The Devine Doughnut Shop(46)

“No, you won’t,” Raelene told her. “Crystal’s and Kelsey’s mamas are on the judging panel for the cheerleader tryouts next year, and you know what they’ve said about you.” She raised her glass of milk and took a long drink. “And those two are just mean and hateful. They’ll use you and then dump you and find someone else to be their little patsy. They came by the library table where I was having a sandwich and studying. They made a big show of coughing all over my food, and Kelsey even managed to sneeze on it. I threw it in the trash.”

Audrey was about to bite off a piece of cookie, but she put it down. “Why didn’t you do something about it?”

“What would I do?” Raelene asked. “If I tattle on them to the principal, they’ll deny it—and who’s got the power, them or me? Both of their fathers are on the school board. If I start a fight, I would get expelled, which would probably mess up my scholarship. It’s only two months and a few days until graduation, and then it will be over. I’ve put up with their hatefulness for all these years, so I can endure it for a little longer. But just in case I ever need to prove something, I keep a journal with dates, times, and locations about all the ugly things they’ve done.”

Audrey just nodded and set about having her after-school snack, but Grace could see the wheels turning in her head again, and Lord only knew where they would land when they stopped moving—or what would happen in the next few days.

“I am your friend,” Audrey finally said. “And thank you.”



Dark clouds covered the moon when the three women set out for the doughnut shop on Friday morning. The heaviness in the air testified that rain was on the way. A streak of lightning lit up the nearly black sky for a moment, and thunder rolled right afterward.

Macy used her key to open the kitchen door and stood to the side to let the other two enter first. “I love rainy days but not stormy ones. Should we still make a double batch this morning? This storm will keep a lot of people inside.”

“Not when there’s gossip as juicy as what’s going on now,” Sarah answered and flipped on the lights. She had always dreaded when there was juicy gossip to be told over doughnuts and coffee, but even more so these days, when the gossip had to do with her family. That hadn’t happened very often, but the past few weeks had sure made up for lost time.

She’d been raised in this little shop, and everything from the rack of metal trays to the huge bins of flour and sugar was familiar to her. What her mother had said about change being good flashed through her mind.

“Change is scary, isn’t it?” she muttered as she got out the big bowls to mix the dough in and set them on the counter.

“Mama said it was good for us, but she didn’t say it was easy,” Grace reminded her.

“She also said that sometimes we have to step out of the forest to see the trees,” Macy added. “All these trees are going to smother me before the end of May, when we take our first-ever real vacation.”

Sarah gave her a quick hug. “Hang on, darlin’. Together, we’ll get through one day at a time until we can leave the forest for a little while.”

Grace sang a line from a hymn: “One day at a time, sweet Jesus . . .”

“Amen!” Macy said. “Remember what your mama told all three of us? A three-corded rope is hard to break. We are strong. We can endure this until May. Y’all keep telling me that and maybe I’ll make it until then. Now, what if we mixed up two batches in each bowl instead of one?”

“Then the dough would spill out over the top when it rises, and Mama said that the secret in our doughnuts is that we make them in small batches,” Sarah answered.

Macy poured warm water into three bowls and added two tablespoons of yeast and half a cup of sugar to each one. “I guess in that instance, change would not be good.”

Sarah stirred what was in the bowl in front of her. “We can’t sell the recipe, but we can sell the property and the store. It’s set up to make pastries, but it could so easily be turned into a small bistro or burger kind of café. We’re living in a rut—get up and be here by three so that we can have doughnuts ready at five when we open the doors. Go home after we clean up and close up to take a nap, have supper, go to bed by nine so we can be ready to go again the next day.”

“What are you suggesting?” Grace asked.

“That, like Mama said, change is good for us,” Sarah said. “What if we get out a map, blindfold Audrey or Raelene, and play Pin the Tail on the Donkey? Only instead of a donkey, wherever they put a tack is where we move and start over.”

“What would we do?” Macy asked. “This is our life.”

“Maybe we could live in Paris for a couple of years and fulfill Audrey’s dream to live in France, or we could go live in a place near the water. I could so be a beach bum.” Sarah sifted flour into the foamy liquid. “Anything would be a change from what we’re doing now.”

“What if we ran into Darla Jo and Neal on the beach?” Macy asked.

Sarah shivered. “That would be our luck to run into them on whatever island we decided to visit, now, wouldn’t it? Or maybe Joel and his family.”

“Good Lord!” Grace gasped. “That would be a disaster—and besides, I’m not sure that would be good for Audrey. She needs to learn that you don’t fix problems by running from them like Justin did. And we’ve kind of adopted Raelene. She needs a stable home to come to on holidays and when she has a break from school.” She kneaded the dough in her bowl a few times, then pushed it back and set up another one.