“Miz Irene, I thought I wanted real flowers for my bouquet, but after seeing what you’ve done, I’ve changed my mind. Would you make me one of those?” Alma Grace asked. “And smaller versions for my bridesmaids? Maybe you could go with me to buy the flowers and give me some ideas?”
“What would Sugar think?” Irene asked.
“You’ve got to show her that bouquet. She’s going to love it. And when my wedding is over, I’m going to have a shadowbox made for mine so I can hang it on the wall above the credenza in the foyer. Pink and silver are my colors. I want lots of bling, so be thinking along those lines. Will you do it for me?” Alma Grace begged.
“I would love to,” Irene said.
“You want a cup of coffee?” Piper asked. “It’s brewing in the back room and there’s what’s left of a pan of brownies back there.”
“I’d love both,” Irene said.
Charlotte leaned down and whispered into Alma Grace’s ear, “That was so sweet.”
“Sweet nothing!” Alma Grace exclaimed. “We’ve searched and searched for silver flowers and pink only comes in roses and gladiolus. I want something unique that no one else has ever had or will ever have. Your mama is a genius.”
Piper poked Charlotte on the arm. “Did you know that about your mama’s wedding?”
Charlotte shook her head. “But from now on this one is hers to do with what she wants. I want to be married. The wedding isn’t as important as the marriage. Nancy taught me that.”
Irene carried a brownie on a napkin in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. She sat down at the table at the same time Stella wrapped a towel around Trixie’s head and the two of them went back to Stella’s station.
“Well, Trixie, I didn’t know that was you over there,” Irene said. “How is your mama? I always loved Janie. She always had a lovely smile for everyone, no matter who they were.”
“She has good days and bad days. Seems that lately the good ones are few and far between,” Trixie said.
“I need to go see her. We grew up right next door to each other. Played paper dolls in my front yard lots and lots of days. Do you think she’ll know me?” Irene asked.
“Seems like she knows folks from that time more than those she knew in her twenties or thirties,” Trixie said.
“There was less stress in those days,” Irene said.
“But still just as much scandal and gossip,” Trixie said.
“Some things never change, honey.” Irene nodded. “But I always admired your mama for doing what she did. She might have thought that boy was her soul mate when she left town with him, but when she figured out he wasn’t, she didn’t just marry him because you were on the way. Town might always remember her for that, but me, I remember her pretty smile.”
“Thank you.” Trixie flashed a smile.
“Some folks like to relive the negative gossip. We’d all be better off if we had one of them delete buttons like on a computer on our memories. We could hit it when the gossip is malicious like it was with your mama, and like it was with Stella.” She paused and looked around the room that had gone quiet. “Never could figure out why folks acted like they did with either one of them. And I’m right sorry to bring this up, Stella, but Charlotte says it’s been worryin’ you lately.”
“Thank you.” Stella hugged Irene. “You are so sweet.”
“Just callin’ it like it should be. Now let’s talk about this barbecue ball. I swear I ain’t never heard of anything so silly in my life.”
“You gossipin’, Mama?” Charlotte chuckled.
“No, I am not. I’m statin’ my opinion. Gossip is unfounded bullshit. Opinions are ours by rights of the Constitution.”
Nancy parked close to the door into the fellowship hall and hurried across the hot parking lot inside the cool church. Heather was already standing behind the podium with her minions sitting around a long table. She shot a dirty look Nancy’s way and tilted her head up.
“We had given up on you. This is our last meeting before the ball and we’re just going over our duties one more time,” she said.
Without the gold fingernail, she didn’t look nearly as authoritative. She wore a navy-blue pantsuit with a red-and-white-patterned silk shell under the jacket, a sparkly red crystal cross pin on her lapel, and red high-heeled shoes.
Nancy sat down in the only empty chair. “So how are we doing with the expenditures and the sold tickets? Are we working in the black or the red?”
“Floy.” Violet frowned.
