R O D E O
G R A N N Y
M A R I L Y N M I G G L E S
S U N S H I N E B L U F F
M Y S T E R I E S B O O K O N E
Copyright © 2018 by Marilyn Miggles
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
C O N T E N T S
T I T L E P A G E
S E R I E S I N F O
C O P Y R I G H T
C H A P T E R 1
C H A P T E R 2
C H A P T E R 3
C H A P T E R 4
C H A P T E R 5
C H A P T E R 6
C H A P T E R 7
C H A P T E R 8
C H A P T E R 9
C H A P T E R 10
C H A P T E R 11
C H A P T E R 12
C O S T U M E C O R P S E S N E A K P R E V I E W
C h a p t e r1
The letter came at eight-thirty as I was dressing for work, it was my Mom's handwriting and the postage was stamped Caribbean, where she was holidaying at the moment.
I tore it open and slowly took in its contents. It was my gran, she had died in the night at her home in Sunshine Bluff, Arizona, my mom was just letting me know as soon as possible as she and I had been close once.
Even though we lived so far apart, she in Arizona and I in New York, we visited her often and Sunshine Bluff had been like a second home to me as a child.
My mom was originally from Arizona but moved to New York when she met my dad. Now you could hardly tell from her accent, but my gran, now she did have the local lingo!
I used to try and imitate her whenever I went out there to visit, and I drove my teachers mad with it when I went back to school again afterwards.
Eventually, I stopped going over to Arizona. Once I had started working the holidays didn't come
round so often and I guess I just lost interest in visiting my old gran!
I was regretting it now as I read over the letter and heard the news. It seemed like forever ago when I last saw her. I must have been about fourteen and I was now just turned twenty-three!
We had used to keep in touch over the phone, but that was as far as it went in recent years.
In the letter mom said there were some things we needed to get straight, wills etc. She said she would make an appointment for us both with gran's lawyer when she returns from her holiday, my dad being deceased these six years.
I put the letter aside and forced myself to eat a little breakfast, before heading out to the office I worked for in the town.
I worked as a columnist for a popular New York magazine and though I loved writing, it was hectic at times, and sometimes I would have like to have lived somewhere like Arizona where the pace of life was so much more relaxed.
I guessed work would come from some unlikely places and would be a bit of a mixed bag!
These were my thoughts as I drove the full mile and a half to the office in my little white beatle car I had named Riz, for reasons I hadn't really thought through! My only excuse was that I once had a teddy bear with that nickname when I was a small child, but I probably shouldn't admit this to just anyone!
I parked the car up outside the office and went inside, stopping off at the small cafeteria to pick up a take-away coffee and a donut. As I took a bite of the fresh fried dough, yummy milk chocolate came oozing out into my mouth. They really were the most yummy donuts I had ever tasted, well, so far at least!
I had finished my donut by the time I had reached my office on the second floor of the building and I sipped my coffee as I fired up my desktop.
I was half-way into typing up my column on the pro's and con's of women wearing heels in the workplace when the boss called me into her office.
With some apprehension and a quick glance in the mirror on the way to the office to check my long brown hair was in check, I knocked on the door of the office which read: Penelope Fuller, and waited for her usual signal, a sharp cough and went inside.
She was sitting with her feet crossed over one
another on her desk in the highest heels you had ever seen! Obviously, she didn't need too much convincing about women wearing heels to work!
I stood before her like a frightened rabbit in the headlights and I could feel my whole body quaking. Was I going to be let go?
Penelope was a frightening woman and I hated to be on the wrong side of her. Not that I had, yet! Was that about to change?
"Bryony Womack!" Said Penelope in her sharp, crystal clear voice.
"Yes. You wanted to see me?"
Penelope spun her long, slender legs around and planted her feet on the floor, where I felt feet belonged, "I did, and like the good worker you are, you came right away. There is room for improvement though, there always is."
"I know that. Is that why I'm here?"
She nodded "yep, that's why you're here. I read your recent article, the one you've just delivered to my office and quite frankly, I think you ought to change it."
"You didn't like it?" I was surprised, as she had given me the idea in the first place, I wasn't bold enough to say so though!
"I like the subject, it's some of the wording that needs changing. For instance, I would have put something along the lines of why people believe this stuff in the papers. Hello! There is nothing about people here!"
She stamped her feet and flung my carefully typed column on the floor, and it landed at my feet.
Keeping the tears that were threatening to fall down my face in check, I calmly stooped down and picked it up, walking out the door with wounded dignity, but at least with my job in tact, which, if I'm honest, would not have happened if I'd argued!
I went back to my office to pull the article I'd worked so hard on to pieces and start again.
