The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (4 page)

“Well?” Stella asked.

Agnes’s grin was so wide that it wiped out dozens of wrinkles. “Just as I thought. Heather says the sign stays until God drops a husband into your lap. And they have decided to call out that verse about those who help themselves, so they intend to help God. But don’t you worry. We will outwit the whole damn lot of them.”

“What have they done?” Stella asked through clenched teeth.

“They’re having a bake sale on Monday to raise money,” Agnes said.

“And?” Piper asked.

“They’re going to give it to the church and hope God drops a husband down from heaven for Stella, right?” Charlotte asked.

“Nope. They’re going to take all the money and purchase ten-dollar money orders to give away to bachelors,” Agnes reported.

“Why?” Piper raised both eyebrows.

“Ain’t that what you charge your men customers for a haircut?” Agnes asked.

“No!” Stella threw her hand over her mouth.

“Want my advice?” Agnes asked.

Stella nodded as she slowly removed her hand. “Yes, ma’am.”

Agnes smiled. “They’ll have the sale on Monday, count up their money that evening, and go buy money orders down at the post office on Tuesday. It’ll be Wednesday before they start finding men to parade through here for haircuts, so Tuesday evening after the post office closes for the day, you put a price increase notice on your door. Effective immediately, due to hell freezin’ over, haircuts will now be fifteen dollars or twenty dollars or, hell, a hundred dollars. How many men’s haircuts do y’all do in a normal week?” Agnes asked.

“Maybe one or two. Ruby only charges eight dollars, so most of them go there,” Piper said.

“Promise me right now that what is said in the Yellow Rose stays in the Yellow Rose, just like that Las Vegas sayin’,” Agnes said.

Piper, Charlotte, and Stella all nodded seriously and said in unison, “We promise.”

Agnes clapped her hands and giggled like a schoolgirl. “We’ll teach them to mess with us. Now, Piper, let’s get my hair done. I want it to look real fine for church on Sunday. I may play dumb and offer to take something to their bake sale.”

“Not fudge,” Stella gasped.

Agnes giggled like a little girl. “I think folks are on to me with the fudge. It was just too damn temptin’ not to put laxative in it when I knew Violet would gobble it right down. No, I’m thinking a dozen pecan tarts from over at Clawdy’s. Besides, not a thing they’ll cook will be as good as Cathy’s pecan tarts. As much as I love Nancy’s banana bread, it’s not as good as tarts.”

Stella hugged Agnes. “I love you, Agnes Flynn.”

“Us redheads got to stick together.” Agnes beamed. “We’ll outfox that bunch of bitches, darlin’. Don’t you worry about it.”

Stella felt a hot burn filling her cheeks but there wasn’t a blasted thing she could do about it. She couldn’t tell her best friends that she was already married or that she couldn’t tell anyone for another four weeks or her new husband might have to leave Cadillac and she didn’t want to leave her friends, the shop, or, dammit, her mama, even if she was mad at her. And besides all that, Heather was not about to run her out of town.

C
HAPTER
T
HREE

A
semicool breeze from off the river ruffled the willow branches, making a lovely canopy above Stella and the sexy man beside her. She could hardly catch her breath after a bout of wild, passionate sex. His naked body was sweaty and hot, both physically and sexually, and somewhere out there in the Red River a catfish splashed in the water and a night owl joined with the bullfrogs and crickets in a concert.

She propped up on an elbow and traced the barbed-wire tat on his bicep. “Why barbed wire?” she asked, still breathless.

“My cousin has one and I always thought it was the coolest thing in the world,” he answered.

“Did he rodeo or what was the story behind barbed wire?”

He brushed a leaf from her hair and shooed away a mosquito with the back of his hand. “He’s a rancher and raises cattle. His family ranches, too, but they raise prizewinnin’ horses in addition to Angus cattle. They live over near Ringgold, Texas. Want to go meet them after church tomorrow? Or do you want to wait and meet the whole family when they show up in church after I sign the contracts?” He kissed her on the tip of the nose. “And for your ears only, darlin’, my mama and my dad know that I’m married and they can’t wait to meet you.”

