What Matters in Mayhew (The Beanie Bradsher Series Book 1)

by Cassie Dandridge Selleck

  “Okay, wait,” Gabe raised her hands in mock surrender. “I need to back up. I have a tendency to come on strong, which is not going to help me get off on the right foot here. I wasn’t trying to offend you.”

  “I don’t know that I’m offended,” Suvi said. “I’m just not sure what you’re getting at.”

  Gabe sighed. “I don’t know how to be anything but brutally honest. You can fire me before you even hire me, but I can’t dance around anything just to make a buck.”

  “Dance around what?”

  “You built that house on the edge of…what is it they call your neighborhood here?”

  Suvi dropped his head and shook it side to side, blowing his breath out through pursed lips. When he looked back up, he said, “Obviously, you’ve already heard.”

  “The Quarters,” Gabe said. “The Quarters, for God’s sake. What does that even mean?”

  “Everybody calls it the Quarters, even the residents. It’s just always been that way.”

  “Now you know you don’t believe that. They are referring to slave quarters and you know it. I almost didn’t move here when I heard that.”

  “So why did you?”

  “I’ll just call us even and say ‘that’s a difficult question to answer,’ but in the meantime, let’s be real - your house is not going to be an easy sell. It’s a mansion on the edge of the poorest neighborhood in this whole county.”

  “It’s not a mansion,” Suvi said.

  “Compared to the houses around it, it is.”

  “So, what, I should just stay put?”

  “I’m not saying that. I’m saying we need to be realistic about what you can expect to get out of the house. Comps will not do you any favors here. But, that’s why I asked if you were upside down. If you own it outright, it may not matter that you won’t get what the house is worth.”

  “So how much do you think it’s worth?” Suvi asked.

  “I need time to research it – pull some comps, if I can find any.”

  “How much time do you need?”

  “Not much. You in a hurry?” Gabe rummaged through her desk drawer and pulled out a file folder labeled New Client Forms.

  “Not at all. I just made up my mind to move the other day,” Suvi admitted.

  “Big decision. Why so sudden?” Gabe asked.

  Suvi turned in his chair as if he were uncomfortable.

  “It’s kind of personal, actually,” he said.

  “Oh, okay, my bad…” Gabe began.

  “No, no, I didn’t mean that. It’s a perfectly reasonable question. I can’t really put it into words just yet. It just feels like something I want to do, you know?”

  “Hey, whatever the reason, I’m happy for the business,” Gabe said, smiling broadly. “We’ll need to fill out some paperwork and then I’ll get started looking.”

  “So how long is the paperwork going to take? I don’t mean to rush you, but I need to get some wood burning in the pit for the lunch crowd.”

  “Good Lord, you still cook over a pit?”

  “Oh, yeah, it’s the only way to do barbecue right,” Suvi said. “You should try it someday. I make the best barbecue in the county!” Suvi’s grin gave him away.

  “Let me guess,” Gabe said. “You make the ONLY barbecue in the county.”

  “Bingo!” Suvi slapped his knee for emphasis.

  After a brief discussion regarding the legal and financial details of listing a home with Suwannee Realty, Gabe walked Suvi to his truck and shook his massive hand.

  “Can’t even tell you how happy I am to meet you, Mr. Jones,” Gabe said.

  “Same here, Ms. Warren,” Suvi said, “but I’m pretty sure we could dispense with the formalities at this point.”

  “We could,” Gabe nodded. “Should I pick you up or do you want to meet at the club on Saturday?”

  “Let’s meet there. I have some shopping to do in Valdosta afterwards.”

  “Eight-ten tee time, right?”

  “You got it,” Suvi said and folded himself into to cab of his truck.

  “See you Saturday, Mr. Jones.”

  Gabe turned and, waving one set of fingers over her shoulder, entered her office without looking back.

  Gabe Warren

  Sometimes I wake up in the mornings and the first thing I think is “Where am I?” That’s a product of being on the tour so long. Sometimes you wake up in four different cities in one week. Since I’ve moved to Fletcher County, the first question tends to be “What in the hell am I doing here?”

