Miss Ruffles Inherits Everything Read Online Free Page B

give her a hard day’s work.”
    â€œYou really think Honeybelle had enemies?”
    â€œSure as shootin’,” Gracie replied.
    I was still stewing over Honeybelle’s request that I be on the lookout for someone who might have wanted to kill her. She’d been joking at the time, but her words rang in my ears.
    I said, “One of Honeybelle’s grandsons seemed very upset that she’s gone.”
    â€œThe younger one? Yeah, I heard he was sick when he was a baby. Story goes, Honeybelle read him books every day in the hospital. That was real nice, and they bonded. Not that her daughter-in-law would notice.”
    â€œThey were always a little cool with each other,” I said cautiously.
    Gracie had no qualms about gossiping. “I reckon Posie resented how Honeybelle wouldn’t let Hut Junior take over the oil company. I mean, he’s forty, if he’s a day, right? Why he didn’t just buy himself a bass boat and go fishing for the rest of his life, I’ll never know. So tell me. What did the memorial look like? Did they have some pictures of Honeybelle around?”
    â€œYes, a big photo. And lots of flowers, of course.”
    â€œIt’s a terrible shame they cremated her. I mean, she just had her hair done! She’d have looked real pretty in a casket.”
    I couldn’t come up with a response to that one.
    Gracie must have seen me turn pale. “You want to come in out of the sun and cool off? I got a couple of Coronas in the cooler. Just the thing on a hot day like this.”
    â€œNo, thanks. They’re reading Honeybelle’s will at the house this afternoon. It’s some kind of party. I need to get back to help out with the refreshments.”
    â€œKnowing that family, they’ll be splitting her assets while they drink her champagne.” Gracie enveloped me in a hug—all bosom and perfume. “Don’t get yourself too upset, okay, Sunny? You go on taking care of Miss Ruffles the best you can, for as long as you can. That’s what would make Honeybelle happy.”
    â€œThanks, Gracie.”
    â€œSwing by for a drink tonight. I close up at seven. We can give Honeybelle our own send-off.”
    â€œA farewell party for me, too?”
    Gracie gave me a comforting pat. “Tonight we’ll brainstorm some ideas for a new job for you. I don’t want you to leave town. Maybe we’ll meet some cute guys, too. I have my eye on one of the bartenders.” She waggled her eyebrows. “You might find somebody worth sticking around for.”
    I made no promises. I didn’t feel like celebrating the loss of a second job in just a few months, and although I’d be needing a paycheck, it felt too soon to start hunting up a new position. Gracie gave me another hug anyway and let herself back into Cowgirl Redux. I usually made friends easily, but the thing about growing up on a college campus is that friends tend to last only four years before moving on. I had hoped Gracie might last longer.
    Miss Ruffles jumped at my leg and growled with some of her old pizzazz. She spun in a quick circle and pulled me to get going again.
    â€œOkay, okay, I’m coming,” I said to her.
    Ahead on the corner of Jim Bowie Avenue, another local character stood in front of an open banjo case, hammering out a tune, eyes closed, communing with her music. Behind her leaned a ratty old backpack stuffed with belongings—a sign I took to mean she was homeless. A few kindhearted souls had dropped crumpled bills into her case. I’d heard someone call her Crazy Mary. Today she wore a dusty, flamboyant Mexican skirt along with a couple of layers of T-shirts and wraparound sunglasses. Her hair was a mess of dirty blond dreadlocks. She ignored the bustle of people around her, seeming to be immersed in her music.
    Miss Ruffles darted close and snatched a dollar bill out of the instrument case.
    â€œMiss Ruffles!” I wrestled