The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (13 page)

The boys were still sleeping soundly the next morning when Lorene arrived.

“I’m sorry, Lorene. I should have had them up and dressed, but my alarm didn’t go off this morning and I’m running late, so do you mind taking them in their pajamas?” Piper said. “I’m glad you’re keeping them. If you weren’t, they’d have to be awake and dressed to go to day care.” Piper scooped Tanner up in her arms and carried him out to the van with Lorene right behind her. The boys were like rag dolls and didn’t know that they’d been strapped into the seats with their stuffed animals tucked in with them.

Lorene patted her on the shoulder. “I’m glad that you let us keep them. We’ll see you at the end of the day. If they don’t wake up on the way into the house, then I’ll let them sleep as long as they need to. They talked a lot about Rhett yesterday and how that he was a great ballplayer.”

“They had a great time with him.” Piper smiled. “My last appointment is at three today so y’all can drop them early. Just call me if you’re coming to the shop and I’ll wait there.”

“We will.” Lorene nodded.

Piper watched the van until it was out of sight, then raced back to the house, grabbed her purse, locked the door, and turned on the air conditioner the first thing when she crawled into her car. When it was already in the high eighties at eight o’clock in the morning, there was no doubt that it was going to be a scorching-hot day.

She’d put the car in reverse and was backing out of the driveway when she noticed the paper stuck under the windshield wiper on the passenger’s side. Figuring it was an invitation to a nearby summer Bible school or maybe a flyer for what was on sale at the convenience store in town, she ignored it and drove on to the shop. She was in such a rush to get inside out of the heat that she forgot about it until the hot Texas wind unhinged it and sent it flying across the sidewalk to land right at her feet.

She stopped in her tracks right there in front of the Yellow Rose and read it at least ten times before she put it in her purse. In big scrawling letters it said, “Have a wonderful day . . . Rhett.”

Agnes startled the hell out of Piper when she said, “What in the hell have you got there that would make you stand out here in this broilin’ heat and stare at it like it was a viper about to bite you on the ass?”

“Where did you come from?” Piper asked.

“I walked down here to see if you brought something good to eat again this morning. The chocolate cake is all gone. I guess I’ll have baked beans for breakfast if there’s any left since you’ve let me down,” Agnes said.

“Talk to Stella. She might have brought some of your lasagna.” Piper opened the door and stood to the side to let Agnes enter first.

“My lasagna?” Agnes said.

“Is in the back room on the table. Help yourself. The salad is in the fridge with the leftover strawberries,” Stella said.

Agnes headed to the back room and returned in a few minutes with a loaded plate. “Well, praise the Lord. I didn’t want breakfast food or I’d have gone to Clawdy’s. All is quiet on the home front this morning. My snitch didn’t have much to report except that the colors for the ball are pastel shades of yellow, which of course is because it’s the Yellow Rose Barbecue Ball, blue because the Blue Ribbon Jalapeño Society is helping with it, and pink because Heather’s new signature color for her ministry is pink. Sounds like a damn overgrown baby shower to me.” She stopped and caught her breath before going on. “I just hope that Heather don’t insist that all the unmarried women wear white. If she does, I’ll have to bleach out a pair of my overalls.”

Charlotte spun around in her chair and caught Piper’s eye. “What were you reading out there? You are absolutely glowing.”

“A note from Rhett.” She pulled it from her purse and handed it to Charlotte.

Stella tiptoed to read it over Charlotte’s shoulder.

“Awwww,” they both said at the same time.

“I told you he’s interested in you,” Charlotte said.

“But it makes me so nervous just thinking about the dating world again. I never dated anyone but Gene. We started liking each other back when he sent me one of those notes that said, ‘If you like me, check the box with yes,’ and I did.”

“We’ll teach you,” Stella said.

“Not me. I’m just like you. I’ve only dated Boone. Stella will have to teach you unless Agnes wants to,” Charlotte said.

“Is that boy stalkin’ you? I saw a thing about that on
NCIS
last night. I can put out a hit on him if he is,” Agnes said.

“No, he’s just trying to take her out to dinner,” Stella answered.

“Well, what the hell are you waiting on? He’s sexy. He’s got money. He’s got a job at the fire department in Sherman just like Boone does. He likes your boys and evidently he likes tall women if he’s askin’ you to dinner. Y’all seen that movie
Pretty Woman
?”

They all stared at her with big eyes.

Agnes giggled like a little girl. “Hell, you think I only watch cartoons. I’ve seen raunchy movies. What I was about to say is that you remember when the hooker says that about having eighty-something inches of therapy in her long legs, well, maybe Rhett is in need of some therapy.”

“Agnes!” Piper gasped.

“I’m old. I’m not dead. Bert Flynn liked that kind of therapy when he was alive even if there wasn’t eighty inches of it. I reckon Rhett would, too, and it’d sure put you in a better mood. Plus, it would show that dirtbag ex-husband of yours that you ain’t still whinin’ around wantin’ him to come home,” she said. “Who made this lasagna?”

“You did,” Stella said.

“Not me. It tastes like what Cathy makes at Clawdy’s.”

“Guess that’s where you got it, then.” Charlotte smiled.

