Janet (20 page)

Cat

From: Belinda

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

Re: Holiday plans

Clemmie, we’d LOVE to come over for
Thanksgiving! Reeve and the children are very excited about it.
Quincy will be celebrating with her brother and his family, and I
know if I attempt to cook a turkey it’s liable to turn into
something awful that will explode like the Hindenburg! Janet, I do
hope you and Dan can come, too!

Belinda

From: Molly

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

Re: Daddy

You are NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS!!!! Daddy
is getting married! To that woman he met on Match.com. I thought I
was going to DIE when he told me! But here’s the part that just
blows my mind! The lady Daddy fell in love with is none other than
Glory Ethel Adams!

Molly

From: Bea

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

Re: GET OUT OF TOWN!

Are you
kidding me!!!
My
mother
has been carrying on with your daddy all this time,
online
, for God’s sake, and I didn’t know a thing about
it!!! Dang, I don’t know whether to laugh myself to death or go out
and get drunk! Do you think they’re
really
going to get
married!!!
For God’s sake, that’s for
young
people!!!

Bea

From: Joanna

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

Re: Mr. Rakestraw and Mrs. Adams

That is the CUTEST THING I ever heard of!!!
Bea, don’t you dare say anything to hurt your sweet mother’s
feelings. And Molly, I think that’s just DIVINE! You and Bea are
going to be step-sisters!!! OH MY, how COOL is that!!!! Don’t you
just love LOVE, even if it is geriatric? I can’t wait to hear how
this DARLING little plot plays out!!!

Joanna

-The End-

While Carrie Bradshaw was looking for
Sex
in the City,
the Dixie Virgins were looking for love, marriage
and a baby carriage! Sassy, funny and charming, The Dixie Virgin
Chronicles is a seven-book series that follows the feisty,
independent women who met at a summer camp for girls, and live by
the rule
Never let the boys from Camp Geronimo get close enough
to see your Virginia.
Books one and two are available as
e-books now, books three and four are coming the first week in
October, 2013, and books five, six and seven will be available by
the end of October, 2013.

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Belinda
(Book One)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Janet (Book
Two)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Molly (Book
Three)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Bea (Book
Four)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Clementine
(Book Five)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Joanna (Book
Six)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Catherine
(Book Seven)

By Peggy Webb

From: Molly ([email protected])

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

Re: Daddy’s wedding

It’s wonderful to be home and finally free!
I’m so glad Daddy decided to postpone the wedding until I finished
my art degree and he could get a little house. OMG, Bea, your
mother and your brother are driving over to meet us, and I can’t
wait to see them again! I think I still had braces and a bad case
of zits the last time I saw Sam.

Much love,

Molly

From: Janet ([email protected])

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

Re: Your Future

I’m thrilled to have you back, Molly! I know
you don’t like to plan anything ahead, but now is a good time to be
thinking about your future, before the next school term in Tupelo.
If you decide to stay, Dan can help you find a job teaching art in
the city schools. Your Parisian art degree will be very impressive!
And
everybody
loves and respects the Coach! Including, of
course, me!

XO

Janet

From: Belinda ([email protected])

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

Re: The House

That is the cutest little house, Molly! I’m
so glad it’s close enough so Janet and I can both walk to see you.
Oh, do stay in Tupelo! We’ll have such fun together, especially
when Clemmie can drive over and join us. Wouldn’t it be wonderful
if we all ended up in the same city!

By the way, Janet, Betsy and Mark adore that
little puppy you and Dan gave us. They call him Peanut, and he
makes every step they do. They love to argue over whether he looks
more like that lovable mutt Harvey or that pedigreed poodle
Gwendolyn.

Quincy is still with us, thank goodness! She
pretends she hates the idea of having a dog in the house, but she’s
just bluffing. I see the way she gives him treats when she thinks
nobody is looking! Not hot dogs, Janet. I’ve told everybody that
the granddog of a doctor has to eat healthy food!

XOXO

Belinda

From: Catherine ([email protected])

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

Re: Wedding Dress

Bea, tell your darling mother I’ll pick out a
wedding dress down here in New Orleans. Better yet, you drive over
and Molly can bring Glory Ethel down here, and we can all go
shopping together! OMG, you should see the party dress I got on
Canal! It’s silver with a sequined bodice. We’re having a spring
bash at the Vet school, formal no less, which is perfectly
shocking! I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing something tacky, but
you ought to see these other women in the school of veterinary
medicine. You’d think they were auditioning for the part of the
dogs they treat! OMG, I’m turning into a real….

Cat

From: Clementine ([email protected])

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

Re: Food

Molly, do you want me to bring some food over
before Bea’s mom gets there? I know you hate to cook, and Mr. Jed
doesn’t do casseroles. I have this delicious squash casserole that
freezes well. It’s a favorite with the boarding house regulars. And
there’s this wonderful hamburger casserole recipe I found in
Southern Living
that I know your daddy would love!

Much love,

Clemmie

From: Joanna ([email protected])

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

Re: Geriatric Sex

I’m just DEAD WITH ENVY! Molly’s out of
school and I’m still stuck here in Madrid with the nuns! I’ve spent
a lot of time in the library lately. They think I’m studying, but
I’m actually looking up GERIATRIC SEX! OH MY, I just thought, all I
have to do is ask Janet. Is it possible for somebody OLD like Bea’s
mom and Molly’s dad to have ANOTHER BABY? I mean, don’t your eggs
dry up or something when you turn forty?

Big Hugs!!!

Joanna

From: Bea ([email protected])

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

Re: SEX!!!

OMG, Joanna!!!
Wash your mouth out with
soap!!!!
My brother already has his jockeys in a wad about
Mother getting married. He’s have a
heart attack
if she
got pregnant. BTW, I don’t think that can happen at their age, and
besides, if there’s any possibility, Mother has
sense
enough
to use
protection!!!