“Hell, no! That billboard has stirred up everyone in town. They’ll be watching me like a hawk to see if the prayers get answered and I understand Heather is determined that she’s been called to a marriage ministry, whatever the hell that is,” she answered.

She remembered the very first time she looked up and saw him standing just inside the Yellow Rose. That day his curly blond hair, blue eyes, and smile had come close to taking her breath away.

“Can I help you?” she’d asked when she could get words to go from brain to mouth.

“It takes a person with magic in their fingertips to tame my curly hair. I’m expecting miracles from someone as pretty as you,” he’d said smoothly.

Major flirting had taken place and she’d found out that he’d just moved to Cadillac to pastor the church where she and her family had gone their whole lives. He’d found out that she wasn’t married and asked her to dinner the next week. She’d accepted but the date wasn’t sitting across the booth from each other out at the Rib Joint or even at a steak house in Sherman. It was fried chicken on a quilt under a willow tree at the edge of the river.

Bringing her back to the present with a long, lingering kiss, he gathered her into his arms and hugged her tightly. “What were you thinking about?”

“That first time you came into the shop,” she said. “I think I fell in love with you on the spot.”

“I know I fell in love with you the second that you whipped that cape around my shoulders. The touch of your fingertips on my bare skin about set me plumb on fire,” he said.

“We can announce that we got married in May right after my birthday. Mama will have learned her lesson by then and Heather will figure out her marriage ministry is a day late and a dollar short,” she said.

He kissed her on the forehead. “Heather has gone overboard with that marriage ministry idea, but if she’s got enough rope she will hang herself for sure. Then it will be finished for good. It sounds more like one of those Internet dating things that have a dot-com behind the name. I’m pretty sure that God doesn’t appreciate that kind of thinking.”

Stella curled up in his arms, not caring if mosquitoes were buzzing around her head. They didn’t sink their little beaks into sweaty people, anyway. At least that’s what she’d always heard, along with the story about cats and water. Maybe one of them was right.

It had been her idea to keep their marriage a secret until the deacons and the hiring committee offered Jed a full-time position, and he’d agreed. From the get-go, they’d planned to announce it as soon as Jed had signed his contract.

“Now what are you thinking about? Your eyes are sparkling in the moonlight,” he said.

“How much I love you.”

“I love you, too, darlin’. I promise I didn’t know about the sign or that you’d been put on the prayer list until this morning. I’ll have it taken down, I promise, and I won’t read your name on Sunday. It’ll all fade away,” he said. “Or we can just announce that we are married and they can pray for the folks in town who are really sick?”

She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. Agnes wanted some excitement and Stella wasn’t ready to tell the whole world she was married to Jed Tucker, the preacher. Their relationship was too perfect and it was only a couple of more weeks before the hiring committee would offer him a two-year contract. Until then he was temporary and could be let go at any given time. And to top it all off, Heather deserved to have to eat a big chunk of crow pie and so did Nancy Baxter.

“Don’t take the sign down. Don’t take me off the list. I’m going to beat that damn hussy at her own game. She thinks she’s going to run me out of town so she can play the piano in church. And darlin’, I can’t wait to meet your family.”

Jed traced her lip line with his finger. “What does the piano have to do with anything?”

“It’s a thorn in her flesh that I’m playing it. So we’re going to let the gossip go crazy. They’ll all feel like fools after you are hired permanently.” She brought his lips down to hers for a long, lingering kiss.

He chuckled. “Gossip is like cats. If you take a mean old tomcat off and dump him in someone’s yard, make sure that you take him across a body of water if you don’t want him to find his way home. Water stops cats and gossips, too.”

She traced his lips with the tip of her finger. “But what about prayers?”

