Chapter Two
Thank you, Lord, or the weatherman, or whoever was in charge of sunshine today,” Tina muttered on the way to her first day of work at the feedstore.
After two days of pouring-down rain, there wasn’t even a small, puffy white cloud in the sky on Monday morning. The humidity level was high for the area, which could cause her curly red hair to look like an old string mop that had been hung out upside down to dry on a clothesline.
“Not a good sight on my first day of work,” she said as she jogged out to her vehicle and turned on the engine and air-conditioning at the same time.
When she reached Walker’s Feedstore, she took a long breath and tried to calm her nerves.
This was her first day at a new job, and Walker was her boss.
A bell rang when she opened the door and the smells of lumber, various kinds of feed, and leather wafted out with the cool air.
Life didn’t offer the choice to step back in time for a do-over, with all the knowledge and experiences that a person had attained or lived through.
However, it did hand out a few second chances, and Tina felt like she was one of the lucky ones who’d won one.
Walker came around the end of an aisle and smiled. “Some things never change, do they?”
Tall, dark, and handsome, with gorgeous blue eyes, she thought. He was every woman’s dream—which meant he had to be dating someone, right?
“No, thank goodness, but . . .” She nodded over to a section of the store filled with racks of clothing. “That wasn’t here when I left. Does it ever confuse people that your first name was the same as Bull’s last name?”
“All the time. But hey, it’s a great conversation starter.
” Walker shrugged. “That I have part of my grandpa’s name is all old news.
The more recent news is that you are working here, so welcome to the Walker’s Feedstore, and for the past five years, we have a limited amount of Western clothing.
‘Here in Benson, we have to diversify.’ Those were my grandfather’s words when .
. .” He waved a hand to take in that side of the place.
“I was surprised that he even knew that word.”
Tina scanned the signs hanging between the aisles to guide the customers in the right direction. “This place has grown since I was here last. From everything I see on that wall and those round racks, I bet you get a lot of ladies coming in. Those are not cheap purses and boots.”
“Oh, yeah, I do, but no one in this small town seems to be interested in high-dollar purses and boots,” Walker said.
“I haven’t ordered in anything new in two years.
Everything you see is leftovers from when Grandpa was here.
A cute little saleslady talked him into stocking a lot of stuff that folks around here can’t afford.
The green handbag up there sells for five hundred dollars, and how many folks in Benson can buy a two-hundred-dollar pair of jeans?
If all this ever sells, I plan to restock with affordable things like more overalls and work boots. ”
“How about folks traveling through town?” Tina asked. “Do you get any sales that way?”
“Did you read the sign? It says feedstore. How many hoity-toity ladies are going to ask their husbands to stop here so they can look at two-by-fours and check on the price of cattle or chicken feed?” Walker chuckled. “I’m not about to pay for a new sign just for these goods.”
Tina smiled at the image his words created in her head. “You’ve got a point there.”
“Follow me to the office. How good are you with old ledgers?” he asked.
“I was introduced to a few in my early college classes.”
“I need someone to help me transfer the entire business over to the computer. That way I won’t have to handwrite all the sales and keep up with the bookwork involved. And it will make first-of-the-month billing a lot easier.”
“I guess that means that some of the farmers and ranchers still run a tab?” she asked.
“Like I said, some things never change.”
Tina followed him to the back of the store and into a tiny office.
A fairly new desktop took up the corner of a spotless desk.
File cabinets lined one wall, and if there was a speck of dust anywhere in the room, she would eat it.
“Why haven’t you already gone digital? If I remember right, you were pretty good with techie stuff when we were in high school. ”
He raised a shoulder in half a shrug. “I could do it if I wasn’t by myself.
I bought a program, but I’ve been running the store, keeping up with the handwritten books, and ordering supplies.
Anytime I mentioned anything about going digital, Grandfather got his dander up in a hurry.
After he passed, I set up the computer, but I haven’t had much time, like I said. ”
Tina understood trying to hold down more than one job in a twenty-four-hour period.
She worked through the day as a bookkeeper or in data processing and then did the evening shift as a waitress at a restaurant.
But that was yesterday’s news, and she refused to be a victim.
