LITMIR.BIZ

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silky waves over her shoulders. Her lips pouted, but there was a twinkle in her eye that held the devil-may-care attitude Scarlet was known for. At a glance, I’d probably mistake her for Scarlett Johansson in the role of the Black Widow. Her outfit hugged her curves and showed off all her female sexuality no man could deny. And part of me was jealous of how sexy she could make a simple pair of leggings and a black blouse look.

      Scarlet’s warm, giving spirit, however, wouldn’t allow that feeling to blossom. Her smile was enough to make you fall in love with her, because Scarlet was the most caring person I’d ever met. Her IQ was out the barn roof and her heart truly was bigger than the state of Texas. Princess came out to greet her and rubbed against her leg.

      “I’m sorry, Scarlet. Cade’s gotten under my skin this morning.”

      “Really? I hadn’t noticed.” A smile spread across her face as she scratched Princess behind the ears, and Princess raised up on her hind legs like a cat to get more attention.

      Scarlet was one of those people in town who believed in Cade and me living happily ever after together. It was annoying…mostly because it was wrong. “Don’t start.” I carried a stack of books to the mystery section.

      “What? I wasn’t starting anything.”

      “You know darn well what I’m talking about.”

      “Just because your future mother-in-law is giving a press conference for the Barn tomorrow…”

      “Penelope Calloway is not my future mother-in-law,” I insisted for only the millionth time in the past eight months.

      “If you say so.” Scarlet sauntered over to where I was stacking the books on the shelf and began helping.

      “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” I asked.

      “Did Princess sleep on your pillow again? You’re mighty testy today.”

      “No, I just don’t want to talk about Cade.”

      Scarlet grabbed another stack of books. “You were the one who brought him up.”

      “Can we drop it, please?” I pointed to one of the stalls on the other side of the Barn. “Those go in the romance section.”

      Scarlet changed directions and said, “Considerate it dropped,” as she dumped her stack of books onto the counter and turned with her hands on her hips. The noise may as well have slapped Princess across the face. The poor little thing jumped straight up in the air, looked back at Scarlet, and I could’ve sworn a frown crossed her face as she headed out the back of the Barn through her pet door.

      “She didn’t mean it, Princess,” I said.

      “I’m sorry, girl. I should have realized it’d be a bad day for the princesses.”

      It hadn’t been a bad day—until people started nagging us.

      “Should I leave you alone?” Scarlet asked.

      Guilt washed over me. I was taking all my frustration out on my best friend for no reason at all. “I’m sorry, Scarlet. You know what the man does to me.”

      “I do. And I know what you do to him.”

      “Can we just drop it for today?” I asked.

      “Tell me about the press conference. Is Penelope really going to promote Jamal’s app?”

      There was a topic I wasn’t afraid to discuss, at least not with Scarlet. As my number one confidant, she learned everything before anyone else. She was so excited about the book signing, she’d texted me at seven o’clock to tell me she’d downloaded the app and started stacking books on her shelf first thing that morning. I’d read the text and rolled over to get another hour of sleep. She and my dad seemed to be obsessed.

      “How is J. C. taking to Bobby Ray spending so much time with his wife?”

      My dad had been gone most of the morning with Penelope as the two of them worked on the app together with my aunt in tow. God only knew how much trouble the three of them stirred up.

      “I’m not sure, but I can tell you, my aunt Violet was with them.”

      “O.M.W! What an interesting group that makes.” O.M.W. was Scarlet’s way of saying oh, my word. She had the cleanest vocabulary in town.

      “What do you mean?”

      “What do you think Penelope, your dad, and your Aunt Violet had to talk about?”

      I saw where she was going with that, and I didn’t like it one bit. Those three together could spell trouble, and it wasn’t a trouble I wanted to deal with. I was sure Cade would use it as another reason to be even unhappier with me.

      “They have more to talk about than me and Cade.”

      Scarlet laughed. “If you believe that, you’re living in a fantasy world, girlfriend.”

      “What about the app? What about the fact that Lucy Barton is coming for a book signing and that she is my aunt’s, and Penelope’s favorite author?”

      Scarlet wasn’t going to let it go. “As fast as Violet and Penelope talk, I cannot imagine their conversation staying on one topic.”

      “My dad won’t tolerate them talking behind our backs.”

      “Your dad wouldn’t know how to stop them. I think he might actually be a little tickled by what those two women could put up their sleeves.”

      “I would hope he’d stop them from putting anything up their sleeves. It might come back and bite them,” I grumbled.

      Scarlet grabbed the books and headed for the romance section. “This news conference will be interesting, to say the least.”

      I hoped the focus would be on Jamal, his app, and the Barn. If it strayed beyond that…I wasn’t sure I’d survive. “Penelope will be delivering the announcement like her typical PSA; we’ve gone over it. It’ll be better than a commercial. It’ll make people believe they need the app and with Penelope on board, it should go over well.”

      “I feel like a parade is about to start,” Scarlet said as she put the books on the shelf in the romance section.

      “I hope a parade of customers march right into the Barn.” If they didn’t, I was killing myself to get the store presentable for nothing.

      Chapter Five

      We closed the store a half hour early and I sent my dad home. There was plenty of work to do before tomorrow but putting up decorations wasn’t exactly his strength. His lights were always crooked, the wires were always showing, and even as a teen, I’d gone back and rehung them. Aunt Violet was staying with Daddy, and Jamal had taken the spare room in my apartment. It was cramping my style a bit, but it was nice to be back together.

      Princess scurried through the pet door, her nails clicking across the concrete floor. Once she reached the ladder, she smelled it and looked up at me. I knew she couldn’t actually see that it was me at the top, but she could definitely hear and smell me.

      She snuffled.

      “I’ve still got a lot of work to do before I can take a break.”

      She squeaked, twitched her nose, and huffed when I didn’t move toward the apartment and the bedazzled bowl with her name on it.

      “Okay, I’ll take a break. I know it’s late and I know you haven’t had your dinner, but you know most armadillos would be out digging up bugs at this point.”

      Princess snorted and turned her back to me as she waddled toward the steps. She ate bugs, but only on her schedule. And now she wanted her cat food. She stopped at the steps and looked back to see if I was coming.

      I made my way down the ladder and hung the strand of lights on a rung.

      “What will it be tonight? Tuna or beef stew?”

      Princess

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