The Devine Doughnut Shop(65)

The girl slipped her phone out of her hip pocket, and Audrey added her phone number to the contacts.

The girl quickly sent the list. “Hope that helps. Your order will be ready in just a few.”

“Thanks,” Audrey said.

Macy led the way to a table near the back of the small dining area. “Now, tell me what this thrift stuff is about, Raelene.”

“We’ve all helped organize donated clothing for the church closet a few times, but I figured that was freebies for the needy. I’ve never been in one for outfits.” Sarah pulled out a chair and sat down. “Y’all remember that little antique lamp in my bedroom at home? I saw it in the window of a store in Hondo and bought it. But I didn’t look around at anything else.”

“We’re always ready to just go home and rest up for the next day after we work from three in the morning until noon, so we don’t get out to do much shopping,” Grace added as she sat down beside Sarah. “Buying online has been my salvation.”

“I can’t wait to get my first car,” Audrey said with a sigh. “Then I can go to the mall in San Antonio every Sunday afternoon. But now I’m ready to hear about this thrifting idea. I liked that shirt the girl that waited on us had on. Do you think her thrift store will have it in my size?”

“I doubt it,” Raelene said with a soft giggle. “Thrift stores that sell donated or pre-owned things like clothing or shoes just have a single size or only a few. But there’s purses and jewelry at a decent price—and also furniture, books, lamps, and lots of other things. Since Granny and I didn’t have a car, I didn’t get to go very often, but a few times, Mama drove us up to some places near San Antonio. I would save the money I earned waitressing in the summertime so we could go to the thrift stores for my school clothes.”

“Macy,” the girl behind the counter said, raising her voice, “your order is ready.”

Raelene was up and out of her chair before anyone else could move. “I’ll get it.”

“What do y’all think?” Macy asked. “Shall we let Raelene take us thrifting? We could buy things we might only use for the beach for a lot less money.”

“I wouldn’t want to do it at home. What if someone at school donated something and I showed up with it? They would all know I was buying my things at a garage sale–type store,” Audrey whispered. “But it might be fun here.”

Raelene brought a tray with their food on it and set it in the middle of the table and turned around to go back to the counter. “Be right back with our drinks.”

Audrey hopped up out of her chair. “I’ll help you with those.” Then she turned back and whispered to her mother, “But I’m not wearing used shoes—not even if they’re giving them away free.”

Raelene stopped, turned around, and nodded. “Me neither. It’s not really a choice for me, though, because I wear a size five, and not many people wear shoes that small. So are we going to look through the thrift stores before we go to what Granny and I called the hooty-tooty places?”

“Sounds like an adventure to me,” Sarah answered and reached for a biscuit. “I’m starving, so dig in. Audrey, you girls can navigate for us with the addresses on your phone. How many are there?”

“About a dozen, unless we go on into Panama City, and then it would be even more,” Audrey replied and then bit into her biscuit. “I should have ordered two of these. I’m”—she smiled and looked across the table at her mother—“hungry to death.”

Grace’s brilliant smile lit up the whole room. “I thought being a teenager had made you forget all about the good times.”

“That’s one of my first memories,” Audrey said between bites. “I’d wake up at the doughnut shop and smell them cooking and tell you that I was ‘hungry to death.’ You would let me choose which one I wanted for breakfast, pour me a glass of milk, and then put half a dozen doughnut holes on the plate with my choice of the day.”

Raelene took a sip of her milk and pushed an errant strand of dark hair behind her ear. “You lucky dog. I ate oatmeal every morning until Granny passed away. And she put in raisins.”

Audrey finished off her biscuit and bit into a doughnut. She slung an arm around the back of Raelene’s chair. “Stick with me, and I promise you can have all the doughnuts for breakfast that you can eat for the rest of your life.”

“I plan on living until I’m ninety, or maybe even a hundred,” Raelene told her. “Are you still going to be running the shop then?”

“Yep, I am,” Audrey said with a nod. “It’s a legacy, don’t you know? A family thing you’ll probably be helping me with when you are a hundred.”





Chapter Fifteen


I’m in shock,” Delores gasped. “Give me a minute, and I’ll get all the arrangements made.”

“I’m going home and back to bed,” Calvin whispered. “I know I’m dreaming.”

“Nope, you are not,” Travis said as he signed the last of a stack of papers on his desk. “I’m really leaving for a week. I plan on taking Grace and her family to dinner tonight in Florida, and if things go well, I will ask her out again. If not, I’m going to relax on the beach and maybe even read a book for fun. I’ll be staying at the company beach house. I’ve got a meeting with the think tank before I go, and that’s all I’m doing for a whole week.”