The Devine Doughnut Shop(9)

“Was a friend?” Grace asked.

“He died a couple of years back,” Travis said.

“I’m so sorry.” Grace remembered when her mother had passed and folks said that. She often wondered if they meant it or if it was just words. How could a person be sorry for losing someone that they never knew?

“Thank you,” Travis said with half a smile and a nod.

Claud went on to explain more about the man not two feet from her elbow. “Holt—that would be Travis’s granddad—sold the ranch when he found out he didn’t have long to live, and Travis’s daddy decided he wanted to enjoy a few years of life that didn’t involve sitting behind a desk, so he retired and turned his corporation over to Travis a while back.”

Grace noticed that telling all his personal business was embarrassing Travis and tried to shift the conversation over to something else. “Think it’s going to rain all day?”

The expression on his face thanked her even if he didn’t say the words.

But Frankie mowed right over her question. “He goes into a small town, sets up a factory or maybe a car dealership, and hires folks to run it for him. We been tryin’ to get him to bring something to Devine for over a year.”

“Well, y’all can forget about this business. If he wants to put in a factory, I’m sure that would be good for our economy, but the Double D isn’t for sale,” Grace told them. “I’ll make sure Audrey keeps your coffee heated up. Looks like this rain is going to last all day, so you’ll need to be warm when you go back out in it.” She sure didn’t want to have to tell them again and again that her shop was not for sale.

Claud nodded and held up his mug in a toast. “Might be a little muddy or messy, but a rancher never complains about the rain.”

“Amen to that,” Ira and Frankie said in unison and touched their mugs to his.

Grace went over to warm up Lisa’s and Carlita’s coffee. She wished they would take their orders to go, but evidently that wasn’t going to happen.

“We couldn’t help but overhear that there might be some new business coming to town,” Lisa said.

“Maybe so,” Grace said. “What has that got to do with you?” She turned to walk away.

“We’ve got to get home and tell our husbands.” Carlita’s whisper carried far enough that Grace heard it. “They could get in on the ground floor and make millions. Just think, we might have a summer home in France in a couple of years.”

“Leave the coffee,” Lisa said. “This news is too hot to let sit on the back burner.”

Grace just shook her head and went on into the kitchen. Those two women hadn’t changed a bit since they were in high school.

“Hey,” she said.

Both Macy and Sarah looked up from what they were doing.

“Y’all want to sell the business?” she asked. “Seems that our old cowboys out there are trying to talk a businessman into buying us out. Carlita and Lisa are already planning to talk their husbands into getting in on the deal so they can have a summer home in France.”

“No. Not just no but hell no!” Sarah said.

“Not in a million years,” Macy added.

Audrey looked up from the sink, where she was washing dishes. “Yes! Can we move tomorrow?”

All three women whipped around to face her.

“Why would you say that?” Macy asked. “This is your inheritance.”

“If you’re lucky,” Grace added.

Audrey made a sour face at her mother. “You’ve moved Raelene into our home. I have to face my friends at school after spring break, and by then they’ll all know—that’s even if they’re still my friends after what their mothers said. Now that they know Raelene, the queen of tech weenies, is living with me, they’ll turn their backs on me for sure. So, yes, sell this place and let’s move. Can we move to Paris, France, maybe even get a house right next to Crystal and Kelsey?” Audrey asked. “The shopping there would be wonderful.”

“We’re not selling,” Grace said without a hint of a smile.

Macy frowned. “If he did make us an offer and y’all were willing, I might sign on the dotted line. I wouldn’t have to drive down here from San Antonio every day, and I could use some of the funds to buy the home of my dreams for me and Neal to live in and not feel guilty about spending that much money.”

“Honey, you’ve got enough money stashed away that you can buy a mansion, if that’s what your dream house is,” Sarah said.

“Well,” Audrey huffed and went back to washing dishes, “if I owned this place, I’d sell to the first person who showed me the money.”

Grace’s mama’s voice popped into her head. Bite your tongue if you have to, but don’t argue with her. She’s got some growing up to do—just like you did at her age. In time, she’ll change her mind.



Macy changed her clothes three times that Sunday morning before she finally decided on a simple blue dress and a white cardigan. Neal always complimented her when she wore blue. His romantic nature and kind heart were just two of the many things she loved about him. She held out her engagement ring—a sweetheart-cut carat set on a wide gold band—to catch the sunlight flowing through her bedroom window.