The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (28 page)

“Sounds like you have everything under control, but you didn’t answer my question about hanky-panky with Quinn,” Rosalee said.

“You don’t deny that Piper is living with Rhett?” Heather glared at Rosalee.

“I didn’t say that and it’s none of my business or yours,” she answered.

“Well, I’m not dignifying your question with an answer. But I did hear that Piper has been seeing Rhett for years and there’s a possibility that the twins don’t belong to poor Gene, who is just heartbroken over the way he’s been treated. You do know that he’s a distant cousin of Quinn’s and that we are familiar with the situation. I’m telling all of you right now that the marriage ministry will not include divorced or loose-legged women,” Heather said.

Rosalee made a big show of heading toward the door. “Darlin’, if your ministry is going to get its big butt off the ground in Texas, you’d best reconsider that statement. Divorce is part of the culture these days, especially since women have learned that they don’t have to put up with rascals. Y’all have a wonderful day now, and I’ll see you at the barbecue ball. It should be a lot of fun.”

Rosalee giggled the whole way across the parking lot to her car.

Nancy was leaning against her truck. “Well? That was fun, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, yeah. How much is she in the hole for? Agnes will want to know for sure,” Rosalee asked.

“A thousand dollars to date. There ain’t enough people interested in a damn ball to come for miles around like they do for the jubilee. So it’ll mainly be the townspeople with a few from Luella and Sherman, but not enough to pay for what all she’s doing. Someone is going to have to bail her out. I expect that it’ll be Violet,” Nancy said.

“Agnes is going to love that news.” Rosalee got into her truck and drove away.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
F
OUR

P
iper crawled out of bed early and sang off-key at the top of her lungs while she took a shower. She could be staying at her new home, but she wanted to share the first night there with the boys, which was tonight, so she was happy that morning.

Stella was scowling on the sofa when Charlotte came out of the guest room and Piper opened the bathroom door.

“What are you doing up this early? You don’t have to go to the shop until midmorning,” Charlotte said.

“You are both mean old bitches,” Stella said. “How can a woman sleep through all the noise y’all make? And what are you doing here, Charlotte? I thought you weren’t spending another night away from Boone.”

“He’s on a twenty-four-hour shift and the house got too quiet
for me to bear, so I let myself in after y’all had gone to bed,” Char
lotte answered.

Piper bent at the waist and towel dried the underside of her hair. “I haven’t heard music in your room the past couple of nights.”

“I’m not having this conversation.” Stella covered her head with a throw pillow. “I’m going to go for doughnuts and fried pies at that new shop in Luella. I shouldn’t be nice to either of you since you woke me up so early, but I’ll bring breakfast to the shop.”

“Why don’t you run on up to the rehab center and check on Agnes before you come in? We can wait on breakfast that long and you can take her a couple of fried chocolate pies. I bet she’s going into withdrawals if they haven’t served chocolate in a couple of days,” Piper suggested.

Agnes was in therapy, so Stella left a chocolate pie on her bedside table and drove back to Cadillac. As she passed the church with that horrible sign still shining for the whole world to see, she noticed that Jed’s truck was parked around back, so she whipped in beside it. She slipped in the back door and heard him whistling in his office. Peeking in the glass she could see him, leaning back in the chair, eyes closed, hands locked behind his neck.

She eased the door open and quietly crossed the room. She was in the process of throwing one leg over his lap when he sat up suddenly and grabbed her butt firmly in both hands.

“Caught you.” He chuckled.

“Do you always greet the women of the congregation this way?” she asked.

“Only the ones I’m married to, and just for the record, I don’t believe in polygamy.” He kissed her hard on the lips, the kiss lingering for several moments before he broke it. “And darlin’, I heard you drive up and you played right into my hand, quite literally.”

“I love you and I’m ready to tell the whole world that we are married today,” she said.

“I’m glad, but we’re going to wait now until the barbecue ball. The ball will be a perfect place to announce our wedding to the whole county at one time.” He strung kisses from her nose to her lips, to that soft tender spot at the hollow of her neck.

“But I’m ready to announce it now and move into the parsonage with you,” she said.

“Me, too, darlin’, but I really like the idea of announcing it at the ball. You deserve more than word-of-mouth gossiping that can get things all twisted up. You deserve a big moment.” He teased her mouth open with his tongue.

“I love you, Jed Tucker.” Her heart swelled with pure love for the man she’d married a few months before.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t go to the parsonage and play house for a little while right now,” he whispered.

“And ruin the surprise if someone caught us? No, thank you.” She got up and locked his office door, pulled the blinds, and sat back down in his lap. “I’ve got thirty minutes. What’s on your appointment book?”

“Nothing until noon, and that sofa is inviting us to move over there.”

“I hear your kids are coming home this evening and that you’ve moved in with Rhett Monroe,” Trixie said. “Good for you, Piper. I’m glad to see you moving on with your life. Gene was never the man for you. We all knew he was a mama’s boy.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that before I married him?” Piper asked.

“Would it have done any good?” Rosalee asked from the sofa. “Y’all may have to start charging me rent on this couch as much as I stay here anymore.”

“You are welcome to run in and out and stay as long as you like,” Charlotte said.

Piper used a curling iron on Trixie’s light-brown hair. “I did not move in with Rhett. We aren’t dating.”

“Then where did you move?” Trixie asked.

“It’s a secret until this evening. I don’t want Lorene to find out and tell the boys. I want to surprise them, but getting out of that house with all the memories was a big step in moving forward with my life,” she said. “There. All done.”

“Good for you,” Trixie said. “On a different note, I should forewarn you, Alma Grace has been in the café bragging about Irene working up a custom-made bouquet. Charlotte, your mama is liable to have her hands full, because there’s a lot of wedding fever going around. And there could be more after the barbecue ball.”

