Janet

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles,
Janet

Book
Two

PEGGY WEBB

Copyright 2013 by Peggy Webb, second edition

Copyright © 1990 by Peggy Webb, first edition

Cover art design 2013 by Kim Van Meter

Smashwords Edition

From: Janet ([email protected])

To: Belinda, Clemmie, Joanna, Molly,
Catherine, Bea

Re: Belinda’s Wedding

I’m still pinching myself that I got to see
every one of you
at the wedding! Belinda, I’ve never seen
a happier bride! I’ll admit I was skeptical when Cat said she was
bringing love birds from New Orleans. I could picture bird shit
everywhere. But it was
amazing
when you kissed your new
husband and all those white doves went fluttering into the air! By
the way, I
totally approve
your Reeve Lawrence. He’s
intelligent, cultured, successful and
mad about you!

Oh, I
miss
all of you! But I’m
really looking forward to my internship. All my books are unpacked
and I’m settled into my new apartment, thanks to your dad, Molly. I
could never have found this gem of place without Mr. Rakestraw. I
love being downtown so I can walk to the library and the post
office. There’s a school nearby where I can run on the track. And
there’s even a darling little mutt who comes by to visit on
weekends. I call him Harvey. Life just couldn’t be more
perfect!

Xo

Janet

From: Molly ([email protected])

To: Janet, Belinda, Catherine, Clemmie,
Joanna, Bea

Re: From Paris with love

OMG, Janet, I’m so glad you’re in Tupelo now
and in the same apartment as Daddy! How cool is that! He’ll be a
surrogate father to you, but I want you to keep an eye on him, too.
I think he’s found somebody on Match.com, but he’s not saying. I’m
ABOUT TO DIE!!! By the way, Mr. Rakestraw is far too formal for
Daddy. Call him Mr. Jed. He’ll love that.

It was totally awesome to see all of you! I
thought we looked incredible in the Parisian bridesmaids’ dresses,
and that gorgeous shade of sky blue I found looked fabulous on all
of us! Of course, Belinda, you were the shining star in that bridal
gown that looked like something out of a fairy tale. Do have the
best honeymoon ever!!! And if you have time to join me for lunch
before you leave Paris, that would be so much fun!

Much love,

Molly

From: Joanna ([email protected])

To: Janet, Molly, Bea, Clemmie, Catherine,
Belinda

Re: Those SHOES!

Cat, those SHOES were to die for!!! Where did
you ever find them? Now that I’m back, I wear then everywhere. The
nuns here at the Santa Maria Magdalena Colegio y Conservatorio de
Arte y Musica are about to have heart failure. They tell me silver
shoes with four inch heels and rhinestone buckles are
INAPPROPRIATE. Hello? I’d DIE before turning myself into somebody
APPROPRIATE!!!!

Oh, Belinda, I LOVED your wedding. Reeve is
DELICIOUS LOOKING. Enjoy every minute of your honeymoon. Your
Virginia is going to be SO happy! I’m dying to ask about the
salacious details, but even I won’t go that far.

The only fly in the ointment was that I
didn’t get to see Kirk. Wouldn’t you know my guardian would have
business in Europe while I was in America! I hope he’s not turning
into some OLD guy while I’m slaving over my books here in Madrid.
LOL

Big Hugs!!!

Joanna

From: Clemmie ([email protected])

To: Molly, Joanna, Janet, Belinda, Bea,
Catherine

Re: Still Smiling

Every time I look at my pretty bridesmaid
dress hanging in the closet, I smile. If I could bottle our
laughter and stories and sell them for a buck a pop, I’d have
enough money to pay off the mortgage on my little boarding house.
Gracious, I still laugh out loud about Joanna’s escapade with the
bullfighter. I can just picture the look of shock on his face when
he scaled up the espalier, landed in the wrong room, and Sister
Mary Margaret dumped dish water all over his suit of lights! I
don’t hear stories like that at Peppertown. Mostly I hear from my
dear boarder, Miss Josephine, about her latest fantasy of her dead
lover. Still, she does spice things up a bit.

