Dining With Joy by Rachel Hauck

Author:Rachel Hauck [Hauck, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: EBook, book
ISBN: 9781595543394
Google: 3CljsdELwJAC
Amazon: B0058M5CPI
Barnesnoble: B0058M5CPI
Publisher: Center Point
Published: 2009-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

When Joy pulled up at home, Mama was pushing a wheel-barrow of potted flowers toward Miss Dolly’s backyard. Joy tucked her keys into her bag and sneaked up on her.

“What’re you doing?”

“Joy.” Mama slapped her hand over her heart, her cheeks flaming with heat. “You scared me to death. Now hush, or you’ll blow my cover.”

“You’re putting flowers in Miss Dolly’s yard?” Joy stooped to sniff one of the plant’s petals. It was so perfect. So blue. “Did you inhale too many fumes at the shop today?”

“Back it up, Joy. Don’t sniff the perfume from my blooms.” Mama shoved Joy upright with the back of her hand. “My stars, what happened to you? You’re all sweaty. And look at your feet. Do not walk into my house with those. Go down to the creek and wash them off. Where have you been?”

“Running the bases at Basil Green.”

“Uh-oh.” Mama folded her arms, a wry twist on her lips. She looked pretty in the afternoon’s watermelon light, her blue eyes full of spunk, a kink in her brown coils. After Daddy died, she switched from blonde to her natural brown and exchanged her slacks and skirts for overalls and garden gloves. “Tell me what happened.”

“Sharon quit.”

“Aw, mercy, that girl is a loon.” Mama ducked for a quick look through the hibiscus. “If I told Chick once I told him a hundred times, Sharon is only out for herself.”

“Out for herself? Mama, she hung around the show for three years, helping me—graciously, I might add. She never said a disagreeable word until the cookbook deal.”

“Which is the deal she always had with your daddy. She’d share the book rights and royalties, have her name on the cover.”

“Can you blame her? She’s developed some great recipes. Duncan promised her the same thing. Enter Allison and—”

“And the hound bit you in the butt, didn’t she? I told you to be careful. She did the same thing to Chick. If Sharon suggested basil instead of bay in a recipe, she wanted her name on it. I told you to get ahold of those recipes, get copies or something.”

“We had copies.” Joy traced her finger lightly over the tiger lily’s thick, creamy bloom. “Sharon took them.”

“In some places, folks call that stealing.” Mama swatted at her hand. “You’re getting your oily fingerprint all over my lily. Stop.”

Joy stuffed her hands in her pockets. “I need Daddy’s recipe books. Allison wants me and Luke to start from scratch, use our own recipes. Then on my way home, she texted me about writing stories or anecdotes to add to the cookbook.”

“Well, you’ll finally get to use your creative writing degree and make up little stories about how you and your daddy baked banana bread in the kitchen while singing ‘Mockingbird.’”

“Next time you bust my chops for sarcasm, I’m throwing this moment back at you. Maybe I won’t write stories about my life with Daddy, just his life with the food.” Joy eyed her mama. “I’m going to need to ask you a lot of questions.

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