The Devine Doughnut Shop(10)

“I’m just the luckiest woman in the whole world.” She smiled as she moved her hand to make the heart-shaped diamond sparkle even more. Neal had promised her a ruby necklace—to match her hair—for their first anniversary. She had told him that his love was enough of a present and that he didn’t need to buy expensive gifts for her, but he’d just smiled and given her one of those kisses that made her go weak in the knees.

She hummed “Amazing Grace” as she followed the aroma of coffee and bacon wafting down the hallway from the kitchen. The original part of the house was almost a hundred years old and had started out as a small two-bedroom place built of fieldstone not long after the town was named after Judge Thomas Jefferson Devine. One of Macy’s first memories was sitting on her mother’s lap and hearing the story of how Devine had been the inspiration for the name of their doughnut shop.

One of the grandparents had added three more rooms and another bathroom onto it, and then another grandparent had built a second wing with two more rooms and another bathroom on the other side. Macy had always loved the sprawling feel of the place and would miss it when she moved into Neal’s tiny efficiency apartment in a prominent San Antonio hotel. But that was only for a few months. He already had his eye on a couple of houses that he wanted them to look at to buy as soon as his year of being the assistant manager of the hotel was finished. At that time, he would have learned the job and could move to wherever he wanted.

She breezed into the kitchen to find Grace and both girls at the table. The tension was so thick that a machete would have trouble cutting through it, and the air around them was cold enough to freeze every barbed-wire fence in hell. “Good morning. Who’s going to church with me this morning?”

“That would be me and Audrey,” Grace said, “and Raelene, if she wants to go.”

“Mama!” Audrey cut her eyes over at Raelene. “I don’t want to go to church.”

“You need some Jesus right now.” Grace used her fingers to pick up a piece of bacon from the platter in the middle of the table. “Consider it your only day to see your friends since you will be working at the shop the whole week. You’ll know by the way they treat you if you’ve been kicked out of the mean-girl club.”

“That’s harsh, even for you, Mama.” Audrey pouted. “We are not mean girls. We are popular, and next year Crystal and Kelsey are going to help me get a place with the cheerleaders.”

“I’d love to go to church, if I’m not needed here,” Raelene said.

Macy pulled out a chair and sat down. She slathered a biscuit with butter and then scooped scrambled eggs and bacon onto her plate. “I love Sundays, when we can have breakfast food and sleep later than two thirty.”

“And go to church and sit beside Neal, right?” Grace teased.

“That’s the best part. God is so good to have sent Neal into our shop at Christmas,” Macy said. “I still can’t believe that he loves me. And speaking of that, we’re spending the whole day together, and he says he has a surprise for me. I’m hoping that we’re going to look at a house. His apartment at the hotel he manages is so small that . . .” She paused and smiled.

“You couldn’t cuss a cat without getting a hair in your mouth,” Grace finished for her. “Mama used to say that all the time.”

Raelene giggled and Audrey shot another dirty look down the table at her.

“What?” Raelene raised a dark brow. “That was funny.”

“Yes, it was,” Grace agreed. “And it was really nice to come home to a clean house yesterday and not have to spend our entire afternoon stripping beds and doing laundry.”

“Or dusting and vacuuming,” Macy added. “I even got my own personal laundry caught up, so now I can spend the whole afternoon with Neal and not feel guilty.”

“If you girls are finished, you should go get dressed,” Grace said.

Audrey pushed back her chair, put on her best hangdog look, and shuffled out of the kitchen.

Raelene picked up her plate and Audrey’s and carried both to the sink. “Macy, I really should stick around here and do these dishes. The flower beds look like they could use some help, and the porch needs a good mopping.”

“The flower beds are Sarah’s bailiwick,” Grace said, “and the porch can wait until next week. We’ll all go to church together.”

Raelene grimaced. “But . . .”

Grace stuffed the last of the eggs and bacon into two biscuits. “There’s no buts, Raelene. Get ready. Macy teaches the teenage class, and she’s asked me to sit in on it today, so you’ll have friends there.”

“Y’all have been too good to me”—Raelene’s glassy eyes were about to spill tears when she turned around to face Grace and Macy—“for me to be an embarrassment to Audrey. She was a good friend to me. High school gets us all riled up.”

“Audrey will be fine,” Grace said. “She’s pouting because of her decision to take the rap for her friends. That was her choice, and now she has to be accountable for it.”

“My granny used to tell me that kind of thing all the time,” Raelene said as she left the room.

Macy poured herself another cup of coffee and sat back down. “Think Raelene and Audrey will ever be friends again? She was sure easier to live with back when she ran with that group of girls.”