The Keeneston Roses (12 page)

Violet turned to look at the back door of the bed-and-breakfast where Edna was poking her head inside. “Yes, come in! How did it go?”

Edna walked in and dropped into the kitchen chair. “It took y’all long enough. I made poor John eat my whole cheese log while I waited for Lily to arrive. But, just like you said, she arrived and pounded on the door. I casually made my exit, and by the daggers she was shooting me, I would say she is well on her way to being in love.”

“I can’t believe it worked.” Daisy shook her head. “It was just like with Pierce and Tammy. How did she not see we were using her own playbook against her?”

“Love blinds you. As we all know,” Violet said as she frosted one of her cakes.

“Well, now we just have to see if she forgives me,” Edna said. She stuck her finger in the frosting.

Violet gave it a playful whack. “You can’t stop pretending until the deed is done.”

“Got it. I haven’t had this much fun since we got to shoot that awful man who was trying to hurt Miles and Morgan. Oh, and I looked it up. All flights to Rahmi have been cancelled. Well, I better go make my other cheese log for when the kids get home. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear if they’ve made it. If there’s anyone taking bets, I’d put money on Bridget and Ahmed.”

Violet agreed. Those two would literally fight a war to be able to love one another. She only hoped Lily was prepared to do the same.

* * *

Lily breathed in deeply and smiled. The smell of freshly baked banana nut bread filled her nose as she pulled the pan from the oven. It had been a humiliating week. She’d made a fool of herself all over town trying to prove she loved John. She made him muffins and served him at the café in front of the whole town. She chased Edna away from him at Ahmed and Bridget’s surprise engagement party. She made his favorite meals, rented his favorite movies, and even had a candlelight dinner at the pond. She was determined to make new happy memories for herself there.

A knock at the back door had her turning around with a smile on her face as John pulled open the screen door. “Is that my favorite bread?”

“You know it is,” Lily grinned as she placed the steaming hot bread and some butter on the table.

“Lily Rae, you’ve been spoiling me.” John laughed and sat down at the table. Lily poured him some orange juice before taking a seat across from him.

“It’s only because I love you, you ol’ billy goat.”

“About time you realized that. I love you, too, Lily Rae. Which makes me want to ask you—”

Lily stopped him with her hand. “I’ve been thinking about this all week. I love you. I know that. But I’m scared, John. Last time I rushed into things and have lived to regret it every day of my life. So, if you will have me, I very much want to be your girlfriend.”

Lily held her breath and waited as John stood up and walked over to her. He held out his hands, and she placed her smaller ones into his. Pulling her up, he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

“I love you, too, Lily Rae. And I’m proud to be your boyfriend and whatever else I might become in the future as long as it’s with you by my side.”

Lily sniffed, “Oh, John!” Before rising up on her tip toes and kissing him hard.

“Oh, Lily!”

Violet clamped a hand over her mouth as she pulled away from the open screen door. She motioned Daisy and Edna to move back. The giggle that was about to escape was held back with her second hand being placed over her mouth as they ran across their yard and over to Edna’s back patio.

“What is it?” Daisy and Edna asked at the same time.

“We did good, ladies. When I left they had each said 'I love you' and were making out like teenagers.”

“Are they getting married?” Edna asked after they all high-fived each other.

“I don’t think so. And John said he was fine with that,” Violet told them.

“That’s okay, we have time to work on them now. I bet that someday she’ll be begging that man to marry her,” Daisy predicted.

Violet hoped so, but only time would tell. A lot of time considering she knew how stubborn her sister was.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Twenty years later . . .

Daisy took a seat on the white rocking chair she’d designated as hers when she was six years old. Violet sat next to her, and Lily gently swung on the hanging porch bench. They were creatures of habit; that was for sure. These spots had been theirs from when they had pigtails to white tufts of overpermed hair. Daisy looked at Lily who had been “dating” John Wolfe for almost twenty years. Lily had fluffed her hair and even had a little makeup on today.