Dang, now you’re got me to thinking about my
mother
with
Molly’s dad!
I don’t even want to
picture it! Besides, it’s totally not fair that I’m sitting out
here in Texas with nobody even close enough to yell
howdy
to my Virginia, much less saddle up and up and yell
Ye
Haw!!!

Hugs,

Bea

“Mother, this is a foolish thing to do.”

“Bea has grown fond of the idea.”

“What I think about my sister’s opinion won’t
do to tell.”

Glory Ethel Adams studied her son. Her Sammy
was a fine figure of a man: tall, handsome and well built, with the
black hair and eyes of his daddy. He was smart, too. President of
the bank and on every board that was worth being on in Florence.
The governor of Alabama even consulted Samuel Adams on financial
matters.

There was no doubt about it, Samuel was a
powerful man... and a son to be proud of. But she did wish, just
this once, he’d remember that family didn’t need so much bossing
and telling what to do.

She shifted in her chair and fanned herself
with the letter in her hand. It was hotter than usual and it made
her wish she’d lost that fifteen pounds she’d been planning to lose
since Christmas. But it was too late for that now.

Rising from her chair, she smoothed out the
letter and placed it on her son’s desk.

“Just read the letter, Sam. It might change
your mind.”

Samuel didn’t usually lose patience with his
mother, or with anybody else for that matter, but this business of
marrying a man she had met through Match.com was enough to make a
saint curse.

He shoved the letter aside.

“I know all I need to know about Jedidiah
Rakestraw. He’s some old codger who is clever enough to take
advantage of a lonely divorcee with money.”

Glory Ethel burst out laughing.

“I don’t see a damned thing funny about that,
Mother.”

“I’ve never had a lonely day in my life, and
Jed is
fifty!
Furthermore, I don’t give a hoot in a fiddle
about the money. I’d give it all to the first beggar who came along
if you didn’t have it tucked away in
safe
investments.”

His mother was impossible. That’s all there
was to it. Impatiently, Samuel picked up the letter and scanned its
contents. It was even worse than he expected.

Folding it into a neat rectangle, he stood up
and came around the desk. Maybe he could reason with her.

“He sounds educated enough, I’ll grant you
that.”

“He’s brilliant. He’ll give me plenty of
intellectual stimulation. And now I’ve made you sweat, I’ll let you
in on a little secret. He made so much money in the stock market,
he was able to retire at the age of forty-eight!”

“It’s not intellectual stimulation I’m
worried about; it’s his family. Just listen to this.” He reopened
the letter and began to read selected passages. “‘You’ll love the
way Molly has turned out. She’s grown into something of a hellion—a
woman after your own heart, if I’m not mistaken. As you know, she
went to Paris to study art and became an artist’s model. I expect
every art collector who is anybody knows about the famous nude
statue
Venus de Molly.
”

Sam lifted one sardonic eyebrow to show what
he thought of that.

“I think it’s cute, Sam.”

“What I think won’t do to tell in polite
society.”

“Good lord, Sam. You act as if I’m marrying a
perfect stranger. He’s Molly’s
daddy,
for goodness’ sake.
You remember that cute little girl who went to summer camp with Bea
and remained her friend all these years.”

“Good lord, Mother. You act like we know
these people. I could count on my fingers the number of times Bea
has actually
seen
this girl.”

Glory Ethel chuckled. “It’s not the end of
the world.”

No, he thought. It was just the end of
everything he’d worked for these last twenty years—rebuilding the
family fortune and the family name.
Venus de Molly. Good
Lord
!

He studied his mother. He didn’t want to hurt
her; all he wanted to do was convince her not to make a foolish
mistake. Briefly he consulted the letter again, looking for
arguments to win his case.

“And if that scandalous daughter isn’t
enough, there are his friends. What kind of man has friends who
have a double wedding with their dogs... and serve an Alpo wedding
cake at the reception?”

“A lively man. And I intend to marry him.”
Ethel picked up her purse, the hefty summer straw bag that held
everything from lipstick, which she seldom used, to a dog-eared
copy of
The Canterbury Tales,
which she did use. Sometimes
she fancied herself to be the Wife of Bath.

Samuel knew that stubborn look on her face.
He tried one last ploy.

“There’s no telling what impact this man will
have on us. His daughter is a nude model. We don’t need another
scandal in the family. Just think about it awhile longer.”

“I’m fifty-two, and I intend to strike while
the iron is hot.”

Sam didn’t even want to think about his
mother’s hot iron.

She patted his cheek. “Sam, you’re a smart
man and I respect your opinion, but I’ve never taken orders from my
children, and I don’t intend to start now. I’m going to marry
Jedidiah Rakestraw. And there’s not a damned thing you can do about
it.”

“He’s already got you cussing.”

“That’s not all he’s liable to do. I might
even take up gambling and lying and heavy petting.”

“Good Lord, Mother! Can’t you be serious? You
don’t even know this man.”

“Yes, I do. He came to Florence last month
for the specific purpose of getting to know me. And if you weren’t
so all-fired stubborn, you’d know him, too. He wanted to meet
you.”

“I had a business meeting in Montgomery.”

Glory Ethel relented a little. After all, it
wasn’t Sam’s fault he was so bossy. He’d had to be the man in the
family since he was fifteen. She patted his stern face once
more.

“Sammy...Sammy. Come with me to Tupelo.
Jedidiah and I want our children to get to know each other before
the wedding.”

“He knows Bea. That’s enough.”

“
All
our children.”

“I can’t think of a single reason I’d want to
know a woman who gets paid for taking off her clothes.”