Read Online The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off by Carolyn Brown - Free Book Online

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    She set her offering on the table and picked up a purple paper plate. A hard morning of running back and forth from fitting room to stockroom to cash register had flat out worked up her appetite. She started with two chicken salad sandwiches and added a handful of chips on the side.
    â€œYou need some sideboards there?” Floy asked from the head of a table where only one seat was left. It was pretty quiet for a committee meeting, which left no doubt that they’d all been talking about the divorce.
    â€œI think I can manage it.” She smiled.
    â€œOkay, while we eat, we’ll talk business,” Floy said. “I heard that Lenny put Carson on retainer this morning so I suppose this divorce is going to happen.”
    She bit into the sandwich. “I’m not surprised. I hear he even told his new girlfriend that he’d hang a picture of them together above the mantel.”
    â€œWhy would he do that?” Floy asked.
    â€œWell, you know he’s won the chili cook-off every year since he and Carlene married. I guess he plans to win it this year and put his and Bridget’s picture holding the trophy up on the wall. But we are praying that he comes to his senses and repents,” Alma Grace said.
    â€œWe had an executive meeting before you got here and we’ve voted to change the bylaws for the Easter committee,” Floy said bluntly.
    The sandwich stuck firmly somewhere between Alma Grace’s throat and stomach. It took three big gulps of sweet tea to send it on down. “What does that mean?”
    â€œIt means that the person in charge of the Easter program has to be above reproach. It was bad enough when you threw your lot in with your cousins and went into business in a panty shop, but now there’s going to be a divorce and talk will be bad. They’ll say that Carlene is doing all kinds of things in that room above the store.”
    â€œIt’s pink,” Alma Grace stammered.
    â€œWhat’s that got to do with anything?”
    â€œIt looks like a little girl’s Barbie room. There’s no way it could ever be misconstrued as hooker paradise,” Alma Grace said.
    Floy set her jaw and shook her head. “Even your language has been affected by working in that place. We just can’t abide it, Alma Grace. So we put an amendment into the bylaws. It’s to save you and your sweet mama embarrassment. From now on the president of the Easter committee can only serve two terms, each one lasting one year. You’ve already served far longer than that, so as of today someone else is taking over your spot and Kim will help her out. No hard feelings, now. It does say in the Good Book that those who the Lord loves will be chastised. Women need to learn their place and stay in it. If she’d been doing her part in the marriage, Lenny would not have strayed.”
    Steaming hot tears welled up in Alma Grace’s eyes but she didn’t let a single one escape. “What about me? I’m the angel who sings the final song and this year we were working on bringing me down from the rafters like I was flying.”
    Floy’s smile was as stiff as that tight little gray bun at the back of her head. “Kim is going to do that. Bless your heart, you can sing in the choir. We’d never take that away from you. Not with your sweet soprano voice.”
    Alma Grace pushed the plate away from her. If she had to smell that dill pickle another minute, she would throw up. She was ruined and she hadn’t done a blasted thing. The fault lay on Carlene’s shoulders for leaving Lenny before the Easter program. If she’d stuck around and tried to work it out, none of this would be going on.
    Her voice cracked but she didn’t let the tears loose. “I suppose you’re putting me on the back row, right?”
    Everyone in the committee knew that a place on the back row was a slap in the face. There was no way that anyone could