Chapter Four
H ow many sandwiches do three grown men need or even want for lunch?” I asked myself as I laid slices of bread on the counter and started to spread mayo on each piece. “No, that’s not right,” I whispered. I liked mustard on bologna but mayo on ham and cheese.
Running out and taking their orders, then coming back and making the sandwiches seemed like a lot of trouble. I didn’t know how Aunt Gracie did the job, and she wasn’t sitting on my shoulder whispering in my ear that day. I stared at the bread, but it didn’t have any answers, so I didn’t spread mustard or mayo on any of it.
I built a variety of sandwiches, put them on the largest cookie sheet I could find, and set the mayo and mustard off to the side. That way, the guys could use whichever one they wanted. I had done some relief waitress work for Madge when I was in high school, so I knew how to carry a tray. Still, it took two trips, but plenty of sandwiches, chips, chocolate chip cookies, and sweet tea was on the end of the table under the shelter by the time the grandfather clock in the foyer chimed twelve times.
“How’s business?” I asked when I brought out disposable cups and ice for the tea.
Connor reached for a sandwich. “It’s been steady—and thanks for not putting mayo on them. I like mustard better.”
“Me too,” Jasper added. “And where did the dog come from?”
“You are welcome, Connor.” I reached for a sandwich and squirted mustard on it. “And, Jasper, I found the dog in the middle of the road on the way home from Poteet last night.”
“Well, thank you for bringing her to me,” Jasper said as he slathered a little mayo on his ham-and-cheese sandwich. “I’ve wanted a dog for years, but Gracie was terrified of them. Didn’t matter if they were the size of a gigantic rat or as big as a small horse; she didn’t want them around. One year, when she was a little girl during strawberry-pickin’ season, a dog bit her on the leg, and ever since, she was afraid of all of them.”
Another piece of the puzzle that was Aunt Gracie’s life fell into place. Strange that I had always been so close to her and knew so little about her. I should probably start writing down the tidbits of information folks mentioned. Maybe then I would have a complete picture of the person who was the most influential in my life, other than my mother.
“So, what are you going to name him?” I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I had actually thought the dog would be mine.
“I’m not naming him anything, but I’m calling her Sassy,” he answered.
“Why did you pick that name?” I asked.
“Gracie and I watched The Incredible Journey together decades ago, and then we watched Homeward Bound a couple of dozen times through the years.”
“I watched that movie with Aunt Gracie when I was a little girl. One of the dogs was Chance, and the other one was ...” The name was right on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t remember it.
Connor finished the sentence for me. “Shadow.”
“You are right,” Jasper replied with a nod. “I thought about naming her that, but it was a boy’s name.”
“Sassy fits her right well,” Everett said. “She’ll make a good guard dog, and I loved both of those movies, too. Still got Homeward Bound on a DVD but don’t watch it since my wife passed away. She always laughed so hard at the cat. Makes me sad to see it without her.”
“I got a sawed-off shotgun that’s good as a guard dog,” Jasper said between bites. “I want her to be a good pet, and she’s already showing signs of that. She wiggled all over when I came outside this morning and rolled over on her back for me to scratch her belly.”
Everett refilled his cup and took a sip. “She’ll be loved, no matter if she’s just a pet or a guard dog.”
Connor finished off his sandwich and picked up another one. “Miz Gracie sure spoiled us by bringing out food during harvest season. I didn’t think sandwiches could ever taste that good again, but they do today.”
“Well, with this season, you’ll have the full experience of both fall and spring,” Everett said. “I reckon we’ll be finished Friday at quittin’ time. There’ll be a few berries left, but between the bunch of us, we’ll get them picked before the cleanup crew gets here.”
“Then we wait six months and start all over again,” Jasper said with a sigh.
“You’ve got a new dog, so you have to live that long,” I told him. “Besides, we are planning a big party for you in November to celebrate your birthday.”
“Well, in that case”—he grinned—“I wouldn’t want to disappoint you or Sassy. She’d be sad if I died so soon after she came to live with me.”
“Aren’t you going to eat with us?” Connor asked.
“Of course she is. Gracie always ate with us, even after she leased the field to Everett’s daddy. Lila will keep up with the tradition, won’t you?”
