That's Amore (Weddings by Bella Book #4): A Novel

  “I still don’t understand what this has to do with Bonnie Sue,” Cecil said.

  Twila put her hands up. “I must insist that we not ask Bonnie Sue to make the banana pudding. Have you ever tasted the woman’s cooking?”

  “I have.” Jolene winced. “Which is why this has been such a serious matter during my prayer time. But it won’t hurt anything if we let the mayor think she made it.”

  “False advertising?” Cecil asked.

  “Hmm. Not really.” Jolene put her hands on her hips and stared at Cecil. “We’ll just ask Bonnie Sue to deliver it to the city council. He’ll see that she’s the one bringing it and make the assumption that she made it.”

  “Do you mind if I ask who’s really making the banana pudding?” Cecil asked.

  “Oh, that’s a given.” Jolene waved a hand. “Earline Neeley. She makes the best banana pudding this side of the Mississippi.”

  A holy hush fell over the room.

  “I love a good banana pudding,” Cecil said.

  “Me too,” I echoed. “But wait a minute, ladies. There’s a problem. Earline’s in Galveston. We can’t ask her to drive all the way up here to deliver a batch of banana pudding, even if it is to help save the town.”

  “That’s where you come in, Bella.” Jolene drew near—so near I could smell the clove gum on her breath. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find Earline’s recipe.”

  “W-what?” I took a giant step backward.

  “You’re living in her house, right? It’s got to be there. In the kitchen. Or hiding in an old book. Under the silverware container. Stuck to the back of a mayonnaise jar. It’s in there somewhere, just hiding.”

  “You want me to steal my mother-in-law’s top-secret banana pudding recipe and give it to you so that you can make it and pass it off to an unsuspecting Bonnie Sue to deliver to Mayor Deets as a thank-you for saving her purse from a would-be robber—and all of this is so that he’ll fall in love with her and the town will be saved from ruin?”

  “Technically he’ll fall in love with the pudding first, then her.”

  “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “Just so crazy it might work, Bella.” Jolene chuckled. “So what do you say, folks? Are you out, or are you in?”

  I saw Cecil glance toward the door. The poor guy clearly wanted out. I didn’t blame him. I’d like to head for the hills myself. Still, as I gazed into Jolene’s eyes, as I saw the excitement in her expression, I almost believed that a batch of banana pudding could melt a man’s heart and make him fall in love with a woman.

  But steal the recipe and give it to Jolene? I’d sooner face the mayor a thousand times over than an angry mother-in-law. Earline would kill me. KILL me. And then she’d bury me with a big bowlful of banana pudding in my hands. What I needed right now was a heavenly sign telling me what to do. But I would not, could not, steal a recipe from my mother-in-law.

  Nope. These ladies would have to find their own recipe. Besides, I had other more important things to do right now. Like running two wedding facilities. And dealing with two sisters who couldn’t get along. And giving birth to two babies. I most certainly did not have the time or the energy to go on a search for Earline’s banana pudding recipe, thank you very much.

  19

  You Had Me from Hello

  I am probably the last of a generation able to gain an education in country music by osmosis, by sitting in a ’64 Ford banging the buttons on the radio.

  Dwight Yoakam

  The next two weeks brought a huge flurry of activity to our little town. By the time the calendar flipped to October, the wedding facility was shaping up. Thank goodness for Blossom, who had worked overtime to choose paint colors, trims, and so on. I could hardly wait to see her design choices implemented, but all of that would come later, as the guys wrapped up their construction work. Still, a girl could dream, couldn’t she? And this facility would truly be a dream come true, a place where I could walk the aisle, straight into my cowboy’s arms. If I could still walk by then. Baby A and Baby B had taken to pressing on my sciatic nerve, causing pain whenever I walked.

  On the first Monday of October I dropped Rosie off at Jenna’s place and then headed to the wedding facility for a special meeting with my worker bees, Jasmine and Lily. Before they arrived, I walked—okay, hobbled—from room to room, taking in the changes. I could almost see a real wedding facility taking shape now. Mayor Deets hadn’t been by for two weeks, and we’d received no letters or demands from the city council, so we continued to plow forward as if nothing was wrong. Maybe we’d dodge this bullet after all.