Floy opened a hard-sided briefcase and brought out Heather’s notebook. She handed it to her and Heather flipped open the cover. “As of today we are a thousand dollars in the red, but we will make that up with tickets sold at the door and with the donations for the best barbecue. We only have a few more things to purchase—the angel candlesticks for the winner, and of course we will have to pay the bills for some of the inside decorations. The air conditioners and the tablecloths are paid for.”
Annabel raised her hand and said, “We will sell lots more tickets. Folks often wait until the last week to buy and I know several people who’ve bought dresses but haven’t bought tickets. You were a genius, Heather, to come up with the idea of each girl who buys a ticket bringing her own special barbecue.”
That was the last straw and she’d done her duty, so Nancy stood up and said, “I am resigning from the Angels. I will not be attending any more Thursday night meetings. I’m going to be too busy. I was going to wait until after the barbecue ball but since Everett and I are not responsible for the food, I’m resigning now. Good luck, Heather, with the rest of the preparations. I’ll be bringing my own special recipe for pulled pork in a Crock-Pot and I’d appreciate any donations y’all want to put in my can.”
“You can’t resign.” Heather raised her voice. “One does not simply resign from praying.”
“I’ll continue to pray, but not on Thursday nights with all y’all.”
“I forbid it. I will not accept your resignation,” Heather said in a louder voice.
Nancy started for the door. “I can damn well do whatever the hell I want.”
Heather’s voice raised another octave and got downright squeaky. “Don’t you swear in the church. You aren’t fit for the Angels.”
Nancy smiled. “You got it, darlin’.”
Beulah went to wringing her hands. “Please tell me you aren’t going to change churches.”
“Hell, no!” Nancy said. “I’m staying right here. It’s where I’ve gone my whole life, but I’m finished with committees and clubs. I’ve got a life to live and I don’t need any of this drama.”
“Well said, Nancy,” Rosalee said from just inside the door.
Heather turned her attention and fury in that direction. “What are you doing here? You don’t go to church here anymore. You go down to that one on Main Street with Agnes.”
“Making sure that you don’t shoot Nancy or scratch her eyes out since Agnes is laid up and can’t take care of the job,” Rosalee said.
“The both of you can get out of here. That is an order,” Heather said. “I heard you were down at Piper Stephens’s place last night helping her move into the house with Rhett Monroe. Anyone that sanctions that kind of immorality shouldn’t be allowed in our church.”
Rosalee grinned so big that her eyes disappeared. “Hell, Heather, if we kicked out all the sinners, who’d pay the tithes to keep this place runnin’? It does require a lot of money to pay the electric bill, the water bill, and buy toilet paper. And I bet you dollars to cow shit that you and Quinn did some hanky-panky before you got married. We just didn’t know it because it went on in Ripley instead of Cadillac.”
Nancy picked up the cue. “I thought she was from Tulsa? Where in the hell is Ripley?”
“It’s a suburb of Tulsa,” Heather stammered.
“I see. Well, I’
ll be leaving. Y’all have a good day,” Nancy said.
“Ripley is fifty miles from Tulsa. That’s too damn far to be a suburb,” Rosalee said. “It’s a little bitty town that’s only a third the size of Cadillac, so stop puttin’ on airs.”
Heather tossed her head back in a defiant gesture as she flipped on the overhead projector and showed everyone the table placement. “I’m not discussing where I was raised. Now, this is the way that the tables will be arranged. The buffet tables will be lined up at the back. I did it that way so the traffic could flow down both sides, so you might keep that in mind as you get set up. And right here will be a curtained-off place to use as a workstation. We don’t want trash cans and such cluttering up our lovely ball.”
“Sounds like you have everything under control, but you didn’t answer my question about hanky-panky with Quinn,” Rosalee said.
“You don’t deny that Piper is living with Rhett?” Heather glared at Rosalee.
“I didn’t say that and it’s none of my business or yours,” she answered.