I couldn’t say no to eating with them since I was starving—or, for that matter, tell him I had actually planned on Sassy being my dog? That was certainly not the name I had thought about for hours before coming up with either Ghost, since he reminded me of something eerie with those blue eyes and white fur, or maybe Beau, just because I liked it. Then again, that was when he was a boy and not a girl.
“I’ve heard cars coming and going all morning,” I said. “How many folks do you figure have been out here already?”
Everett nodded toward a notepad where he had made marks for each person who’d come through the line to pay for the baskets of strawberries they picked. “By my count, fifty since we got here.”
“But this is the first day,” Jasper said. “We’ll see a big jump on Friday because everyone knows that is the last day we’ll be open for business.”
“I got a phone call early today saying that a jelly-making place up in San Antonio is sending pickers tomorrow for several gallons,” Connor said, reaching for another of the individual bags of chips. “They said they’ll be here every day until we close up shop on Friday, so we’ll be lucky if there’s a single berry left when we finish up.”
His hand brushed against mine when we both reached for the tea at the same time, and a tiny jolt of electricity jabbed me. No! No! No! I told myself in the identical voice Mama used back when I was a little girl and got into trouble.
I chalked up the effect Connor had on me to the roller coaster of emotions that had happened in the past few weeks. Aunt Gracie had died suddenly. I’d made a major move from a big city to a tiny community. I hadn’t dated in months. Meeting guys when I worked at home and hadn’t even gone to church in Austin was not an easy thing. But I vowed that I would not be attracted to Connor, no matter how sexy he was. Mama could be right about him just buttering me up to get at the property.
And if he’s not just interested in your house and land? the aggravating voice inside my head asked.
I’m not taking a chance. I could get hurt if he’s only being nice to me so he can sweet-talk me into selling my house, I fired back.
“What kind of work do you do?” His deep drawl, those green eyes with yellow flecks in them, and his charm would make a saintly woman swoon, and the good Lord certainly knew that I did not have a halo—not even a tarnished one—or big white fluffy wings. But I was determined to resist everything He could throw at me.
“I’m an accountant, and I work for an insurance company,” I told him. “When the pandemic hit, I worked from home, and still do.”
“Want to work for me?” Everett asked from the other end of the table.
“You probably have a whole firm working for you.”
“I do, but I can always use one more.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll stay where I am,” I said. “And speaking of that, I’d better get back to the house. I’ve got meetings all afternoon, starting in about ”—I looked at my phone—“fifteen minutes.”
“Thanks again for Sassy,” Jasper said. “Let’s have a beer while we watch the sunset this evening.”
“Save me a chair and let me pet the puppy, and I’ll bring the beer,” I said as I stood up.
“Deal!” Jasper chuckled.
I wondered what was so funny, until I realized that he had pulled one over on me by getting me to bring the beer when I come over to pet what was supposed to be my dog.
“Sassy and I had our afternoon nap and ate our supper already,” Jasper called out and motioned me over to his house that evening. Sassy was curled up in his lap, and he was rocking her like a baby. “I thought maybe you’d forgot about us.”
I set an open bottle of beer on the stump and eased down into the other rocking chair. “Not a chance. I see you’re already spoiling Sassy.”
“Yep, I am.” Jasper used one hand to hold on to the pup, who spilled out over the sides of his lap. “Right now, I’m rocking her to sleep. She ate supper with me and then went over to her dish on your back porch and ate some of her dog food. You’ll have to wait until after her nap to hold her.” He picked up the bottle of beer with his free hand and took a long drink. “I never did have any kids of my own—or even a pet—so I’m enjoying this.”
A little bit of guilt washed over me for thinking he had duped me about the dog. His expression and the way he kept petting the dog so gently testified as to how much he already loved her. I wouldn’t have had time to give her a lot of attention throughout the day, but he would dote on her. “I promised Mama I would come over to her house this evening, so if Sassy doesn’t wake up, I may have to wait until tomorrow night to hold her. You do realize she’s going to be a big dog.”
He nodded and took another drink of his beer. “Yep, I do. That’s why I didn’t let her sleep with me when I found her. I gave her a blanket, and she curled up on it right beside my bed.”