He grabbed her hand and slowly kissed each fingertip. “It’s a moot point right now, isn’t it? You already have a husband. And darlin’, if they don’t want to give me a contract because I’m married to you, there are other churches.”

She cupped his face in her hands. “I don’t want to leave Cadillac, Jed. I have my business and my friends and my family, and by the end of your first contract, they’ll see that I’m the best preacher’s wife in the whole state.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “You do not have to prove one thing, Stella. I wouldn’t change a thing about you. I love you, darlin’.” A smile tickled the corners of his full, sexy mouth and his blue eyes twinkled in the moonlight. “I am married to the most beautiful woman in the world, who is already an amazing preacher’s wife.”

C
HAPTER
F
OUR

S
tella was not looking forward to the next day and hearing her name at the top of that damned prayer list. If she could, she would turn off her phones and put that CD with the rainstorm on repeat in the player beside her bed. That way she couldn’t hear Piper and Charlotte when they tried to call or came knocking on the door demanding that she go to church. But she was not giving Heather that kind of power over her. She’d crawl out, get dressed, and play the piano like always. Thank God Heather couldn’t carry a tune in a golden bucket and had to sit out in the congregation. At least she’d be far enough away that Stella couldn’t rip the belt off the dress she intended to wear and strangle the woman with it.

She parked in the driveway to the east of her little two-bedroom brick home. She’d rented it from the McKays when she moved back to Cadillac with the agreement that if they ever wanted to sell she had first option on the purchase. It had been built for wheelchair access, so there were no steps up to the deep front porch with a white railing around it. With only two bedrooms and one bathroom, it was plenty big enough for a single woman or a couple, but the backyard was small. Thank goodness she didn’t have a dog and hadn’t gotten around to bringing a cat home from her folks’ house.

She flipped the switch right inside the front door of her small house and there were Piper and Charlotte, both wearing pajamas and blinking against the bright overhead light. Charlotte was cuddled up under a quilt in the burgundy leather recliner and Piper was stretched out on the matching sofa with a soft throw over her long legs.

Stella grabbed her chest. “What the hell? You two scared the shit out of me.”

“Is it morning?” Piper yawned.

“Where the hell have you been?” Charlotte asked.

“I passed my twenty-first birthday a long time ago and it’s not morning by a long shot and I don’t have to tell either one of you where I’ve been,” Stella started.

Charlotte held up her palm. “We were there with you when you turned twenty-one, darlin’, and we were there when you’ve had all the rest. We are your best friends, remember? So tell us where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to.”

Piper sat up and patted the sofa. “We’ve shared everything since we were babies. Is that afterglow on your face?”

“If this is a damned intervention, you can forget it. I’m going to bed, and yes, I will go to church tomorrow morning so this is all unnecessary,” Stella said.

“I’m calling Nancy and telling her to take you off the prayer list because you’ve got a boyfriend and you are bringing him to Sunday dinner. You really should spend some time with Trixie. She’d give anything to have her mama in her right mind so she could talk to her every day,” Piper said.

Stella plopped down on the sofa. “What makes you think I’ve got a boyfriend? And I love you, Piper, but you are not sending me on that guilt trip.”

Piper sniffed the air. “Number one, I smell shaving lotion all over you. Stetson, I do believe it’s called.”

Charlotte popped the chair up into a sitting position. “And the look on your face says that you’ve been to bed with the wearer of Stetson in the last few hours. Maybe sooner since it only takes about ten minutes to drive from the nursing home to here at this time of night. Like I said, we’re your friends. You can’t sneeze without us knowing where you’ve been and whether there was ragweed there. Just be grateful that you’ve gotten away with your secret this long, girlfriend.”

Stella crossed her arms over her chest. “Have you been stalking me?”

Piper shook her head and stretched. “Hell, no! We wouldn’t do that. Besides, who needs to? The gossip comes right to us over a hotline. We know you’ve been parking at the nursing home to hide your car. And Trixie didn’t mean to tattle. She thought we knew you were hiding it there.”

