by Jody Pardo
“I’m sure I will see him sometime today then. Thanks!”
“See ya later. Just call if you need me to send one of the guys across the street with lunch if you can’t get outta there.”
“Will do.”
I crossed the street to the auction house, and Kristi was yelling at some guy at the door.
“Get out! You’re not gonna tell me how to run my shop! I will tell you when I am good and ready!”
“Thank God you’re here, Suzie. Can you get me my paperwork? I just want to head back to Sterling,” he pleaded with me.
I took one look at Kristi, and the vein on her temple was bulged and pulsating as the fury was written across her brow.
“I’m sorry. It’s going to be at least a few hours before things are ready. I just got here. I haven’t even had my coffee.” I tried to placate him.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Why don’t you go have something to eat and come back at lunchtime?” I suggested.
“This is what happens when you put women in charge,” he mumbled, turning his back to us.
“Now you can come back tomorrow, jackass! If you don’t like women, you can take your business elsewhere. I got plenty who want beef!” Kristi screamed over my shoulder.
He simply waved his hand in the air and walked away.
“That guy has some nerve.” I was appalled at his behavior.
“He comes from a long line of assholes,” Kristi said.
“Good to know,” I said, shaking my head, following Kristi back in to the office.
“Like my whole life revolves around his one calf. One. I got 124 others out there to take care of too. He can fucking wait.”
“He probably would have been knocking on my door waking me up this morning if Nancy wouldn’t have sent him over here.”
“What do you mean?” Kristi asked curiously.
“Nancy over at the diner said one of the guys was looking for me early this morning across the street asking for directions.”
“Are you kidding? Well, now he can wait. Come on, girl, I have the invoices and shipping papers over here.”
We began to work of creating files for each calf and matching them to their new owners.
“Speaking of guys … What ever happened with Max?”
“Nothing. Haven’t spoken to him.”
“Not at all?”
“Nope, not since the whole Jenny incident.”
“You know he banned her from the Taps,” she said flippantly. I looked up, not quite sure what she meant.
“What do you mean?”
“He banned her from the bar. She is going to have to find a new fishing pond.”
“You can’t ban someone from going somewhere,” I said, blowing off her statement.
“Sure you can, especially when your Dad owns the place.”
“That’s true. I guess he can then.”
“Yeah, his dad owns Brewer’s Taps, the building it sits in and a few other properties around town like the coffee shop. Max has a few properties too.”
"He mentioned it, but I thought he was just messing with me. I never really gave it much thought until now. He owns the coffee shop too?”
“No, just the building. The owners were having a hard time few years back, so he helped them out.”
“By buying the building?”
“Yup, now they don’t have to worry about their rent being late because they are dealing with people not banks.”
“Well, that was nice of them.”
“Suzie, this is a small town. People don’t have much, but they have each other. You should talk to Max.”
“He has Jenny. They can have each other.”
“No one wants Jenny,” Kristi said with a huff before answering her buzzing cell phone. “Stock and Plots, this is Kristi.”
It was a small town, and I didn’t want any part of Jenny or her sloppy seconds as she so eloquently called it, but I couldn’t get Max out of my mind. I tried to focus on the task at hand, but my thoughts kept drifting back to his soft kisses.
“That was the other driver. He won’t be here with the rest of the beef until tomorrow. So we can finish up here and head out. There are a couple orders that need calves off that other truck so I’m not calling anyone until tomorrow.”
“What about that guy you told to come back after lunch?”
“He can wait. This load wasn’t supposed to be here until tomorrow to match the other one. Let him put that in his pipe and smoke it.” I laughed at Kristi. She had some of the weirdest expressions. She never failed to crack me up.
We finished up right around lunchtime and headed out.
“I have to go check with the guys in the pasture. I will see you in the morning. I have a feeling this truck is gonna come bright and early.”
As we were locking up, I saw the ranch hand crossing the street. I quickly got in my car, throwing my purse on the passenger seat, and hurried to start her up. I prayed she started right away. As the engine turned over, I wasted no time pulling out of my parking spot and zooming down the street. I watched in my rearview mirror as he held his hat in his hands and rubbed his head, kicking at the dirt in the street.
I pulled up the driveway and there were trucks parked out by the barn but no one to be seen. Everyone must have gone out to the pastures to move cattle. Kelli’s pick up was gone too. I climbed the porch steps, kicking off the dust against the boards on the way up so I wouldn’t drag it into the house. I dumped my purse on the counter picking up the pile of mail. Kelli must have dropped it off on her way out to town.
I had started to get my forwarded mail from Dallas, but the letter on top made my blood run cold. The Post Office notice was addressed:
Suzanne Pierce
347 Mockingjay Court Unit #202
Dallas, TX 75231
That wasn’t right. I already got the change of address notice a few days after I got back from Dallas. That was Bill’s address. My lunch bubbled up in my throat, and I ran to the bathroom to spill my turkey club sandwich into the toilet. Shaking from the heaving, I reached for a towel to clean myself off.
