Her dear Buddy would never look at another woman, but Debbie Sue believed a girl should never let herself go. If she did, the next thing to go might be the husband. And losing Buddy Overstreet twice in her lifetime was something she did not want to think about. Their divorce hadn’t occurred so long ago that she had forgotten the misery of life without him.
Edwina collected money from Bervena and said good-bye, leaving the beauty shop empty of customers. She picked up the sack of food, moved to her own styling station and began to lift out her lunch. “What’d you bring me?”
“I can’t even remember all of it,” Debbie Sue said.
“So did you ask them if they knew who new hand is out at the Flying C? I saw him at the grocery store last night. Lord, he gets better looking every time I see him.”
Debbie Sue and Edwina knew everyone in Salt Lick, Texas, and almost everyone in Cabell County. The new good-looking man, who appeared to be unmarried, had all of the single women and half the married ones in a tizzy. With Debbie Sue and Edwina being licensed private detectives and with the Styling Station being the town’s A-Number-One source of information, both true and false, they both felt it their duty to learn all they could about him.
“I forgot. I’m gonna call C.J. and ask her,” Debbie Sue said, getting to her feet. A call to her old high school friend, Carol Jean Carruthers, was long overdue anyway. A few years back, C.J. had married and started having kids and Debbie Sue no longer saw her as much as she used to.
To say that C.J. had married well was an understatement of colossal proportions. Her husband was one of the wealthiest men in Texas, but being around her, you’d never know it. Having money hadn’t changed her one bit. She now had three small kids that she took care of herself. No nanny. She maintained a beautiful home and the only help she had was a housekeeper who came in three days a week. C.J. often claimed that she couldn’t cook a meal worth eating, nevertheless, she did the cooking for the family.
Debbie Sue walked to the payout desk, picked up the phone and punched in C.J.’s stored number.
“Hello?” C.J.’s soft country twang was unmistakable.
“What in the hell are you doing, C.J.?”
“Oh, Debbie Sue. I’ve been meaning to call you. But it seems like every time I stop to do it, something happens that I have to take care of first. I’ve missed you and Edwina so much. How are you?”
Now Debbie Sue felt guilty for calling to ask about the new ranch hand rather than to check on her old friend.
“We’re both fine,” Debbie Sue answered. “Just finished a ridiculous amount of fattening food from Hogg’s. ’Course Ed doesn’t have to worry about getting fat.”
“Oh, my goodness,” C.J. said. “I haven’t been to Hogg’s since I was pregnant with Jaden. I just absolutely craved their fried green tomatoes my last trimester with him.” She laughed. “Come to think of it, I’d kill for a plate of those right now.”
“You don’t mean you’re —”
“Oh, heavens, no. At least, I don’t think so. Harley and I think three is enough. Of course, if another came along, neither one of us would be upset.”
Still feeling guilty for not calling C.J. sooner, Debbie Sue saw an opening and decided to go with a little white lie to spare her old friend’s feelings and glean information at the same time. “Speaking of Harley, I saw a Carruthers ranch truck in town yesterday. I thought it might be Harley running an errand. I intended to say hi, but—”
“Harley’s in Fort Worth this whole week,” C.J. said.
“Yeah, I soon saw it wasn’t him. In fact, I didn’t know who the guy was. Y’all letting just any ol’ somebody drive your pickups these days?”
Debbie Sue waited for her friend to comment about the pickup’s occupant, but instead, C.J. stopped talking and answered one of her kid’s questions. When she came back to the conversation, she said, “I’m sorry Debbie Sue, what were you saying?”
“I said that I didn’t know the guy in the pickup and I thought I knew all the hands at the Flying C.”
“Hunh. Say, is Buddy in town? Maybe the two of you could come for supper this weekend. I can ask Martina to help me fix something special. Does Buddy still like enchiladas?”
Debbie Sue sighed, she was getting nowhere, but then the information was nothing that couldn’t wait until the weekend. “He sure does. A taste for enchiladas never goes away. He’s in town now and we’d love to. We’ve got a lot to catch up on, girlfriend.”
“Then it’s all set,” C.J. said happily. “Saturday night. Sorry, but I need to run. The kids have gotten really quiet and I don’t like the sound of that.”
Debbie Sue hung up and stared blankly at the phone. Sometimes a person needed a map to have a conversation with C.J.
“What’d you find out?” Edwina asked.
“Harley’s in Fort Worth, and C.J. craved fried green tomatoes when she was pregnant. She doesn’t think she’s pregnant now, by the way. They don’t want any more kids, but she and Harley wouldn’t be upset if they had another and she doesn’t like the sound of kids when they’re quiet. Oh, and Buddy and I are going out to the ranch for enchiladas Saturday night.”
“You got all that in less than two minutes?”
“It’s an art, Ed. Talking to C.J. is kind of like walking through Saran Wrap. You have to know how to do it.”
“But you still don’t know who the new guy is.”
Debbie Sue shrugged.
“Well, it’s nothing that can’t wait for the weekend,” Edwina said, unwrapping a peach fried pie.
Debbie Sue gave her a look. It was frightening to think about, but Edwina knew her better than she knew herself. “Right,” she said.
“He must be