Stella slumped down in a rocking chair, shut her eyes, and groaned. “I forgot about Trixie’s mama.”

“We’ve sworn Trixie to secrecy. She swears she won’t tell Cathy and Marty and for damn sure not Agnes,” Piper said quickly.

“So who is he?” Charlotte asked.

“I have been seeing someone. I’m not ready to tell anyone who he is, but I will tell y’all that fate is a bitch. I’m probably the worst woman on the face of the earth for him and it’s going to be a secret for a while longer. And all this prayer shit couldn’t have come at a worse time,” Stella said without opening her eyes.

“Why would you be the worst woman . . . oh, that?” Charlotte said.

“Yes, that. You know small towns. Cadillac won’t ever forget or ever forgive. I’m not so sure I can, so why should I expect them to,” she said.

“You shouldn’t have ever gone out with him,” Piper said.

They all three remembered that summer after their sophomore year. A preacher had come to town for a three-month tryout with intentions of staying if the hiring committee liked him. He’d had a seventeen-year-old son—dark haired, dark eyed, sexy as hell and as wild as a Texas tornado. Stella had lost her virginity to that preacher’s son on a hot summer night in the back of his pickup truck after they’d both drunk entirely too many beers. And the next day he’d bragged about it to all his new friends in the church.

It took less than twenty-four hours for her to go from a good little farm girl to a slut who’d seduced the preacher’s son. A week later the hiring committee decided that the boy’s father wasn’t what Cadillac needed and they were gone.

Stella had been left behind with a tainted reputation that was still remembered in whispers around town. Cadillac was not forgiving and it never forgot. That’s why she was so fearful of telling everyone she and Jed were married until he had signed the contract. Then she’d have a couple of years to show everyone that she wasn’t that wild child anymore.

“Good God! Is he another preacher’s son? That would serve Nancy right for the way she’s been trying to push you down the aisle, but we won’t stand by and let you marry a preacher’s son,” Charlotte said.

“We aren’t going to let you marry anyone at all. I’ll shoot him and Charlotte will help me bury him if she doesn’t want to. You can weep over his grave while we shovel dirt into it, but I won’t let my best friend get married. Is that understood? If Charlotte hadn’t already bought her dress when I got divorced, she wouldn’t be getting married, either,” Piper said.

“He’s definitely not a preacher’s son, so there won’t be any long black veils and weeping, or long white veils and walks down the aisle, either,” Stella said.

“Hey, you can have all the wild sex you want as long as there is no marriage at the end of it,” Piper said.

“Understood.” Stella crossed her fingers behind her back.

“And as long as you tell us his name,” Charlotte said.

“That ain’t happenin’. I will tell you that he used to be a truck driver and he did the rodeo circuit, but that’s all I’m sayin’. Now go home.”

Piper shook her head. “I’m comfortable right here. My house is empty and lonely since the boys are with their dad tonight. I brought my church clothes.”

Charlotte nodded. “Boone called from the riverbank. He and his buddies are having a good night. Fish are biting so they’re staying out until morning. I’m going back to sleep here. I’ll make biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast and clean up the dishes.”

Stella stood up and started down the short hall to her bedroom. “There are twin beds in the guest room. Y’all don’t have to sleep in the living room.”

“Well, thank you. We thought you’d never ask,” Charlotte said.

“Why didn’t you go to bed in there in the first place?”

“We were afraid we wouldn’t wake up when you came in,” Piper answered.

“If you’ll tell us his name, we’ll go home,” Charlotte said.

“Make up your beds before you leave. I’m not sitting with Mama and I’m not going to Sunday dinner, so don’t try to talk me into that tomorrow morning. She can deal with Daddy. And Charlotte, if you giggle when Jed reads that prayer list I’m going to shoot you the bird right there in church from the choir section and everyone will see me,” Stella said.

