Scrappily Ever After Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’d want to come directly home.”
    Vera’s face hardened. Her chin jutted out.
    Sheila often wondered about Beatrice, but this took the cake—or the pie, as it were. Why would Bea come home and not see her daughter? Poor Vera had been worried and missing her mother the whole time she was in France. This had to hurt.
    The server brought their slices of pie to them. Nobody had gotten the same flavor. DeeAnn had selected the coconut cream, Annie the chocolate, Sheila the peanut butter, and Paige had ordered apple with cinnamon ice cream.
    Sheila sat back in the booth and enjoyed the spectacle of Pamela’s Pie Palace, with its black and white tile floor and red booths, each with a little jukebox on the table. Sheila busied herself with digging some quarters out of her change purse and sorting through the music on the jukebox. She couldn’t look at Vera’s sullen face anymore.
    She slipped a quarter in and selected “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley, hoping to cheer Vera up. She always responded to music.
    â€œSweet Jesus,” Paige said, rolling her eyes. “This is extraordinary pie.”
    â€œHumph,” DeeAnn said and then took a bite of her coconut cream, shaking her head. “Fabulous.”
    Pamela herself came up to their table. “Why hello, ladies,” she said. “I understand it’s your birthday. The pie is on me.”
    â€œWhy, thanks so much,” DeeAnn said. “Excellent pie, by the way. As usual.”
    â€œMeans a lot to me coming from you,” she said. Pamela was a looker, with long blond hair, huge doe-like brown eyes, and a figure straight out of a 1940s pinup calendar. “So Paige, I’m very excited to talk with Randy.”
    Paige’s face reddened as her friends all looked at her. She brought her napkin to her mouth and placed it back in her lap. “Randy’s excited too,” she said. “He said you’re expanding. Sounds like quite an opportunity.”
    â€œWe’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” Pamela said. “We’d like to do a line of pastries, but I don’t have time. Pie keeps me hopping.”
    â€œI hear ya,” DeeAnn managed to say. She was obviously annoyed. The pitch in her voice and the pursed lips were a dead giveaway.
    Oh boy , Sheila thought. Paige didn’t tell DeeAnn about this .
    After Pamela left the table, DeeAnn glared at Paige.
    â€œWait minute,” Paige said. “I was going to tell you. I just found out about it myself.”
    â€œYour son is going to work for Pamela when one of your best friends owns a bakery in town?” DeeAnn said.
    â€œI don’t see a problem,” Annie said. “C’mon. If you want to hire him, make him an offer. Otherwise, what’s the problem?”
    Annie didn’t know that DeeAnn had offered him work many times through the years. Randy hadn’t been interested in living in Cumberland Creek until now.
    Paige cleared her throat. “DeeAnn, it’s not personal. He was involved with a man then who would not leave the city. He wants to start anew. Pamela called him and so he’s going to talk with her.”
    â€œI think it’s a great idea,” Vera said, after swallowing the last bite of her pie. “He’d be close to home and you’d see him more and maybe he and Earl would get closer. I don’t think it would be a good idea for him to work for you, DeeAnn, simply because of your friendship with Paige. It could get weird. What if it didn’t work out?”
    DeeAnn went back to concentrating on what was on her fork—a smear of coconut cream with meringue. “Well, that’s a good way of looking at it.”
    When Judy came to fill up their coffee cups and clear away the plates that were empty, Vera asked her to think hard about when she had seen her mother.
    â€œI think it was two days ago,” Judy said.
    â€œHow did she look?”
    â€œShe