“You say ta-mah-toe while I say to-may-toe. You say controlling. I say organizing,” Piper said.
Charlotte removed the lid from the enormous Crock-Pot and took a whiff of the vegetable beef soup. “I say I’m hungry and we should eat. That way us four ladies will be done and the guys can have the kitchen table to sit at before they load it up.”
Nancy nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me. Cut that pan of cornbread, Stella. Piper, you can put ice in glasses and pour sweet tea. Charlotte, you get the disposable bowls out of the sack I brought. There’s also plastic spoons and a soup ladle and napkins in there.”
“Want me to cut the brownies, too, boss lady?” Stella asked.
Nancy cut her eyes around at Stella. “I’m leaving my organizational skills to Charlotte instead of you.”
“That’s a good thing, Mama. I’m going to be busy filling Agnes’s shoes,” Stella shot back.
“You do remind me of her, but those are some big boots for you to fill.”
“Agnes wears flip-flops, not boots,” Charlotte said. “And to my thinking, I’ll have some big ones to fill, too, if you leave me your skills. There’s no way we could have packed everything in one evening without you.”
Piper nodded. “And I thank you all. I can’t believe we are getting it done so fast.”
Nancy patted her on the shoulder. “Now let’s get to work. When the guys get it all loaded, Piper will drive her van and go with them. That way she can tell them where to put things. You two”—she pointed at Stella and Charlotte—“will stay behind with me and we’re going to wipe down countertops, vacuum, and be sure everything is completely ready for the new renters. That way Piper doesn’t have to come back here for anything. They can bring her rent money down to the shop.”
Piper hugged Nancy. “Thank you.”
Nancy yelled into the living room, “Jed, come in here and bless this food before we eat it and then there will be room at the table for you guys.”
Jed set down the box that he’d just picked up, dusted his hands on the seat of his jeans, and headed toward the kitchen. He bowed his head, said a quick grace, and inhaled deeply. “Just smelling that good soup will make us work faster. We do get to eat right after we get the living room loaded, don’t we?”
“Yes, you do,” Stella said. “We’ll be finished by then and you can have our chairs.”
“Come on, Jed. You’ve had time to say four graces by now,” Everett yelled. “I need help with this sofa. Holy shit, Piper! Is this damn thing made out of concrete?”
Piper swallowed and yelled back, “I bought a sturdy one. I’ve got two boys, remember? You sure you want me to move to the country?”
“Jed, call in the other two. It’ll take all four of us to get this damn thing in the trailer,” Everett said.
“Guess Preacher Jed is getting an earful of cusswords,” Stella whispered in her mother’s direction.
Nancy sighed. “I imagine he prays for your daddy’s soul every night. I heard today that your boyfriend has been slipping in the bedroom window at night. That’s a little bit juvenile, don’t you think, Stella? He could come right in the front door.”
“Mama!” Stella’s eyes popped wide-open.
Nancy smiled. “Don’t look at me like that. Rosalee told me and when I asked her how she knew, she said that was an FBU secret. I get a big kick out of the way that she and Agnes get things turned around. I’m sure she was talking about the FBI, but I didn’t say a word.”
“I’m not sayin’ a word. She’s coverin’ for me tonight about why I’m moving,” Piper said. “But I did hear down at the convenience store this afternoon that Stella’s boyfriend is an ex-con and she don’t want her mama to know she’s fallen in love with a man who has tattoos and a record.”
“Oh, my God!” Nancy’s voice carried all over the kitchen.
“He doesn’t have a record,” Stella protested.
“Tattoos?” Nancy raised an eyebrow.
Stella shrugged. “You didn’t tell them to put that on the billboard at the church. You just said a husband. You should’ve been more specific if you don’t like tats. And, Mama, now that the whole town knows he’s visiting me, I guess I gave him his own drawer in my dresser for nothing.” She hadn’t meant to say that last sentence, but there it was hanging over the table like heavy smoke in a cheap honky-tonk.
