“Dammit!” she whispered as she went back to the kitchen.

“What’d you think of Ace?” Jasmine asked.

“He’s a bad boy lookin’ for a woman with those round heels. I see that Becca isn’t flirting with him, but she’s batting her lashes at every other man in the place,” Liz answered.

Jasmine laughed. “They dated some in high school. He went away to college, and the breakup was not a nice one.”

“Do you know everything about everybody?” Liz asked.

“Almost. I’ve been here since last February, and a small café is almost as good a gossip place as a beauty shop. What I don’t hear, Gemma does, and we trade off.” Jasmine set a plate on the window and Amber grabbed it. “What did you do in the carnival?” Jasmine asked Liz.

“I told fortunes and did some belly dancin’,” Liz said.

“I’d have figured you for the one who tamed the lions,” Jasmine said.

“It’s a carnival, Jasmine, not a circus, but we do have pony rides,” Liz told her.

Amber came back to the kitchen for the next order. “This place is a circus right now. Slade’s aunt and granny are arguing as usual. Becca is flirting with the cowboy right next to her, and Raylen and Gemma are on their way in the door. It’s fixin’ to heat up out there.”

Liz waited until they were seated before she went back out to the dining room. “Good mornin’. What can I get you two?” she asked.

“Pancakes for me. Raylen didn’t cook this mornin’, and then I had to drag him off the tractor to get him to bring me into town to feed me. It was his morning to cook,” Gemma said. “And coffee, don’t put any cream or sugar in it. This morning I need it to be black as sin.”

“Same for me,” Raylen said. “Gemma is a big girl, and she didn’t want to get up early, so if I had cooked, it would have been cold anyway.”

“You two live together?” Liz asked.

Gemma nodded. “Last year when I put in the shop the folks said I could live with them, and I did for a couple of weeks. But then Raylen said I could use one of his spare bedrooms, so I moved in with him. Mama is a better cook.”

“But Mama is a lot nosier, ain’t she?” Raylen countered. “She still don’t like you letting a boyfriend sleep over, does she?”

“Maddie does like to know where her kids are at all times,” Ace said from the table behind them. “But you gotta love her ’cause she’s your mama.”

“See?” Ellen said from her place at the table with Ace. “It’s the law. You got to love your mama, your granny, and your aunt who is a lot younger than your granny.”

Slade rolled his eyes. “How are things at the O’Donnell place? Y’all ready to sell Glorious Danny Boy yet? Jane would give you a blank check for that horse.”