Ain’t She Sweet?

Everyone called her Honeybell, except her father, who referred to her as Eugenia . . . or Eugenia Frances the morning he found his new Helmut Lang necktie swimming in Gordon’s water bowl. Next to her mother, she was the joy of his life, an imp with his dark hair, Sugar Beth’s dazzling eyes, and her own feisty spirit. Every morning when he carried her downstairs, she squealed in his arms as she spotted the life-size portrait of Diddie and Sugar Beth that once again hung in its former place in the foyer. All his threats to torch the bloody thing fell on deaf ears. Sugar Beth declared that Winnie couldn’t have given her a more perfect wedding gift. Except for Diddie’s pearls.

“Don’t even think about wearing them,” Gigi whispered to the baby on Eugenia’s christening day, when Winnie formally presented the contents of the blue velvet box to her new niece. “You’ll look like a dork.”

On Sunday afternoons, they all gathered at Winnie’s for potluck—the Seawillows and their husbands, Leeann and her “significant other.” The fact that Jewel and Leeann were now a permanent couple had thrown the town into a tailspin, but Leeann said she couldn’t live a lie any longer, and she was truly happy for the first time in her life, even though Jewel steadfastly refused to join the Seawillows, although she never missed their potlucks.

Colin watched Heidi coming toward him with a carving knife. “You’re the only man here who can cut up a ham without mangling it,” she said. “Give Honeybell to me.”

“I’m not eatin’ anything but my Lean Cuisine,” Merylinn declared, heading for the microwave. “Slap me if you see me even look at anything else.”

Sugar Beth caught his gaze across the women’s heads and gave him one of those smiles he cherished, a hint of bewilderment still clinging to its edges, as if she couldn’t quite believe all this was hers. Sometimes he had a hard time believing it himself.

A Love Story for Valentine had lived up to Sugar Beth’s prediction and had become his most popular book, although he could have done without the resultant publicity, not to mention his editor’s pleas that he someday write another romance novel. Colin shuddered. Sugar Beth, of course, thrived on the publicity and gave interviews at the drop of a hat. Valentine’s Books, the name she’d settled on for her store, was an immediate success, and Jewel had expanded Gemima’s. The Depot Coffeehouse that Heidi managed for Sugar Beth had turned into the gathering place for everyone in town, and a bigger hotbed of gossip he never hoped to witness.

Life was good but not perfect. He and Sugar Beth still argued whenever the mood struck them. The Seawillows were involved in a cockamamie scheme to find a sex partner for Merylinn’s widowed mother. Gigi had a boyfriend, which was driving Ryan wild. And sometimes when the moon was full, Cubby Bowmar and his cronies still showed up on the front lawn of Frenchman’s Bride to bay for Sugar Beth. Colin mainly put up with it because he knew she enjoyed the attention.

“Dinner’s ready.” Winnie took the platter of ham from him and shooed everybody toward the dining room.

“One of these days I’m bringing sushi,” Heidi said. “They’re sellin’ it at Big Star now.”

“I’m not eatin’ sushi,” Deke retorted. “I doubt it’s even legal in Mississippi.”

“Time for grace,” Amy announced. “Everybody hold hands.”

“Come here, Honeybell.”

Sugar Beth took the toddler from Heidi and wove through Ryan and Deke to get to Colin’s side, where she clasped his hand and they both gave thanks for more blessings than either of them could ever have imagined.