“You have a boyfriend and you gave him a drawer in your bedroom. This is serious, Stella Joy.” Nancy clapped her hands like a little girl. “I’m going to get a son-in-law and I don’t give a shit if he’s got a dozen tattoos as long as he treats you like a queen.”
Piper’s spoon was halfway to her mouth with soup dripping back into the bowl. “Yes, it is, and you didn’t tell us until tonight?”
“I didn’t mean to tell you tonight. It just slipped out. Not that it matters now,” she said.
“I’ll be gone after Saturday night. He can come on in the front door after that for sure,” Piper said.
“With the whole town watching every door and window in my house? Hell, I wish I had moved out to Granny’s trailer. At least there were no neighbors for miles.”
“Announce who he is and the gossip will die down,” Nancy said.
Piper scooped up more soup. “This is delicious, Nancy. What’s your secret?”
“Half a cup to a cup of homemade picante sauce in it after it’s cooked. Who is it, Stella Joy?”
Stella wanted to tell her mother but she flat-out couldn’t that night. Not while they were moving Piper and not until she talked to Jed. They should be together when they announced to the world that they’d been married before that sign went up at the church. “I will tell you the night of the barbecue ball, I promise.”
Nancy’s eyes twinkled and she wiggled her shoulders. “The Angels did a good job after all.”
“Don’t give them an ounce of credit for anything but creating a big mess over all this. I”—she stopped midsentence before she said “married him” and quickly finished—“was seeing him long before you put my name on that damned old list.”
“And you didn’t bring him home to meet me and your dad. Shame on you!” Nancy fussed. “All this could have been avoided if you’d just told me.”
“Oh, but Cadillac needed something new to fuss about, so it’s not all in vain,” Piper said.
“Sometimes it takes magic to make things clear.” Charlotte smiled. “Who would have thought a half an hour in a dark bathroom could turn my life around?”
Rhett was the first of the guys to make it to the kitchen. He washed his hands in the sink and dried them on a paper towel. “Soup looks good. Did you make it, Piper?”
“Nancy did,” she said.
Their eyes met and the heat in the room went up twenty degrees. Not even when they were young and their hormones raged had she felt like that with Gene. He smiled and she did the same.
“You still going to the dance out at Violet’s barn?” he asked.
She nodded. “She’s calling it a ball and it’s a cultural affair.”
Rhett chuckled. Lord, he even chuckled with a deep drawl. “She can call it those things if she wants, but it’s a barn dance. Want me to pick you up for it? Since it’s formal, shall I bring a corsage?”
“Agnes and Rosalee have rented a limo for us ladies.”
“A chariot will bring you, then. I’ll be there to help escort you inside,” he said.
“It’s a far cry from a chariot, Rhett. It’s a Hummer that’s painted camouflage.”
Rhett laughed out loud. “That ought to cause a stir. What color is your dress?”
“Dark green, but it’s not camo.”
He blinked a few times but his eyes never left hers. “I’ll have your corsage delivered to the shop.”
She looked down at the floor. “What if my name isn’t drawn with yours?”
“I’ll cut in on every dance and manage to sit beside you at dinner anyway. I’m sneaky that way,” he whispered.
“Hey, don’t eat all the soup,” Jed said. “We worked as hard as you did.”
According to the clock, the conversation had lasted less than two minutes. If that short time brought on the jitters, she wondered if her heart could take a whole evening with Rhett.
“Hey, Piper,” Stella called from the back of the house. “Come help us. We forgot to pack up the bathroom last night.”
“See you later,” Rhett said.
She nodded and floated down the hall toward the bathroom.
“I flirted with Rhett and it didn’t feel awkward,” she whispered.
“It shouldn’t. Boone says that he really likes you,” Charlotte said.
Stella whipped the shower curtain back. “Mama, your prayers bypassed me and hit Piper.”
