Cupid, Texas [1] Love at First Sight by Lori Wilde Page B

than you, Carol Ann.” Delia caught Lace by the arm with the crook of her cane as she walked past. She pushed her glasses down on the end of her nose and peered at Lace’s plate loaded with three sandwiches. “Are those Pearl’s chicken salad sandwiches?”
    “Uh-huh,” Lace said.
    “I’ve gotta have some. Pearl makes the best chicken salad in town. It’s because she uses tarragon and those seedless Thompson grapes.”
    “I’ll get you a plate, Auntie Delia,” Natalie offered. “You go ahead and have a seat.”
    Delia patted Natalie’s cheek. “You’re such a good girl. I’ll have three halves and some of those ruffled-up sour cream and chive potato chips.”
    “Chips are full of sodium, Aunt Delia,” Carol Ann scolded.
    Delia faked a wide-eyed innocence. “My goodness, should we call Channel Nine in El Paso and tell them about the earth-shattering news?”
    “I’m just trying to help.” Carol Ann sniffed. “Do you want to have to go back on those water pills?”
    “ Bese mi asno ,” Delia said sweetly.
    Carol Ann frowned. “What’s that?”
    “She said she appreciates your concern,” Natalie lied, sliding the plate of sandwiches and a small amount of chips in front of Delia as her great aunt sat down. She wasn’t about to let Carol Ann know that Delia had just told her to kiss her ass in Spanish.
    “Oh well. You’re welcome.” Carol Ann beamed.
    Lace rolled her eyes again and bit into a sandwich. She might be quiet and dreamy, but Lace also had a sarcastic side.
    Junie Mae wisely stayed out of it.
    Delia crunched a chip. “Where is everyone else?”
    “We’re here, we’re here, sorry to be late.”
    They all turned as the two cousins by marriage, Sandra and Mignon, entered the room.
    Mignon was married to Delia’s son, Michael. Mignon had been born in the Loire Valley and she’d met Michael when she worked as a winery tour guide and he’d come to the vineyard for a summer internship. They ran Mon Amour, one of the three wineries nestled in the valley of the Davis Mountains.
    Sandra had been married to Delia and Rose’s younger brother, Stephen, before he’d passed away six years earlier. Sandra was in her sixties and ran Cupid’s Cup, the local coffee shop. She and Stephen had had four sons, none of whom still lived in Cupid, much to Sandra’s disappointment. Junie Mae and Sandra had gone to high school together, although Junie Mae had been a senior when Sandra was a sophomore.
    There was so much family history to keep up with that sometimes even Natalie got confused about who was related to whom and how.
    “You’re not too late,” Carol Ann said. “Zoey isn’t here yet.”
    Mignon was the most exotic person Natalie knew and she was responsible for Natalie’s fascination with all things French. When Natalie was growing up, Mignon gave her issues of Elle and told exciting stories of her numerous love affairs when she lived in Paris.
    Even though Mignon drank wine daily, ate her fill of cheese, and never worked out, at forty-five she was as thin as a ruler and almost as tall as Natalie. She wore her hair clipped in a short cap of brown curls, smoked slim brown cigarettes, swore like a stevedore, and did not shave her armpits, but did shave her legs.
    That drove Junie Mae nuts. “Either shave or don’t shave, pick one,” she was fond of telling Mignon. “And for godsakes, if you’re not gonna shave those pits, don’t wear tank tops. None of the rest of us wanna see that.”
    Mignon would just laugh at that and raise her arms over her head to show off her au naturel underarms.
    “ Mon Dieu , it’s hot out there.” Mignon fanned herself with a hand. She had never really adjusted to the southwest Texas heat.
    “You’ll feel better after a glass of cold sweet tea,” Sandra soothed.
    As the peacemakers of the group, Sandra and Natalie were more alike than anyone else in the room, although Sandra liked to keep things peaceful because she hated conflict of any kind, while