The Dixie Belle's Guide to Love by Luanne Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

pegged him for, have changed?
    “Anyway, you’ll probably be glad for me to get gone from here quick as I can, right?”
    She shrugged, sort of. More like lifted her shoulders slightly and tipped her head and hummed a nonanswer answer.
    “I know I’ll be glad to hit the road that much sooner.”
    “Why?” She did not ask as a way of accusation. Though some part of her wanted to do just that—come right out and accuse the man of providing his family the emotional stability of a dust devil. “Why are you always so het-up to get out of Hellon?”
    “Because it’s Hellon.”
    “It’s also where your only family lives. Your mother isn’t getting any younger, you know.”
    “As long as the grandest beauty salons and finest plastic surgeons in the region remain open for business, she ain’t getting any older either.”
    “And what about Jillie?”
    “She actually prefers to go up north for her beauty treatments.”
    Glib. She should have known that’s how a man this shallow and self-involved would respond. He hadn’t changed. But he was right about one thing, she’d definitely be glad to get shed of him as quick as possible. “Never mind. Sorry I even brought it up.”
    “Jillie is an adult, Rita. I don’t see how my hanging around Hellon until I’m stifled within an inch of my life with phony hero worship is going to have any effect on her.”
    “Maybe if you showed her there was something genuinely heroic to look for in others, to strive for in herself. Maybe if you were more of a presence in her life, you’d counteract some of the other…influences.”
    He laughed, but not brightly. “In other words, Mother.”
    “Miss Peggy isn’t a bad sort, really, she’s just…”
    He held up his hand to stop her. “I don’t need another lecture from you on my responsibilities to my loved ones, thank you.”
    “Your family is a mess. You know that much, don’t you?”
    He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck.
    “You know a lot of your mother’s stirring up trouble all the time stems from pure loneliness.”
    He conceded as much with a nod so curt it hardly qualified as a head movement.
    “And did you know that Jillie has decided that since there are no good men left on the face of the earth, she’d rather take up with outright rotten ones? Just to save herself a lot of heartache?”
    He clucked his tongue. “That’s her choice.”
    “Well, it’s a bad one.” She didn’t have to tell him that, did she? Surely he had enough moral grounding to know this was a bad, bad thing and enough concern for his sister to want to know the truth. “She’s dating a married man. Did you know that?”
    “Paul?” His features clouded.
    “You do know?”
    “I teased her about him but, no, I never thought she’d…” He rubbed the spot between his eyebrows with one crooked knuckle. “Damn it, Rita. What is wrong with her?”
    For an instant she actually felt bad for unloading the specifics on him.
    But he shook it off before she could so much as backpedal an inch. He let his shoulders drop and scored his thumbnail over the gouged lunch counter’s surface. “You’re her friend, why don’t you talk to her?”
    “You think for one minute I’ve stayed silent on the subject?”
    He laughed.
    “But it all boils down to the fact that a friend is not family. She needs her family. She needs you to talk to her.”
    “I wouldn’t know what to say. I’m not exactly…” He let the thought trail off.
    “And you think I’m a prime example?” She leaned one elbow on the lunch counter. “You think I’m the person to stand up and lecture anyone on how many good men are out there looking for decent women to become their lovers and lifelong helpmates?”
    His expression gentled. “I see your point.”
    She straightened her back. “Don’t take that as a slap at Pernel, now.”
    “No, I wouldn’t.”
    “That’s about me and my faults.”
    “I know that’s how you see it. You take on the blame and worry