  Lily and Jasmine arrived at the wedding facility at eleven. I couldn’t wait to have our first official business meeting. D.J.—God bless him—had set up a table and chairs in one of the back rooms, away from the noise of the construction. As the girls entered the room, I whispered a silent prayer that all would go well. One could never tell with these two, especially with Jasmine and Fred’s big day approaching. In five short weeks they would be man and wife. How would that change the dynamic between the sisters?

  I’d invited the Splendora trio too, in part because I needed to hear their ideas regarding marketing and promotion, and in part because I thought they might serve as a nice buffer should Jasmine and Lily start going at each other.

  We all took our seats around the table, but I could tell something wasn’t right with Jasmine. The usually bubbly young woman looked uncharacteristically somber. Sad. The red-rimmed eyes clued me in to the fact that something bad had happened. Something that had her in tears.

  Lily took a seat across from me. She too seemed pensive. The older women seemed to pick up on this. Bonnie Sue offered a rousing, “G’mornin’, y’all!” but the twins didn’t respond . . . at all. Uh-oh. Looked like we were in for a long meeting.

  I decided to dive right in, avoiding the obvious “what’s going on with you two?” The more I talked about upcoming weddings, however, the more I seemed to lose Jasmine. Tears welled in her eyes every time I talked about the brides and grooms who would one day walk the aisle at our new facility. Pain flickered across her face as I shared some information about my own upcoming ceremony.

  Finally, just about the time I worked up the courage to ask what had prompted the tears, Jasmine rose and tore out of the room. The rest of us sat in stunned silence. The only one who didn’t look surprised was Lily.

  “I’m so sorry, ladies.” She sighed. “I hope you’ll forgive her. She’s having a rough day. A rough week, really.”

  “Well, of course,” I said. “But what in the world . . . ?”

  “What’s wrong with her?” Bonnie Sue asked. “She looks about as low as a toad in a dry well.”

  “Maybe it’s her time of the month.” Jolene reached into her purse and came out with a bag of cookies. “I used to get like that back in the day.” She sighed and opened the bag. “Of course, it’s been years since I had my time of the month. Happy to be rid of it, but it sure came in handy to blame a sour mood on, if you know what I mean.” She passed the cookies around, but no one seemed particularly interested in them right now.

  “Hush, Jolene. This isn’t about you.” Twila shook her head. “It’s about Jasmine. Something’s obviously gone wrong.”

  Lily looked back and forth between us all and then leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table. “I guess I’ll have to be the one to share the news.”

  “News?” My heart started thump-thumping. Something told me this would not be good.

  Lily reached for a cookie and rolled it around in her palm. “The, um . . . the reason Jasmine is so emotional is because, well, Fred put things on hold.”

  Twila gasped. “Seriously?”

  Bonnie Sue leaned forward in her chair as if trying to hear better. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not saying things are off for good. Just saying the wedding is on hold for now.” Lily took a bite of the cookie and shrugged.

  “No
way.” I couldn’t believe it.

  “Yeah.” She swiped cookie crumbs from her blouse. “I think maybe—and this is solely my opinion, so don’t quote me on it—she was rushing him to the altar.” She took another bite.

  “The only thing worse than a broken heart is marrying a fella you’re not supposed to marry.” Twila shrugged. “Not that I’m speaking from experience, mind you. But there truly are worse things than a broken heart.”

  “Like fifty years of misery.” Jolene sighed. “My cousin Regina rushed her guy to the altar, and they’ve had fifty years of H-E-double-toothpicks on earth.”

  H-E-double toothpicks? It took me a minute, but I got it.

  “A’course, the fella she married—Gerald—never would get a real job.” Jolene’s scrunched-up nose conveyed her opinion on that. “So Regina had to work double time just to pay the bills. That old coot liked to put his feet up and watch while she brought home the bacon and cooked it too. Ain’t nothin’ worse than a man who won’t provide for his family. That’s my opinion.”

  “Jolene, that story has nothing to do with this situation.” Twila fidgeted in her purse, finally coming out with lipstick. She smeared it on her lips.

