The Devine Doughnut Shop(12)

“That is enough. If I hear you say she’s just a maid again, you will be very, very sorry,” Grace cautioned her daughter. “And be forewarned, if you go to school and bully her because she works for us, there will be consequences.”

“I’m not a bully, but I won’t sit with her on the bus or be all sweet to her at school, either. My friends and I don’t like her kind.” Audrey stomped her foot.

“Seems like that was about what Crystal’s and Kelsey’s mamas told you—they didn’t like your kind. You might remember that they feel about you like you do about Raelene these days. Now, go get in the SUV and quit arguing with me,” Grace told her.

“Crystal and Kelsey will never feel like that, no matter what their mamas say,” Audrey hissed under her breath, then crawled all the way back to the third seat to avoid sitting beside Raelene.

She looked out the side window all the way from the house to the church parking lot. As soon as the car stopped, she bailed out of the vehicle and practically jogged across the parking lot to where a group of her friends had gathered.

Macy looked up at Raelene in the rearview mirror and said, “Come on with me and Grace. We’ll take you inside and show you around. This church is a little bigger than the one where you and Hilda went.”

“I miss my granny so much,” Raelene said.

“I know you do. I still miss my mama, and she’s been gone for years. Your granny was one of her dear friends,” Grace answered. “This is a small town, sweetie. Everyone knows everyone, and there’s a lot of folks who loved Hilda.”

“That’s the problem a lot of times, isn’t it?” Raelene whispered.

Macy looped her arm through Raelene’s. “Or the blessing. It all depends on how you look at it.”



Bright sunshine came through the window of Travis’s penthouse apartment on Sunday morning. He laced his fingers behind his head and stared at the ceiling. He had no doubts about buying land for a housing development in Devine. The houses would probably be sold before they could finish building them. Folks—especially those with children—were looking for smaller towns that weren’t far from San Antonio. A thirty-minute commute wouldn’t be much different from going home during rush hour when they lived only across town.

But the idea of owning a doughnut shop? Even if Grace Dalton would sell him the shop and her recipes for what had to be the best pastries he had ever eaten . . . He sat straight up in bed and grabbed his glasses from the bedside table.

“What if I went really big with it?” He always talked to himself when he was plowing through a problem. “What if I put in a factory and turned out her doughnuts in mass production and shipped them all over the United States?”

She said very emphatically that she would not sell, the annoying voice in his head reminded him.

“Everyone has a price,” Travis argued as he got dressed and called his best friend and CEO, Calvin.

“Are you coming to church with us?” Calvin asked.

“Not this morning,” Travis answered. “I’m going to open up the office and work on some figures about a business opportunity. I just wanted to let you know that I wouldn’t be there.”

“Maggie will be disappointed. She invited a really sweet woman to go to lunch with us,” Calvin said.

“Sorry about that, but I’ve told you both time and time again that I’m not interested in dating,” Travis said.

What about Grace Dalton? Would you go out with her? the voice in his head whispered.

“Hush,” Travis said.

“I didn’t say anything, but I will now. You need to get back out there, my friend. You are too young to do nothing but work,” Calvin warned him for what seemed like the millionth time since Erica had walked out on him.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Travis said.

“Point proven.” Calvin chuckled. “You talk to yourself to have company! You have to be lonely, even if you won’t admit it. See you tomorrow at work, and we’ll discuss this new venture you’re thinking about.”

“Yes, we will,” Travis said. “Give Maggie and the girls a hug for me.”

“Will do,” Calvin said.

Now, about Grace Dalton, he thought. Yes, he would go out with her in a heartbeat. She was beautiful—and more importantly, she had grit.





Chapter Three


Sarah propped her chin up on her elbow and looked her fill of Joel McKay. Sunlight streamed in between the blinds on the motel window, leaving stripes of shadows on his handsome face. His black hair was all messy, and he sported a day’s worth of dark whiskers—all that only made him sexier in her eyes. They’d been seeing each other every week since right after Thanksgiving, and today she was going to ask him to go to Sunday dinner with her. She wanted her family to meet him, to get to know the man she had fallen in love with over the past four months. She touched the little gold heart necklace he’d given her for Christmas. The romantic note that she had put away with her other keepsakes said I’m giving you my heart and all my love.

No one, not even Audrey, had noticed her necklace; but then, Sarah loved jewelry, so they probably thought it was one of the many that she owned. She wanted to wake him for one last bout of sex before she asked him to meet her family, but she wanted a shower and coffee even more. She eased out of bed, pulled on her jeans and a shirt, and made her way to the motel lobby. They always had coffee—if you could call it that—and packaged pastries. After the hunger she’d built up the night before, neither tasted too bad.