  Not that this is a bad place to live, it’s certainly not. People are people wherever you go, and these people are no better or worse than others. I’ve been enough places to know that for a fact. But why here? What is the draw? Lot of people asking that. You take Randy Kerner and Mac McConnell – their first thought when they met me was “What can she do for us?” I’m a bit of a celebrity (though I hate the term), I’m bringing both money and commerce to the town, and I have a skill that makes me qualified to be a coach for one of their high school teams. If I was just another woman moving to town, they wouldn’t look twice at me.

  I, on the other hand, am just the opposite, which makes me an unlikely salesperson. I’ve been blessed by any standard and, though I worked hard to get what I have, I’m more likely to wonder what I can do for someone else. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t fancy myself a saint by any stretch, but I’ve seen towns like this before, where there is incredible potential and very little opportunity. And what it takes to change a town is outsiders moving in, and locals moving out. With my background, I can help on both counts.

  Will I coach the girl’s golf team? Maybe. But it won’t just be made up of little white girls, and won’t that cause a mighty little stir?

  30

  Trunk or Treat

  Trunk or Treat was a huge community event on Halloween. It was held at New Harmony, but all the other local Baptist churches pitched in, plus two of the non-denominational churches in the county. Roped off with yellow caution tape, the churchyard became a fairground, with cars backed up to the resulting perimeter walkway. Each trunk sported hand-lettered signs and bags full of treats and various promotional goodies, mostly pencils or bracelets. With a county of only ten thousand people spread over endless acres of farmland, this was the only way the local children could get a decent haul of Halloween candy. A yearly contest of epic proportions, each church tried to outdo the other in quality and quantity - scrumptious cakes for the cakewalk, creative games, and spiritual entertainment in the form of youth praise and worship teams.

  The first year Will and Marie moved to Mayhew Junction, they’d been amazed at the displays and the good-natured hospitality. They laughed themselves sick over the family of five who stayed at the event just long enough to eat all the free hot dogs they could hold, send the kids through the candy line twice, and win a cake for each family member before waddling back to their SUV loaded with loot and drunk on sugar.

  The next year Marie convinced Will to set up a trunk of healthier treats featuring The Château logo. They dressed up like Laurel and Hardy and passed out homemade granola bars, popcorn balls, cheese straws and peanut butter brownies. The kids weren’t terribly excited about their trunk, but the parents loved it, so Marie called it a success. After Marie died, Will didn’t have the heart to tackle the event by himself, but he wouldn’t miss going for the world. Last year, Beanie went with him; this year he was alone and feeling like the world’s biggest creeper. What could he do but watch people? A few greeted him, but no one really knew what to say. He’d been warned three things when they arrived in town: don’t run for public office, don’t write about the town, and don’t ever expect to be anything but a foreigner. He sure felt like one tonight.

  He half expected to see Beanie and Suvi there and he braced himself for the possibility, but lo and behold, Beanie was there with Bubba John and the kids. Funny…Bubba John was the only one who looked out of place, given that everyone else was in costume. It w
as the only time Will ever saw Beanie blend in with a crowd.

  Of course, tongues were wagging at the sight of them together. Will noticed the whispers and looks of shock and disapproval everywhere they went. Bubba John held Daisy on his shoulders, B-Kay kept a tight hold on Bitty’s hand and T-Ray rode Tater on his back. It didn’t take long for Beanie to notice the gasps and stares - she excused herself to go listen to the Primitive Baptist youth tackle shape notes with their own little twist. They weren’t allowed to play any instruments, but they had obviously been listening to a variation of a capella music that was a bit less strident and it showed. Beanie knew all the old hymns and hummed along with them, tapping her foot in time to the rhythm.

  “Great band, huh?” Will said, stepping into the space beside Beanie.

  Beanie grinned when she saw him. “Will!” Of course, it sounded to him like she said, “Wee-yull!” but that, too, was music to his ears.

  “Hey, Bean.”

  “They’s a lot better than they was last year. Them kids’ve been workin’, I’m tellin’ ya.”

  “Where’s Suvi?”

  “Oh, he’s at home, I guess. He didn’t want to come. Says it’s too early for anything quite so public.”