Janet, it’s fun that you’re close enough to
visit now. I hope you’ll take a break from the hospital so we can
have a gab session! And when Belinda gets back from her honeymoon
in Paris, I’ll cook lunch for the three of us!

Hugs,

Clemmie

From: Catherine ([email protected])

To: Janet, Molly, Joanna, Belinda, Bea,
Clemmie

Re: Heaven

OMG, when I came up for the wedding, I felt
as if I’d left Hell and landed in Heaven! Not that I’m complaining.
I totally LOVE vet school, but it was great to ditch my sneakers
and put on high heels. It was even more fun to forget about the
gestation period of elephants and watch Bea flirting with that cute
groomsman. What was his name? Joe something or other. He’s not my
type, but he did have some obvious charms. Those muscles! LOL.

Belinda, sweetie, now that you’re the ONLY
one of us married, I guess I’ll have to stop calling you a Dixie
Virgin. How FABULOUS is that!

XOXO

Catherine

From: Belinda ([email protected])

To: Catherine, Janet, Bea, Clemmie, Molly,
Joanna

Re: Paris!

You sure can, Cat! And I’m not saying another
word!!!!

Xoxox

Belinda (Mrs. Reeve Lawrence! Can you believe
it!)

From: Bea ([email protected])

To: Belinda, Catherine, Janet, Clemmie,
Molly, Joanna

Re: Dixie Virgins

Listen, Belinda will
always
be a
Dixie Virgin! It’s more about being an
independent woman
than what happens to your Virginia. Though I do hope Belinda’s
Virginia is now
shouting hallelujah.
Matter of fact, I
think I heard it all the way from Paris to Dallas! Yee Haw!!!!

Hugs,

Bea

Harvey was missing. He hadn’t come home for
the past two weekends, and Janet was getting worried. As she parked
her car in front of her apartment, she decided she’d have to do
something about him. Soon. But first she had to soak her feet. It
had been a long day at the hospital.

A light rain was falling, and when she got
out of the car she pulled her coat close against the chill.

“Is that you, Janet?”

Molly’s dad, who was her next-door neighbor,
always greeted her that way. Because of the little chill in the
air, only his head stuck out his front door.

She smiled at him. “It’s me, Mr. Jed. How
have you been today?”

“Excellent, my dear!” Mr. Jed inched farther
out his door as Janet started up her sidewalk. In his corduroy
pants and a sweater with leather elbow patches he looked like a
comfortable version of George Clooney. “I’ve made hot chocolate.
Want some?”

“That sounds good. Your place or mine?”

“I’ll bring it over there so you relax.
You’re working too hard. Molly will never forgive me if I let you
collapse from exhaustion.”

Mr. Jed vanished back into his apartment. Two
things Janet love most about her first floor apartment were Molly’s
dad and her little postage stamp patio/yard. Mr. Jed had a joyful
spirit that gave her a lift after dealing with sick children all
day, and her yard was so small that it never accused her of neglect
by looking naked without all the petunias, zinnias, forsythia and
whatever else ordinary, sane adults in Tupelo planted in their
flower beds.

Janet fitted the key into her lock and pushed
open her front door. The fragrance of peach potpourri greeted her.
She stood a moment, inhaling the sweet scent and enjoying the
peace; then she hung her coat on the hall tree and led Mr. Jed into
her living room. It was small but comfortable, with a tiny
fireplace, plenty of bookshelves for Janet’s medical books and
enough room left over for her second-hand sofa and a fat, cushy
chair she’d found at the flea market. The only touch of class was a
Ming vase, which her parents had insisted on giving her was a
housewarming gift, though she’d argued a temporary apartment was
not a new house.

“Awful quiet in your house,” Mr. Jed remarked
as he sat down in a chair and placed the tray of hot chocolate over
a scruff mark on the yard sale coffee table.

“It is. Especially since Harvey’s not here.
Have you seen him lately?”

“That big stray mutt that comes over here
every weekend?”

“Yes. I haven’t seen him in a couple of
weeks.”

“Probably courting. That’s what everybody
else is doing these days—everybody except you.”

