Page 5 of The Big Catch

Two hours later, I was at my parents’ house, putting up the groceries while my mama cooked dinner. My daddy was now in the den, watching his favorite show that I couldn’t believe still came on,Highway to Heaven. That damn show was old as hell.

“Mama, Daddy, guess who I saw in the store today?” I paused to make sure I had their attention. “Y’all remember Adabelle Lee?”

My daddy thought about it, but my mother knew right off the bat who she was. My mother knew everyone in and around Newsome. “Oh, that’s Sidda Mae and Jessie’s daughter. Yeah, I forgot she was back in town. From what I hear, she’s been here for a while now. Looks like she’s finally getting out of her house.”

“Oh, yeah,” my daddy said. “She sure did move back here. Jessie said her husband did her dirty.”

I side-eyed my daddy. “Let me find out you’re gossiping, old man.” I snickered at the thought of it. “Damn, that’s messed up. Her husband did her that dirty that she had to come back here? He must have taken all the money.”

“Boy, you know Jessie and I play poker together and we fish together from time to time. Yeah, it’s a lot deeper than that, but I’m not going to tell her business,” my daddy said. He turned his attention back to his show.

I glanced over at my mama. I knew if my daddy knew that much, then my mother knew more. A bunch of women in town got together to knit as an excuse to gossip. Mabel Ann shifted on her feet like she wanted me to just ask the right question. “Mama, what do you know?”

She put the top on the pot she was over before she spun around. “Boy, I thought you’d never ask. You know me and her mama knit together in our group.”

My mother told me all she knew about Adabelle’s business with some of her own opinions mixed in. It was ashamed that her mother freely told all of her business like that. It was even crazier that Adabelle had been in a fake marriage for a damn decade. “How the hell did she not know? Wouldn’t she have had to take her license to the social security people to change her last name?”

“Honey, Sidda Mae said that she never legally changed her name. Something about that man told her to hold on to her last name since she was the only child, and it was the end of her lineage.” She huffed before she turned back to her pot.

That was the stupidest excuse to convince someone not to change their last name. Although my mama said that Adabelle’s husband claimed it was an accident, that name change shit told me something different. Wasn’t no way a man in love forgot to file his marriage license. I called bullshit.

A LITTLE TIME LATER…

I was tired as hell. I’d been busy with the customers that bought Jaya’s babies. There was still one puppy left, the runt. As the breeder, I always reserved the right to keep my runt of the litter if I wanted it. Most of the time, they were sold, but this one hadn’t yet.

My phone ringing awoke me from the sleep I didn’t know I fell into. I saw it was my daddy when I picked it up from the coffee table in front of the couch I slept on.“What’s up, Daddy?”

“Nothing much, son. I got Jessie here. He wanted to know if you had any more puppies left from your last litter?”he asked.

I sat up, then stretched.“Um, I only have one left. It’s the runt though.”

The runt of this litter was considerably smaller than his siblings, but weaker was questionable. My Boy was feisty. He may not have been as big as his siblings, but he would still grow to be a beautiful dog. I listened to my dad tell Jessie that I onlyhad the runt. Surprise hit me when he still wanted it. He told my dad to let him talk to me. There was shuffling on the other end.

“Gunner, hey, man. I saw your last competition. Boy, your daddy taught you well with a line.”He didn’t give me a chance to thank him before he continued.“I want to get that runt for my baby girl. She needs something to take care of to consume some of her time. Maybe if she has to take care of someone other than herself, she’ll remember what it is to be a caring damn person.”

He sounded frustrated as hell. I acted ignorant to knowing that his daughter was back.“Your baby girl? Adabelle is back in Newsome? Wow, I haven’t seen her in like almost twenty years.”

“Yeah, her ungrateful ass is back. She’s been on the West Coast too damn long. It turned her into even more of an entitled brat than she was before she left.”He huffed.“I swear I love my baby girl, but Lord, she needs to come down to Earth before her mama slaps her ass.”Well, damn.

I laughed at his clear frustration.“You can bring her by, Mr. Jessie. I know you want her to have a pet, but I want to see her interact with My Boy before I let him go. As far as the cost, if she wants it, we’ll just consider it a welcome home gift for her.”

“That’s understandable, son. Shit, I’m about to go to her house now and drag her ass over there. She lives in her grandmother’s house that was left to her.”We talked for a few more minutes before we disconnected the line. He told me that he would be here in fifteen minutes.

I took a deep breath before I got up to go into my kennel house where I kept my dogs when they weren’t in the house with me. My kennel house was connected to my main house from thebackdoor entrance. My house was built eight years ago, and the kennel house was added three years ago.

“Hey, my babies!” My dogs were excited to see me. They knew after they ate dinner that I generally brought them into the house. It was past that time now, so they were antsy. “I got one more thing to do, then I’ll bring y’all in the house.”

My Boy’s tail wagged when I bent down to lift him. “Aye, My Boy. You might get a new home. We’re going to see if this girl is worthy to have you.”

I set him on the couch so that I could take my shirt off. Shortly after I brought My Boy into the house, my doorbell rang. I opened the door with a smile, but I wasn’t met with one. “Adabelle, how you doing this evening?”

She kissed her teeth. “I already told you that I don’t go by that anymore. My name is Belle. B. E. L. L. E. Belle, okay? My dad told me to come over here for a dog or something. Is that the mutt?” she asked after she pointed at My Boy.

My eyes tightened. I looked down at My Boy who looked at her like she’d lost her mind too.Mutt! The fucking disrespect.When I looked back at her, I knew this exchange wasn’t going to be like our first. Captain save me had flown the coop. “You got me and My Boy fucked up.”

A FEW MONTHS AGO…

“I hate it here,”I said aloud to myself.

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