  The tempo changed with the next number and Beanie clapped along enthusiastically.

  “This here was my diddy’s favorite song,” she said and clutched her hands beneath her chin.

  Then she sang the words of the old hymn - her soprano voice sweet and pure and lovely, Will thought. He knew he shouldn’t stare, but he could not look away.

  “You’re so pretty,” Will said, then gasped when he realized he said it out loud.

  “What’d you say?” Beanie clearly did not hear over her own voice.

  “I said it’s pretty,” Will raised his voice a bit. “The music, I mean. It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

  “I never get tired of hearin’ it. My diddy knew ever’ song in the Sacred Harp hymnal. Wore the cover slap off that little book, but he didn’t even need it for the words. I ‘member him sayin’ he just felt nekkid without holdin’ it out in front of hisself. He’s prolly rollin’ in his grave right now, though.”

  “How come?”

  “Well, they got somethin’ a little diff’ernt goin’ on there. That ain’t like they usually sing it in church.”

  “It’s nice, though. I like it.” I like you, Will thought, but this time held his tongue.

  The song ended and the group took a break while the emcee for New Harmony pulled a few raffle tickets.

  “Wanna go get a hot dog?” Will asked.

  “Oh, prolly ought’n to do that. People may get the wrong idea.”

  “What people? Everyone here thinks you’re with Bubba John. It’s probably the best thing you could do.”

  “You got a point there. I was beginning to feel all scratchy inside walkin’ around with Bubba and the kids. But I guess I was talkin’ about Suvi anyways.”

  Will bit his tongue at that. He wanted to say, if Suvi cares so much about who you’re with, maybe Suvi should be here with you. But he didn’t.

  “I’m hungry. How about you?”

  “Starvin’ half to death,” Beanie said. “I hope they got some of them chocolate chip cookies left Cleo Roberts makes. They usually go pretty fast, but sometimes she saves me a few, ‘cause I always bring her cranberry chutney at Christmas…”

  Beanie chattered on like that through two hotdogs and four cookies apiece, and Will couldn’t remember a better Halloween in his life. That is until Suvi showed up and ruined it all.

  31

  The Aftermath

  At the café the next morning, Sissy approached the round table with a pot of coffee and two glasses of water. It was early yet, but half of the usuals were uncharacteristically absent.

  “Anyone see Suvi?” Sissy asked. “He ain’t missed a mornin’ since his mama died. I’m kinda worried.”

  Conversation halted in all directions. Randy, Clyde and LouWanda stared at Sissy like she’d grown a third eye. LouWanda was the first to break the silence.

  “You ain’t heard?” LouWanda could scarcely contain her glee. It gave her immeasurable joy to be the first to break news as juicy as why Suvi Jones wasn’t showing his face in public today.

  “Heard what?”

  “Mr. Jones done showed his butt last night at the Trunk or Treat. I ain’t never seen Beanie Bradsher so fired up in all my life.”

  “My wife said Suvi had it comin’ to him,” Clyde Owensby chimed in. “But I don’t know. I’m inclined to take Suvi’s side of things. I don’t like to talk outta turn, but seems to me Beanie’s gotten a little full of herself now that she’s won the lotto and all. First Bubba John, then Suvi, then Will Thaxton. I don’t know who she’s gonna turn her feminine wiles on next.”

  “I hope it’s me,” Eustace grinned and buttered his toast. “I been tryin’ to go out with her since we was in high school.”

  “What in the world happened?” Sissy asked.

  “Oh, she just never was much innerested, I guess…”

  “No, Useless, at the Trunk or Treat, not in high school, for crying out loud.”

  “Well, I’m tryin’ to tell y’all, but everybody keeps interrupting,” LouWanda complained.

  “Y’all shush,” Sissy said. Not one to get involved in the gossip she heard every single day of her life, Sissy made the exception this time on the grounds that anything keeping Suvi Jones from his routine was something she needed to hear.

  “Well,” LouWanda leaned forward and cleared her throat, “Beanie Bradsher showed up at the Trunk or Treat big as you please with Sweet Atwater’s family in tow. Lord help those poor children, they acted like they didn’t think a thing in the world about their daddy takin’ up with that woman.”