“You said that Aunt Gracie was afraid of dogs. What else was she afraid of?”
“Not a damn thing,” he answered emphatically. “Before Miz Rita decided to move to Poteet, Gracie was a sweet girl. But ...” He paused and grinned.
“But what? I just asked if she was afraid of anything else. Mama don’t like to come into the house. She says there’s something eerie, or maybe unsettling, in the place. Did Gracie ever mention that?”
“Honey, when she came out of her room after that week when she was so angry, she wasn’t afraid of nothing. I reckon if she and the devil crossed horns, she would have taken his pitchfork away from him and killed him with it.” Jasper chuckled. “I been in and out of that house my whole life, and I never felt anything strange. Your mama grew up around superstitious people. I bet if a black cat ran across the road in front of her between here and Poteet, she would drive all the way to San Antonio to keep from crossing that path.”
“You knew my grandparents?” I asked and filed away another bit of information: Gracie wasn’t sick when she went to her room; she was angry. Aunt Gracie had never told me anything about them other than they had treated my mother wrong.
“Yep, your mama’s folks lived between here and Poteet, back in the woods a ways. They believed that kids were a blessing from God and had an even dozen. They had a double standard for the boys and girls. Maybe I ought to say girl since your mama was the only one in the family. Eleven ornery boys and one girl. Didn’t your mama tell you about your kin? I might be overstepping, and I wouldn’t want Sarah to be upset with me,” Jasper said.
“Mama told me that she left home when she got pregnant with me and that Aunt Gracie took her in.”
“That’s right. Your mama was the oldest, and she came here when she was almost eighteen. Gracie didn’t really take her in, though. At one time Gracie’s father had owned several houses in Ditto, but he’d sold them all off but the one that his foreman lived in. After that guy passed away, Gracie rented it to folks. It hadn’t been lived in in a while, so she gave it to Sarah and offered to keep you while she either worked or went to college. Your mama has worked her whole life and is a fine woman. If she’s got a little tad of leftover superstition from her past, that’s okay.”
“She’s always believed that hard work pays off,” I said with a nod. “I’ve often wondered if my grandparents are still alive or if I might have cousins.”
“Why don’t you ask Sarah?”
“I don’t want to upset her.”
“Well, last I heard anything about them, they’d gone to Wyoming to live and work on a ranch, but that was before you even started to school,” Jasper went on. “They up and moved after Gracie told them what she thought of the way they were treating their only daughter. They might’ve had more kids after that or stopped at a dozen. The youngest that they had back then would have been maybe a year or so older than you.” He paused and cocked his head to one side. “That would be more’n twenty-five years ago. Time can sure get away from us. Sometimes I sit on this porch and remember when me and Davis and Gracie were young, and all the plans we made when we got to be adults.”
“Such as?” I asked.
“Oh, they changed from one week to another, like most kids’ plans do,” he said. “Looks like Sassy is going to take a long nap. You ought to go visit with your mama and come back later to play with her. I made a toy for her by rolling up a couple of pairs of my old holey socks. We might teach her to fetch.”
I finished off my beer and stood up. “Next time I’m in a store, I’ll pick her up some chew toys. I hear puppies like to chew on shoes, so you might want to keep yours in the closet.”
“She already taught me that,” Jasper said with a grin.
The sun was a big orange ball sitting right above the trees on the horizon like a golf ball on a green tee. Another day finished—another one of the same-old, same-old. Nothing really new, just more of the old rut I had basically been living in for quite a while: Get up. Have coffee. Work until lunch. Eat a sandwich or maybe leftover pizza. Work until supper. Order out and have it delivered or else open a can of soup. Looking at the gorgeous sunset couldn’t get rid of the restlessness in my heart, mind, and spirit as I drove to my mother’s house that evening.
I needed something , but I had no idea what it was, where to get it, or how to even find it. I let out a sigh that was more like a plea for help when I parked beside a strange car at Mama’s house. Maybe whoever the vehicle belonged to would bring some excitement to our lives.
Yeah, right , the aggravating voice in my head said. How much excitement do you think you’ll ever find in Ditto, Texas?