The Devine Doughnut Shop(53)

Audrey removed her hoodie and tossed it over to the other end of the swing. “I’m going to grow old and die right here in this house, aren’t I? I’ll make ten dozen doughnuts one morning, sell them all, and come home to drop down dead with a heart attack.”

“I hope not,” Macy said. “I hope you find somebody to love and spend the rest of your life with, and you die of old age with a smile on your face.”

Audrey sucked in a lungful of air and let it all out in a whoosh. “I can’t sell the recipe for our doughnuts, but I can sell our land, our home, and the shop building. Is that right?”

“If I live to be seventy, you will be almost fifty. I suppose if I turn it over to you then, you can do whatever you want with it,” Grace answered.

“That gives me a long time to think about it. If I keep the shop, I can always put rat poison in Crystal and Kelsey’s doughnuts. Right now, I’m going to go get a snack and help Raelene. Dusting, as bad as I hate it, is better than thinking about being old,” Audrey said with a long sigh before disappearing into the house.

Macy tipped up her water bottle and drank what was left. She remembered being young and thinking about what it would be like to be fifty years old and wanting to live anywhere but Devine, Texas.

“Yep,” Grace said.

“What are you agreeing with?” Sarah asked.

“I’m sure we’re all thinking the same thing,” Grace answered. “That when we were all about Audrey’s age, fifty was old, and we dreaded the idea of spending the rest of our lives in the shop.”

Macy nodded. “You nailed it—but little did we know that our friendship would help us get through good times and bad. I feel sorry for Audrey because she doesn’t have a sister. No offense, Grace.”

“We can adopt Raelene,” Sarah suggested.

A wide grin spread over Macy’s face. “I kind of like that idea.”

“Why don’t we take Audrey not having a sister as a sign that we are the last generation of sisters and cousins who will keep the shop open?” Grace said.

“That’s too sad to think about,” Macy said and headed in the house. “I’d rather help the girls dust than think about that, and I’m not real fond of that job, either.”



Sarah pulled on her gloves and went back to her flower beds. “I went to town today to buy plants for this little job, and I caught a glimpse of a man outside the drugstore that reminded me of Justin. Have you ever thought about what you would do if he showed back up here and wanted to be a part of Audrey’s life?”

“What on earth brought that to your mind?” Grace asked.

“Just thinking of the three men who’ve done us dirty,” Sarah answered.

“I hope he doesn’t ever come back to town—but if he does, I pray that it’s not until Audrey is a lot older. She is dealing with enough right now without all the emotional upheaval of him trying to wiggle his way into her life.”

“You are dealing with trying to raise a teenage daughter on your own and a man who you can’t be sure if he’s trying to con you out of your business or if he likes you.” Sarah kept an eye on her sister as she worked.

“I’m not doing any of that on my own,” Grace answered. “I’ve always had you and Macy. And even Raelene and Audrey are being a support in their own way. Who would have thought that my daughter would say that she wasn’t interested in the Butler money but she wanted to meet him to be sure he wasn’t trying to trick me into that.”

Sarah remembered the picture of Joel’s family and wondered if it was better to have a father who cheated and lied or to have no father at all. “Do you regret not having a father around when we were growing up?”

Grace handed her a marigold plant from the box on the porch. “Never thought about it much. Daddy died when we were so young, and Mama stepped right up to be both parents to us; then Macy’s dad passed away, and Aunt Molly came to live in the house with us. Mama has been my role model for a single mother, even if I didn’t realize it until right now. Do you wish we would have had a traditional family?”

Macy came back outside and sat down on the porch. “What are y’all talking about?”

Sarah packed the loose dirt around the plant and dug another hole. “How I might have turned out different if we’d had the heavy hand of a father, but who knows? I rebelled against discipline, so I might have been worse. How about you, Macy?”

“Never thought about it at all,” Macy said. “Mama taught me to trust that God is planning for us and to trust in that. I’ve tried to—even at times like these, when I can’t imagine why He would send someone like Neal into my life.”

“Maybe it’s so that you won’t ever let all that sweet talk fool you into trusting the wrong person.” Sarah slipped a flower into the hole and straightened to a standing position.

Grace picked up a pot of petunias and handed it to her sister. “We’ll never know what kind of path we would have taken if we could go back and undo the past, will we?”

“No, but I can tell you a little about the future,” Sarah said with half a giggle as she toed the dirt that had brought the giggle up. “I will be very careful about who I trust—and I will probably never like to dust. I’d rather dig in the dirt.”