How could this happen? I leaned back against the cool tile wall and waited for my nausea to subside. As the realization hit me, I saw his brown loafers against the white tile as his body cast a shadow on me blocking the light from the vanity.
“I told you not to embarrass me,” he growled before the world went black.
Max
How the garage got to be in such disarray was beyond my comprehension. It was easy to blame someone else, but it was only me and my dad. Mom never ventured into the garage besides to dump the trash in the dumpster can. I knew I had at least three boxes of nail strips for my nail gun in the garage, it was just a question of finding them. In the process, I hung the tools that were left out and jumbled on the workbenches.
“I thought I heard someone out here.” The sound of my dad’s voice startled me.
“Have you seen the nail strips for my Thule nail gun?”
“What color are they?”
“Silver, Dad, what other color would nails be?”
“I meant the boxes smart ass. I was just trying to help.”
“Sorry. The box is blue and black and has a plastic window on top.”
“What’s got your nuts in a twist today, son?” my dad asked as he joined in the search.
“Nothing. I was just starting to get some progress made and came up short on nails. Now here I am wasting time looking for them.”
“So just go buy some more.”
“I know I have three boxes. Those things are not cheap. Besides, I just bought some stuff so my funds are running low.”
“Need some money?”
“No, I’m good. I just bought that next lot next to mine at the last auction. The one with the small barn on it.”
“The old Weaver place? That’s a nice piece of land.”
“Well, he is only selling it piece by piece. I got it for a sweet deal, and it borders my pr
operty I have now. Hopefully, I can convince him to sell the rest to me and Aunt Kelli.”
“You know the city offered him a lot of money about fifteen years ago to buy his land. They wanted to build a road. He refused. That’s why you have to go five miles down the road to cut west. That’s all old man Weaver’s land. He didn’t want a road running through his property.”
“I didn’t know that. That means it would have run into and behind Aunt Kelli’s land too.”
“It’s probably why he is selling it piece by piece. Also, he is really particular about who he keeps for neighbors.”
“Well, he can keep the lot with his house on it. I will take the rest when he is ready. I won’t let them run a road through it, either.”
Finally, I found the nails at the bottom of a five-gallon bucket, still in the black plastic grocery bag from the day I bought them.
“A-ha. Found them.”
“You headed back out to the house?”
“I don’t know. By the time I get back out there and start working again it’s going to be dark. The electrical is installed for the most part but won’t be live for a couple days. I called them and I saw a guy on the pole, but they still have to connect to the house.”
“Let me know if you need a hand.”
“I’m finishing up the floor bases and wall studs now.”
“The house is coming along quickly. When do you think it will be done?”
“I don’t know; I’m just taking my time. In a rush to get rid of me?”
My dad fumbled with his words and shuffled around handing me two wrenches to hang on the peg board. “No, of course not. I just figured you would want to live in the house you built.”
“I will get there. I need to finish it first. Next, I need the water turned on. They have to drill a well.”
My dad huffed at the obvious. “That sounds like a project. What’s up with that Suzie girl?”
“Nothing.”
“She go back to Dallas?”
“No, she still out at Aunt Kelli’s. She is working over at the auction house.”
“She seems like a nice girl from what your mother told me.”
“How would Mother know anything?”
“What you don’t think those hens talk? Oh, and what was all that mess down at the Taps?
“Nothing. Just a tag chaser causing a ruckus.”
“Well, I don’t want that mess in my bar.”
“I banned her. Memaw put her name behind the bar.”
“Banned? That bad?”
“It was Jenny Johnson. She tore into Suzie for no good reason and followed her to Stocks and Plots.”
“What about? Why would she tear into Suzie?”
“Because I dropped her off to work.”
“Don’t tell me you are messing with Suzie and Jenny?”
“No. Suzie isn’t even talking to me after Jenny got a hold of her.”
“Son, you don’t shit where you eat. Suzie is a nice girl. That Jenny is a whore. You should know better than to go anywhere near a girl like that. Running around with Jenny, you don’t want anything that Ajax can’t scrub off.”
“I wrapped up. Trust me, I don’t want nothing to do with her.” I just wish Suzie would talk to me.
“I think you owe Suzie an apology.”
“When she decides to talk to me again, I will.”
“Come on, supper is ready. You don’t want to be on another woman’s shit list.”
I turned off the lights in the shop and followed my dad inside the house. Maybe Mom had some insight. After all, women talk.
Max
The next morning, I pulled into Stocks and Plots and Kristi was elbows deep in paperwork and ear tags. Mom said to suck it up and go talk to her. Actually, her exact words were, “Don’t be a stubborn ass like your father. Kiss some ass and don’t be afraid to beg.” I had business at the auction house; I was looking for a tiller and a riding lawn mower to maintain my property. Dad had a riding mower for the 20 x 20 swatch of grass in front of his house in town, but there was no way he was gonna let me take it. That was his pride and joy and you would think it was a Lamborghini the way he treated it. I needed a work machine, not a trophy.