  “LouWanda, I don’t think there’s anything going on with Bubba John and Beanie. She’s datin’ Suvi Jones. He told me himself.” Sissy didn’t necessarily want to slow LouWanda down on her story, but it would help if she got the facts straight first.

  “Well he told us, too, but that don’t make it the truth. Seein’ is believin’, the way I look at it. Anyways, that was all well and good until Will Thaxton showed up and Beanie just up and took off with him. JoDeen Avery told me they was all but dancin’ in front of the Primitive Baptist praise team, and that’s just askin’ for trouble. I like a good square dance myself, but I wouldn’t do it in front of a Baptist, I’m just sayin’.”

  “So, where does Suvi come in?”

  “Hold on, I’m a’gettin there. So, Will and Beanie ate supper together…you know they do free hot dogs and cake every year, though I don’t know how they can afford it for so many people. Anyways, accordin’ to JoDeen, Will and Beanie was gettin’ along mighty well eatin’ hot dogs and all, and they decide to go take a shot at the cakewalk, and that’s when Suvi showed up and Beanie hit him square in the face with the cake she just won.”

  “Wait, wait, wait…” Sissy said. “I’m all for getting to the point, LouWanda, but it sounds to me like you left out some key information. Why did she hit him with a cake? What lead up to that?”

  “I don’t know exactly. I walked over to get something to eat and I was talkin’ with JoDeen when the cake incident happened. But I sure saw Beanie Bradsher after the fact. She was fit to be tied, I’m tellin’ ya.”

  “Well, I really don’t like to gossip,” Randy said. “But I was sittin’ right across from the cakewalk with my wife and I saw the whole thing. The crowd thinned out in the Trunk or Treat line and Diane and I were laughing at Beanie trying to see the little squares underneath her skirt. They put those numbers awful close together and she kept stopping to try to see, and Will kept runnin’ into her. We thought it was awful funny. Everybody was laughing at ‘em, even the kid in front of Beanie who kept gettin’ tickled on the legs by her ruffles.”

  “Lord, that girl is a spectacle, that’s for sure,” LouWanda shook her head.

  “I don’t know, LouWanda. Beanie’s just Beani
e. She’s always been that way. My wife and I think a lot of her, if you want to know the truth. She altered my niece’s dress two days before her wedding and didn’t charge her a dime. And you shoulda seen the way she had to wrestle with all them ruffles to get em to match up. My wife told Shayna not to go to the Bridal Mart over in Butler. Anyway, you got it right Suvi got a face full of cake. He sure did.”

  “But why, Randy?” asked Sissy. “What did he do? He musta done something?”

  “Well, I’m not sure exactly. I can only go on what I saw, but Suvi looked a little irritated when he showed up. I noticed him walking across the courtyard of the church just as they called Beanie’s number. Will poked her and tried to get her to look down to see she was standing on it, but she was looking at Suvi. She started hopping up and down like a little bird, but I can’t really be sure if that was because of the cake or if she was just happy to see him. Next thing we know, Suvi’s carrying Nell Wiggins’ red velvet cake with Beanie skipping alongside him like a little girl. Left Will standin’ there without a word. They got halfway across the courtyard when Beanie wheeled around in front of Suvi and started hollering something at him. I couldn’t hear what she said, but she sure looked mad. Suvi all the sudden shoved the cake at her and, instead of takin’ it from him, she put both hands underneath that thing and heaved it right up into his face. Then she started cryin’ and ran back to find Will, but he was already gone. He left as soon as Suvi picked out Beanie’s cake.”

  Sissy let out a long, low whistle. “If that don’t beat all…”

  32

  Don’t Mess with Mama

  Monday morning Beanie met Bubba John coming out of the back door of the house.

  “Hey, Bean,” Bubba John said without slowing down.

  “Hey, yourself!” Beanie had one hand on the screen door as Bubba climbed into the cab of his truck. Remembering something she needed from town, Beanie ran to the passenger side and opened the door. “Will you have time to run me into town sometime today? I need a few things from the grocery store and I want to stop by the pharmacy, too. We’re about outta gauze for packin’ Sweet’s wound.”