The Lilac Bouquet Read online

  PRAISE FOR CAROLYN BROWN

  The Wedding Pearls

  “The Wedding Pearls by Carolyn Brown is an amazing story about family, life, love, and finding out who you are and where you came from. This book is a lot like The Golden Girls meet Thelma and Louise.”

  —Harlequin Junkie

  “The Wedding Pearls is an absolute must-read. I cannot recommend this one enough. Grab a copy for yourself, and one for a best friend or even your mother or both. This is a book that you need to read. It will make you laugh and cry. It is so sweet and wonderful and packed full of humor. I hope that when I grow up, I can be just like Ivy and Frankie.”

  —Rainy Day Ramblings

  The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop

  “The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop was hilarious, and so much fun to read. But sweet romances, strong female friendships and family bonds make this more than just a humorous read.”

  —The Readers Den

  “If you like books about small towns and how the people’s lives intertwine you will love this book. I think it’s probably my favorite book this year. The relationships of the three main characters, girls who have grown up together, will make you feel like you just pulled up a chair in their beauty shop with a bunch of old friends. As you meet the other people in the town you’ll wish you could move there. There are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments and then more that will just make you smile. These are real people, not the oh-so-thin-and-so-very-rich that are often the main characters in novels. This book will warm your heart and you’ll remember it after you finish the last page. That’s the highest praise I can give a book.”

  —Reader quote for The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop

  Long, Hot Texas Summer

  “This is one of those light-hearted, feel-good, make-me-happy kind of stories. But, at the same time, the essence of this story is family and love with a big ole dose of laughter and country living thrown in the mix. This is the first installment in what promises to be another fascinating series from Brown. Find a comfortable chair, sit back and relax because once you start reading you won’t be able to put it down. This is a super fun and sassy romance.”

  —Thoughts in Progress

  Daisies in the Canyon

  “I just loved the symbolism in Daisies in the Canyon. As I mentioned before Carolyn Brown has a way with character development with few if any contemporaries. I am sure there are more stories to tell in this series. Brown just touched the surface first with Long, Hot Texas Summer and now continuing on with Daisies in the Canyon.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  ALSO BY CAROLYN BROWN

  CONTEMPORARY STAND-ALONE ROMANCES

  The Barefoot Summer

  The Lullaby Sky

  The Wedding Pearls

  The Ladies’ Room

  Hidden Secrets

  Long, Hot Texas Summer

  Daisies in the Canyon

  Trouble in Paradise

  Lily’s White Lace

  The Wager

  That Way Again

  THE CADILLAC, TEXAS SERIES

  The Blue-Ribbon Jalapeño Society Jubilee

  The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off

  The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop

  THE BROKEN ROADS SERIES

  To Trust

  To Commit

  To Believe

  To Dream

  To Hope

  THE LUCKY PENNY SERIES

  Wild Cowboy Ways

  Hot Cowboy Nights

  Merry Cowboy Christmas

  THE BURNT BOOT SERIES

  Cowboy Boots for Christmas (Cowboy Not Included)

  The Trouble with Texas Cowboys

  One Texas Cowboy Too Many

  A Cowboy Christmas Miracle

  THE LUCKY SERIES

  Lucky in Love

  One Lucky Cowboy

  Getting Lucky

  THE HONKY TONK SERIES

  I Love This Bar

  Hell, Yeah

  My Give a Damn’s Busted

  Honky Tonk Christmas

  THE SPIKES & SPURS SERIES

  Love Drunk Cowboy

  Red’s Hot Cowboy

  Darn Good Cowboy Christmas

  One Hot Cowboy Wedding

  Mistletoe Cowboy

  Just a Cowboy and His Baby

  Cowboy Seeks Bride

  THE THREE MAGIC WORDS TRILOGY

  A Forever Thing

  In Shining Whatever

  Life After Wife

  THE OKLAHOMA LAND RUSH SERIES

  Emma’s Folly

  Maggie’s Mistake

  Violet’s Wish

  Just Grace

  THE BLACK SWAN TRILOGY

  Pushin’ Up Daisies

  From Thin Air

  Come High Water

  THE DRIFTERS & DREAMERS TRILOGY

  Morning Glory

  Sweet Tilly

  Evening Star

  THE LOVE’S VALLEY SERIES

  Choices

  Absolution

  Chances

  Redemption

  Promises

  THE PROMISED LAND SERIES

  Willow

  Velvet

  Gypsy

  Garnet

  Augusta

  THE ANGELS & OUTLAWS SERIES

  A Trick of the Light

  Walkin’ on Clouds

  From Wine to Water

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2017 Carolyn Brown

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  ISBN-13: 9781503943551

  ISBN-10: 1503943550

  Cover design by Laura Klynstra

  This book is for my husband and my best friend, Charles C. Brown, for sharing life and love with me for more than fifty years.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE

  There were no secrets in Hickory, Texas—except for whatever was between Seth Thomas, Jesse Grady, and Tandy Massey. And since they were now in their early eighties, it might be that they’d take that secret to the grave with them. Usually Emmy Jo Massey’s grandmother, Tandy, laughed off rumors, but that night she was doing a tap dance on her soapbox.