Nancy was carefully setting everything from the medicine cabinet in a small box. “Well, I’m glad someone is benefiting. I may not ever forgive you for having a boyfriend who gets a drawer in your bedroom and you don’t tell me about him. But at least someone is benefiting from the shit storm I unleashed when I asked for prayers. Maybe God thinks y’all are all my daughters. And Stella, darlin’, I guess you know that I intend to look through that drawer when you are at work tomorrow.”
“You go into my bedroom and I won’t tell you his name until Christmas,” Stella threatened.
“I’m going to the kitchen to help those guys with their supper before y’all get out the guns and knives,” Charlotte said.
“Hey, we don’t have guns and knives,” Nancy said.
“But we’ve got fingernail files and hair conditioner, and believe me, those can be deadly. This is Piper’s night so let’s talk about her, not me,” Stella smarted off.
Charlotte tightened her ponytail and headed for the kitchen. She stopped at the table long enough to drop a kiss on Boone’s forehead before she picked up the tea jug and refilled their glasses. “Y’all ready for brownies?”
“Got any coffee?” Everett asked.
“Yes, darlin’, I brought a thermos. I knew you couldn’t eat brownies without coffee,” Nancy shouted from the bathroom. “When y’all get done eating, start on the boys’ bedroom.”
Charlotte set the pan of brownies in the middle of the table. “They’re cut and ready. I’d best go help carry the kids’ clothes out to the back of Piper’s van so all she has to do is take them out and hang them up.”
As she was leaving, she heard Boone say, “I’m the luckiest man in the whole world.”
Everett said, “You just keep thinkin’ that, son, and you’ll have one of them marriages that lasts past the time the wedding bells stop ringin’.”
Charlotte stopped in the hallway and eavesdropped.
“So what’s your secret?” Jed asked.
“There’s two secrets, son. One is to love your woman, not with your whole heart but with your soul. If you got an inklin’ that you aren’t finished chasin’ skirts, then you ain’t ready to settle down anyway. The other is to respect your woman.” Everett poured coffee from the thermos into his cup. “That’s different from loving her. That means you don’t belittle her, not in front of other people or in private. Your job is to not only make her feel like she’s gorgeous but to know in your heart that she really is and to drop down on your knees every once in a while and thank God that he put her in your life. You do those things and you’ll be just fine. If you don’t, somebody else will and you’ll lose the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“Good advice,” Jed said.
“Yes, it is. Now dig into those brownies and I’ll pour y’all up a cup of coffee and then we’ll go load up the boys’ room.”
Charlotte hurried on to the bedroom and grabbed an armload of little boys’ clothing. As she was going out the door, Rosalee parked her old car across the street and made her way to the porch.
“I thought you were going to see Agnes,” she said.
“I did but thought y’all might need some supervisin’.”
“Nancy is doin’ a fine job of that,” Charlotte said.
“I’m older than she is and I got more experience.” She smiled. “Besides, she said she was bringing soup, and I want a bowl.”
“And brownies,” Charlotte whispered.
“Honey, I can do a hell of a lot of supervisin’ for some of Nancy’s brownies. Besides, I’m here to check out the—what is it y’all call them things? Now I remember—the vibes between Rhett and Piper. Agnes said I’m to report to her tonight after y’all finish up here no matter how late it is.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Agnes says I’m supposed to spy on Stella, too, and to call her if I smell a rat.”
“You got the story going about why Piper’s moving?”
“My friend is on the phone right now. I only have to tell my next-door neighbor a little bit of something and she’s like that television show where they said, ‘Take it away.’ By morning the stories will be wild and woolly, believe me. Now step aside before them men eat up all the brownies,” Rosalee said.
“You and Agnes sure do have a chocolate sweet tooth,” Charlotte said.
“Comes from growing up poor. We can just smell chocolate and our noses follow the scent. Anything going on between Piper and Rhett? I’ve got to report to Agnes and I need something.”
Charlotte smiled. “I thought you and Agnes were both like God and knew everything.”
“No, that’s Heather, not us. And the big man is going to strike her graveyard dead with a lightning bolt one of these days for thinkin’ like that. Marriage ministry! If that ain’t the biggest crock of shit I’ve ever heard.” Rosalee headed toward the kitchen, mumbling the whole way.