∞∞∞
MY MOM TURNED UP on the doorstep a week later, as brown as a berry, her bleached blonde hair faded with the sun, bearing gifts in the form of a fridge magnet with a palm beach scene on it and a matching bookmark. I placed the magnet on the fridge along with the hundreds of others with various scenes from various holiday destinations she had been to!
After we had got over the usual frantic rush of telling me all about her holiday, I was finally free to talk
about gran.
"So, tell me about gran," I said getting started.
We were seated side by side on my brown leather couch nursing a mug of tea each.
"There's not a lot to tell really. She died in the night, a friend found her, Louisa Froome, a neighbor. It was her heart, honey," my mom replied, crossing her fish net legs, revealing high patent pink heels.
"Did she have heart trouble?"
"Well, that's how it goes when you get to your gran's age. It was natural causes."
"I thought she seemed like she had years of life in her."
"How can you possibly know that, you hadn't
seen her in years!" My mom shouted.
"I spoke to her though, about two weeks ago. She seemed full of life. I remember her as a tough old lady. A legend."
"She had to be living in Arizona. But old age catches up with everybody sooner or later."
"I know that. It's just she seemed to have a little more life left in her. She had even made plans to go on a
little holiday."
"A holiday?" My mom almost squealed.
"That's what she said."
"Where to?"
"She didn't say. She said she
would tell me all about it when she phoned again, which never happened."
"Hm. Probably the beginning of the end. They get demented, don't they?"
"It's possible," I said, not quite believing how unconcerned mom sounded about it all.
"Anyway, I've made an appointment with Mom's lawyer. He will go through her will with us, on Tuesday, two days' time."
"I know it's two days' away, you don't have to spell it out," I was annoyed with how she always tried to make out I needed organising.
"We'll see what he has to say."
"Did she make a will?"
"Um, yeah, she did. It's all in the legal stuff I have had
from her lawyers."
"That will be interesting."
"It sure will, Honey. She didn't have a lot to leave really. There is the house, but I don't think she had much in the bank. I could be wrong, though."
"You don't sound so sure, you don't seem too upset either," I folded my arms.
"I'm not too upset, I have to admit. I have my reasons."
"What do you mean by that?" I suspected some family row.
"Oh, hon. There's no point in me telling you all the details now. The woman is dead!"
"But you think she has left you something?"
"We'll find out on Tuesday one way or another."
∞∞∞
TUESDAY CAME AROUND AND I drove my Mom to the lawyer's office in the Brooklyn province. I parked the car in the small car park around the back of the building and we went inside, my mom linking arms with me as she always did, to my annoyance!
I was a little nervous, more because I was never
too sure what my mom would come out with, she was never very thoughtful about what she said and I was the one who always had to pick up the pieces after
wards.
"Mrs and Miss Womack, to see Mr Braun?" Asked the secretary on the desk as we walked in.
"Yeah, that's right," my mom said.
"Just wait here, please," she walked towards his office and knocked.
We were then sent inside and we stood gaping at the man sitting at his desk before us, waiting for his instructions.
Mr Braun sported a typical geek look, light brown hair combed over to one side and thick dark-rimmed glasses enlarging his eyes.
"Please be seated," he said without smiling.
We sat down on the two chairs provided for us, facing his desk and breathed slowly. I really didn't know what was coming and it seemed he kept us waiting like forever before he began to speak again. To make matters worse, his face was dead serious when he looked up at us from his papers.
"Now, to begin with, would you like to see a copy of Mrs Womack's will?" He asked, fingering the edge of a document on his desk.
"If you wouldn't mind. It isn't too much trouble, is it?" My mom said, to my dismay, smoothing down her animal print blouse.
Mr Braun's face was immovable and he acted as
though he hadn't heard what my mom had said. He handed the document over to us and began reading another copy he had on his computer to us.
He mumbled on through the document, most of which I won't bore you with, until he got to the part about the house.
"Yes, Mrs Womack was very specific. She wrote an extensive will a week before her death with specific instructions that Miss Bryony Womack should get the house, on the condition that she take care of my cat, Sunny, while she is there," he read.
I gaped at him, "me?" Was all I could ask.
He only nodded and was about to continue when my mom interrupted him and not too quietly, "Ooh, Bryony! She left you the house! Fancy that!" She squealed. This was met by a cold stare from Mr Braun.
He coughed and continued reading, I didn't hear another word, I was mulling over what this mightmean, and one thing was sure, I had a big decision to make!
C h a p t e r2
Friday of that week was my day off and I went shopping with my bff, Reese Weston. She was the best person to talk to in a crisis and I needed a good listening ear, as well as some sensible advice right now!
My mom hadn't said a lot, other than doing a lot of cooing over me in the car on the the way home after speaking with Mr Braun, telling me how it would be good for me to go out to Arizona for a while.
