The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off

by Carolyn Brown

  “We can always sell out and go back to Dallas,” Piper said.

  “Or maybe we could go to Walmart in Sherman. I hear they’re always looking for good help in the beauty shop up there,” Charlotte said.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Stella declared. “And I don’t need a husband, and I’m pissed, and I could just…” She bolted to the back room, sat down at the old table, and put her head on her arms. She wouldn’t cry, not with Trixie there, even if she was a friend. She wouldn’t. She refused to let one tear fall. But it did, and then a river washed down her face, taking mascara and blush with it, but none of the pain.

  Charlotte and Piper hurried to her side, patting her arm and her knee.

  “I’ve never seen you cry like this,” Charlotte said.

  “Not since that rotten boy broke up with you our sophomore year,” Piper said.

  “I’d almost forgotten about that a son of a bitch,” Charlotte said.

  “You’ve got every right to be pissed.” Trixie followed them back, taking off the cape and laying a hand on Stella’s shoulder. “I’ll come back later for a cut and highlights. I understand how you feel, but don’t worry about the shop. If we’ve proven anything up at Clawdy’s, it’s that gossip is damn good for business.”

  “I’ll do your hair, Trixie,” Piper said. “I don’t have an appointment for another hour, so I can do it with no problem. Just take a seat in my chair, and I’ll be right there.” Trixie gave Stella an encouraging squeeze and headed into the shop.

  “Stella, pull yourself together. This isn’t the end of the world,” Piper said as she and Charlotte followed Trixie up front.

  Charlotte whispered, “What happens if God answers their prayers? We’re right in the middle of planning my wedding. I don’t mean to be selfish, but we’ve barely gotten started, and those angels are pretty powerful. My aunt is on the team, and she’s a true believer.”

  “She can’t get married at all, and neither should any of you,” Piper declared as she swung the cape back around Trixie’s shoulders. “It’s all real good until about that seventh year, and then he’ll decide he wants to be a bachelor again and he’s not ready for those two kids you had. No, he doesn’t want to share custody. Every other weekend and two weeks in the summer is fine with him because he and the bitch he’s sleeping with are too busy to take care of kids any more than that. Then you’ll be totally responsible for six-year-old twin boys and all the bills.”

  Stella heard them talking. She understood that they had her best interests at heart, even if they did disagree. Charlotte wanted her to be as happy as she was with Boone, and Piper wasn’t over the pain of a divorce. Stella was happier than she’d ever been in her whole life, but she wasn’t ready to tell anyone about her new love…not yet.

  Keeping a great big secret from them both was hard enough, but keeping it from her mother had been tougher. Mixed emotions shot through Stella. She was pissed—God Almighty but she was pissed—but a tiny little part of her heart understood that her mama only had her best interests at heart. Too bad that little 10 percent couldn’t do anything about the pissed-off 90 percent.

  She sat up and said loudly, “I should go down to the church and set that damn sign on fire.”

  Her forehead made a pop when it hit the table again. When would Jed see that sign, and what would he do? Her gut twisted up tighter than a hangman’s noose, and she forgot to inhale until her lungs started to burn.

  “The more you stir shit, the worse it smells,” Trixie called. “Laugh it off when anyone asks you about it. Tell them you’re having triplets and Nancy is going to have to babysit them so you can make a living since you don’t have a husband. Spread it around that Nancy will be sorry she ever wanted a grandchild, since they’re all going be red-haired demons.”

  “I’m only twenty-six. I’m not an old maid,” Stella said. She emerged from the back room only to slump down on the other end of the sofa from Charlotte, lean her head back, and pinch her nose with two fingers. It didn’t erase the headache, but at least she’d stopped seeing red dots in front of her eyes.

  “I can’t go to church on Sunday with that sign out there, and besides, Jed always reads the prayer list.”

