by Tonya Kappes
It was cute how he could tell she and I needed a little girl time.
Betts and I sat in silence for a few more seconds after Hank had left the room.
“I’m sorry. I had no idea.” Betts broke the silence. “If I could take back all the pain he caused, I would.”
“You don’t have to explain to me.” I offered her a smile through my bruised and busted lip I could feel had swollen to three times its size. “You forget, my dead ex-husband also messed over a lot of people.”
“Yeah,” she smiled back.
“You know.” I shrugged. “I’m going to need some time to heal this big lip.” I pointed to my lip and groaned a little as the pain radiated across my face. “Why don’t we blow this joint and have a spa day?”
“Who’s having a spa day?” Queenie asked. Dottie and Abby weren’t too far behind her.
“Oh! I’d love to have a spa day.” Abby’s face lit up and she nudged Dottie.
“What?” Dottie groaned. Abby gave her a hard look. “Fine. We can have a spa day at the Laundry Club. I’ll get a few of the Happy Trails spa packages for us.”
“Are you sure?” Betts looked around at all of us.
“We are the Laundry Club and we stick together through thick or thin.” I pushed myself up into bed and ripped the heart monitor probes off my chest. “I’m fine and can’t think of a better way to spend my first day out of here than with my friends.”
Abby hurried over to get my clothes from the hospital closet while Queenie helped me out of the bed.
“I’ll meet y’all directly.” Dottie walked right into Hank on her way out and his way back in.
“Just where do you think you’re going?” he asked, a concerned look on his face.
“We need girl time.” Betts put her hand on his arm and squeezed.
There was an unexplainable moment between them and it showed on Hank’s face that he knew Betts needed me as much as I needed her.
“Then let me help you.” He came over and gave me and Queenie a hand, helping me walk to the bathroom where Abby had put my clothes.
When I came back out, all the girls from the Laundry Club were gone.
“Where are they?” I asked him. “Did you run them off?”
“Nope. I just wanted a little time alone with you and I told them I’d bring you in my car.” He put his arm around me. “Are you ready?”
“I’m ready.” I smiled and put my arm around his waist.
“No. I mean are you ready for the next level of our relationship?” He asked. “The part where you meet my parents?”
“So does that make us official?” I questioned. There was a flicker of excitement in my heart.
“More than you know.” He opened the door with his free hand to lead me out of the hospital room.
Side by side, we walked out of the hospital.
Side by side. Something I knew I could get used to.
RECIPES AND CLEANING HACKS FROM MAE WEST AND OTHER WOMENFROM NORMAL, KENTUCKY, and HAPPY TRAILS CAMPGROUND
Camping Cleaning HACK #1
Store silica gel packs with your cookware.
Save those little silica gel packs and store them with your cookware to help prevent rust. All it takes is one rusty pan for no one to eat anything you cook. In a campground, especially at Happy Trails Campground, everyone loves to share their food! Don’t get caught with rusty pots!!!
NO MESS CAMPFIRE OMELETS
Ingredients
1 quart-sized freezer bag
2 eggs
1/2 cup of whatever you like to put in your omelet: sausage, bacon, onions, mushrooms, peppers, etc.
1/4 cup of cheese, any kind.
Instructions
Crack eggs into the quart-sized freezer bad.
Add fillings and cheese.
Seal bag and shake to scramble the eggs and mix the omelet.
Cook in gently boiling water for 14-15 minutes.
RV HACK #2
Hand sanitizer works as fire starter.
All campers and RVers have plenty of hand sanitizer on hand! Use hand sanitizer to start a germ-free fire in a pinch! No joke! Just squirt it on the kindling and watch it start an amazing fire!
MARY ELIZABETH DOYLE’S EASY CINNAMON ROLLS
MILKERY BED AND BREAKFAST
PREHEAT YOUR OVER TO 200 DEGREES BEFORE YOU START.
Ingredients
For the yeast:
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup melted butter
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons quick-rise yeast
Directions for yeast:
Combine the warm milk together with the melted butter, sugar and yeast in a large bowl.
Let it sit for 10 minutes.
For the rolls:
1 large egg, whisked
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking oil spray
Directions:
Add the whisked egg to the milk mixture.
Add 3 1/2 cups flour and salt and mix until a soft dough forms. It will be a sticky dough.
Put the dough on a floured surface.
Knead until smooth and elastic.
