Belinda (20 page)

Re: Tell ME

Belinda, I’m so worried I called Daddy to see
if you’d been reported dead in a car wreck.

Molly

From: Bea

To: Belinda, Clemmie, Bea, Joanna, Molly,
Catheine

Re: Report for the Troops

Belinda,
dang,
woman! What’s going
on? I told Janet and Clemmie I’d call the minute I hear. J’s up to
her eyeballs in exams and one of C’s boarders fell and had to be
taken off to the hospital. She’s scared she’s going to get
sued!
I told her
not to worry.
Molly’s dad knows
some of the best lawyers in Tupelo.
Nobody
is going to
bleed her dry in a court of law if I have anything to say about it!
And, as you know, I always have
plenty
to say!

Bea

From: Belinda

To: Molly, Joanna, Bea, Clemmie, Catherine,
Janet

Re: THE WEDDING

Reeve asked me to MARRY HIM!!!! You ought to
see my ring. An eight carat solitaire! He gave me a car, too. But
none of that meant as much to as the rocking chairs and the red
geraniums he put on the front porch. All for me! I can’t believe
how lucky I am – a fabulous husband and two darling children! Betsy
and Mark were so excited when we told them, they didn’t go to bed
till midnight!

I want both children in the wedding. I’d love
to have all of you as bridesmaids but I know that’s selfish of me,
considering where you are and what you’re doing.

I’m thinking of an early fall wedding, you
know when the weather is cool and we can have it right here in the
backyard. Clemmie, it was you who gave me the idea for an outdoor
wedding. Reeve’s yard is as big as a park, and it looks like the
botanical gardens over in Huntsville.

The wedding’s going to be discreet and small
since it’s the second one for Reeve. Just a close friends and
family. I’m thinking September, but October might be better. What
do you think?

Xoxo

Belinda

From: Joanna

To: Belinda, Janet, Catherine, Bea, Clemmie,
Molly

Re: Either one

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! I’m jumping at the
chance to leave these nuns, even if I will have to come back and
finish out my education!! Name the date, Belinda! I’ll be
THERE!!!

BIG HUGS!

Joanna

From: Molly

To: Belinda, Janet, Catherine, Bea, Clemmie,
Joanna

Re: Ditto

Ditto everything Joanna said, except about
the nuns! Oh, I can even bring the bridesmaids’ dresses from Paris!
Just tell me the sizes and color! OMG, this is so much FUN!!!
Daddy’s going to be tickled pink I’m coming home for a visit.

Hugs,

Molly

From: Catherine

To: Belinda, Janet, Molly, Bea, Clemmie,
Joanna

Re: OVER THE TOP

What do you mean, keep the wedding discreet?
It’s YOUR wedding, too! You can have peacocks strutting around the
yard if you want. OMG, I just had a wonderful idea! Love birds!
I’ll bring some from New Orleans. You can find just about anything
you want down here. Oh, and I love the idea of bridesmaids’ dresses
from Paris. Let me pick out the shoes. I saw the CUTEST ones last
week in the French Quarter!

XOXO

Cat

From: Janet

To: Belinda, Catherine, Molly, Bea, Clemmie,
Joanna

Re: The Exams

I got through the exams,
thank God!
And this is
wonderful news
! A fall wedding will be
perfect. Are you ready for my news? I’m coming to Tupelo
this
fall
to start my internship!!!

Xo

Janet

From: Molly

To: Janet, Belinda, Catherine, Bea, Clemmie,
Joanna

Re: Tupelo

YAY, JANET! Call Daddy and ask him for the
best place to stay! Oh, I’ll be SO GLAD to have you in Tupelo. He’s
still doing Match.com, and if he actually finds a woman, you’ll be
there to check her out!

Molly

From: Clemmie

To: Janet, Belinda, Catherine, Bea, Molly,
Joanna

Re: Good news

I’m having a double celebration. Belinda’s
getting married and I’m not getting sued. I want to make the
wedding cake! And Bea, don’t you go telling me it’s too much
trouble. I’m putting two brothers through college and running this
place single-handedly. If I wanted to, I could march Hannibal’s
elephants across the Alps!

Belinda, Cat’s right about having the kind of
wedding you want. Why don’t you have one of those cute little
horse-drawn carriages to ride off in? I’ll bet Quincy’s brother
could find one.