“What’s going on, Lily Rae? You look all dolled up,” Daisy asked as she started to gently rock.

“You do look nice. Are you and John finally going to admit that you’ve been living together for almost two decades?” Violet asked with a snort.

“Even better. I’ve decided it’s time he proposed. I’m ready to be a bride,” Lily beamed.

“Wait . . . John hasn’t asked you to marry him?” Daisy asked, trying to wrap her mind around this news.

Lily stammered, “Well, not exactly. I mean, he has before, but that was just, oh, seven years ago when he basically moved in.”

Violet rolled her eyes. “You can’t even tell the truth to your own sisters. That man moved into your heart and your bed close to twenty years ago!”

Lily huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. She looked down and groaned. She needed a push-up bra. “Fine, he moved in eighteen years ago, and we’ve been happy ever since. Now I’ve decided I’m not getting any younger,” Lily paused when her sisters snickered, “so I think we should finally get married.”

“So, ask him. It’s the modern times. Women’s rights and all that,” Daisy said and picked up her crocheting.

“But I am
not
a modern woman. That man has had the best years of my life and I deserve a romantic proposal.” Lily stomped her foot on the porch and let out an aggravated sigh.

Violet snorted and leaned toward Daisy. “I told you so.”

Daisy reached into her bra and pulled out twenty dollars. “A bet’s a bet.”

Lily looked back and forth between them and narrowed her eyes. “What’s that all about?”

“Oh, just a little bet Daisy and I made twenty years ago.”

“A bet about me?” Lily asked.

“Uh-huh,” Daisy said as she began crocheting again.

Lily grew impatient. “And what would that bet be?”

“Just that it would take you forever to realize you wanted to get married to John, and when you finally got your head out of your tush, you would be begging John to marry you,” Violet said casually, sipping some tea.

“Begging? I’m not begging.”

“Oh, you will.” Violet smiled. “How else do you plan on getting him to marry you?”

“I’ll bet you twenty bucks he’ll propose to me by the end of the week.” Lily stood up and stomped her orthopedic shoes right back into the house.

Daisy shook her head and smiled. “You’d think after almost ninety years she’d have learned we know her better than she knows herself.”

“Put twenty on Lily proposing to John,” Violet said. She set down her cup and handed the twenty back to Daisy.

Daisy pulled out her notebook and wrote down the bet. “I’m in for twenty as well.”

“Miss Daisy, Miss Violet,” Ryan Parker, the oldest son of Cole Parker and Paige Davies Parker called out. “I got your text. You need a lift to the café?”

“Aren’t you a sweet boy?” Daisy grinned at the handsome twenty-year-old man in front of her with dark brown, almost black, hair and the Davies hazel eyes.

“Man now, I daresay.” Violet beamed and opened her arms wide for the young man to give her a hug. She’d seen his mother born and held her as a babe. She’d helped his parents find love, and sometime soon, she and her sisters would help him the same way.

Ryan smiled at her, and Violet practically swooned. He was a looker all right. She stood up, and Ryan wrapped her in a hug. Violet pulled him down into one of her famous hugs. Daisy rolled her eyes over the top of Ryan’s head, stuck in Violet’s pillowy bosom, and Violet winked at her.

“Thank you for picking us up. Are you ready to head back to college at the end of the week?” Violet asked as she let Ryan up to breathe.

“Yes, ma’am. I do miss Keeneston when I’m away. It’s been a nice spring break. Here, let me help you to the car.” Ryan held out one arm for Miss Violet and one for Miss Daisy. “What do you need to do at the café?”

“Oh, we have some bets that need to be placed. How do you like the cook we hired?” Violet asked.

Ryan grinned again and even Daisy flushed.

“Not quite as good as you, Miss Violet, as you can tell when the whole town flocks to the café on days when you're cooking. Now, what’s the bet?” Ryan opened the back door of the car and helped the ladies in.