“I got it in the back room,” Agnes said as she shoveled a forkful into her mouth.

Piper put the note back in her purse and headed for her workstation. Agnes could be secretive about her snitch and the food, but they all knew that she’d figured out a way to get into Stella’s house and leave it there. She probably had bought it at Clawdy’s, but she wasn’t fooling Piper one bit.

C
HAPTER
N
INE

S
tella turned the air conditioner thermostat down a few degrees to cool the shop and got ready for a long day. Every slot in her appointment book was filled, which meant she’d hear about what everyone was wearing to the Fourth of July festivities that night, who was coming with whom, who’d never be seen with whom, and who was cheating on whom after the festivities were over.

When the customers had worn that out, they’d talk about the barbecue ball and what kind of dresses they were thinking about or had already bought. To Stella’s way of thinking, it was a big girls’ prom and Heather was the high school principal who’d keep the kids all in line. Agnes was the rebel who’d bring vodka for the punch bowl, and when the ball was over then the gossips could all settle down until the fall, when the Blue Ribbon Jalapeño Society Jubilee would fire up.

“Hey, I figured we’d be in for a busy day, so I ran up to Walmart and picked up some lunch meat, bread, and staples so we wouldn’t starve. I got those barbecue chips that you like and a gallon of sweet tea,” Charlotte yelled as she put food away in the back room. “Oh, and I picked up a dozen doughnuts at that little shop for breakfast. You better get one of the maple-iced ones in a hurry. I think they’re Agnes’s favorite kind, too.”

A movement on the sidewalk outside caught Stella’s eye and she hopped out of the chair and made a beeline for the back room. Piper and Agnes were arriving at the same time for the third day in a row and there were probably only three maple doughnuts in the box.

“Give me two of those doughnuts,” she told Charlotte.

“One for you and one for Agnes?”

“Both for me. I’m eating one and hiding one in my station drawer.”

The phone rang as Stella was stashing one of her doughnuts.

“Good mornin’, Yellow Rose Beauty Shop,” she said.

“Stella, is Aunt Agnes down there again this morning?” Cathy asked.

“Yes. She and Piper are coming in the door right now,” Stella answered.

“I’m just checking on her. She usually eats breakfast here and she’s been spending a lot of time at your shop and . . .”

“She’s fine, Cathy.”

“You sure?”

“I’m going to grow up and be just like her. She entertains us, believe me. Do I owe you something for letting us have her?” Stella dropped her voice to keep Agnes from hearing.

“Oh, no, but if I owe you anything, just send the check or we can take it out in trade.” Cathy laughed. “She’s happy as a piglet in a fresh wallow right now with all this prayer meeting stuff going on. It’s put a brand-new spring in her step.”

“Sorry, ma’am, we’re all booked solid today. This is the day of the Fourth of July festivities at the football field so I don’t have a spare minute, but I could call you if I have a cancellation,” Stella said.

“I understand. I’ll call back later.” Cathy laughed.

“Y’all all goin’ to the football field tonight?” Agnes asked.

Charlotte and Stella nodded.

“There’s doughnuts and sandwich makings in the back room,” Piper said.

“I’ll take time for a doughnut if there’s a maple one or a chocolate one but then I’ve got some preliminary work to do before we go to the fireworks show tonight.”

“Agnes, you aren’t making fudge, are you?” Stella asked.

“Not this year. Violet’s on to me, and besides, that was last year’s excitement. I can’t expect to wring anything more out of that trick. But I heard that she was coming and she’s walking with a cane. I told that old bitch she’d wear out before I did. If I wind up in jail, y’all bring me a chocolate cake.” Agnes grinned.

“No shotguns, either,” Charlotte yelled.

“Well, hell, y’all ain’t no more fun than the girls at Clawdy’s.”

Nancy had barely settled into the chair for Ruby to blow-dry and style her hair when Agnes pushed the door open. The noise level went from a low buzz to dead silence and every woman in the place—those under the hair dryers, the lady getting her nails done, and the four around the table waiting for their turns—looked from Agnes to Violet, who was waiting for her turn to have her hair done. Heather looked up from the table she shared with Violet and rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.

“Good mornin’, everyone. Y’all gettin’ beautified for the fireworks show tonight?” Agnes pulled up the extra chair beside Kayla’s fingernail station and slumped down, kicked off her flip-flops, and rolled up the legs of her overalls. “I want toenails and fingernails both done today.”

“I thought you did your business down at the Yellow Rose,” Heather said.

“They don’t do toenails. I did get my eyebrows waxed last week.
They look damn fine, don’t they? Yours are getting pretty wild, Vio
let. Old women have ugly eyebrows and toenails, so they need to take care of them,” Agnes said.

“Never you mind about my toenails or my eyebrows. If you didn’t wear those god-awful rubber flip-flops all the time, you wouldn’t have to worry about yours, either. Bert Flynn would roll over in his grave to see the way you go out in public,” Violet snapped.

Nancy held her breath. No one, not even Jesus, would say something about Bert to Agnes. Everyone in town knew that in her eyes Bert had a perfect diamond-studded halo and pure white wings that glowed in the dark.

