The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(87)

“But I’m ready to announce it now and move into the parsonage with you,” she said.

“Me, too, darlin’, but I really like the idea of announcing it at the ball. You deserve more than word-of-mouth gossiping that can get things all twisted up. You deserve a big moment.” He teased her mouth open with his tongue.

“I love you, Jed Tucker.” Her heart swelled with pure love for the man she’d married a few months before.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t go to the parsonage and play house for a little while right now,” he whispered.

“And ruin the surprise if someone caught us? No, thank you.” She got up and locked his office door, pulled the blinds, and sat back down in his lap. “I’ve got thirty minutes. What’s on your appointment book?”

“Nothing until noon, and that sofa is inviting us to move over there.”



“I hear your kids are coming home this evening and that you’ve moved in with Rhett Monroe,” Trixie said. “Good for you, Piper. I’m glad to see you moving on with your life. Gene was never the man for you. We all knew he was a mama’s boy.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that before I married him?” Piper asked.

“Would it have done any good?” Rosalee asked from the sofa. “Y’all may have to start charging me rent on this couch as much as I stay here anymore.”

“You are welcome to run in and out and stay as long as you like,” Charlotte said.

Piper used a curling iron on Trixie’s light-brown hair. “I did not move in with Rhett. We aren’t dating.”

“Then where did you move?” Trixie asked.

“It’s a secret until this evening. I don’t want Lorene to find out and tell the boys. I want to surprise them, but getting out of that house with all the memories was a big step in moving forward with my life,” she said. “There. All done.”

“Good for you,” Trixie said. “On a different note, I should forewarn you, Alma Grace has been in the café bragging about Irene working up a custom-made bouquet. Charlotte, your mama is liable to have her hands full, because there’s a lot of wedding fever going around. And there could be more after the barbecue ball.”

Charlotte picked up the broom and started sweeping hair from around the chairs. “It really did make her feel good for Alma Grace to ask her to make her bouquet. Maybe it’ll work into a second job for her.”

“Time for me to go. Me and Agnes and Violet, oh, and Beulah, are about the only ones left from our graduating class here in Cadillac. Y’all won’t know Bobby Dalhart, but he died, and they’re having his funeral today in Sherman. I haven’t seen him in forty years, but I feel like someone from our class should pay our respects at his funeral.” Rosalee stood up slowly. “When I die, I want you to come to the funeral home and fix my hair just like this, Charlotte. You do such a wonderful job.” Rosalee threw the shoulder strap for her purse over her head and nodded toward Piper. “Your secret is safe with me. But, honey, I’m a little disappointed. If I’d lived in today’s world as a young woman, I would have moved in with that handsome Rhett in a heartbeat.”

All of them, including Trixie, were stunned into speechless silence as Rosalee made her way out of the shop.

“Holy shit! I can’t believe all that’s gone on since Nancy put Stella’s name on that list. I thought Rosalee was one of the last survivors of the old school and would crucify one of us for moving in with a boyfriend,” Piper said.

“I don’t care how much I like someone, I’m not doing a dead person’s hair.” Charlotte shivered from head to red toenails.

“One of you will have to do mine when I go,” Stella said. “I wouldn’t trust another soul to do it, and if you don’t do it right, I’ll come back and haunt the hell out of you.”

“Where did you come from? And you aren’t dying, so don’t talk like that. It gives me the shivers,” Piper said.

“Down the back alley and through the storeroom. I’m practicing my Agnes skills.” Stella laughed.

“You could easily share DNA with Agnes,” Piper said.

Stella cocked her head to one side. “Does that mean I’m the Cadillac Irish mob? If so, then all y’all and Bless My Bloomers and Clawdy’s all are my mob family like in The Godfather. And Darla Jean, I can’t forget Darla Jean. We might be the Cadillac eleven, kind of like that George Clooney film.”

Charlotte pulled a tissue from a fancy little box at her station and dabbed her eyes. “You are a female godfather for sure. Don’t you think so, Trixie?”

“That sumbitch wasn’t Irish,” Trixie said.

“Well, if he had been, then Stella would be his kinfolk,” Piper said.

“Hey, Luke and Tanner are coming home this evening. I just remembered,” Stella said.

“Well, duh! We’ve been talking about it for two whole days and I’ve moved into a new place and tonight I’m leaving your house. You’d think you would have . . . okay, where have you been and who have you been doing it with? You’ve got that glow that says you had sex and you’ve forgotten everything we talked about for two days,” Piper said.

“And I smell Stetson again,” Charlotte said.