  “Of course it does. It’s a fine example of what can happen if you rush a man to the altar. It’s best just to let him figure out on his own whether he wants to get married or not.”

  Hmm. Was this the same woman who wanted me to steal Earline’s banana pudding recipe so that we could convince the mayor to fall in love with Bonnie Sue? Looked like Jolene wasn’t very consistent in her marital philosophies.

  “I still say your story bears no comparison to Jasmine’s,” Twila said.

  “Fred probably just got scared.” These words came from Bonnie Sue. “I’d give him some time and space. Step back a little. Sometimes a man just doesn’t like the pressure of feeling like he has to do something because others expect it of him. You know?”

  “Those are wise words, Bonnie Sue,” Lily said. “I feel a little bad for her, to be honest.”

  “You do?” We all spoke in unison.

  “Well, sure.” Lily looked back and forth between us. “She’s my sister. I want the best for her.” She rose and tears filled her eyes. “I’m stunned that you ladies don’t see that I care about what happens to my sister. I love her.” Then she ran from the room too.

  Twila began to sniffle. “Well, lookie there. Two sisters finally getting along.”

  “Well, sure. Lily doesn’t have anything to be jealous of anymore.” Jolene shrugged. “That’s why they’re getting along. Throw Fred back into the mix and they’re sure to be squabbling again.”

  “Maybe that’s why he backed out of the relationship,” Bonnie Sue suggested. “Maybe he saw that he was breaking up their sisterly relationship. Stranger things have happened.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Jolene countered. “Sisters don’t always get along. Take me and Twila. We argue sometimes.”

  “We’re not sisters, Jolene,” Twila said.

  “We are in the Lord’s family. But anyway, the point is that girls are a little on the jealous side. They don’t always see eye to eye. The green-eyed monster lurks around every corner.”

  This whole conversation got me to thinking about my own twins. Would they, like Jasmine and Lily, bicker all the time? Would they love one another? Support one another? Didn’t most twins have an emotional attachment, after all?

  “I’m sure there’s more to it than that.” Twila began to give us a speech—a rather long speech—about forgiveness. I caught myself glancing at my watch a couple of times, wondering if I could get this meeting back to the business at hand. With the twins gone and Twila standing behind the pulpit, I doubted it.

  After a few minutes of passionate preaching, she paused for breath. Bonnie Sue groaned and grabbed a cookie from the bag. “Don’t mind all the chatter from Twila, y’all. She could talk the legs off a chair.”

  “Excuse me?” Twila looked mortally wounded by these words.

  “We’re used to it.” Jolene giggled. “Twila speaks ten words a second, with gusts up to fifty.”

  “Well, I like that!” Twila put her hands on her broad hips and glared at her two friends. “Speaking as your future mayor, I might just have to pass an ordinance that true friends can’t say such things to one another.”

  “Good luck with that one.” Jolene laughed. “Can you imagine limiting what folks can say? We’d all be in a bind.”

  “I’m just saying, it’s not nice to say such things. Passing an ordinance might be a way to put a clamp on your mouth.”

  “Well now, ain’t this somethin’!” Bonnie Sue stared at Twila. “And you’re so worked up about Mayor Deets’s ridiculous bylaws and ordinances? Look at you, Twila. You’re no better.”

  “Well, I never.” Twila’s eyes narrowed to slits. “So much for thinking you would support me.”

  Bonnie Sue rose and paced the room. “Just for the record, I might not vote for you if you keep up with that sort of attitude. We’re trying to get rid of corruption and pain here in Splendora, remember?”

  Twila pushed back her chair. I could read the anger in her expression. Oh dear.

  “You’re my campaign manager, Bonnie Sue,” she spouted. “You have to vote for me.”

  “Oh yeah?” Bonnie Sue put her hands on her hips in a defiant stance.

  “Yeah.”

  Jolene fanned herself. “Is it gettin’ warm in here?”

  From where I was sitting, yes. Yes it was. And judging from the animation in the ladies’ voices, things were about to get even warmer.

