may not ever forgive you for having a boyfriend who gets a drawer in your bedroom and you don’t tell me about him. But at least someone is benefiting from the shit storm I unleashed when I asked for prayers. Maybe God thinks y’all are all my daughters. And Stella, darlin’, I guess you know that I intend to look through that drawer when you are at work tomorrow.”

“You go into my bedroom and I won’t tell you his name until Christmas,” Stella threatened.

“I’m going to the kitchen to help those guys with their supper before y’all get out the guns and knives,” Charlotte said.

“Hey, we don’t have guns and knives,” Nancy said.

“But we’ve got fingernail files and hair conditioner, and believe me, those can be deadly. This is Piper’s night so let’s talk about her, not me,” Stella smarted off.

Charlotte tightened her ponytail and headed for the kitchen. She stopped at the table long enough to drop a kiss on Boone’s forehead before she picked up the tea jug and refilled their glasses. “Y’all ready for brownies?”