  “Over my damn dead body.” Tandy shook a wooden spoon at her great-granddaughter. “You are not going to work for Seth Thomas in any form or fashion, and I mean it. And you damn sure are not going to live in that house.”

  “It’s good money, Granny, and it�
�s only for two months. I don’t have to do any actual nursing work. I’ve been hired as his assistant. That means I drive him wherever he needs to go, fetch and get for him, make phone calls, write letters—that kind of thing. The money will pay for my dream wedding,” Emmy Jo said.

  Tandy went back to stirring the brownie batter. “I said no and I mean it.”

  In her heyday Tandy had black hair and snapping green eyes. Now her hair had mostly gone gray and her eyes had faded, but then she was past eighty. Anyone in town could testify, and would be glad to do so, about Tandy’s rough living up until about twenty years ago, when she’d found Jesus.

  To Emmy Jo, her grandmother was ten feet tall and bulletproof, but she was also meaner than a junkyard dog when she got mad. Once Tandy made up her mind, no power—not God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or Lucifer—could make her change it.

  There weren’t many times that Tandy had gotten that look in her eyes. The first was when Emmy Jo was thirteen. Tandy had sat her down at the kitchen table and told her that if she ever got pregnant, she was on her own, because Tandy was not raising another child. Icy-cold shivers had run down Emmy Jo’s backbone at the time, even worse than when she watched scary movies with her friend Diana. The tone in Tandy’s voice left no doubt that she was speaking the pure, unadulterated truth.

  So far, so good—Emmy Jo had not gotten pregnant.

  It didn’t take a degree in psychology to understand why Tandy was adamant about the baby business. Her daughter, Rose, had gotten pregnant out of wedlock, had the baby, and then before her child, Crystal, was a year old, had been killed by a drunk driver, leaving her child for Tandy to raise. Then Crystal had gotten pregnant. She had planned to marry the now-gone father of her baby, but three days after Emmy Jo was born, she died when a blood clot lodged in her heart. And Tandy had another baby to raise.

  The second time Tandy went into that mode was when Emmy Jo started dating Logan Grady. That night she’d thrown a hissy fit that would have scared the horns off the devil. It was the first time and wouldn’t be the last time that Tandy danced on the soapbox on that issue. She also hated Logan’s grandpa, Jesse Grady, with a red-hot passion. She wouldn’t say why. When Emmy Jo badgered her for a legitimate reason, Tandy usually glared at her and cussed loud enough to blister the paint on the kitchen cabinets.

  This was the third time that they’d butted heads. Emmy Jo was not backing down. She leaned across the kitchen bar until her nose was only inches from Tandy’s. “I’m twenty-one years old. I can work for him if I want to.”

  The spoon stayed in the batter, but Tandy’s finger shot out like a bullet. “You know how I feel about Seth Thomas. Why in the hell did you agree to work for him?”

  Emmy Jo backed up a couple of feet. “Because I work at the Hickory Health Care Company and I’ll lose my job if I don’t hold up my end of the bargain. And because I need the money for my wedding. There’s two reasons—are you happy?”

  Tandy’s old eyes narrowed in a bed of wrinkles. “Why can’t you just go to the courthouse and get married?”

  “A church wedding is the real deal. It says that . . .” She paused.

  “It don’t say jack squat. You only need a marriage license and someone to say the words,” Tandy said with a coldness that sank into Emmy Jo’s bones.

  “It means more than that to me, Granny. It means that my kids will really be legitimate, that no one in school can ever whisper the word bastard and giggle behind their hand. It means the whole world to me that everyone knows for a fact that Logan and I are married and that there is no doubt.”

  “Why would there be a doubt?” Tandy asked.

  “There’d always be questions about whether Logan and I were really married if we went to the courthouse. If I have my dream wedding, then by golly, everyone will be there to see the preacher say the words, and those that aren’t can sure enough go hear all the other folks in town talk about how pretty it was,” Emmy Jo argued. “Why do you hate Seth Thomas so much, anyway?”

  “That is my business, not yours.” Tandy’s gaze shot daggers toward Emmy Jo.

  “Why?” Emmy Jo wrapped her arms around her body in an effort to steel herself.

  “Don’t intend to explain or talk about it any more. Why do you have to marry Jesse Grady’s grandson, anyway? You know I don’t like that family,” Tandy said with her characteristic bluntness.

  “Because I love him, and you are changing the subject like you always do. I signed a contract to work as Seth’s assistant for two months and I will honor it.”

  Tandy poured the batter into a pan and slid it into the oven. “Tell Seth’s sister, Nora, that you changed your mind. She’s a good person. She’ll understand. You haven’t started the job, so the contract can be shredded. Someone else can be his assistant.”