Charlotte picked up the broom and started sweeping hair from around the chairs. “It really did make her feel good for Alma Grace to ask her to make her bouquet. Maybe it’ll work into a second job for her.”

“Time for me to go. Me and Agnes and Violet, oh, and Beulah,
are about the only ones left from our graduating class here in Cadil
lac. Y’all won’t know Bobby Dalhart, but he died, and they’re having his funeral today in Sherman. I haven’t seen him in forty years, but I feel like someone from our class should pay our respects at his funeral.” Rosalee stood up slowly. “When I die, I want you to come to the funeral home and fix my hair just like this, Charlotte. You do such a wonderful job.” Rosalee threw the shoulder strap for her purse over her head and nodded toward Piper. “Your secret is safe with me. But, honey, I’m a little disappointed. If I’d lived in today’s world as a young woman, I would have moved in with that handsome Rhett in a heartbeat.”

All of them, including Trixie, were stunned into speechless silence as Rosalee made her way out of the shop.

“Holy shit! I can’t believe all that’s gone on since Nancy put Stella’s name on that list. I thought Rosalee was one of the last survivors of the old school and would crucify one of us for moving in with a boyfriend,” Piper said.

“I don’t care how much I like someone, I’m not doing a dead person’s hair.” Charlotte shivered from head to red toenails.

“One of you will have to do mine when I go,” Stella said. “I wouldn’t trust another soul to do it, and if you don’t do it right, I’ll come back and haunt the hell out of you.”

“Where did you come from? And you aren’t dying, so don’t talk like that. It gives me the shivers,” Piper said.

“Down the back alley and through the storeroom. I’m practicing my Agnes skills.” Stella laughed.

“You could easily share DNA with Agnes,” Piper said.

Stella cocked her head to one side. “Does that mean I’m the Cadillac Irish mob? If so, then all y’all and Bless My Bloomers and Clawdy’s all are my mob family like in
The
Godfather
. And Darla Jean, I can’t forget Darla Jean. We might be the Cadillac eleven, kind of like that George Clooney film.”

Charlotte pulled a tissue from a fancy little box at her station and dabbed her eyes. “You are a female godfather for sure. Don’t you think so, Trixie?”

“That sumbitch wasn’t Irish,” Trixie said.

“Well, if he had been, then Stella would be his kinfolk,” Piper said.

“Hey, Luke and Tanner are coming home this evening. I just remembered,” Stella said.

“Well, duh! We’ve been talking about it for two whole days and I’ve moved into a new place and tonight I’m leaving your house. You’d think you would have . . . okay, where have you been and who have you been doing it with? You’ve got that glow that says you had sex and you’ve forgotten everything we talked about for two days,” Piper said.

“And I smell Stetson again,” Charlotte said.

“And I don’t deny or affirm one thing, so there,” Stella said. “Trixie, has Piper been watching the clock like the end of the world was coming?”

Trixie leaned forward so that Piper could get to the last bit of hair with the curling iron. “Yes, she has. And the news in the café this morning is that Gene’s new woman broke it off with him, changed churches, and told him to never call her again. And this is for your ears only.” She lowered her voice.

“Oh?” Stella leaned closer.

“What’s said in the Yellow Rose stays in the beauty shop, right?” Trixie asked.

“Only a psychiatrist’s office is more sacred than this place,” Piper said.

Trixie went on, “He thinks he’s getting a promotion at the company picnic and he’s goin’ to win a trip to Hawaii. But neither one is happenin’. He’s still got a job but he ain’t gettin’ no fancy office with his name on the door. He’s still just a cubicle person at that company where he works and his hours are being cut so he won’t be working full-time,” she said.

“How do you know that?” Piper asked.

“Agnes isn’t the only one with a snitch on the payroll,” she said.

“Trixie!” Stella exclaimed.

“Well, I haven’t had to hire one for wet work, as they call it on the television, but I do have a little fund earmarked for that if it becomes necessary.” Her phone rang and she took it from her pocket, put it to her ear without saying a word, listened for a minute, and then hit a button and put it back in her pocket. “I’ve got to run up to Bless My Bloomers. Alma Grace heard something that she can’t or won’t repeat on the phone.”

As soon as Trixie had left Charlotte singsonged, “One week until the ball and then we’ll know who Stella’s seeing.”

“Nine hours until my boys are home and I hope they like what I’ve done.” Piper’s off-key voice came right in behind Charlotte’s.

“This has been a month to remember, hasn’t it?” Stella sat down in her chair and fluffed at her red hair. She was so ready to be Jed’s wife, to live with him and wake up every single morning with him beside her. She was ready to take on the battle of being his wife, if she had to knock Heather square on her ass to get the job done. It was long overdue and Stella was up to the job.

“Agnes will be so proud when she finds out.” Stella could hardly wait to share the news of her marriage and really start a new life with Jed, right out in public for the whole world to know about.

“What’s that about Agnes? I’m wondering what she’ll say about me getting sexy things from Bless My Bloomers for my bridal shower. Earth to Stella! Where is your mind?” Charlotte snapped her fingers in front of Stella’s face.

“My mind was on telling y’all who I’ve been seeing. To answer your question, Agnes will entertain us for hours about sexy underwear,” Stella said.

“I’ve got a confession,” Piper said. “I hated the idea of you having a man in your life when Nancy put your name on that list at the church. I didn’t ever want you to get hurt like I did and I couldn’t bear for you to ever get married. I prayed that God wouldn’t hear the Angels and that he’d make Charlotte see that she didn’t need to get married, either.”

“That was mean,” Charlotte said.

Piper’s head bobbed up and down in agreement. “I know and I apologize.”