After we had shopped-till-we-dropped, me and Reese stopped off at an American diner and had lunch of stacked burgers and fries, while we discussed my dilemma.
We were sitting in a booth, in a quiet area of the diner where we could get some privacy and avoid needless interruptions.
"So, what is the dilemma you wanted to talk about?" Reese asked, chewing a fry.
"Well, I need your advice. My gran left me the house in Arizona, and a cat, Sunny, apparently. My mom
thinks I should go and live out there, but I think I should just sell up. What would you do?"
Reese's big blue eyes had got larger and larger as I was speaking. "Go and live in Arizona! Are you seriously considering it, Bryony?"
"I haven't seriously considered anything yet. I need advice."
"What about your job?"
I pulled a face, "I'm not having the best of times at my job at the minute. Penelope is stressing me out, finding fault with everything. That is one reason why I have thought about it at all."
"Life will be much less stressful out there, that's for sure. But it's a big change, are you up to it?"
"In all truth, I've been needing a change for a while."
"Sounds like you're game. You could always go out there and try it for a while, not that I want to encourage you or anything. It's your decision. I will miss you if you go."
"You can come and visit. A nice holiday for you."
Reese's eyes narrowed, "I think you've already made your decision. I hope your mom hasn't persuaded you too much."
"Nah, my mom can't persuade me that easily. But her nagging may have been a factor in my decision," I said laughing.
"We all know what mom's can be like," Reese
agreed, laughing also.
"I know what mine can be like. I think I need a holiday at least to get from under her thumb."
"Then go for it, girl! You go out there for a holiday!"
"The first thing I'm going to do is quit my job. I'm going to write my resignation this evening."
"If this is what you really want, Bryony, I'm pleased for you." She leaned across the table and gave me a long hug.
"Thank you for this chat. I feel so much better already."
"Anytime. You let me know when you're leaving and we'll have a girly night, okay?"
"I promise."
∞∞∞
SO I HAD MADE my decision. I was going to Arizona and my mom couldn't get over it, although she was sad about me leaving, she couldn't bear to let me go, but she knew it was for the best.
She was never a fan of my working in an office.
She said it would turn me into an anorak one of these days and I think she was right!
Nothing my mom did ever made much sense, but maybe that's where I had been going wrong! My gran had said, when I spoke to her that last time, that there was too much uncertainty about me and I knew that to be too true. Look at how much convincing I needed to get myself to Arizona!
Me and Reese had that girly night I'd promised and we binged on romantic movies and pigged out on pop corns and cupcakes and potato chips. Anything greasy we could get our hands on!
We fell asleep on the couch, both of us waking in the morning to the music of one of last nights movies playing on the t.v and feeling stiff from sleeping awkwardly.
"Oh, it's a good job I'm not leaving today, I couldn't deal with a flight right now," I moaned.
"No, it' a good thing. I hope your gran's house has a modern t.v set and everything!"
"What in Arizona! I doubt it, although my gran was a legend. She was a real tough cooky that lady!"
"Hey! How did Penelope take it, by the way?"
"Speaking of tough cookies, very well, actually. I think she has been
wanting to get rid of me for some time. It's no loss, however, I have bigger fish to fry."
"Good for you. We'd better get this place cleared
up."
∞∞∞
I STARTED TO PACK my clothes the evening before my flight was due and my mom insisted on helping me. She thought she knew best about what I should wear and she didn't trust me to choose for myself!
"You have to look your best, you don't know what young men you may meet in Arizona, they are strong and burly over there, you know? It's time you met someone," she said, throwing dresses of all varieties into the case.
"I am not going to meet anyone and besides, I can't just take dresses, I'll need some jeans too!"
"You might meet someone, and you'll be glad I helped you pack."
"Even if I did meet someone, it doesn't mean it'll be a success. I have only ever been on one or two dates with the same guy and they've never got very far!"
"They will when you meet the one."
"If there is such a thing," I said, feeling sceptical about the whole 'One' thing.
"Anyway, we'll have to hurry up, you'll need your beauty sleep, hon."
"I would be done by now if it wasn't for your
meddling, mom."
I grabbed a few pairs of jeans and placed them in the case, hiding them beneath some of the clothes before my mom could see them.
I hardly slept a wink that night for thinking of what Arizona was like now and if it had changed any since I last visited my gran's house. I was going into the unknown and I would be all alone. Was I ready for this? I wondered.
I know gran would have said I was a wimp and this gave me the courage I needed to go ahead with it and I fell into a deep sleep.
The alarm was ringing soon enough at three-thirty the next morning! My mom and Reese accompanied me to the airport and we said our goodbyes in the waiting area, before I checked in my bags.
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