Between Heaven and Texas Read Online Free Page A

Fatal Flaw.

C HAPTER 4
    M ary Dell met Donny Bebee at the county fair in August of 1970.
    The fair was always an exciting time for the residents of Too Much, a week of leisure and entertainment for folks who could afford little of either. And for the Templetons, this year’s fair held special promise. Lydia Dale was competing for the title of Miss Limestone County. If she won, she would earn the right to go to Fort Worth and compete for the title of Miss Texas.
    For the previous eight years, all of Taffy’s maternal energies had been focused on bringing Lydia Dale to this moment. Taffy was in a tizzy, and who could blame her? On the long list of things that Texans revere—the Alamo, quarterbacks, good barbecue, and the Lone Star flag—beauty queens figure right near the top. And the girl who wins the Miss Texas crown is more than a conqueror, more than a beauty queen, for though her claim to the title lasts only a year, from the moment that tiara touches her head, the woman christened Miss Texas is transformed for life, a monarch for the ages, Rio Grande royalty.
    Mary Dell was excited for her twin, as well, and proud that Lydia Dale had asked her to sew her dress for the evening gown competition. The full-skirted, starlight-white-satin gown, with a scoop neckline and 150 turquoise bugle beads hand-stitched to the smooth bodice, was made up according to her sister’s exact instructions.
    Mary Dell worried that the gown was too sedate to catch the judge’s eye, but she was certain that no other contestant’s dress would be better made, just as she was sure that no dress in the Homemade Fashions competition could possibly outshine her entry. Mary Dell had labored over every detail of the design and construction of her entry and couldn’t wait to model her creation at the 4-H fashion show later that afternoon.
    Mary Dell had been praying about this day for weeks—that His Will Be Done, of course, but humbly pointing out to the Almighty how perfectly perfect it would be if His plans meshed with hers. There was no harm in making a suggestion, was there? And if everything went the way Mary Dell prayed, she and Lydia Dale would haul home the top honors from the fair—honors that could launch them into enchanted futures. Lydia Dale might end up in Fort Worth at the Miss Texas pageant and then on to real foreign realms like Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the Miss America Pageant. And for Mary Dell, a place she could visualize more clearly than ever—a shop on Main Street with a big picture window. And around the block she could see the line of women who had traveled hundreds of miles, from all over Texas, and were willing to stand patiently for hours for the chance to buy a Mary Dell original. It could happen, couldn’t it? Good things had to happen to somebody, after all. Why not her?
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    Taffy and Lydia Dale hauled four suitcases filled with clothes, high heels, every sort of undergarment known to womankind, makeup, tweezers, eyelash curlers, blow-dryers, curling irons, hairbrushes, teasing combs, and six cans of Aqua Net hair spray into the auditorium. Dutch was off to the midway in search of deep-fried food and a shooting range. Mary Dell, with the garment bag containing her dress held high so it wouldn’t wrinkle, headed to the 4-H pavilion.
    As she passed the rodeo ring, a voice coming through a crackling loudspeaker was announcing the preliminary rounds of the bull riding competition. In a hurry and with her vision partially blocked by the garment bag, she didn’t see the stray horseshoe on the path. She tripped, accidentally knocking the hat off a cowboy who was walking by, and landed in a heap in the dirt. Before she could get to her feet, a big, calloused hand reached down to help her.
    Mary Dell’s eyes traveled from the hand, down to a pair of black Justin boots, well-worn but polished, and up again to a pair of long legs in denim, past a shiny silver belt