  “Oh, yes you can, and you will,” Trixie said. “If you don’t go, the gossip will just get worse. They’ll say that you are home with morning sickness. Besides, you’ll be at the piano so it’s not like anybody will turn around and stare at you when he says your name.”

  Piper finished the haircut and motioned for Trixie to follow her to the shampoo sink. “I agree with Trixie. Pretend that it’s all a big joke. Sit right there on the piano bench and smile. It will take him three minutes to read the whole list and then he’ll start preaching. Everyone will forget about it by the time he gets finished.”

  Trixie nodded. “I think it’ll be good for both of our businesses. Folks will flock to the café to gossip, and then they’ll come by here to make an appointment and take a look at Stella. The minute they walk out the door, they’ll call everyone they know to report that you don’t have a baby bump yet. You have just become the brand-new celebrity of Cadillac.”

  Stella’s hand went from the bridge of her nose to her temple. “What if everyone in town starts trying to find a husband for me? Mama has already embarrassed the hell out of me on more than one Sunday, inviting men over to dinner and expecting me to be nice to them. Dear Lord, what has she done?”

  Charlotte’s needles clicked as she created a lovely cable pattern. “You should have picked one out yourself, then this wouldn’t have happened. Now your mama’s not the only one looking for a husband for you; the whole town will join in the manhunt. And as far as the preacher reading the list, darlin’, I wouldn’t care if that man read the dictionary on Sunday morning. I’d drool no matter what he read. He’s so sexy, it’s a shame he’s a preacher.”

  “The preacher, sexy?” Piper exclaimed.

  Charlotte gestured with her knitting. “Yes, ma’am!”

  “You are engaged! You shouldn’t be looking at other men like that.” Stella sat up straight, dry-eyed and unblinking.

  “That don’t mean I’m dead. I might diet on occasion, but it don’t mean I can’t look at the ice cream at the grocery store. Mmm, ice cream on the preacher’s…”

  Stella jumped up, grabbed a bottle of window cleaner, and headed for the shop window. “I’ve got to do something to keep from taking a sledgehammer to that sign.”

  Piper hollered across the sound of running water. “I just did those windows yesterday.”

  “I know you did, but my hands are shaking, and Charlotte talking about the preacher’s equipment isn’t helping one bit,” Stella said.

  “I wasn’t going to say his equipment,” Charlotte giggled. “I was going to say his…Bible. And besides, God is probably too busy scouring the earth for a husband for you to be busy slinging lightning at me, so come on back over here and sit down.”

  “You’re lyin’, girlfriend! The look on your face had nothing to do with the Good Book,” Piper said.

  Stella didn’t see anything funny in any of it—not the angels, the sign, or the comments. An ominous black cloud hung above her, and the air was static with electricity. The Yellow Rose might have clean windows and a gorgeous display, but could it withstand all the gossip? Would her clients leave her and go to Ruby’s down the street? Worse yet, could her love life withstand the scrutiny? It wouldn’t surprise her one bit to be out on the street with nothing but an overdue bank note and a broken heart.

  Absolutely nothing could get worse.

  And then her mother waved at her from the other side of the window.

  About the Author

  Carolyn Brown is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with more than sixty books published and credits her eclectic family for her humor and writing ideas. Her books include the cowboy trilogy Lucky in Love, One Lucky Cowboy, and Getting Lucky; the Honky Tonk series, I Love This Bar, Hell, Yeah, Honky Tonk Christmas, and My Giv
e a Damn’s Busted; and her bestselling Spikes & Spurs series with Love Drunk Cowboy, Red’s Hot Cowboy, Darn Good Cowboy Christmas, One Hot Cowboy Wedding, Mistletoe Cowboy, Just a Cowboy and His Baby, and Cowboy Seeks Bride. Carolyn launched into women’s fiction with The Blue-Ribbon Jalapeño Society Jubilee, first in the Cadillac, Texas, series. She was born in Texas but grew up in southern Oklahoma, where she and her husband, Charles, a retired English teacher, make their home. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young.