“Whether, by the end of the week, Lily has proposed to John or if John has proposed to Lily,” Daisy told him as she pulled out her notebook. “Would you care to place a bet?”

Ryan pulled out his wallet. “Put ten on Lily having to propose. Once a guy gets burned, it’s real hard to put yourself out there again.”

Daisy and Violet nodded their heads as Daisy recorded the bet. Ryan closed the door. And while he walked around the car, Daisy rolled her eyes at her sister. “You texted him for a ride? We may be in our late eighties, but we're perfectly capable of walking to the café.”

“But it gave us a chance to see him and gave me a chance to hug him.” Violet winked.

“For crying out loud, he’s young enough to be your grandchild,” Daisy hissed.

Violet just grinned. “But he’s not, and you’re just jealous I’ve had the hottest men of Keeneston between these puppies and you haven’t.”

“Violet Fae!” Daisy was cut off from scolding her sister by Ryan sliding into the front seat.

Lily fluffed her hair and put some lipstick on in the mirror. Today was the day. Today she was going to become engaged and be as happy as the bookcase full of couples she had helped find love. The back door opened, and Lily hurried to the kitchen to meet John.

“I have the groceries, dear,” John called out.

Lily paused in the hallway right outside the kitchen and took a deep breath. She pushed back her shoulders, propped up her boobs, and sauntered into the kitchen swinging her hips seductively. She sent John a sexy smile as she saw his surprised look as his eyes roamed her body.

“Did you throw your hip out again? You’re walkin’ funny.” John rushed forward and put his arm around her waist.

Lily swatted his arm. “No! I’m fine. I was just walking into the room. Don’t you notice anything else?” Lily batted her mascaraed eyes at him.

John’s brow creased as he looked into her eyes. “Do you have something in your eye?”

Lily growled. “Do you notice anything different about me?” Lily asked sweetly.

“Umm . . . oh! You got a new haircut. It looks nice.” John smiled as if he was the smartest man on the planet, and Lily tried to control her temper. She was sure he’d take one look at her and go down onto one knee.

Suddenly John stood. “I have to go.”

“What? Now?” Lily cried.

“Yes, uh, I need to change the oil in my car.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Your gossip radar is going off, isn’t it?”

“No, I just remembered I’ve driven over five thousand miles and . . . yeah.” John put the last of the groceries away and hurried for the door.

“We’ve been together almost twenty years. Don’t you think you can tell me how you know all these things?”

John froze, and it would have been comical if it weren’t about something she wanted to know.

“Maybe if I was your
wife,
you’d tell me.” Lily tried the seductive smile again and ran her finger down his chest.

“Nope. Even if I had a wife, I wouldn’t tell her,” John said and leaned forward, placing a quick peck on her cheek before hightailing it out the door.

“I got twenty on John proposing,” Henry Rooney, the town’s defense attorney, called out and waved a twenty in the air. Daisy hurried over to grab it and record his bet.

“No way, I have twenty on Lily having to do it,” Kenna Ashton, the town’s prosecutor, said as she dug around in her purse for her wallet.

“Please, Mom. John is old-school. He’ll be doing the proposing,” Sienna, Kenna and Will’s twenty-one-year-old daughter, said as she pulled out a ten.

Daisy ran between the tables of courthouse employees, sheriff deputies, the five Davies brothers, their wives, and some of their kids sprinkled around the room, collecting bets.

“Agreed. I have twenty on John proposing,” Nabi, the head of security for the Rahmi royal family, called out. Hmm, Daisy needed to find a good woman for him. Maybe after this week she and her sisters would start looking again for him.

“Are you crazy? Lily’s left him sitting for too long. She’s going to have to propose,” Cole Parker, Ryan’s father and head of the Lexington FBI office, said as he pulled out his wallet.

“Lily’s a tough woman. She won’t stop until he has proposed. I bet John will fold and do exactly what Lily wants,” Annie Davies said as she pushed the gun belt of her sheriff’s deputy uniform out of the way to pull out her money.