Hugs,

Clemmie

From: Bea

To: Belinda, Janet, Catherine, Clemmie,
Molly, Joanna

Re: Hallelujah!

That
big scream
was me, out here in
Texas shouting hallelujah! Bring on the Parisian gowns and the New
Orleans shoes. For the wedding I’ll
ditch my boots!
And
listen here, my lady!
You have the kind of wedding
you
want. It you want a Texas roundup, I’ll get a whip and
herd the cattle!

Who are the groomsmen? Will there be any
hot guys?
Does Reeve have a brother? The guys at the
advertising firm are either married or jerks. At the rate I’m
going, the only action my Virginia is likely to see is at the
gynecologist’s.

Still, Belinda, your success story gives the
rest of us hope.

That’s one down for the Dixie Virgins and six
to go! Yee Haw!

Hugs,

Bea

-
The End-

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles is a seven-book
romantic comedy series. Books one and two are available as e-books
now, books three and four are coming the first week in October,
2013, and books five, six and seven will be available by the end of
October, 2013.

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Belinda
(Book One)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Janet (Book
Two)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Molly (Book
Three)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Bea (Book
Four)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Clementine
(Book Five)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Joanna (Book
Six)

The Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Catherine
(Book Seven)

From: Janet ([email protected])

To: Belinda, Clemmie, Joanna, Molly,
Catherine, Bea

Re: Belinda’s Wedding

I’m still pinching myself that I got to see
every one of you
at the wedding! Belinda, I’ve never seen
a happier bride! I’ll admit I was skeptical when Cat said she was
bringing love birds from New Orleans. I could picture bird shit
everywhere. But it was
amazing
when you kissed your new
husband and all those white doves went fluttering into the air! By
the way, I
totally approve
your Reeve Lawrence. He’s
intelligent, cultured, successful and
mad about you!

Oh, I
miss
all of you! But I’m
really looking forward to my internship. All my books are unpacked
and I’m settled into my new apartment, thanks to your dad, Molly. I
could never have found this gem of place without Mr. Rakestraw. I
love being downtown so I can walk to the library and the post
office. There’s a school nearby where I can run on the track. And
there’s even a darling little mutt who comes by to visit on
weekends. I call him Harvey. Life just couldn’t be more
perfect!

Xo

Janet

From: Molly ([email protected])

To: Janet, Belinda, Catherine, Clemmie,
Joanna, Bea

Re: From Paris with love

OMG, Janet, I’m so glad you’re in Tupelo now
and in the same apartment as Daddy! How cool is that! He’ll be a
surrogate father to you, but I want you to keep an eye on him, too.
I think he’s found somebody on Match.com, but he’s not saying. I’m
ABOUT TO DIE!!! By the way, Mr. Rakestraw is far too formal for
Daddy. Call him Mr. Jed. He’ll love that.

It was totally awesome to see all of you! I
thought we looked incredible in the Parisian bridesmaids’ dresses,
and that gorgeous shade of sky blue I found looked fabulous on all
of us! Of course, Belinda, you were the shining star in that bridal
gown that looked like something out of a fairy tale. Do have the
best honeymoon ever!!! And if you have time to join me for lunch
before you leave Paris, that would be so much fun!

Much love,

Molly

From: Joanna ([email protected])

To: Janet, Molly, Bea, Clemmie, Catherine,
Belinda

Re: Those SHOES!

Cat, those SHOES were to die for!!! Where did
you ever find them? Now that I’m back, I wear then everywhere. The
nuns here at the Santa Maria Magdalena Colegio y Conservatorio de
Arte y Musica are about to have heart failure. They tell me silver
shoes with four inch heels and rhinestone buckles are
INAPPROPRIATE. Hello? I’d DIE before turning myself into somebody
APPROPRIATE!!!!

Oh, Belinda, I LOVED your wedding. Reeve is
DELICIOUS LOOKING. Enjoy every minute of your honeymoon. Your
Virginia is going to be SO happy! I’m dying to ask about the
salacious details, but even I won’t go that far.

The only fly in the ointment was that I
didn’t get to see Kirk. Wouldn’t you know my guardian would have
business in Europe while I was in America! I hope he’s not turning
into some OLD guy while I’m slaving over my books here in Madrid.
LOL

Big Hugs!!!