Janet waved her hand in airy dismissal. “I’m
a career woman, Mr. Jed. You and Harvey are enough for me.”

It was true: she was satisfied with her
career. Not that she didn’t like children. On the contrary, she
loved them. That’s why she had chosen pediatrics. But her
internship demanded so much physical and emotional energy she
didn’t have enough left over for a serious relationship.

She sipped chocolate and enjoyed and enjoyed
a neighborly chat. By the time she was standing at the door waving
goodbye to Mr. Jed, it was dark and the wind had picked up speed.
She felt a rain storm in the air and thought of Harvey, out there
on the streets somewhere, cold and friendless and hungry.

“Harvey,” she called into the darkness. No
friendly dog face appeared. No wagging tail thumped her front door,
and no big pink tongue licked her hand. She couldn’t imagine
spending another Friday evening without Harvey.

She ducked inside her apartment, bundled into
her raincoat and went back out to the car.

Her apartment was on the corner of Jefferson
and Madison, directly across from the library. She took the Madison
Street exit, turned the corner at Jefferson and cruised slowly down
the street, looking right and left for the mutt who was part golden
retriever, part mournful hound dog, and all heart. At the First
Baptist Church she turned north on Church Street toward the
elementary school. Harvey liked children. He could be on the
playground, waiting for a group of Girl Scouts or watching a late
soccer practice. Though why anybody would be practicing in this
weather, she couldn’t imagine.

The rain came down in earnest as she drove
slowly along. She passed a large man wrapped in a heavy raincoat
and carrying a big black umbrella. He looked sinister on the dark,
lonely street. Not many people walked the streets in weather like
this, certainly not in a residential section of town. She started
to pass him, then changed her mind. Obviously she was overworked to
be thinking of one of her fellow citizens as sinister. Tupelo was
the friendliest town she knew, and besides the man might have seen
Harvey. Feeling a little bit foolish, she backed up and lowered her
window.

“Excuse me,” she called.

The man jerked up his head, as if she had
startled him. There was nothing sinister about his blue eyes. Or
his face. Under the streetlights it looked as open and friendly as
a dance club on ladies’ night.

“Yes?”

The voice was nice, too. Rich and crisp, like
dark red apples.

“I’m looking for my dog—Harvey. Have you seen
a large tan dog?”

The big man ambled slowly toward her car. He
didn’t walk or stroll; he ambled, as if the sky were pouring
sunbeams on his head instead of raindrops—as if he had nothing but
time on his hands.

“That’s a funny coincidence. I’m looking for
a dog myself. George. A big, shaggy mutt with reddish hair and a
tail that wags all the time.” The man was beside her car now, and
he leaned into her window. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen him?”

His smile was sincere and a little crooked.
She smiled back.

“No. I’m afraid not. Sorry I can’t help
you.”

“Me, too.” He patted the car door almost
absently and looked as if he were going to say something else; then
he backed away. “Good luck.”

“You, too.”

As she drove off, she glanced in her rearview
mirror. He was still standing there, not quite on the sidewalk but
not quite in the street, either, the big umbrella dangling by his
side, raindrops pouring over his head. His wet hair made a dark cap
of curls around his face.

She was at the end of the block before she
realized she hadn’t even glanced in the direction of the school.
Harvey could have been standing on his hind legs saluting the flag
in the front yard for all the attention she’d been paying.

She rounded the corner, scanning the thick
hedges that bordered the football field. A block down the street
she parked her car. The only way she could possibly find her dog in
the dark was to make a thorough search of the campus on foot with
her flashlight. She decided to start with the football field.

o0o

After the woman drove off, it took Dan Albany
two minutes to snap out of whatever spell he was in. He’d thought
himself acquainted with every good-looking woman in Tupelo, but
somehow he’d missed that auburn-haired beauty in the aging red
Corvette. And she liked dogs. That was a plus. If she also liked
cream-filled cupcakes, greasy hamburgers, soggy fries, kids and
soccer games in the rain, she’d be just about perfect. But he
hadn’t even asked her name.