The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(9)

“Kind of like that old sayin’ about Muhammad and the mountain,” Kayla said as she filed Heather’s nails.

“She won’t know what happened until one of those guys walks in and she’s love struck.” Ruby grinned.

Nancy sat straight up in the chair. “Do not, and I repeat, do not give one of those money orders to our preacher or to Rhett Monroe.”

“I can understand not giving one to Rhett. He’s a player, but why not Brother Jed? He’s a bachelor even if he is a preacher. He’ll feel slighted if y’all don’t give him a money order and he already gets his hair cut down there anyway so he’ll just be getting a freebie. Lord, I wish I was five or six years older. He’s so sexy I could turn into a preacher’s wife real easy.” Kayla giggled.

Kayla wore her short burgundy hair in a spiked hairdo that seemed to defy gravity. Her nails were purple that day and three sets of pierced earrings dangled up her ears. A heavy gold necklace draped down between two inches of cleavage that peeked out from a low-cut tank top. Ella would never have let her come to work like that. And she would have never allowed her to have a rose tattoo on her thigh, either, but Ruby thought it was all cute.

“Kayla! He’s a man of God,” Heather gasped.

“He might be, but he’s a man, too. And I’d go to Sunday dinner with him at Nancy’s any week she wants to invite both of us.” Kayla giggled.

“He’s too old for you, child,” Ruby said.

“Y’all are bringin’ God down from heaven when he’s got wars and big things to think about just to find a husband for Stella so you can have some kind of marriage ministry. And you think age would matter if the sexy preacher fell for a girl ten years younger than him? I bet he’s not a day over thirty and I’ll be twenty-one here in a few weeks. Hey, once Stella is married off, will you put my name on your sign, Heather?” Kayla asked.

Nancy sighed. Out of the mouths of babes and a twenty-year-old manicurist with a tat and flapping earrings came the kernel of the matter. She longed to rush back down to Stella’s and tell her all about what was really happening, but she had to make this all right before she did a damn thing.

You should have remembered that Heather was president of the Prayer Angels, and that she had control of that damned sign. The sassy voice in her head sounded just like Agnes.

Nancy might not be able to tear down the church sign without spending time in jail, but she could do something. As soon as she got out of the chair she would call Agnes Flynn. If anyone in town could put things to rights, it was Agnes. She was eighty years old and ornery as a rattlesnake, and there wasn’t a person in town who messed with Agnes.

Kayla was saying something else but Nancy didn’t catch it. She tuned in to the conversation in time to hear Heather’s voice raise an octave higher when she said, “I can take my business somewhere else if you’re going to make fun of my ministry.”

“I’m so sorry. I did not mean to offend.” Kayla’s voice said one thing but the tone said the exact opposite.

“You are forgiven. Now let’s talk about that gold fingernail you fixed for my precious aunt Violet?”

Kayla nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I want one. The ark of the covenant was covered with gold. It will be my sign and a pledge of my vow to God that I will not stop praying until Stella is married,” she said.

Or until she is run plumb out of town, Nancy thought.

“Which finger? They are expensive, but I’ve got them in all sizes,” Kayla said.

“I think for this time my pinky finger will do fine. When we start charging for our marriage ministry services, I will get a bigger one. Don’t you worry, Miz Nancy, I have faith.” Heather raised the hand with five red nails toward the ceiling. “The Lord is with the Angels.”

Nancy could not leave with half her hair cut and the other part still shaggy and she couldn’t rip all those red fingernails from Heather’s hand, but she could sure make a phone call to Agnes. Heather was not running Stella out of Cadillac, not on Nancy’s watch.

“Y’all have to promise me that you won’t give one of those haircut money orders to Brother Jed. Everett cusses worse than a drunk, horny sailor on a good day. If he’s mad, his cussin’ will blister the paint right off of walls. I’d just die if y’all gave a voucher to Brother Jed and Stella fell for him. A preacher would never come around our place. I want my new son-in-law to be part of the family, and besides, Stella cusses as bad as her daddy,” Nancy said.

Heather clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, eyes glaring at Nancy as if she were an errant child, and pointed one finger her way. “If Brother Jed fell for Stella, he’d be marryin’ Stella, not Everett. But why are you frettin’? He’s a man of God. He wouldn’t fall for the likes of Stella even if she does play the church piano,” Heather said bluntly. “I don’t know why they ever let her have that job knowing that she cusses as bad as her daddy and drinks so much.”

“My child,” Nancy said through clenched teeth, “might cuss, and a beer on Saturday night does not make her a drunk.”

Floy spoke up from the corner. “And the new son-in-law, whoever he is, and Nancy have to have a good relationship or he won’t let her babysit the grandbaby when it gets here. If he can’t go to her house because of the cussin’ that Everett does, I don’t see him letting her keep his child. But I agree, Heather, we can’t slight the preacher. We’ll give him a free haircut with the knowledge that God will protect him.”