Joanna

From: Clemmie ([email protected])

To: Molly, Joanna, Janet, Belinda, Bea,
Catherine

Re: Still Smiling

Every time I look at my pretty bridesmaid
dress hanging in the closet, I smile. If I could bottle our
laughter and stories and sell them for a buck a pop, I’d have
enough money to pay off the mortgage on my little boarding house.
Gracious, I still laugh out loud about Joanna’s escapade with the
bullfighter. I can just picture the look of shock on his face when
he scaled up the espalier, landed in the wrong room, and Sister
Mary Margaret dumped dish water all over his suit of lights! I
don’t hear stories like that at Peppertown. Mostly I hear from my
dear boarder, Miss Josephine, about her latest fantasy of her dead
lover. Still, she does spice things up a bit.

Janet, it’s fun that you’re close enough to
visit now. I hope you’ll take a break from the hospital so we can
have a gab session! And when Belinda gets back from her honeymoon
in Paris, I’ll cook lunch for the three of us!

Hugs,

Clemmie

From: Catherine ([email protected])

To: Janet, Molly, Joanna, Belinda, Bea,
Clemmie

Re: Heaven

OMG, when I came up for the wedding, I felt
as if I’d left Hell and landed in Heaven! Not that I’m complaining.
I totally LOVE vet school, but it was great to ditch my sneakers
and put on high heels. It was even more fun to forget about the
gestation period of elephants and watch Bea flirting with that cute
groomsman. What was his name? Joe something or other. He’s not my
type, but he did have some obvious charms. Those muscles! LOL.

Belinda, sweetie, now that you’re the ONLY
one of us married, I guess I’ll have to stop calling you a Dixie
Virgin. How FABULOUS is that!

XOXO

Catherine

From: Belinda ([email protected])

To: Catherine, Janet, Bea, Clemmie, Molly,
Joanna

Re: Paris!

You sure can, Cat! And I’m not saying another
word!!!!

Xoxox

Belinda (Mrs. Reeve Lawrence! Can you believe
it!)

From: Bea ([email protected])

To: Belinda, Catherine, Janet, Clemmie,
Molly, Joanna

Re: Dixie Virgins

Listen, Belinda will
always
be a
Dixie Virgin! It’s more about being an
independent woman
than what happens to your Virginia. Though I do hope Belinda’s
Virginia is now
shouting hallelujah.
Matter of fact, I
think I heard it all the way from Paris to Dallas! Yee Haw!!!!

Hugs,

Bea

Harvey was missing. He hadn’t come home for
the past two weekends, and Janet was getting worried. As she parked
her car in front of her apartment, she decided she’d have to do
something about him. Soon. But first she had to soak her feet. It
had been a long day at the hospital.

A light rain was falling, and when she got
out of the car she pulled her coat close against the chill.

“Is that you, Janet?”

Molly’s dad, who was her next-door neighbor,
always greeted her that way. Because of the little chill in the
air, only his head stuck out his front door.

She smiled at him. “It’s me, Mr. Jed. How
have you been today?”

“Excellent, my dear!” Mr. Jed inched farther
out his door as Janet started up her sidewalk. In his corduroy
pants and a sweater with leather elbow patches he looked like a
comfortable version of George Clooney. “I’ve made hot chocolate.
Want some?”

“That sounds good. Your place or mine?”

“I’ll bring it over there so you relax.
You’re working too hard. Molly will never forgive me if I let you
collapse from exhaustion.”

Mr. Jed vanished back into his apartment. Two
things Janet loved most about her first floor apartment were
Molly’s dad and her little postage stamp patio/yard. Mr. Jed had a
joyful spirit that gave her a lift after dealing with sick children
all day, and her yard was so small that it never accused her of
neglect by looking naked without all the petunias, zinnias,
forsythia and whatever else ordinary, sane adults in Tupelo planted
in their flower beds.

Janet fitted the key into her lock and pushed
open her front door. The fragrance of peach potpourri greeted her.
She stood a moment, inhaling the sweet scent and enjoying the
peace; then she hung her coat on the hall tree and led Mr. Jed into
her living room. It was small but comfortable, with plenty of
bookshelves for Janet’s medical books and enough room left over for
her second-hand sofa and a fat, cushy chair she’d found at the flea
market. The only touch of class was a Ming vase, which her parents
had insisted on giving her as a housewarming gift, though she’d
argued a temporary apartment was not a new house.