  “How do you know Nora? Did y’all go to school together or something?” Emmy Jo tried again as she licked the spoon Tandy had used to stir the brownies.

  “Wash that bowl when you get finished, and don’t test me,” Tandy barked. “I’m going to bingo at the church tonight. Take them brownies out when the timer goes off. You going to be here when I get home?”

  Emmy Jo shrugged. “I’ll be here until the brownies get done.”

  “Turn off the oven when they’re finished. House burns down, it’ll be your fault.” Tandy shuffled toward her bedroom to change into her red knit pants and lucky floral shirt to go to bingo.

  Emmy Jo flopped down on the worn sofa, leaned her head back, and shut her eyes. Lord, what a mess! No one—not even Diana—could talk her out of starting the job tomorrow. Her eyes opened to scan the place that had been her home her entire life. Tandy had bought the small trailer forty years ago after she’d won a big bingo pot one night. Emmy Jo’s mother was just a baby at the time, so it had seen her raised and then Emmy Jo.

  Once a bright blue on the outside, it had sun bleached to almost white, but it was the best-kept trailer in the whole place. Not a weed grew anywhere near Tandy’s place. The bloodred roses beside the porch and the flower beds were so pretty that they could have been featured in a magazine. Once a year the porch got a fresh coat of paint, and Tandy did her spring cleaning religiously. Dust and mold had no more place in Tandy’s heart than Seth Thomas or Jesse Grady.

  “What is it about those two old guys that sets her off so bad?” Emmy Jo wondered out loud. “Maybe I can figure it out while I’m working for Seth.”

  She headed past the utility room to the other end of the trailer, where her bedroom was located. Opening the only suitcase that she owned, she threw in as much clothing as she could and still shut the lid. Then she got the box of trash bags from the kitchen and proceeded to fill one to the brim, tossing in all her bridal magazines and her wedding book at the end.

  “I’m leaving now,” Tandy yelled. “Don’t forget them brownies.” The door shut, and the engine of Tandy’s fifteen-year-old Ford rattled into life.

  Not wanting another lecture or ultimatum, Emmy Jo waited until she couldn’t hear the car and hauled her possessions to her ten-year-old Chevy, crammed part of them into the trunk, and the rest into the backseat. Her best friend, Diana, would let her crash there for one night. Emmy Jo sure didn’t want to stay in the trailer tonight and put up with her granny’s cussing and arguing. She stiffened her quivering upper lip. Maybe in a few days, or a week at the most, Tandy would start to miss Emmy Jo and things could go back to normal.

  And if she doesn’t? that nagging voice in her head asked.

  She always comes around, Emmy Jo argued.

  She pulled her phone from her purse and hit “Speed Dial” to call her fiancé, Logan Grady, but it went straight to voice mail. Sometimes the reception wasn’t real good outside the trailer, so she tried twice more before she gave up and tossed the phone over on the passenger seat. She was backing out of the narrow drive when she remembered the brownies. She braked and hurried back inside just as the timer went off.

  Allowing time for hitting the single traffic light
on Main Street, and maybe having to actually come to a full stop at the four-way, it took five minutes to travel from the trailer court to Diana’s place. That evening the town’s single night policeman decided to fall in behind her.

  “Dammit!” She slapped the steering wheel as she kept the speed at twenty-five miles an hour. No doubt about it, Tandy had called her best friend, Henry Clary, who worked as a reserve police officer, and the old coot would report back to Tandy. He’d probably even seen her loading her things into the car.

  Emmy Jo got out of her car and waved at Henry Clary as he drove past in the only squad car the Hickory Police Department owned. Seething and wanting to get inside to tell Diana what had happened, she rang the doorbell, but no one answered—not even after she leaned on the thing six times.

  The lights were on and she could hear the television. Picturing Diana with earbuds in her ears and the music turned up, Emmy Jo reached for her phone and then realized it was in the car. She shivered as she ran down the porch steps and slid into the driver’s seat. She hit Diana’s “Speed Dial.” No answer, but a flutter behind the living room curtains said that someone was home. She dialed the number again, and Diana answered on the second ring.

  “You cannot stay here, Emmy Jo, not even one night.”

  “Well, hello, how are you doing, what’s going on in your world, too?” Emmy Jo said.

  “Don’t be a smart-ass. I’ve stood up for you for years. I even got you the job at Hickory Health, remember?” Strange, but Diana’s voice sounded a lot like Tandy’s.

  “And I’ve done the same for you. That’s what friends do.”

  The whole world had gone crazy. Her best friend had never turned her away.

  “Friends also tell you when you are about to make a huge mistake,” Diana said.

  “So if I go through with this job, I’m not welcome in your house anymore?” Emmy Jo asked.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  Emmy Jo had her hand on the “End” button, but she couldn’t push it. “What are you saying, then?”

  “That I’m not going to make this easy for you. You can’t stay here tonight. I don’t agree with you doing this job. Two whole months up in that place, living there . . .” Diana paused. “Don’t do it. He’s an old recluse, and my mama says that he’s always been—”