The best gossip in Apple Trail can be found at….

“Lucille, honey. This apron is catching on my hair.” Charlene Watkins picked at her nape and then fluffed her apron forward over her knees. She looked to Barbara Gemtem who was five minutes into a color and if things progressed as usual, at least a quarter of an hour of having her ear talked off. Not that Barbara would have any problems with that. Charlene huffed and sat back. “I think Stephanie and Parker were bumping uglies when she was still married.”

Barbara closed her magazine. “I heard her ex, Jake, was cheating on Stephanie and that’s why they divorced. She and his friend Parker didn’t hook up until after the fact.”

“They may be saying one thing,” Charlene continued, “but doing something else. You remembered how he looked at her all the time.”

Lucille combed through Charlene’s  short cropped hair and trimmed the edges. “I know Stephanie, and I know that good girl wouldn’t have been cheating while she was still married. We all saw how devastated she was when she went through that divorce.”

“I didn’t see much of her for those first few months.” Barbara tapped on her chin. “She moved in with Parker immediately after the divorce, you know. No good could come of that.”

Charlene laughed. “Oh, I  just bet LOTS of good came out of moving in with him.”

Lucille shook her head. “That didn’t last but a week until Jimmy Netomyer had time to clean one of his vacant apartments. Then she moved out.”

“Again, they may have been saying one thing, but doing another.” Charlene admired her hair in the mirror. “Thin out some of this thick hair around my face this time, Lucille.” And the woman carried on without  missing a beat. “For all we know they were living in one apartment and had been together long before Stephanie got a divorce. She’s not from around here, remember? She was passing through from Fayetteville when she met Jake and stayed. I have cousins up there in that big town and they don’t all think right.”

“That’s because your cousins ain’t right,” Barbara clarified and the woman had a point. “Nothing to do with a big town.”

Lucille sighed. “I’m just saying, one of the sweetest memory I’ve got is from the day Parker walked in those glass front doors and begged me to make a house call to Stephanie. He gave me a key, paid me and told me good luck. I walked in Stephanie’s apartment and it was well lived in. By the looks of her, she had been living on her couch with nothing but Kleenex’s for blankets and chocolate and ice cream for food. It wasn’t the look of a woman happily in love and glad to be free from her ex to carry on with Parker.”

The corner of Barbara’s lips tipped up. “I didn’t know you made house calls. You mean I’ve been dragging myself in public with my gray roots when you would come to my house?”

Lucille looked over the top of her silver frames. “I don’t and it’d take me a lot to do it again. Poor girl, I had to peel her off the couch and all but drag her to the bathtub. Was like cleaning up a hundred twenty-five pound potato.”

“She was that out of it?” Charlene’s face softened.

Lucille chuckled. “She was until I ripped a strap of wax off her thigh. I tell you what, she woke up then and stayed awake.”

“Lydia Baker said she saw the two of the kissing in Parker’s garage when he was supposed to be changing oil three weeks before Stephanie split from her ex.”

“Uh-huh.” Lucille shook her head. “Isn’t Lydia Baker the one who was calling you a lesbian last summer cause you told Barbara her butt looked great in her Easter dress?”

Charlene groaned. “God, do not remind me.”

“So it may not be what it looks like.” Lucille moved around to the front and started with bangs. “I’m happy for them.”

Barbara nodded. “I agree. I just wish he’d marry the girl before she turns up pregnant. You know it’s only a matter of time since they’re shacking up together.”

Charlene lifted a brow. “I know. They’re Lydia’s neighbors. From what she says, a baby ain’t gonna be too far behind.”

“And on that, I think we can believe Lydia.” Lucille frowned. “Charlene, honey, I believe we need to take care of your eyebrows today too. Let me go heat my wax up.”

Gotta watch out for that gossip! If you want the real storybehind Parker and Stephanie, check out Through The Wall.

So what do you think? Newly divorced. Hooking up with her bestfriend’s ex. You KNOW there’s some good talking going on in the small town of Apple Trail. Gotta any juicy details to share on what you heard?

(ps. Apple Blossom’s is for gossip only. Please do not post spoilers, but feel free to make up your own gossip and suspicions of things you’ve “heard”. You all know how gossip works *wink*)