  Twila went to preaching once again, this time sharing all sorts of Scriptures. Then she gave Bonnie Sue a lecture about the biblical ramifications of disobeying authority. Looked like this run for mayor had really gone to my friend’s head. She now saw herself as an authority figure over the others? Hmm.

  When Twila wrapped up her sermon, Bonnie Sue rolled her eyes. “Well, thank you for that speech, Mrs. Mayor Wannabe. That information is about as useful as a trapdoor on a canoe. Not that I even own a canoe. And if I did have one, I wouldn’t invite you to go fishing with me, not after a speech like that. Friends don’t let friends fish with know-it-alls.”

  “Well!” Twila went storming out of the room.

  Jolene looked my way with a smile. “I went fishing in a canoe once,” she said. “Wasn’t very comfortable, if you want my opinion. Give me a real boat any day. I like the one that Skeeter Jones just bought. A real nice-looking thing. He got it secondhand from a fella online. You never can tell with those online purchases, though, can you? You might buy something from a total stranger, only to find out he—or she—is really an ax murderer.”

  She paused to catch her breath. “Ooh, speaking of boats, did you hear that the Disney cruise line is coming to Galveston? It’s true! They’re going to go right out of Galveston to all sorts of ports across the Caribbean. I’ve always loved Disney myself. Mickey is my favorite.” Her nose wrinkled as she paused for a nanosecond. “Nope. Goofy. Goofy’s my favorite.”

  She rambled on and on about Disney characters as she rose and left the room. At that point it was just Bonnie Sue and me. Alone. I looked at her and sighed.

  “Don’t give up, Bella.” She gave a little shrug. “Everyone’s just having a rough day. Things will get better.”

  I wasn’t so sure. In fact, the more I pondered the way things were going, the more I wondered if we were crazy to be building this wedding facility in the first place. We had so many things working against us. The mayor. The city council. Emotional females who couldn’t get along. Children who needed my attention. My pregnancy.

  Lord, I’m ready to pack it all up and go back to Galveston. Just give me the word.

  I didn’t realize I’d spoken the words aloud until Bonnie Sue patted my arm and said, “He will, honey. So you be listening.” The older woman grabbed her purse and headed out to the parking lot to meet up with the other ladies.

 
Turned out they weren’t in the parking lot at all. They were in the foyer, arguing. Well, arguing and looking at something—er, someone—out the window.

  I glanced outside and was surprised to see that Clayton Deets had arrived. He and Lily stood talking. Through the window I watched as the two of them carried on a lengthy conversation.

  “See what I’m up against?” I turned as I heard Cecil’s voice behind me. “It’s impossible, isn’t it?”

  “What do you mean?” Jolene asked.

  “She’s . . . what’s the word you ladies used? Twitterpated.”

  “Yep. She’s twitterpated.” Jolene nodded.

  I stared back out the window, watching as Lily and Clayton drew Jasmine into the conversation. “Maybe not, Cecil. Those girls went to school with Clayton. They’ve been friends for years. Maybe they’re all just comforting one another.”

  “Comforting? Why? Has something happened?”

  I didn’t feel comfortable telling him about Jasmine’s situation with Fred, so I shrugged. “I’m just saying they’re friends.”

  “So I shouldn’t give up on the idea?”

  “I wouldn’t just yet, Cecil.” Twila gave him a sympathetic look. “Sometimes we miss the one thing that’s right in front of us all along.”

  “Oh, I know what you mean,” Jolene said. “Like the other day I went to the refrigerator to get the mustard for my husband’s sandwich. I opened the door and stared inside for a good minute or two until the hairs inside my nostrils plumb near froze up. And for the life of me, I couldn’t find the mustard. Then, quick as a wink, I spotted it, right there on the shelf in front of me.” She grinned. “A sandwich just isn’t a sandwich without mustard.”

  “I’ve never been a fan of mustard,” Bonnie Sue said. “I’m more of a mayonnaise girl myself.”

  “Too many calories in mayonnaise, Bonnie Sue.” Jolene rolled her eyes. “Anyway, where was I?”

  “You were interrupting this poor boy’s story,” Twila said. “He was trying to tell us that he’s got a little crush on my niece.” She gazed intently at Cecil. “That is what you were about to tell us, right?”