“Hey, Kristi. Auction happening today?”
She looked up from the stack of papers and held her elbows down on the stacks to prevent them from blowing all over as the breeze from the door opening again.
“If I get these papers in order by seven there will be. Need a paddle?”
“Only if there is a tiller or a riding mower somewhere in that mess.”
“Couldn’t tell ya either way, Max. I’m waiting on Suzie to come in and give me a hand.”
“She not here?”
“No, no yet. Probably just running late. I never really did give her a set time to show up. She usually comes in around eleven.”
“It’s after two already.”
“Is it? Crap, I am far behind. I should give her a call and see where she is.”
Kristi put two spurs down on the paper stacks before picking up her cell and dialing Suzie’s number. I watched her face as the phone rang before she pulled it away from her head as the voicemail message came through the speaker.
“She isn’t picking up. She is probably driving. So you need a paddle?”
“Yeah, but I will grab it later. I’m gonna go swing by the house and make sure she is okay. I wanted to talk to her. Maybe she is helping my Aunt Kelli.”
“If she is out there, can you tell her I could really use her help in here?” She pointed to the two stacks of papers held down by the spurs and another stack behind her on the desk.
“Will do. Thanks, Kristi.”
“Sure thing, Max.”
Something didn’t feel right. I raced to the ranch hoping my gut was wrong.
I pulled into Aunt Kelli’s driveway behind her truck, and Suzie’s Beetle was parked in front of her porch. I let out a sigh of relief at the sight of it. Where my worry ended, my nervousness began. How would I explain and apologize? What was my excuse for being there? It was my Aunt’s place. I was allowed to be there. Shaking off my racing thoughts, I bounded the porch steps and knocked on the door.
“Suzie! It’s Max.”
I waited for her to come to the door, but the house was silent. I looked in the window to the right of the door and saw her purse on the counter. She must have really overslept. I banged on the door again louder that time and called her name. I held my ear to the door to listen for movement within the house. It was still and silent.
“Max? Is that you?” I turned around to the sound of Aunt Kelli’s voice from the main house.
“Hey, Aunt Kelli. Is Suzie with you?”
“No. I figured she was sleeping in. She should be home. Haven’t seen her since yesterday.”
I knocked on the door, pounding harder and harder with each hit.
“Suzie, open up! Wake up. Suzie!”
“Is everything all right? Max, what has gotten into you?”
“She should have been at work by now. Kristi said she didn’t show.”
She crossed the driveway joining me on the porch and knocked on the door.
“Suzie, sweetie, I have lunch ready.”
We both stood there waiting for any sign of movement from within the house. Finally, Aunt Kelli turned the knob on the door and let herself in calling out her name. Her purse was on the couch and a forwarded mail and her car keys were on the floor. I picked them up and set them on the counter. Aunt Kelli called out her name as she walked in and out of the rooms of the guest house.
“She’s not here,” she said, shaking her head joining me at the counter.
“Her stuff is here though. Her purse, car keys, everything. Something is not right.” I reached in my pocket and called her cell. The side pocket of her purse lit up and rang the Marimba as my name flashed across her screen. “Her phone is here too.”
I checked her phone, and the last missed text was from yesterday afternoon. She was defin
itely gone, and something was not right. Suzie always had her phone on her.
“Call the Sheriff.” Aunt Kelli grabbed my phone and dialed before I had a chance to react. That was not how I planned my day.
Suzie
It had been two days from what I could tell by the rise and setting of the sun I was locked in this old barn. It could have been more, but I couldn’t tell because when I woke up with a blazing headache it was already dark. Who knows how long I had been knocked out, but I wasn’t in my house. I had no idea where I was, but it was not good.
Bill was completely out of his element and looked weathered and dirty drinking straight from a bottle sitting against the opposite stall. He sat on the ground with his back to the wall with his knees erect and arms hanging over them, a gun in one hand, and a half empty bottle of Evan Williams Whiskey hung loosely from the other. I tried to wiggle free of my restraints, but he had both my hands and feet bound. My hands were tied behind my back, and my feet tied at the ankles. I laid there on my side like a pig waiting to get raised to the spit as he stared at me through the bottom of his bottle.
My throat was dry and hoarse. I had only a few sips of water since Bill took me when he turned the hose on me to wake me up. I had taken a few gulps even if involuntary, and I was glad for it. My lips were chapped and hurt just to move them.
“Please, Bill,” I croaked out.
He cocked his head to the side, and his glazed eyes focused on me.
“Pleashe what?” he slurred.
“Let me go,” I sobbed.
His nostrils flared, and he jumped to his feet waving his gun in the air. “So you can go spread your legs for every guy in town and embarrass me?”
“What do you want from me?” I sobbed.
“You know what I want. You need to remember your place,” he growled, pointing the gun to my face.
“I want to go home. Please, Bill, just let me go,” I whispered, closing my eyes hoping the gunshot would end me quickly.
“You’re coming home with me.”