Kayla broke the silence. “Miz Agnes, you go on and get in the pedicure chair and I’ll run some water in the tub for you to soak your feet in. The remote for a chair massage is right there in the pocket.”

With the agility of a twenty-year-old, Agnes crawled up into the chair and stuck her feet in the tub. Kayla started the warm water and added a handful of vanilla-scented bath salts.

The whole shop waited in pregnant silence. There wasn’t room in Agnes’s overalls for her famous shotgun, but there was plenty for a pistol, and Agnes had proven in the past that jail didn’t scare her one bit.

“So have you bought your tickets to the barbecue ball?” Heather asked Agnes.

“You mean we got to pay to go to a glorified barn dance?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kayla answered. “Tickets are twenty dollars each and any member of the Angels keeps a supply ready. You need to bring your dress in so we can match your polish to it, Miz Agnes. If I don’t have your color, I’ll have to order it. I’ve got pink, blue, and yellow on hand, though.”

“Holy shit, Kayla! Pink is all right but blue would look like someone was about to die, and yellow, my God, would look like dead chicken hide got stuck on a woman’s fingernails. You better get in some bright red for me. It’ll go with my overalls.”

“Miz Agnes, you ain’t goin’ to really wear overalls, are you?” Kayla asked.

“Yes, I am. And Violet, Bert visits me at night and he says that he likes my overalls and flip-flops. He says that he thinks they are damn sexy. I keep askin’ him if I can load up my shotgun and shoot you but he says not until he gives me a sign. Soon as he does I’m going to give you a twenty-minute head start just to give you a fightin’ chance. But remember, I can run faster in flip-flops and overalls than you can in a girdle and high heels, especially now since you done wore out your knee.”

Violet puffed up like a bullfrog. “Bull crap. Bert was glad to die just so he could be rid of you. And my knee is getting a replacement on Monday. In a few weeks it’ll be like new and then I could beat you in any footrace you want to set up, you old bat.”

“Y’all heard that,” Agnes said. “Nancy, you are my witness. I do believe that is my sign. I’ll ask Bert when I get home to be absolutely sure, but there could be fireworks for sure at the football field tonight. Kayla, darlin’, paint my toenails the brightest red you got in the shop.”

Nancy covered her mouth with her hand and did a fake cough to cover the giggles. What was Agnes thinking? She knew that Violet had her hair done twice a week at Ruby’s—on Tuesday and Friday.

“Agnes, I just got one more thing to say. If you do one thing to upset Heather’s barbecue ball, you’ll be able to talk to Bert up close and personal,” Violet said.

“Why, Violet Prescott, are you threatening me? And just when I was about to buy ten of them tickets. Well, Nancy, I’ll just buy them from you since Violet, God love her hateful old soul, is in a pissy mood today.”

“Why would you want that many?” Nancy was elated. Each member of the Angels was supposed to sell at least ten tickets. She’d have hers sold in one fell swoop if Agnes was serious.

“Three for the girls at Clawdy’s, three for the Bless My Bloomers gals, and three for the girls down at the Yellow Rose and one for me. Well, shit, I almost forgot Darla Jean. I can’t forget my pastor, now can I, so go on and give me eleven tickets.” Agnes counted them off on her fingers.

“Why are you buying for all those folks?” Heather asked. “Can’t they buy their own?”

“It’s payment for serving as my bodyguards.”

Nancy’s hair was done, so she got out of the chair so Violet could have it. “You really want eleven tickets, then, Agnes?”

Agnes pulled a wad of money from her pocket, undid the rubber band holding the bills together, and peeled off four fifty-dollar bills and one twenty.

“Miz Agnes, you shouldn’t be carryin’ around that much money,” Kayla said.

“Honey, I’m old but I’m meaner than a junkyard dog. Anyone wants my money they’ll have to fight me for it, and I don’t fight fair. Thank you, Nancy. What’d y’all do with all them haircuttin’ money orders you bought? I heard the men gave them back to you.”

“We are giving them as door prizes at the barbecue ball. Since the beauty shop has the same name as our ball, we thought it would be nice,” Heather said.

Nancy’s laughter broke free when she reached her truck. When sweat began to puddle up around the band of her bra, she remembered to start the engine and turn on the air-conditioning. As she passed Clawdy’s she saw Jack Landry crossing the street to his patrol car. She pulled over to the curb and rolled down the window.

“Hello, Nancy.” He bent at the waist and put his hands on the side of the truck. “You got a pretty dress for that big redneck ball? I heard that Everett is cooking the brisket. That’ll bring in a lot of people in for sure.”

“Thought you might like to know that Violet and Agnes are both at Ruby’s and they’ll be at the football field tonight for the fireworks,” she said.

“I’ll call in a couple of extra duty volunteers for the evening, then, and thanks,” he said.

“Might be a good idea. We don’t need a repeat of last year.” She smiled.

He straightened up and waved. She rolled up the window and went on her way. She glanced over at the Yellow Rose as she drove past. She missed Stella and couldn’t wait until this damned old barbecue ball was over. A son-in-law or a grandbaby couldn’t fill the place in her heart that her daughter held.