Page 15 of The Party Line

“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 wouldnotbe 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 womanswoon, 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 afterher 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 saygirlsince 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?”

---