The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop (5 page)

That dirty bastard knew just how to push her buttons, and it took every bit of her willpower not to fry the airwaves with words that would melt the asphalt in the church parking lot.

“Anything else?” he asked.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” she answered.

The phone went dead in her hands and then rang before she could get it back into her purse. She groaned when she saw that it was Lorene. Lord, she’d had enough of Gene and his family, more than enough for a Sunday morning. She looked up at the church sign and mumbled, “I guess it could be a hell of a lot worse.”

She said, “Hello, Lorene. Did the boys forget something?”

“I wanted to talk to you but the boys were right there and I didn’t want to ask in front of them because it might have made it hard on you to say no and . . .”

A long pause and then Lorene went on to say, “Gene is our son and we still love him, Piper, even if we don’t understand or agree with what he is doing with his life. You’ve been a big part of our family for the past seven years, too, and we don’t want to cause trouble of any kind, but we do love having the boys. And, well,” she stammered. “Would you consider letting us have them on Saturdays? Or . . .” Another long pause. “I know they go to day care in the summertime and school is out and that has to cost a lot.”

Gene’s parents had been very quiet about the divorce. Lorene had called her once and begged her to give her son another chance, but it hadn’t been Piper’s decision to get the divorce and Gene had never asked for a second chance. If he had, Piper would have told him to go to hell.

“Yes, it does, but Gene does pay his child support and I use it for the day care center. In the fall, they’ll be in school all day and it costs only about half as much during that time,” Piper said.

“We’d like to keep the boys for you. I could pick them up in the morning before you go to work and their grandpa would be glad to bring them home in the evenings. Or you could just let us know each day when your last appointment is and we’ll deliver them to the shop. We get pretty lonely out here on the ranch since we’re both retired. We wouldn’t charge you anything, so you could put the money up for their education or use it to buy their school clothes and supplies this fall. Would you just think about it for a week?” Lorene spit out the words in a steady stream without catching her breath.

Piper held the phone out from her ear and looked at it. Was she hearing things?

“You still there?” Lorene yelled.

“I’m sorry. Did you just offer to keep the boys for free?”

“Yes, I did,” Lorene said. “Will you just think about it?”

“That is so sweet of y’all,” Piper said.

“I know you are off work on Sunday and Monday, but we could have them from Tuesday through Saturday, right?” Lorene asked.

“And on Gene’s weekends?” Piper asked.

“If he wants to see them or if he wants to take them, we can do that from right here,” Lorene said. “You wouldn’t have to deal with him. I think his papers say every other weekend from Friday night at six to Sunday at six, right? Of course, if we have them, we’d be glad to bring them home whenever you say on the weekends like we did this morning.”

“That would make it real easy for him to just run by and say hello, though, and not have much responsibility,” Piper said.

“I realize that, but we’ve told him we’ll take them any time that he has plans. We really want to be part of their lives, Piper. You’ll let us know your decision, then?” Lorene asked.

“Yes, I will think about it and I’ll talk to the boys about it. They have made friends at the day care, but I promise we will discuss it.”

“That’s all I can ask. If they decide to stay at the day care this summer, then please remember we are available any time if one of them doesn’t feel well or if they just want a day at the ranch,” Lorene said. “’Bye now. I’m at my church and it’s time to go inside.”

Piper looked up at the sky after she’d dropped the phone in her purse. “Well, how about that? Did some of those prayers for a husband for Stella get diverted my way?”

Charlotte had just taken her seat in church when Boone slid in beside her. His jeans were starched and ironed and his shirt had perfect creases down the arms. His cowboy boots were so shiny that she could see the reflection of her shoes in the sides of them. His brown eyes looked tired when he yawned.

She kissed him on the cheek and asked, “Good mornin’, darlin’. Did you catch a lot of fish?”

“We’ve got enough to have a big fish fry at the park. Bring Piper and her boys and Stella. We’ve invited Everett since he didn’t get to go with us last night,” Boone answered.

“What time?” she whispered.

“Six o’clock. Don’t bring a thing. This is on us. Wade and Marty are bringing desserts from Clawdy’s and Cathy and John offered to bring gallons of sweet tea and beer. I can’t wait to see you.” He stretched his long legs out under the pew in front of them. “I missed you last night, but believe me, I’m going to make it up to you tonight and neither of us has to work tomorrow, so we’re going to spend all day in bed. Speaking of which, right after lunch I’m going to take a long nap or I won’t be able to stay awake to cook fish or make wild passionate love to you either one,” Boone said.

Charlotte smiled. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

The noise level settled down immediately when Jed stepped up behind the podium and cleared his throat. “Good morning, everyone. It’s a fine morning, isn’t it? And aren’t we glad that the air-conditioning works this morning as hot as it’s turned out these past few days. I suppose you’ve all seen the sign that Heather has put up outside and most of you know that it’s our own pianist, Stella, that it is talking about. Nancy thinks she needs a husband.”

It started as a soft giggle somewhere in the back of the church and quickly turned into full-fledged laughter. Jed gave it a minute then held up his hand. “I don’t reckon we should limit the powers of God, so y’all feel free to pray for Stella if you want. Now I’ll take a minute and read the entire list.”

“Stella Baxter,” he said.

Stella rose up from the piano seat, waved at the whole congregation, and did a perfect curtsy.

Heather glared at Stella.

Stella blew her a kiss before she sat back down.

