I laughed.
“I guess I’ve never thought of it that way.” I chuckled and looked over at Jenny. “What about me?”
“I knew I’d see you sometimes around here, so I am trying to tell everyone I see because Alvie said we didn’t have enough extra money to make me up some postcards to send out to my clients to let them know I wasn’t doing hair in my basement no more.” Jenny Franklin’s home was a walk-in gossip session.
It didn’t matter if the mood struck me at ten p.m. to get my hair colored, I could just show up at Jenny’s, and she was always good to go.
“If you get something made up, I’ll be more than happy to deliver them to mailboxes.” The offer could get me fired, but no one around town would tell on me, and it was my duty to be kind and nice in this world.
Or at least I felt that way.
“You are too kind.” Jenny snapped off the black gown from around Ruby’s neck and waved Millie over.
“I’m letting Ada Leigh take a stab at my hair because now that Jenny is going to have to take appointments, I’m going to have to see if Ada does as good of a job.” Harriette always spoke the truth, even in front of people.
“How am I doing, honey?” Ada Leigh asked and picked up the hot curling iron to make all those curls that would stay put in Harriette’s hair for at least two weeks.
“Just fine, sugar.” Harriette’s brows rose when she shifted her focus to the small television hanging on the wall. “Shhh!” She waved both hands in the air. “Hush!”
The sound of the hair dryer, Dora Lee saying something about her bill to Ruby Dean using a very loud voice since Ruby appeared to be having a hard time hearing her even with her hearing aids, and Jenny talking to Millie about doing the same thing they always did to her hair made a loud chatter, making it hard for anyone to hear the morning news.
“Looky there, it’s Stella Jane Clark,” Ada Leigh exclaimed, her voice rising an octave. “Turn it up, Dora.”
Dora ran over and lifted up on her tippy-toes and twisted the old TV’s volume knob up.
“Don’t she look good?” Dora gushed at the young lady on the television. She was being interviewed by a big news network. Nothing like what we had in or around Sugar Creek Gap. “I used to do that pretty hair of hers. We heard she was writing a book, didn’t we, Dora Lee?”
“Shh.” Dora flung her head around, glaring at her mom, and put her finger up to her lips. “I want to hear this.”
“I’ll be suckered. If Elsbeth Clark wasn’t telling the truth for once,” Harriette mumbled under her breath. “She said that granddaughter of hers was going to be an author. I guess she wasn’t telling a tale.” She leaned over and nudged Millie in the other chair. “Because we all know that she overexaggerates everything.”
Poor Dora Lee fidgeted and leaned her ear a little closer to the television. She wasn’t about to swivel around and do to Harriette what she’d done to her own mom. Harriette Pearl might take the grown young woman and bend her over her knee.
Harriette was old-school, and she didn’t fool around when it came to manners and anyone trying to stop her from gossiping.
Not only did Harriette, Ruby, Gertrude, and Millie not live here, but they were my neighbors. What I’d like to say, very curious neighbors who I lovingly called the Front Porch Ladies. They didn’t miss a thing sitting on those front porches. They were better than any police scanner I’d ever seen. They knew what was going on before anyone.
“Mm-hmm.” Millie’s lips pressed together. “And we thought Elsbeth had the start of dementia.”
“Far from it. That woman has a very good mind.” Jenny took the hard stare Ada Leigh had given her as a cue to hush.
The salon went silent, and all eyes were on our only big star that ever came out of Sugar Creek Gap, Kentucky.
Chapter 2
“Who was one of your biggest influences to really push you toward writing this highly talked-about romance?” the interviewer asked Stella Jane.
“It actually goes back to high school.” She was a very pretty young lady. Her big bright smile and sparking blue eyes, along with her long light-brown hair, played up the southern charm that came out of her mouth.
“I bet it’s Elsbeth.” Millie shrugged. “After Stella Jane’s mom up and left that poor child with Elsbeth, and at Elsbeth’s age, too, Elsbeth didn’t bat an eye at raising that young’un.”
“I had a really great English teacher, Mr. Butler. He was young and really excited about the work I was turning in.”
“Bernadette!” All the ladies squealed when right there on national television, my son, Grady Butler, was mentioned.
The pride swelled up in me like a big balloon. There was no way this big head of mine was going to fit through any doors I was going to be walking through today.
Everyone jerked back to the television to listen to what else Stella Jane had to say about Grady.
“He really encouraged me to go into English in college.” Stella Jane grinned. “He was a big believer in me. I come from a very small Kentucky town where barely anyone leaves home. That little bit of encouragement from Mr. Butler carried me through college, where I actually started writing Beyond Boundaries.”
The camera scanned to the front cover of the book, which made me blush. It was a photo that appeared to be one woman who looked torn between two men. . . two very shirtless men.
“What was his best advice?” The interviewer asked a very good question.
“He told me to write what I know.” Stella’s eyes gazed down at the book in her hand.
“And are you telling me you know of a woman in your hometown that was torn between her husband and her lover? I mean—” the interviewer laughed and used her cue card to fan herself “—I’ve heard of small-town gossip, but this. . .”
Stella laughed and stopped her.
“Oh no. This is purely fictional. Some of the buildings might take after the charming town I grew up in a little, but not the story.” Stella appeared to be amused at how the lady interviewing her reacted to the plotline on national television.
“And I see the book is dedicated to Grady Butler, Sugar Creek Gap High School English Teacher.” They showed the book again. “How did he react to it?”
“I don’t know, but I guess we will find out this weekend because my very first book signing is going to be at Old Mill Books in Sugar Creek Gap tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Dora Lee turned around, so excited.
“Where is Old Mill Books ?” Jenny asked a very good question since we didn’t have a bookstore, unless you considered aisle nine at the local Walmart a bookstore.
“I bet that’s what is opening at the old mill building downtown. I’ve seen some work being done when I’m walking my loops, but the windows have brown paper taped up on the inside of the window, so I can’t see in.” I tried to recall back any signs or mentions of a bookstore opening along my route, because I heard a lot of things.
“There you have it. Small-town girl makes big-time publishing debut with Beyond Boundaries.” The camera went back to the steamy cover before it panned back to Stella Jane and the interviewer. “I have a feeling this one just might come to a movie theater near you.”