Lightly coat a large bowl with cooking oil spray.
Put the dough in the bowl and turn it in the bowl to coat with the cooking spray.
Cover bowl with damp towel.
Turn off your oven and put the bowl into the warm oven for 30 minutes.
The dough should have risen so punch dough down.
Cover for another 30 minutes. The dough will rise to double the size.
Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface, into a rectangle.
Brush the melted butter over the dough and sprinkle evenly with brown sugar and cinnamon mix. (see below for the cinnamon mix)
Beginning at one long side of your dough, roll up dough tightly.
Pinch down the side to seal it.
Cut dough roll into 12 bigger rolls or into 15 smaller ones.
Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish and arrange the cut rolls on it.
Cover the dish with the damp towel for 30 minutes and allow the uncooked cinnamon rolls to double in size.
Preheat oven again to 350°F.
Put the rolls in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
While they are baking, make your icing.
After the cinnamon rolls are done, slightly brown, let them slightly cool before icing them.
For Cinnamon filling:
1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter melted
For the icing:
4 oz cream cheese at room temperature ( I set this out when I start making the recipe and it’s good by the time I need to make the icing.)
2 tablespoon melted butter
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
For the icing:
Prepare icing while rolls are baking.
Mix together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla, until smooth and creamy.
Mix in the powdered sugar until there are no lumps.
Drizzle icing over the warm cinnamon rolls
Enjoy!
RV HACK #3
Hang your clothes up with bread tags.
You know those bread tags, not the twisty ties, the hard plastic ones. Start stockpiling them. They make great clothespins for your clothes line when you are RV’ing and camping. Just hang your shirt, put one of the bread tags to hold it in place on the clothes line and voila!
CAMPFIRE BANANA BOATS
Ingredients
4 small bananas
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
Directions:
1. Leaving skin on, cut the banana down the middle without cutting through the bottom of the skin.
2. Open the banana like a taco and add some chocolate chips and miniature marshmallows.
4. Sit the foiled banana on a grate over the open campfire.
5. Check the banana in five minutes and continue to check until the marshmallows and chocolate chips have melted to desired taste.
About the Author
Tonya has written over 55 novels, all of which have graced numerous bestseller lists including USA Today. Best known for stories charged with emotion and humor, and filled with flawed characters, her novels have garnered reader praise and glowing critical reviews. She lives with her husband, two very spoiled schnauzers and grew up in the small southern Kentucky town of Nicholasville. Now that her four boys are grown boys, Tonya writes fulltime.
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Also by Tonya Kappes
Magical Cures Mystery Series
A CHARMING CRIME
A CHARMING CURE
A CHARMING POTION (novella)
A CHARMING WISH
A CHARMING SPELL
A CHARMING MAGIC
A CHARMING SECRET
A CHARMING CHRISTMAS (novella)
A CHARMING FATALITY
A CHARMING DEATH (novella)
A CHARMING GHOST
A CHARMING HEX
A CHARMING VODOO
A CHARMING CORPSE
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A GHOSTLY UNDERTAKING
A GHOSTLY GRAVE
A GHOSTLY DEMISE
A GHOSTLY MURDER
A GHOSTLY REUNION
A GHOSTLY MORTALITY
A GHOSTLY SECRET
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MOCHA AND MURDER
FRESHLY GROUND MURDER
COLD BLOODED BREW
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SOUTHERN FRIED
AX TO GRIND
SIX FEET UNDER
DEAD AS A DOORNAIL
TANGLED UP IN TINSEL
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SPIES AND SPELLS
BETTING OFF DEAD
GET WITCH or DIE TRYING
A Laurel London Mystery Series
CHECKERED CRIME
CHECKERED PAST
CHECKERED THIEF
A Divorced Diva Beading Mystery Series
A BEAD OF DOUBT SHORT STORY
STRUNG OUT TO DIE
CRIMPED TO DEATH
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SPLITSVILLE.COM
COLOR ME LOVE (novella)
COLOR ME A CRIME
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A SUPERSTITIOUS CHRISTMAS (novella)
NEVER TELL YOUR DREAMS
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GROOMING MR. RIGHT
TAMING MR. RIGHT
Women’s Fiction
CARPE BREAD ’EM
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TAG YOU’RE IT
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover designer Mariah Sinclair. Editor Dianne Jessie.
Copyright © 2019 by Tonya Kappes. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Author Tonya Kappes, [email protected]