The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(89)

“Hey, how are y’all this morning? It’s going to be another hot one. I’ve got a rose for Piper and a balloon for Stella.” She handed them off and asked, “Y’all goin’ to this barbecue ball? I see you’ve got a poster in your window. The previous owner over at the flower shop let them put up a poster and left a ticket in the cash drawer for me. But it sounds a little boring. By the way, I’m Gloria.”

“Oh, believe me, it won’t be boring,” Stella said. “I’m Stella. This is Piper and that would be Charlotte.”

“Pleased to meet y’all. I just bought the flower shop and this is my first day. A woman named Heather was my first customer. She hired me to make a centerpiece for the head table at the ball.”

“Where are you from?” Stella asked.

“I moved here from Wichita Falls. I’ve got a shop over there, too. I’ll probably send my niece over here to take care of this one when I get the inventory all straightened out. Well, got to go. I left the door open,” Gloria said.

Piper opened the card attached to the single pink rose in a gorgeous cut-glass bud vase: Your beauty far exceeds that of this perfect rose . . . RM.

She held it to her chest until Charlotte grabbed it and said, “I think I’m going to swoon. That is the best pickup line I’ve ever heard.”

Stella opened her card carefully and held on to it tightly. It read: Saturday night I’ll float higher than this balloon . . . yours through eternity.

She didn’t fight with Charlotte when she slipped the card from her fingers and sighed. “I didn’t get sweet words and prizes, but I got to admit I’m so happy for you both that my heart is singing and it’s not off tune like Piper was this morning.”

“You’ve been getting flowers and balloons and presents for months. It’s our turn,” Stella said.

“I see weddings and happy ever afters,” she sang.

Stella tied the balloon to the back of her chair and stared at the big red heart with I Love You written in the middle. Yes, she was finally ready, and it had taken every bit of the turmoil since that damned sign went up at the church to get her ready.

“How in the hell did Gladys sell the flower shop so slick? I haven’t heard a word about it,” Piper asked.

“She has her hair done at Walmart in Sherman and she goes to church up there, but we should’ve heard something,” Charlotte said.

“Blame it on the barbecue ball and that church billboard. That’s what everyone is talking about these days,” Stella said.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Nancy’s backyard was filled with laughter, friends, and the faint odor, still lingering, of smoke. She’d gone inside to refill the sweet tea pitcher and took a moment at the kitchen window. God might work in mysterious ways but prayers did get answered.

Boone leaned down and kissed Charlotte on the forehead. Their gazes caught so solidly that it was evident that for a moment there was no one else in the backyard but the two of them. Nancy nodded. That’s the way it should be. They needed to hold on to that moment and remember it when the times got tough.

Rhett collapsed in the grass with two boys hanging on him. He shook them loose and jogged over to the picnic bench to cop a seat by Piper. She was still skittish even after the rose he’d sent the day before, but she would come around. Luke and Tanner loved him already and Everett always said that you couldn’t fool kids or dogs. Nancy giggled when Jonas, their big old yellow Lab, laid his head on Rhett’s knee. He began to scratch the dog’s ears but his eyes kept shifting over to Piper.

Stella was sitting in a lawn chair, her phone in her hand and her thumbs moving like lightning. Most likely she was talking to her boyfriend. Nancy frowned. Was her daughter ashamed to bring him home because of them or because of him? Either way, the whole situation worried her.

Jed rounded the end of the house, waved at Everett, spoke to everyone, and sank down into a lawn chair beside Stella. He was the best preacher Nancy had ever known. He always delivered a down-home message on Sunday that got right to the point and that she had no trouble understanding. There didn’t seem to be any of that stiffness in him that some preachers had. Maybe that’s what made the strange friendship between him and Everett work so well.

“Sinner and saint,” she whispered. “It’s like Everett’s swearin’ just rolls off him like water off a duck’s back. And it’s like him being a preacher don’t faze Everett.”

Her phone rang and she pulled it from the hip pocket of her jeans. Without looking at the ID she said, “Hello.”

“We’re spittin’ dust out here, Mama. You need some help with that tea?” Stella asked.

“I’m on my way out the back door.” She hit a button and shoved the phone back into her pocket. “Rotten phones. Time was when a person yelled. They didn’t call their mama from the backyard to the kitchen. Damn technology will be the death of all of us.” She was still fussing under her breath when she set the pitcher on the table.

“What are you mumbling about?” Stella asked.

“Them damn phones. They’re good in their place but good Lord, Stella Joy, calling me when I’m standing in the kitchen window and not fifty feet from you? That’s ridiculous.”

“I didn’t know that you were in the kitchen. I thought you might be in the back of the house. Get a glass of tea and come sit beside me and Jed. Don’t get so worked up over a phone call that your blood pressure goes up,” Stella teased.