“Exactly!” Tammy Davies and Morgan Davies called out as they placed their bets.

“Don’t you all know anything? I agree with Cole. Lily will have to do it. John is too proud to do it after all these years,” Ahmed, co-owner of Desert Farm and former head of security for the Rahmi royal family, told the patrons of the Blossom Café. Mo, the prince of Rahmi and Ahmed’s business partner, nodded his head in agreement.

“Oh, Dad, you men are so dense,” Ahmed’s daughter, Abigail, said as she reached for her purse. “Here’s five dollars on John doing exactly what Lily wants and not even knowing it.”

“I agree with Abby and my mom,” Sophie, Annie and Cade Davies’s daughter, called from the table she sat at with her cousins, Sydney and Layne.

“Us too!” Reagan and Riley said as Daisy recorded their bets.

“We’re for Lily proposing,” Mo’s twin sons, Zain and Gabe, called out.

“Yeah, Lily proposing . . . doesn’t that make us Team John?” Pierce Davies asked his brothers.

Miles shrugged. “I guess. Team John all the way.”

Layne rolled her eyes. “You’re so uncool, Dad. That was so ten years ago.”

“Well, then that makes us Team Lily,” Gemma called from her table of her sisters-in-law, ignoring the way their children rolled their eyes.

Dinky and Noodle, two of the town’s senior sheriff’s deputies, placed their bets for Team John. “Lily will have to beg him . . .”

“Beg him to do what?” Lily asked as the café fell into total silence. The only sound was that of purses being zipped closed and forks clanging as they were dropped. “I’ll have to beg who to do what, Dinky?”

Dinky cleared his throat. “You’ll have to beg that fancy French chef of Mo’s to give you the recipe for his, um, fancy cookie things.

“Macaroons,” Noodle hissed under his breath.

“And why would I do that?”

Dinky flushed pink. “Violet won’t talk to him cause he’s so stuck up like . . . Sorry, Mo.”

Mo shrugged. “It’s true. And he’s going to retire on me at the end of the year, so you better hurry to get that recipe,” Mo said smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that Violet actually believed him.

“He’s retiring?”

“Yes. You’ll have to find someone else to argue with,” Mo teased.

Daisy’s eyes narrowed at Violet, but Lily wasn’t done with her rant. “So, I see how it is. Who placed a bet against me?”

“Even if they were betting on it, not that they would ever do something like that, but you know I can’t tell you that, Lily Rae,” Daisy chided as she tightened her grip on her betting book.

“
Humph!
Well, I’ll prove you all wrong. That man will be begging me to marry him.” Lily stormed out on a huff.

The screen door slammed closed and everyone sat in silence as they watched her march up the street.

“I believe her. I put twenty on Team Lily,” Father James said. “Oh, and I’m also retiring in a couple years.”

“What?” the town cried and all bets were temporarily forgotten.

Father James held up his hands to quiet the inquisition peppering him. “I’m not leaving Keeneston. I’m just retiring . . . kind of. I’ll be around to perform weddings, funerals, and stuff like that. The day-to-day running of Saint Francis and the sermons will soon belong to another worthy gentleman.”

“Who?” Daisy asked with concern. It had taken almost six months to break Father James in when he came to Keeneston, and she didn’t want to have to do that with another priest. After all, most might frown on the betting, gossip, and the occasional need to shoot a bad guy in Keeneston.

“I don’t know yet. In fact, I don’t even know how long it will be. The new father could show up tomorrow or in five years. We are spread kind of thin. After the larger parishes get filled, Keeneston will be up. But, like I said, it will most likely be years.”

“We’ll be sorry to see you retire but are very glad you are staying in town. It wouldn’t be the same without you,” Violet said and hugged Father James, pulling his head down to disappear into her ample bosom. Daisy rolled her eyes and crossed herself. Her sister was so going to hell in a hand basket.