Don't Make Me Choose Between You and My Shoes
Page 24
Buddy took the Texas Ranger exam and passed with flying colors. He was posted to the West Texas region, an assignment that allowed Debbie Sue and him to continue to reside in their home in Salt Lick.
Matt made good on his promise to Celina. He traveled to Texas and fell almost as much in love with Dime Box and its 381 inhabitants as he was in love with Celina. He applied for a job as a detective in Austin and was enthusiastically hired.
One of the first Texas Rangers he met was Ranger Buddy Overstreet. To his credit, Matt never mentioned the events during the week Buddy’s wife spent in the city. Matt was sworn to keep the peace, and he could see that telling Ranger Overstreet the details of the New York City caper involving the Domestic Equalizers would have resulted in the direct opposite.
Celina and Matt married a few months later. The bride was given away by Granny Dee’s new husband, Dewey. Debbie Sue and Buddy and Edwina and Vic traveled to Dime Box for the ceremony.
Celina moved the library to a new location in its own building and founded an annual book festival honoring Texas authors. Prompted by her relationship with the authors, she wrote a romance novel based loosely on her trip to New York City, where she had found adventure and love. It became a New York Times best seller.
Hotel manager Otto Pembroke was unable to keep the week of mayhem caused by the Domestic Equalizers’ visit a secret. Someone leaked the story to the New Yorker Hotel’s board of directors, and Pembroke was reassigned to the hotel chain’s struggling link located in Death Valley, California.
Homer Hess became the new general manager, and the hotel flourished under his watchful eye. He was written up in numerous publications and received many awards, most of which lined the walls of his large, cushy office.
Still later, Debbie Sue and Edwina were contacted by the Manhattan Police Women’s Association. A reward of a thousand dollars had been offered for the capture of Detective Frank Rogenstein. Because of their heroic efforts, Debbie Sue and Edwina were presented with the reward.
They happily accepted the money and Edwina again became the proud owner of a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes. Ruby-red satin trimmed with black and red crystals.
“It just goes to prove,” she told Debbie Sue over an ice-cold margarita, “you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t strip a killer pair of designer shoes off a country girl’s feet.”
“Amen,” Debbie Sue said. “I’ll drink to that.”
About the Author
Dixie Cash is Pam Cumbie and her sister, Jeffery McClanahan. They grew up in rural West Texas among “real life fictional characters” and 100 percent real cowboys and cowgirls. Some were relatives and some weren’t. Pam has always had a zany sense of humor and Jeffery has always had a dry wit. Surrounded by country-western music, when they can stop laughing long enough, they work together creating hilarity on paper. Both live in Texas—Pam in the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex and Jeffery in a small town near Fort Worth.
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Also by Dixie Cash
I GAVE YOU MY HEART, BUT YOU SOLD IT ONLINE
MY HEART MAY BE BROKEN, BUT MY HAIR STILL LOOKS GREAT
SINCE YOU’RE LEAVING ANYWAY, TAKE OUT THE TRASH
Credits
Cover design by Laura Klynstra
Cover photograph by Dennie & D.K. Cody/Jupiter
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.
DON’T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN YOU AND MY SHOES. Copyright © 2008 by Dixie Cash. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition April 2008 ISBN 9780061734328
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