“Thank goodness she didn’t show them her middle finger,” Piper whispered to Charlotte.

“Good God, Nancy, what have you done?” Everett said out the side of his mouth.

“I’m doing what I can to fix it,” she answered.

Immediately after the last amen was said, Stella went to the ladies’ room, put the potty lid down, sat down, and put her head in her hands. She’d vowed she wouldn’t let that black-haired hussy, Heather, see her crying or upset, but keeping a smile pasted on her face during the sermon had been pretty damn difficult. Especially with Heather shooting mean glares toward her all during the services.

Stella had never been an emotional person. In every situation she grabbed the bull by the horns, looked him right in the eye, and he backed down. But there she sat on the church potty, tears streaming down her face, a damn hole in her panty hose with a bubble of skin poking out and sticking to the other leg.

She stood up, removed the hose, and tossed them into the trash can. As much as she wanted to strangle Heather with them, it wouldn’t be fitting for the preacher’s wife to do such a thing. She wrapped toilet paper around her hand and dabbed away the tears. Ruined panty hose, everyone talking about her, worry over Jed’s contract and her business—damn Heather’s jealous soul!

The first time she eased open the door she could still hear the buzz of conversation in the choir room next door, so she repaired her makeup and waited. The second time all was quiet, so she started back through the sanctuary. She took her place behind Charlotte and Boone and hoped that her best friend didn’t see the sparks dancing around when Stella shook hands with Jed.

“We are going to a fish fry tonight and your dad is coming to it so you can talk to him. I couldn’t catch Piper, but doesn’t she usually take the boys up to McDonald’s in Sherman after church for dinner? Think you could get in touch with her and tell her to bring the boys to the park at six o’clock?” Charlotte asked.

Stella nodded. “Sure thing. I’m not going to Mama’s for dinner, so I’ll just drive up to McDonald’s. Oh—Daddy winked at me when I waved. And Heather shot daggers at me.”

“You’ve got balls the size of an elephant’s even if you are a girl,” Boone whispered.

“Just determination not to let them win.” Stella smiled.

Charlotte laid a hand on Stella’s shoulder. “You should call Piper and then go to your mama’s for dinner. Your daddy loves you and besides, we only get one mother, lady. They might not be what we want and God knows they ain’t never perfect, but . . .”

Stella tucked her chin and rolled her eyes up toward Charlotte. “I’m not ready to talk to her yet and you don’t get to preach at me. I might get over this after my birthday comes and goes or I might be pissed off all the way through eternity.”

Charlotte took a couple of steps forward. “Hey, don’t get mad at me. Nancy might have gone about it the wrong way, but she wants you to be happy, so don’t be too hard on her.”

“Happy doesn’t have to mean married, does it? I can be happy without a marriage license and a man in my house twenty-four/seven, can’t I?”

“Happy in my world means I have to be married,” Charlotte said.

“I wish you both a lifetime of wonderful bliss,” Stella said.

“Can I borrow your phone?” Charlotte changed the subject.

“What’s the matter with yours?” Stella asked.

“She’s probably going to see who you’ve been talking to,” Boone laughed.

Charlotte slapped him on the shoulder. “Tattletale! I betcha I could have found out who her boyfriend is in five seconds.”

Stella zipped the top of her purse and hugged it close to her body. “You are not getting anywhere near my phone.”

“If I knew how to hack into a computer, I bet I’d find out who he is in a hurry,” Charlotte whispered as she stepped up and held out her hand toward Jed. “That was a wonderful sermon, Brother Jed. And very timely in view of what’s on the church sign this week.”

“Thank you. I hope it fell on the right ears.” Jed smiled. “Hello, Stella.”

She put her hand in his and sure enough, a tingle went from her toes to her nose.

“You are taking this very well this morning,” he said.

“If you can’t lick ’em, prove ’em wrong.” She smiled.

“I’ll call later today,” he whispered.

She squeezed his hand and hurried out to her car.

Piper and the boys were already in a booth at McDonald’s when Stella arrived. She waved, went to the counter and ordered, and then slid in beside Piper across from the twins.

“Hey, guys. What’s going on?” she asked.

“We got to get big people meals today instead of Happy Meals. And guess what, we went fishin’ yesterday with Grandpa and we cooked the fish and two little fishes fed us all and we told Preacher Jed about it this morning. And guess what else?” Luke stopped to suck in more air.

Tanner picked up where he left off. “Grandma says that we can stay at her house and not go to day care and Mama says that we can if we want to so we’re going to sleep on it and then make up our minds. And if we eat our big people meal we get ice cream for dessert. If it was breakfast time, we would eat pancakes. We like pancakes. Daddy used to make them for us sometimes.”

Piper’s eyes misted over and she turned around so the boys couldn’t see her expression. Stella could have easily shot Gene. God wouldn’t put the murder charge on her tab. He might give her some extra credit and forgive her for blowing kisses at Heather.

She pointed to the McDonald’s fun house. “I bet y’all could eat a big ice cream cone if you played out there when you get finished eating. I see Aunt Charlotte coming, so she’s going to want to eat and then maybe we could all have ice cream together.”

“Wow! This is the best weekend ever, Aunt Stella,” Luke said.

They polished off the last of their fries and ran out to the play area. Stella threw an arm around Piper’s shoulders. “Coffee?”

Piper nodded and brushed at the tears. “I’m sorry. Sometimes it just gets to me.”