The Devine Doughnut Shop(23)

“What’s she doing here?” Sarah hissed in a low voice when she brought out a tray of doughnuts to put in the display case.

“Having doughnuts for breakfast, I guess,” Grace answered just as quietly. “She’s only been in here a few times. Last time I saw her was before Henry’s funeral.”

“Looks like our guys on the other end of the room aren’t paying a bit of attention to her,” Sarah said. “Think she’s lost her appeal?”

“Maybe they are whispering about their two friends who died in the past three years and deciding they don’t want to be next,” Grace said.

“I wonder who her kids belong to.” Sarah picked up an order pad.

“Do you really have to ask? Look at those brown eyes and dark hair. They are the spitting image of Neal,” Grace answered. “He and Darla Jo had to have known each other in Houston, and they’re working this con together.”

Macy grabbed an order pad and crossed the room. “Good mornin’, Darla Jo. What can I get you and these sweet boys today? Y’all are up awfully early.”

“Coffee for me, juice for the boys, and half a dozen glazed to share. We’ve got to go to an early appointment and get caught up on vaccinations and travel shots. They promised to be brave, so we’re having doughnuts for breakfast, and later, they will get prizes,” Darla Jo answered.

“I heard that you’re planning on moving in a few weeks,” Macy said. “Are you going to a big city?”

“Oh, no!” Darla Jo said with half a giggle. “It’s a small tropical town that’s not much bigger than Devine. I want to raise my boys to be wild and free, not cramped up in tradition. They’ll have a nanny who will homeschool them until they’re old enough to make up their own minds about doing something different.”

“That sounds amazing,” Macy said. “Your sons are so cute. I can just see them making sandcastles and—” She gasped, threw up both hands, and dropped the order pad on the floor.

Grace and Sarah gave each other a look, cleared the end of the counter, and were headed that way when Macy said, “Sweet Lord, that is one big diamond!”

“It is, isn’t it?” Darla Jo held up her left hand to catch the light from the sunrise just coming over the horizon and through the shop window. “I picked it out myself, but it was a surprise when Edward bought it for me and got down on one knee and proposed. Three carats in a pear shape. My hands are too small to wear anything bigger. I just love it. Your little engagement ring is pretty, too.”

Macy’s face lit up in a smile. “Neal did good when he picked it out.”

“Yes, he did,” Darla Jo said with a smug grin that sent Grace’s blood pressure soaring. They were right.

Macy picked up the order pad and started back toward the counter. “I’ll bring your order right out. You have a nice day.”

Darla Jo flipped her hair back over her shoulder. “Oh, honey, I will, and I’ll think of you when I’m living on the island.”

Grace bit back a smart remark and picked up the coffeepot. She crossed the room and topped off the three old guys’ mugs and whispered, “Guess y’all are all out of luck. She’s moving off to an island.”

“Don’t bother me one bit,” Claud said. “My wife told me that she would come up out of the grave and haunt me if I ever got remarried when she was gone. We been together more’n fifty years, and I believe her.”

“Got to admit,” Ira said, “that I’m scared of my dear Martha Jane. She lets me come to town and have coffee with these two, but she thought poor old Wesley and Henry had both lost their minds.”

Grace glanced over at Frankie and raised an eyebrow.

He raised both palms in a defensive gesture. “Honey, my get-up-and-go got up and went a long time ago. I’d have to buy a how-to book to even know what to do with a woman like that. I don’t imagine there’ll be a lot of tears shed when she leaves Devine. Could you bring us three more of them glazed doughnuts, please?”

“You betcha,” Grace said and carried the pot across the room to the table where Darla Jo was sitting with her sons. “Need a little warm-up?”

Darla Jo held up her half-empty cup. “Love one. How long have y’all had this cute little shop? I heard through the grapevine that y’all are about to sell it, maybe to some big corporation up in San Antonio?”

“My sister and cousin and I are the fourth generation to run this doughnut shop,” Grace answered. “Our great-grandmother built it right after World War II. It started out almost a hundred years ago as an office for the land management business that my ancestors had in this area, but then my great-grandmother turned it into a doughnut shop—and it’s not for sale. That’s just a rumor.”

“And this little bitty place supports all of you?” Darla Jo asked. “That’s amazing.”

Grace used the rest of what was in the coffeepot to top off Darla Jo’s mug. “Yes, it is, but then, we don’t have a lot of overhead. We all live together in the house where we were raised, and it’s not fancy.”

“Oh, I must have fancy,” Darla Jo said.

“So you’re going to have a mansion on your island, not a little grass hut?” Grace asked.

“Of course,” Darla Jo answered. “We’ve bought a huge furnished villa, and the staff has agreed to stay on. It’s my dream house.”