“Well, I’m not dignifying your question with an answer. But I did hear that Piper has been seeing Rhett for years and there’s a possibility that the twins don’t belong to poor Gene, who is just heartbroken over the way he’s been treated. You do know that he’s a distant cousin of Quinn’s and that we are familiar with the situation. I’m telling all of you right now that the marriage ministry will not include divorced or loose-legged women,” Heather said.
Rosalee made a big show of heading toward the door. “Darlin’, if your ministry is going to get its big butt off the ground in Texas, you’d best reconsider that statement. Divorce is part of the culture these days, especially since women have learned that they don’t have to put up with rascals. Y’all have a wonderful day now, and I’ll see you at the barbecue ball. It should be a lot of fun.”
Rosalee giggled the whole way across the parking lot to her car.
Nancy was leaning against her truck. “Well? That was fun, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, yeah. How much is she in the hole for? Agnes will want to know for sure,” Rosalee asked.
“A thousand dollars to date. There ain’t enough people interested in a damn ball to come for miles around like they do for the jubilee. So it’ll mainly be the townspeople with a few from Luella and Sherman, but not enough to pay for what all she’s doing. Someone is going to have to bail her out. I expect that it’ll be Violet,” Nancy said.
“Agnes is going to love that news.” Rosalee got into her truck and drove away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Piper crawled out of bed early and sang off-key at the top of her lungs while she took a shower. She could be staying at her new home, but she wanted to share the first night there with the boys, which was tonight, so she was happy that morning.
Stella was scowling on the sofa when Charlotte came out of the guest room and Piper opened the bathroom door.
“What are you doing up this early? You don’t have to go to the shop until midmorning,” Charlotte said.
“You are both mean old bitches,” Stella said. “How can a woman sleep through all the noise y’all make? And what are you doing here, Charlotte? I thought you weren’t spending another night away from Boone.”
“He’s on a twenty-four-hour shift and the house got too quiet for me to bear, so I let myself in after y’all had gone to bed,” Charlotte answered.
Piper bent at the waist and towel dried the underside of her hair. “I haven’t heard music in your room the past couple of nights.”
“I’m not having this conversation.” Stella covered her head with a throw pillow. “I’m going to go for doughnuts and fried pies at that new shop in Luella. I shouldn’t be nice to either of you since you woke me up so early, but I’ll bring breakfast to the shop.”
“Why don’t you run on up to the rehab center and check on Agnes before you come in? We can wait on breakfast that long and you can take her a couple of fried chocolate pies. I bet she’s going into withdrawals if they haven’t served chocolate in a couple of days,” Piper suggested.
Agnes was in therapy, so Stella left a chocolate pie on her bedside table and drove back to Cadillac. As she passed the church with that horrible sign still shining for the whole world to see, she noticed that Jed’s truck was parked around back, so she whipped in beside it. She slipped in the back door and heard him whistling in his office. Peeking in the glass she could see him, leaning back in the chair, eyes closed, hands locked behind his neck.
She eased the door open and quietly crossed the room. She was in the process of throwing one leg over his lap when he sat up suddenly and grabbed her butt firmly in both hands.
“Caught you.” He chuckled.
“Do you always greet the women of the congregation this way?” she asked.
“Only the ones I’m married to, and just for the record, I don’t believe in polygamy.” He kissed her hard on the lips, the kiss lingering for several moments before he broke it. “And darlin’, I heard you drive up and you played right into my hand, quite literally.”
“I love you and I’m ready to tell the whole world that we are married today,” she said.
“I’m glad, but we’re going to wait now until the barbecue ball. The ball will be a perfect place to announce our wedding to the whole county at one time.” He strung kisses from her nose to her lips, to that soft tender spot at the hollow of her neck.
“But I’m ready to announce it now and move into the parsonage with you,” she said.
