The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop Read Online Free Page B

everything. And this is not dew; it’s plain old sweat that comes from anger and heat. How did you know about Stella, anyway? I just came from there. Can you work me in for a haircut this morning?” she said in a rush, hoping her voice didn’t break.
    Ruby’s honey-blonde hair showed gray at the roots. The bright-red lipstick on her mouth was long gone but that part on the edges had seeped into wrinkles. Her stretch capris bagged on her bony frame and varicose veins twisted down her legs from calves to toes. “We saw the sign and you stopped at the Yellow Rose this morning. It don’t take much to figure it out, especially with Stella’s temper. And yes, I’ve got time to cut your hair.”
    “Need your nails done, too?” Kayla asked from her table.
    “Not today,” Nancy answered.
    Beulah tucked her chin down into her ample chest and picked up the hankie in her lap. It was a perfectly creased little square with no wrinkles, but the day was still young. “Was Stella really angry? Maybe we should take her off the list. Or maybe Heather shouldn’t have put up that sign.”
    Nancy leaned her head back and pinched her nose with two fingers, trying to stop the raging headache. Heather had been at odds with Stella since the day she moved to Cadillac after marrying Quinn. She’d wanted Stella to give up playing the piano for the church so that she could have the job. When Stella refused, it brought out sarcasm and pure old bitchiness.
    “Well, there is Heather now,” Beulah said. “We can talk to her about it.”
    Heather slung open the door and smiled at everyone. She wore a floral silk skirt and a pink cotton sweater, and her jet-black hair was cut at chin level, which made her baby face look even rounder. Her brown eyes were set close together and were lost when she smiled. She was slightly overweight and sweat beaded up on her thick neck, but she still wore panty hose and pink high heels.
    “Good morning, ladies. I trust you’ve all seen the church sign. We’re serious about our praying, aren’t we?” Heather flashed a tight little smile. “Ruby, I just need my nails done today, so don’t be looking at the appointment book. I don’t come in until next week for a cut.”
    “Stella is pretty upset,” Beulah said.
    “Most sinners get angry when they know they’re being prayed for,” Heather said.
    “Stella is not a sinner, and you should have talked to me or at least to Jed before you put that sign up. It needs to come down right now,” Nancy said.
    “Of course she is. We have all sinned and come short. It says so in the Bible. Brother Jed preached about it two weeks ago, remember. But we can pray and pray until God sees fit to send her a good husband like he did when he sent Quinn to me. He will hear our prayers and answer them if we ask believing. Beulah is here and I see Floy over there getting her nails done, so we should talk about our next step in the program.”
    Program? Holy hell and damnation! It had gone from a simple prayer request to a billboard and now a program? Nancy wanted to throw herself on the floor and have a tantrum like a two-year-old.
    Floy held up her freshly done pale-pink fingernails. They looked out of place with her long-sleeved navy-blue dress buttoned all the way up to her scrawny, wrinkled neck and her tight little gray bun perched on top of her head.
    “Heather and I visited a long time after the prayer meeting last night. We’ve come up with a plan. If we help someone like Stella find a husband, why, there will be dozens and dozens of young women flocking to our church asking for our prayers,” Floy said.
    Heather took her place behind Kayla’s nail table and spread her fingers out. A short, round woman with a thick waist, thin dark hair, and squinty eyes behind tiny little round glasses, she put on her best smile as she looked over her shoulder at the other ladies.
    “In a year, we might have our own website where we can enlist the prayers of women the world over