Our Red Hot Romance Is Leaving Me Blue Read Free Page B

spent talking to him, I went from disbelief, to pity, to suspicion and back to disbelief. I must be near my period. I just went through every emotion known to womankind.”
    “Not all of ’em.” Edwina picked up a package of her favorite gum—Orbit Bubblemint—from her workstation, unwrapped a piece and popped it into her mouth. She plopped into her styling chair. “I can think of at least seven more.”
    “Whatever. So tell me, poker face, what did you think of him? And about taking him on as a client?”
    Chewing, Edwina said, “A client’s a client.”
    “That’s right. Since when do we have to like everyone we say we’ll work for? We wouldn’t do much business if we took that attitude. But I have to admit, the whole conversation was a little bizarre.”
    Edwina lifted her foot, appearing to study the beaded red hearts that adorned her platform shoe. “You got that right. Everything he said just flat-ass weirded me out.”
    “You know what his story brings out in me?”
    “What?”
    “Curiosity. I mean, damn, Ed. Here we’ve got this cool-looking guy who’s heartbroken over his dead wife. A wife he says he killed. What’s not to love about that?”
    “You left out the part about somebody trying to drive him crazy.”
    “Yes, and someone’s trying to make him think he’s bonkers. If that’s not the makings of a good time for the Domestic Equalizers, I don’t know what is.”
    “So you don’t buy into that ghost-of-the-dead-wife BS?”
    “Nah. There’s got to be a logical explanation. I don’t believe in ghosts. But if anyone ever would be a believer, you would, Edwina Perkins-Martin.”
    Edwina cocked her head, still studying her shoe. “Well…”
    “I knew it!” Debbie Sue gleefully clapped her hands.
    Edwina got to her feet and propped both hands on her skinny hips. “Just don’t get too smug, Miss Priss. I’ve seen and heard a thing or two. Things that would make anybody think twice about the supernatural stuff. Even a hardhead like you.”
    Debbie Sue plucked a bottle of Windex from her bottom drawer and spritzed her mirror. “Oh, really? Like what?”
    “You know my third husband, Jimmy Wayne Perkins? The one from El Paso? His mother—her name was Little Pearl Perkins—that woman either called or went to see a psychic in El Paso for every big decision she ever made. I mean, she—”
    “Little Pearl?” Debbie Sue gave her partner an arch look.
    “You honestly knew someone named Little Pearl?”
    “Little Pearl’s mama was named Pearl too, so everyone called Jimmy Wayne’s mother Little Pearl. Do you want to hear this story or not?”
    Debbie Sue bent and returned the Windex to her bottom drawer. “Did they call her mother Big Pearl?”
    “As a matter of fact, they did. Just so they could keep them sorted out when they were talking about them.”
    Debbie Sue straightened, a roll of paper towels in her hand. “Makes perfect sense.” She began to wipe Windex off her mirror prepared to hear another one of Edwina’s tales about her bizarre family.
    “As I was saying,” Edwina continued, “this woman could tell your future and she could communicate with the dead. If I hadn’t witnessed it firsthand with my own beautiful brown eyes, I might not believe it either.”
    “And what’d she do firsthand, tell you Jimmy Wayne was gonna cheat on you?”
    “Oh, hell, I didn’t need a psychic to know that. But she did tell me he was hiding money from me. She even told me where to find it.”
    Debbie Sue set down the roll of paper towels, her interest piqued.
    “Really?”
    “Yep. Toward the end of that marriage-made-in-hell to Jimmy Wayne, he was gone more than he was home. Only passed through long enough to shower and shave. Half the time me and my girls didn’t have enough food in the house to keep a person alive. Hell. If it hadn’t been for Halloween that year, we might’ve starved to death. Me and the kids hit half the houses in El Paso, trick-or-treating. To this