The Devine Doughnut Shop(33)

“I’m staying in the kitchen for the next month,” Macy declared.

Grace had no trouble relating to Macy on that issue. She had refused to wait on customers when Justin left town and had spent weeks in the kitchen, making doughnuts and icing them. She and Justin had been high school sweethearts. She’d had no doubt that they would get married and grow old together. Then she had gotten pregnant, and he hadn’t been ready to be a father. He had taken the coward’s way out and left a note on the windshield of her car that said he just couldn’t see a life of working, coming home, and raising a baby.

Beezy bumped shoulders with Grace. “What are you thinking about? That you’d like to strangle three men until their faces turn blue?”

“Three?” Audrey asked. “Is there more than Neal and Joel?”

“I’ll provide the rope for the strangling business for Joel,” Sarah offered.

“And since the girls have reminded me that sometimes God needs human hands to carry out His vengeance,” Macy said, “I will gladly give you whatever you need to take care of Neal, or Edward, or whoever he is.”

“Who’s the third one?” Raelene asked.

Audrey glanced down the table at her mother. “That would be Justin, right? Mama, I don’t need a father. I’ve got all of you to boss me around.”

Grace gave her a thumbs-up. “But it would have been nice for him to stick around and see what an amazing daughter he helped to create.”

Audrey gave her a crooked little smile. “But now you get to take all the credit if I turn out good.”

“Or all the credit if you turn out to be a delinquent,” Sarah reminded her.

“Enough about me.” Audrey shot a dirty look toward her aunt. “Macy is the one we’re here to support today.”

Grace couldn’t believe that Audrey had just diverted attention away from herself. Usually, like with most teenage girls, everything was about Audrey. If it rained, it was just so that her hair would frizz. If the power went out, she whined that God hated her because she couldn’t blow-dry her hair.

“You’re off in la-la land again,” Beezy whispered just for Grace’s ears.

“Yep, I am,” she said with a nod. “To some degree, I’ve been where every one of you except Raelene have been, and I have the battle scars to prove it. I feel what each of you are going through and want you to know that I’m here to listen when you need to talk—and that goes for all of you.”

“Except Raelene? What does that mean? That she can’t come talk to you? Is that fair?” Audrey frowned.

“I’ve never been without a home or a place to stay, and my mother put me on the payroll at the doughnut shop when I was sixteen, so I’ve always had a job,” Grace explained. “That’s what I meant, and Raelene is always welcome to come talk to me anytime she wants.”

“Girl, we were being paid to do odd jobs at the shop when we were thirteen,” Sarah reminded her.

“But we didn’t get to be on payroll and get a weekly check until we were sixteen,” Macy said. “I remember feeling like a queen when I opened my first checking account.”

“And how did you feel when you were twenty-five?” Beezy asked.

“When I found out how much money was in my trust fund, I was the queen.” Macy smiled for the first time that day. “And to think I almost threw it all away on a con man.”

“But you didn’t, so take comfort in that,” Beezy told her. “You girls would make your mothers proud. And someday when this young’un grows up”—she pointed at Audrey—“she’s going to make y’all just as proud.”

Audrey filled the electric teakettle with water and plugged it in to make hot tea. “I’m not sure I’m ever going to get married. If I want kids, I’ll pick out a sperm donor that’s tall, dark, and handsome and a genius who knows algebra, so my kids won’t struggle with it.”

“Why?” Beezy asked.

“Because of what’s happening right now, today,” Audrey declared with a wave of her hand. “Men can’t be trusted.”

“And girls who make you do mean things can?” Grace asked.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Audrey answered. “But I do want to live in a town where I can sneeze and nobody calls my mama to see if I’ve got the flu. Maybe in a big city where nobody knew my grandmother—and I sure don’t want to pour coffee and make doughnuts for a living.”

Grace remembered saying the same thing to her mother when she was about Audrey’s age. She’d had to eat those words, and they had been bittersweet. People had talked about her, and some had even said she was the reason her mother had died. According to them, she couldn’t bear the fact that Grace was pregnant—the first in the long line of good Christian Dalton women who had taken the wrong path.

“If I didn’t have a scholarship, I would beg for a job in the shop,” Raelene whispered. “Living here and working for y’all is the best thing that’s happened to me since my Granny passed away.”

Macy reached over and laid a hand on Raelene’s shoulder. “You can always come back on holidays and stay with us. This is your home now, girl, and we’re glad you are here with us. You are family. Heck, I need this family, too—thank you all for being here for me today, and for helping me start to get through this. I’m still half expecting someone to wake me up any minute from this nightmare.”