“Me, too, darlin’, but I really like the idea of announcing it at the ball. You deserve more than word-of-mouth gossiping that can get things all twisted up. You deserve a big moment.” He teased her mouth open with his tongue.
“I love you, Jed Tucker.” Her heart swelled with pure love for the man she’d married a few months before.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t go to the parsonage and play house for a little while right now,” he whispered.
“And ruin the surprise if someone caught us? No, thank you.” She got up and locked his office door, pulled the blinds, and sat back down in his lap. “I’ve got thirty minutes. What’s on your appointment book?”
“Nothing until noon, and that sofa is inviting us to move over there.”
“I hear your kids are coming home this evening and that you’ve moved in with Rhett Monroe,” Trixie said. “Good for you, Piper. I’m glad to see you moving on with your life. Gene was never the man for you. We all knew he was a mama’s boy.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that before I married him?” Piper asked.
“Would it have done any good?” Rosalee asked from the sofa. “Y’all may have to start charging me rent on this couch as much as I stay here anymore.”
“You are welcome to run in and out and stay as long as you like,” Charlotte said.
Piper used a curling iron on Trixie’s light-brown hair. “I did not move in with Rhett. We aren’t dating.”
“Then where did you move?” Trixie asked.
“It’s a secret until this evening. I don’t want Lorene to find out and tell the boys. I want to surprise them, but getting out of that house with all the memories was a big step in moving forward with my life,” she said. “There. All done.”
“Good for you,” Trixie said. “On a different note, I should forewarn you, Alma Grace has been in the café bragging about Irene working up a custom-made bouquet. Charlotte, your mama is liable to have her hands full, because there’s a lot of wedding fever going around. And there could be more after the barbecue ball.”
Charlotte picked up the broom and started sweeping hair from around the chairs. “It really did make her feel good for Alma Grace to ask her to make her bouquet. Maybe it’ll work into a second job for her.”
“Time for me to go. Me and Agnes and Violet, oh, and Beulah, are about the only ones left fro
m our graduating class here in Cadillac. Y’all won’t know Bobby Dalhart, but he died, and they’re having his funeral today in Sherman. I haven’t seen him in forty years, but I feel like someone from our class should pay our respects at his funeral.” Rosalee stood up slowly. “When I die, I want you to come to the funeral home and fix my hair just like this, Charlotte. You do such a wonderful job.” Rosalee threw the shoulder strap for her purse over her head and nodded toward Piper. “Your secret is safe with me. But, honey, I’m a little disappointed. If I’d lived in today’s world as a young woman, I would have moved in with that handsome Rhett in a heartbeat.”
All of them, including Trixie, were stunned into speechless silence as Rosalee made her way out of the shop.
“Holy shit! I can’t believe all that’s gone on since Nancy put Stella’s name on that list. I thought Rosalee was one of the last survivors of the old school and would crucify one of us for moving in with a boyfriend,” Piper said.
“I don’t care how much I like someone, I’m not doing a dead person’s hair.” Charlotte shivered from head to red toenails.
“One of you will have to do mine when I go,” Stella said. “I wouldn’t trust another soul to do it, and if you don’t do it right, I’ll come back and haunt the hell out of you.”
“Where did you come from? And you aren’t dying, so don’t talk like that. It gives me the shivers,” Piper said.
“Down the back alley and through the storeroom. I’m practicing my Agnes skills.” Stella laughed.
“You could easily share DNA with Agnes,” Piper said.
Stella cocked her head to one side. “Does that mean I’m the Cadillac Irish mob? If so, then all y’all and Bless My Bloomers and Clawdy’s all are my mob family like in The Godfather. And Darla Jean, I can’t forget Darla Jean. We might be the Cadillac eleven, kind of like that George Clooney film.”
Charlotte pulled a tissue from a fancy little box at her station and dabbed her eyes. “You are a female godfather for sure. Don’t you think so, Trixie?”
“That sumbitch wasn’t Irish,” Trixie said.
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