“I’m glad Luke and Tanner will be in children’s church. If they heard your name I’d have to answer a dozen questions. And no one would be surprised if you did something like waving around your middle finger, Stella. You are the wild child, remember?” Piper said.

Stella sighed. “Y’all go to bed. I’m going to take a shower. If my alarm doesn’t go off in the morning, wake me up in time to get dressed.”

“Yes, Mother.” Piper yawned. “I’ll sleep in your twin bed. I’ll clean up my mess after breakfast. I’ll fold up the quilt I used on the sofa and I don’t blame you for not going to Sunday dinner. But just for the record, your daddy adores you and he only gets to see you on Sunday most weeks. Why does he get punished because you are mad at your mama?”

“She’s right. Invite Everett to dinner at the Longhorn Café so y’all can at least talk,” Charlotte said.

“Or better yet, forgive your mama and put an end to this,” Piper said.

“Best friends aren’t supposed to lay a guilt trip on their friends,” Stella snapped.

“Best friends tell it like it is. Good night and I’m glad one of us had sex tonight.” Charlotte giggled.

“What the hell?” Piper mouthed as she saw her boys bounce out of her mother-in-law’s van and come running toward her.

“Where’s your daddy?” she asked.

“Gene had plans for the weekend,” Lorene said right behind them. “So he brought the boys to my house. We made cookies. They insisted that we bring some to you.” She held out a small brown paper bag. “What’s that sign all about?”

“Nancy put Stella on the prayer list.”

“That should cause a war in Cadillac,” Lorene said.

Piper hugged her sons. “Won’t be the first one and probably won’t be the last.”

Lorene shook her head slowly in disbelief. “Might be the biggest, though. What was Nancy thinking? It’ll be a riot before it’s all done and over. See you guys in a couple of weeks. Come give Grandma a hug.”

They left Piper’s side and quickly wrapped their arms around Lorene’s waist. She kissed them both on the forehead and waved out the window until they couldn’t see her anymore.

Piper’s jaws ached from clamping them shut so tightly. It wasn’t Lorene’s fault, and truth was that the twins probably had a better time at her house than they would have with Gene and his girlfriend. Still, it made her so mad that she could have hanged that man from the nearest pecan tree with a barbed-wire noose.

They weren’t identical twins. Tanner had blond hair, big blue eyes, and a thin face. Luke had a square face like his father, green eyes, and brown hair. Even though they didn’t look alike, they were true twins who thought alike, finished each other’s sentences, and slept in the same position.

Tanner grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the church. “Mama, guess what. Grandpa took us fishin’ in his pond and Luke caught a perch and I caught a bass and Grandma cooked them for us. And it was like the fishes that Jesus had. They made a whole platter full of fish and we had all we wanted and there was some leftovers and it was the best fish ever. I can’t wait to tell Preacher Jed all about it. He’s teachin’ our Sunday school class now and I like him a whole lot.”

Luke held her other hand and skipped along beside her. “He’s the neatest preacher we’ve ever had. I wish he could go fishin’ with us. I bet he’d show us how to catch great big fishes.”

Piper led them into their class and nodded at the preacher, who was sitting on the floor with children all around him. Luke and Tanner quickly found a place as close to him as they could get. Instead of going to her classroom, she went back outside and leaned on her car. She dug her cell phone out of the bottom of her big purse and dialed the all-too-familiar number. Gene picked up on the fourth ring.

“Why are you calling this early? Didn’t Mama bring the boys back to you on time?” he asked gruffly.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me you didn’t want the boys this weekend? You don’t have to take them and I miss them when they’re gone,” she said.

“Mama didn’t mind watching them. She and Dad get a big kick out of them and Rita and I had plans. We took her two nieces to Six Flags,” he said. “I don’t have time to argue with you this morning, Piper. I’m making pancakes for all the girls and they’re having breakfast in bed.”