The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (Cadillac, Texas #3)(98)

“Yes, he is,” Stella said.

Everett slapped his knee and then gathered Stella to his chest in a bear hug. “I knew it! I just damn sure knew it! The way his eyes go all soft when he looks at you. It’s the way I look at your mama. I couldn’t be happier for you, sugar. I like the man and he’ll be a good son. Does your mama know yet?”

“I told her in the limo.”

Everett let go of his daughter and grinned so big that it lit up the barn more than the candles on the table could ever do. “I knew she was hummin’ with excitement and now I know why. I hope to hell they choose y’all’s names so you can dance together. If they don’t, I’ll have to say something that might make a lot of folks real mad. Y’all looked so happy when you danced in the backyard.”

“You’re really okay with this?” Stella asked.

“Are you happy, sugar?”

“Very.”

“Then I’m okay with it. Now they’d damn sure better draw out y’all’s names so you can be together for this first dance. You’ll be right out there on the floor with me and your mama just like it was your wedding day.”

Charlotte went through a dozen more names before she finally drew out Jed Tucker’s name. “And who will be dancing with the preacher tonight? Aha, it is the lovely Stella Baxter, in whose honor I do believe this barn dance is given. And the last name belongs to me, and since I’m engaged, I’d like to call upon my fiancé to join me in the first dance of the night. Boone Monroe, honey, where are you?”

Heather was rolling her eyes toward the rafters. Violet was shaking her finger at her niece and Agnes was smiling like she’d just been given the keys to heaven.

“Music,” Heather mouthed toward Charlotte.

“The lady who put all this together for us tonight says it’s time for the music to begin. So if our DJ will plug in the flash drive I do believe we . . .”

Jed led Stella to the middle of the floor and reached for the microphone. Heather shook her head emphatically at Charlotte.

“Hold off on that music, Mr. DJ. I guess before we dance, Jed would like to say a few words. So take it away, Preacher Jed,” Charlotte said.

“Stella and I have an announcement to make,” he said in his deep Texas drawl.

“Oh, my Lord,” Charlotte gasped.

Stella smiled at her and winked.

“As you all know, this barn dance came about because of the sign on the church lawn, which will be changed to something else tomorrow. For those of you who might not have seen it, it says, ‘Pray for My Daughter. She Needs a Husband.’?”

Laugher echoed through the whole barn.

“I know it’s funny,” Jed said. “But when Heather asked the prayer group at our church if they had someone that they wanted on the list, Nancy Baxter did not think it would be broadcast for the world to see when she asked the Prayer Angels to ask God to bring her daughter a husband.” He stopped and slung an arm around Stella’s shoulders. “Stella has been a real trouper about the whole thing, folks. I wanted to take the sign down the next morning but she thought it was a hoot, especially in the light of the fact that she already had a husband at that time, so the ladies were praying for something that had already come about.” He raised his voice and brought the microphone all the way to his lips. “And I am that husband, folks. Stella and I were married at the Grayson County Courthouse a month before that prayer meeting, which means we have been married two months and one week tonight.”

Applause rocked the barn.

“So this can be our wedding party. We’d like nothing better than for y’all to enjoy the barbecue. I would advise you to go easy on Stella’s pulled chicken. I like it spicy, but it might be too hot for some folks. And I’d like to invite all y’all to church tomorrow morning. There will be a potluck in the fellowship hall afterward, so if you’ve got any leftover barbecue, bring it along. My whole family will be there to celebrate my job at the Cadillac church and my marriage to the most wonderful woman in the state of Texas.”

Stella reached for the microphone.

“Thank you all for the applause. It means a lot to us. It was my idea to keep the marriage a secret because of my past. I didn’t believe Jed would be hired as the preacher for the next two years if anyone knew he was married to me. But just a few days ago the committee voted to give my new husband a contract, so we’ll be in the parsonage for the next year at least, maybe longer if our prayers are answered and we can make Cadillac our home.” There, she’d said it right out in public for the whole town to hear.

Jed moved closer to the microphone and said, “I do believe there is an old adage about not throwing stones at glass houses, so if any of y’all got a rock in your pockets, either throw it or toss it on the ground right now.”

Violet and Heather inhaled and then let their breath out noisily, but not another sound was heard in the whole barn.

Everett made his way to where Jed and Stella stood and took the microphone. “Y’all all raise your plastic cups. This is a toast to my new son, not son-in-law, but son, because when he joined our family, he became a part of it as surely as if he was blood, not in-law. To my precious daughter, Stella, and to my new son, Jed Tucker. May their marriage be happy and as my old Irish grandmother said when I married Nancy”—he raised his red plastic cup higher—“may God be with you and bless you. May you see your children’s children. May you be poor in misfortunes and rich in blessings. May you know nothing but happiness from this day forward.”