She was responsible for the choices she’d made and for the fact that she had to work sixteen hours a day.
All weekend long, she had seen questions in Walker’s and Gracie’s faces.
Since she wasn’t ready to answer them, she’d simply stayed close to Cleo and Mae.
At one point, Cleo had asked her why she’d left Louisiana, but Mae shushed her by saying that Tina would tell them what they needed to know when she was ready to talk.
“How long have you been back in Benson?” she blurted out.
“I blew out my knee the first semester of college. No sports scholarship equals no room and board, so I came home with a limp and busted pride. Mother had married again, this time to a man that Grandfather approved of, and moved to Arizona, leaving Bull to run the store alone, and he needed help. He nursed me back to physical health and gave me a job. I left in August and was back home by December.” He laid his hand on top of the computer monitor.
“Grandfather called this Lucifer. Said that these damn things would rob good men from having decent jobs.”
“And?”
“He passed away two years ago and left all his belongings to me. Surprised me, since he hated my Navajo father so much, but here I am. Running the store just like he did,” Walker said with another shrug. “Not too glamorous for the kid who was on his way to playing pro basketball.”
“Are you happy?” Tina asked.
“That’s a helluva question. Are you?”
“I haven’t been for a long time, but being here in Benson is helping. Your turn.”
He squared his shoulders. “When I first came back, I felt like I failed everyone, including the town, Bull, and even my graduating class. I had envisioned a sign out on that city-limits signpost that said ‘Home of Walker Cosay, Pro Basketball Player.’ That way the old Bull would be proud of me and not carry a grudge because Mama married who she did.”
Tina’s smile turned into a giggle.
“What’s so funny?”
“My sign was going to say ‘Home of Tina O’Grady, Olympic Gold Medalist for Softball.’ You don’t get to feel sorry for yourself, Walker.
We all wanted to be somebody famous,” she explained, but she didn’t tell him that when she had messed up so badly that her parents cut her off, she couldn’t face any of her friends.
“Except for Gracie. She didn’t care about having her name on a sign. She just wanted to be a teacher, and she did just that. Remember when we told her she was too timid to be a teacher?” Walker asked.
Tina nodded. “I said she was too shy to ever control a classroom full of wild kids.”
“Guess she proved us wrong, didn’t she?” The bell jingled and Walker headed out of the room. “Time for us to earn our paychecks. We’ll talk about the computer stuff later.”
Tina walked slowly as she followed him, to familiarize herself with the location of the different aisles.
When she was halfway to the front, she heard a very familiar high-pitched, nasal tone that couldn’t have belonged to anyone but Reesa Jones.
The girl had bragged that she was going to Hollywood to jump right into an acting career.
She was pretty in a trophy wife sort of way—blond, thin, and had a Marilyn Monroe mouth—but if she ever landed a role, they would have to dub her.
She had bragged during their senior year that by the time she was twenty years old, she would have at least one Oscar on her shelf and her face would be on billboards for a blockbuster movie.
After all, she had landed the biggest parts in the plays that the drama department presented each year at Benson High School.
“But then, I was going to have a sign outside of Benson, too,” she whispered to herself. “So who am I to judge Reesa?”
She rounded the end of the paint aisle in time to see Reesa hold up a pair of those two-hundred-dollar jeans. “I’m taking these to the dressing room, and I want this purse.” She handed Walker the green purse. “Stick around close because I’ll need you to tell me if they make me look fat.”
“I can do that.” Tina walked right up to a round rack of shirts. “Hello, Reesa. Are you back home for a visit?”
“Tina O’Grady,” Reesa said with a saccharine smile. “It’s been a minute.”
“More than one,” Tina said as she eyed her former classmate.
Reesa, the Benson High School cheerleader and prom queen, had put on at least twenty pounds, and her once-long blond hair was now cut in one of those choppy bobs that did not do a thing for her round face, even if her skin still didn’t sport a single freckle.
That was because she wore so much makeup that the sun had no hope of cracking that barrier.
Tina picked out a lacy blouse from the round rack. “This would look amazing, maybe with those Western jeans, if you’re going to a rodeo.”
“What are you doing in town?” Reesa took the hangers from her and studied her carefully. “Are you here to shop, too?”