Jasmine raised her glass. “Amen!”

Chapter 16

By the end of the day, the dining room had thinned out to only one table of elderly men who were deep into a heated discussion concerning politics. From there, Liz heard them start worrying about the idea of imports and exports, and whether they’d have to bring in hay from another state that fall or if they had plenty of small bales in the barns and big round bales in the pasture to last.

Liz had long since removed their dinner plates, dessert plates, and kept their coffee cups filled as they solved the problems of the country.

“Hey, Liz,” Gemma called out as she opened the door into the café. That stopped the old guys from their discussion of hay—for a minute—and then they went right back to it.

Liz forced a smile when she saw Colleen follow Gemma inside. “Hi, y’all. Are you hungry or just wanting a cup of coffee and a place to rest awhile?”

“Starving,” Colleen said. “Got any of the special left?”

“Enough for y’all,” Liz said. “You want the same, Gemma?”

“I’m not in the mood for turkey and dressin’. I’m saving that for Thanksgiving. Bring me a bacon cheeseburger basket.” Gemma removed her jacket and hung it over the back of a chair before she sat down.

“You got it.” Liz wrote down their orders and took them back to the kitchen.

“I’ll holler when it’s ready,” Jasmine said.

“I’m procrastinating. Let’s talk about what we’re going to do to decorate this place for Christmas. I’ve got lots of decorations left at my house. Let’s put a big old stuffed Santa in a rocking chair out on the porch and hang ornaments in different lengths from the ceiling on ribbon…no, on jute twine. I saw some horses, steer horns, and horseshoes ornaments on display that I want to buy. We can have a countrified Christmas theme. I saw one of those rough wood signs that we can hang above Santa on the porch that says, ‘countrified and satisfied.’ That goes with the Chicken Fried name really well.”

“Whoa, girl.” Jasmine threw a hamburger patty on the grill. “I like all those ideas, but I’d only planned to put up a little garland and a few lights the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but if you are offering your decorations, I’m game to dress the place up a little more than that. Who knows? We might get all kinds of traffic down this way for your light drive, and if they see everything lit up here, they’ll drop by and give me some business. Now tell me why you are procrastinating? Usually when Gemma comes in, you sit with her for a while.”

Liz shrugged. “Colleen hates me. I can see disapproval in her face.”

Jasmine patted Liz on the back. “She was the same way with Austin. She loves her brothers, and I guess it’s working with gamblers all the time that makes her not as trusting as Gemma. Besides, you’ve had it too good. You need some speed bumps.”