The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(86)

“Ripley is fifty miles from Tulsa. That’s too damn far to be a suburb,” Rosalee said. “It’s a little bitty town that’s only a third the size of Cadillac, so stop puttin’ on airs.”

Heather tossed her head back in a defiant gesture as she flipped on the overhead projector and showed everyone the table placement. “I’m not discussing where I was raised. Now, this is the way that the tables will be arranged. The buffet tables will be lined up at the back. I did it that way so the traffic could flow down both sides, so you might keep that in mind as you get set up. And right here will be a curtained-off place to use as a workstation. We don’t want trash cans and such cluttering up our lovely ball.”

“Sounds like you have everything under control, but you didn’t answer my question about hanky-panky with Quinn,” Rosalee said.

“You don’t deny that Piper is living with Rhett?” Heather glared at Rosalee.

“I didn’t say that and it’s none of my business or yours,” she answered.

“Well, I’m not dignifying your question with an answer. But I did hear that Piper has been seeing Rhett for years and there’s a possibility that the twins don’t belong to poor Gene, who is just heartbroken over the way he’s been treated. You do know that he’s a distant cousin of Quinn’s and that we are familiar with the situation. I’m telling all of you right now that the marriage ministry will not include divorced or loose-legged women,” Heather said.

Rosalee made a big show of heading toward the door. “Darlin’, if your ministry is going to get its big butt off the ground in Texas, you’d best reconsider that statement. Divorce is part of the culture these days, especially since women have learned that they don’t have to put up with rascals. Y’all have a wonderful day now, and I’ll see you at the barbecue ball. It should be a lot of fun.”

Rosalee giggled the whole way across the parking lot to her car.

Nancy was leaning against her truck. “Well? That was fun, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, yeah. How much is she in the hole for? Agnes will want to know for sure,” Rosalee asked.

“A thousand dollars to date. There ain’t enough people interested in a damn ball to come for miles around like they do for the jubilee. So it’ll mainly be the townspeople with a few from Luella and Sherman, but not enough to pay for what all she’s doing. Someone is going to have to bail her out. I expect that it’ll be Violet,” Nancy said.

“Agnes is going to love that news.” Rosalee got into her truck and drove away.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Piper crawled out of bed early and sang off-key at the top of her lungs while she took a shower. She could be staying at her new home, but she wanted to share the first night there with the boys, which was tonight, so she was happy that morning.

Stella was scowling on the sofa when Charlotte came out of the guest room and Piper opened the bathroom door.

“What are you doing up this early? You don’t have to go to the shop until midmorning,” Charlotte said.

“You are both mean old bitches,” Stella said. “How can a woman sleep through all the noise y’all make? And what are you doing here, Charlotte? I thought you weren’t spending another night away from Boone.”

“He’s on a twenty-four-hour shift and the house got too quiet for me to bear, so I let myself in after y’all had gone to bed,” Charlotte answered.

Piper bent at the waist and towel dried the underside of her hair. “I haven’t heard music in your room the past couple of nights.”

“I’m not having this conversation.” Stella covered her head with a throw pillow. “I’m going to go for doughnuts and fried pies at that new shop in Luella. I shouldn’t be nice to either of you since you woke me up so early, but I’ll bring breakfast to the shop.”

“Why don’t you run on up to the rehab center and check on Agnes before you come in? We can wait on breakfast that long and you can take her a couple of fried chocolate pies. I bet she’s going into withdrawals if they haven’t served chocolate in a couple of days,” Piper suggested.



Agnes was in therapy, so Stella left a chocolate pie on her bedside table and drove back to Cadillac. As she passed the church with that horrible sign still shining for the whole world to see, she noticed that Jed’s truck was parked around back, so she whipped in beside it. She slipped in the back door and heard him whistling in his office. Peeking in the glass she could see him, leaning back in the chair, eyes closed, hands locked behind his neck.

She eased the door open and quietly crossed the room. She was in the process of throwing one leg over his lap when he sat up suddenly and grabbed her butt firmly in both hands.

“Caught you.” He chuckled.

“Do you always greet the women of the congregation this way?” she asked.

“Only the ones I’m married to, and just for the record, I don’t believe in polygamy.” He kissed her hard on the lips, the kiss lingering for several moments before he broke it. “And darlin’, I heard you drive up and you played right into my hand, quite literally.”

“I love you and I’m ready to tell the whole world that we are married today,” she said.

“I’m glad, but we’re going to wait now until the barbecue ball. The ball will be a perfect place to announce our wedding to the whole county at one time.” He strung kisses from her nose to her lips, to that soft tender spot at the hollow of her neck.