Our Red Hot Romance Is Leaving Me Blue by Dixie Cash

bring out the worst in her. She liked Sophia Paredes immediately. “Hey, that would be great. We don’t finish up in the shop today until almost five. Call here or call the cell number I gave you.”
    “Okay. I will talk to you later.”
    “Sure thing,” Debbie Sue replied.
    “Who was that?” Edwina asked as Debbie Sue hung up.
    “That was the woman in El Paso’s granddaughter, Sophia. She’s bringing her grandmother today. They’ll be in Odessa around five. You know, I really like her.”
    “I wonder if she could be the same little girl I played checkers with. She would be grown by now. Damn, I feel old.”
    “Well, you’re not old,” Debbie Sue said, her mood elevated. “But you are booked solid today, so you better get your young ass in gear.”
    “Oh, it’s in gear,” Edwina said. “In fact, if it gets any more in gear I’m liable to throw a rod.”
    “I’m not even touching that one,” Debbie Sue said. “Unlock the door. The day awaits.”
     
    Sophia returned the phone to its cradle and lifted her suitcase to the bed. She didn’t know how much to pack, because she didn’t know how long she would be gone. She’d seen her grandmother involved in cases from as little as a few hours to all the way up to a week or more.
    Better to take too much than too little , a soft voice in her head interjected.
    “That’s true,” Sophia replied.
    For the next twenty minutes she busied herself packing. Speaking again to the empty room, she said, “I think I’ll stop at the store and get the latest Cosmopolitan to read on the trip.”
    Best to read the Holy Bible , the voice replied.

eight
    T he Styling Station’s main wall clock, a freebie from Grissom Farm Equipment in Odessa, was the size of a big skillet. A cartoon image of a green tractor rode atop the green hour hand and a bale of hay ticked off the minutes. Over the course of a few hours, Debbie Sue and Edwina continued working side by side and not talking about the visitors coming in from the west at 5 P.M . Debbie Sue must have looked at that bale of hay passing up that tractor a hundred times. She couldn’t help but notice that Edwina was as interested in the clock as she was.
    Debbie Sue had always been excited about the cases the Domestic Equalizers took on, but this one had a totally different appeal from their previous adventures. She had absolutely no logical, plausible explanation for the goings-on atJustin’s house or the message that had appeared on his refrigerator door. Though she held a huge bit of skepticism about the supernatural, she might—emphasis on might —consider it if surveillance revealed no clues. And to appease Edwina.
    Debbie Sue had watched tales of the paranormal on TV. She had even caught a couple of Montel Williams shows when guest Sylvia Browne had given psychic readings to a hushed audience. When it came to the afterlife and those who claimed to communicate with the ones who had passed over, she had to admit she was intrigued and was willing to be open-minded.
    With the last person paid and out the door and less than an hour left to keep the doors open, Jolene Wiley, great-granddaughter of their favorite octogenarian, Maudeen Wiley, bounded in. Jolene had just completed her senior year at Salt Lick High. With her flaming-red hair and bubbly personality, she literally lit up the room.
    “Hey, Mrs. Overstreet. Mrs. Martin.”
    “Hey, yourself,” Edwina said, placing her hand on her hip and giving the girl a playful once-over. “Just look at you. What are you doing with yourself now that school’s out? Chasing boys or being chased by boys?”
    The teenager laughed. “Neither one. I don’t have time.” She began to tick off on her fingers. “Between working the morning shift at Hogg’s, getting ready to go to college in the fall, babysitting Karla Kennedy’s kids in the evening and running errands for Mama and Great Gram, I don’t have time for boys.”
    “Lord-a-mercy,” Edwina said, “what has gone