That Rosalee was a hoot—not as big or as flamboyant in her ways as Agnes but still a woman to be reckoned with. Maybe Charlotte could grow up to be just like Rosalee. Then she and Stella could grow old together and keep Cadillac from falling apart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Heather had never shown her face in the Yellow Rose but that was the only explanation that crossed Stella’s mind when the buzz in the shop stopped so fast. Stella carefully peeked out from around the partition in front of the shampoo sink to see what was going on.
“Well, hello, Irene,” Stella called out, relieved that it was Charlotte’s mama and not Heather coming to stir up trouble. She had enough on her plate as it was, what with still not being able to find a way to sneak off to Sherman and buy a test. Not that she really needed the thing, because she hadn’t been sick again and she had been under a lot of stress. Still it would be great to see that thing say not pregnant for sure.
Charlotte’s mother raised her free hand. In the other one she carried a plastic bag with what looked like a bull-necked football player’s head inside. It didn’t look heavy enough to transport something that big, but then, Irene was a big strong woman. Tall, rawboned, with short brown hair, she looked like she wouldn’t take a bit of sass from anyone: male, female, or rowdy steers.
“How are you girls? I heard that you moved last night, Piper. I brought the bridal bouquet. I worked on it all night and I want your opinion, ladies.”
Agnes was sitting in Charlotte’s chair getting her roots touched up. Piper was busy trimming Alma Grace’s hair and Stella had just finished shampooing Trixie’s hair. They all six stopped and watched the bouquet come up out of the plastic by degrees.
“I never had a wedding,” Irene said. “When I married Charlotte’s daddy, we just went to the courthouse and came home to a tiny little garage apartment down south of town. I wanted a bouquet or a corsage, but we barely had the money for the marriage license after we paid a month’s rent. What do you think?”
“It’s beautiful!” Alma Grace squealed. “That is spectacular.”
“I thought about making it
out of real flowers, but if she has silk, then she can keep it forever.” Irene beamed.
“That’s a hell of a lot of work,” Agnes said.
Stella couldn’t take her eyes off the arrangement of pink hydrangeas, three lovely silk roses, baby’s breath, ferns, lace, and satin. It was a work of art but she was still glad that she and Jed had decided to go the courthouse when they got married.
“Oh, Mama, it’s beautiful,” Charlotte gasped.
“Really? You aren’t just saying that?”
Charlotte left Agnes in the chair and hugged her mother. “No, Mama, I mean it. It’s the prettiest bouquet I’ve ever seen. You did an awesome job on it.” She reached out to gingerly touch a bit of lace. “I love the little touches of lace and satin you’ve tucked into it. And is that Grandma’s cameo on the stem?”
Irene’s smile lit up the whole shop. “Yes, it is. Here, you hold it. See how it feels in your hands. Pretend you are walking down the aisle with it. Is it too heavy?”
Charlotte took the bouquet from her mother and carried it all the way back to the door, then she turned around and nodded at Stella. “Music, please.”
Stella began to hum the “Wedding March” and Charlotte held the bouquet at waist level and slowly strolled across the tile floor to her station. “It’s not too heavy, Mama. Real flowers would have weighed a lot more. Now can I keep this one or do we have to make a dozen more?”
“Oh, hush.” Irene wiped her eyes. “You looked like an angel carrying that, but when you are coming in the church, walk a little bit slower. Boone needs time to catch his breath. If you go too fast, he’ll still be stuttering when you reach the front.”
Charlotte handed the bouquet back to her mother. “Yes, ma’am. Now, why don’t you sit down and wait until I get done with Agnes and then I’ll pamper you a little bit today. How about a haircut, shampoo, and set?”
“With real rollers and the hair dryer?” Irene carefully tucked the bouquet back into the plastic bag. “Put this in the back room. We don’t want anyone else to see it.”
The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop Page 25
