Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek) - By Tina Leonard Page 0,82
Jake made her hot, sexually and emotionally. I used to be such a calm person. What happened to me?
Jake happened to her. She was crazy about him, but insanity was doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result.
Pecan Creek had to continue to be simply a means to an end.
“Sugar,” Lucy said, hurrying into the house where Maggie and Sugar were madly stirring pecans in a candied sauce. Painters clanged ladders upstairs, calling to each other in loud voices as they began tearing out the old light fixtures. Sugar hadn’t been up to the Belle Watling room since that night. She couldn’t get over the horror of finding a dead man in her sister’s bedroom. It brought back horrible flashbacks of the night another man had gone into Lucy’s bedroom. Shivers crawled over her skin.
“What?” Sugar said to Lucy.
“I’ve had a stroke of brilliance.”
Maggie and Sugar looked at Lucy. “Brilliance is always welcome,” Sugar said.
“Every business in town is building a float for the Christmas parade. We need to make one for hotterthanhellnuts.com!” Lucy glowed with exertion, her short hair curling up shorter from riding Vivian’s bike over here. She rode the bike all over town. When Jake heard that Vivian had taken it from Lucy, he’d given it right back. Lucy loved riding the bicycle. When she wasn’t on that bike, it was in the back of Bobby’s truck as he ferried Lucy around. Mainly, he said he just wanted Lucy to be with him. Lucy said, “Have bike, will travel”, and when Bobby was busy at the Bait and Burgers, she got herself around just fine.
“A float.” Sugar sat down on a stool. “I don’t know how to build a parade float. Anyway, how do you know every business in town is making one?”
“Because of my job,” Lucy said importantly. “I work for some ladies who run their own businesses, and they’re building a float. I’m supposed to be their princess, but I’d rather be a princess for us. I know all about building a float now.” Lucy beamed. “We’d do it secretly. And that would be the launch of our business!”
Maggie shrugged. “It would light a great bonfire under the last shreds of our dignity and reputation in Pecan Creek. If we’re supposed to be a hush-hush enterprise, goodness knows ol’ Vivian would really get tense if we had a float.”
“True.” Sugar considered that. “Is the advertising value worth annoying the in-crowd?”
Lucy slid onto a stool. “Sugar, here’s where we’re going wrong. The ladies I work for all sell items with a slant on sexy. They just don’t talk about the sexy factor. It’s where I got the idea to sex up your nuts. Don’t you know sex sells?”
Sugar looked at her. “How do they advertise their product?”
“They call their businesses soft-focus things like, well, they just don’t ever say anything that offends. While all the time they sell items you normally wouldn’t consider acceptable for everyday conversation.”
“Are you suggesting we change the name of our business? Because, to be honest, I’m not certain the name is what gets Vivian’s goat. I’m pretty sure it’s just me,” Sugar said.
“No.” Lucy shook her head. “Vivian is all about Pecan Creek. She’s about keeping it pure. I can’t say she’s wrong about that. I get Vivian now,” Lucy said. “I get why she decorated this joint the way she did, and why she wants everything to be sexless.” Lucy grinned. “Vivian is a protective heroine.”
“Balls,” Maggie said. “Vivian is a shrew. Only I think she never got tamed or something. Clearly The Taming Of The Shrew was one Hollywood theme she stayed away from in her decorating scheme.” Maggie felt around in the pocket of her purple pants for a pack of cigarettes, realized she no longer smoked and went for a cup of hot black coffee from the Mr. Coffeemaker instead.
“What would we change the name of our business to?” Sugar asked. “To be socially acceptable?”
“I don’t know about socially acceptable,” Lucy said. “I think we’re pretty much toast here, after the dead guy showed up in one of Viv’s designer bedrooms. Plus you’re staying at Jake’s, and word I hear on that through my employers is that Vivian is fit to be tied.” She smiled hugely. “For once, you’re the one in the family who’s causing waves.”
“I wish I cared, but—” Sugar considered her sister. “I don’t think we have time to design a float, even if we dared to scandalize the town.”