“I’ll be right back,” I told Mac, but he and Buster ended up following me up to Gertrude’s porch.
“It’s not fittin’ for you to try to bring my daughter any more trouble now that I know you know where Revonda Gail has been the last few years.” Gertrude still seemed to be a little in denial about the actual time Revonda Gail had been in prison.
“She ain’t doing no such thing, Mom.” Revonda Gail shook her head. “She got me a job. I had to have a job because my parole officer will be here this week to check up on me and make sure.”
“I guess I’m grateful for that.” Gertrude pulled up her finger and shook it at me. “But you know with your illegal lawing, it’ll land my Revonda Gail right back in that God-forsaken place, and I’ll never forgive you. You can take that to the grave.”
“I don’t think they are doing that much snooping, do you?” Mac asked.
“Didn’t she tell you she went to Elton Satterly’s house this morning?” Gertrude asked Mac. He looked at me with big eyes. “And that’s not the half of it. He pulled a shotgun on them and called the law.”
“Bernie,” Mac said my name in a tone that told me he wasn’t happy.
“I told you that in the end Elton wants us to snoop and find out the real suspects, Mom.” Revonda Gail got up from the rocking chair and jerked open the screen door before she slammed it shut after she walked inside to grab her purse.
“Gertrude, I’m sorry if I put Revonda Gail in a bad position. I didn’t mean to, and I certainly don’t want her to go back to prison for violating her parole.” It was the only way I could see to get out of this situation. I had to remind myself Gertrude was also one of my clients, even though she was a neighbor, and this honestly had nothing to do with my real job.
But she could make some claims about me that wouldn’t sit well with the postmaster general that just might get me placed on probation. Nothing horrible, but she could tell him I lollygag and gossip, among other things he’d not see fit in a postal carrier.
“Forget it, Bernie.” Revonda Gail deliberately slammed the screen door on her way out of the house. “This is why I left in the first place. She never ever let me be an adult.”
“Revonda Gail, you get back here this instant!” Gertrude screamed after her, but Revonda Gail didn’t even glance back. She was already down to her house. “See what you’ve done, Bernadette Butler!”
Gertrude got up and walked inside, closing the big front door and clicking it locked.
“Mm-hmm.” Mac sighed. “How did that work out for you?”
“Not so good.” I turned around and walked down Gertrude’s sidewalk and out her gate. “Let’s go. We are going to be late for the farm if we don’t leave now.”
“It’s not for a few hours.” Mac and Buster trotted alongside of me.
“I wanted to go to the Leaf and Petal to pick up some mums for my front porch and get Julia one. Maybe Mom too.” I knew it wouldn’t take us that long to pick up flowers at the nursery, but I wanted and needed to spend some maw-maw time with Clara.
“Anything you want.” Mac opened the gate and bent down to unleash Buster. Buster darted off into the yard and around the house. “Listen.” Mac got my full attention when he curled his arm around me. “You’re not putting yourself in any danger, are you?”
“Do you honestly think I would do that with Clara here?” That was the truth.
“No. I hope not, but Gertrude seemed pretty upset.” He pulled me into his warm and inviting arms. “I can’t imagine what I’d do or do to someone if you got hurt.” His warm breath breezed across my ear, sending cold chills all over my body.
“You don’t have to worry about that at all.” I looked up and kissed his lips. “I promise.”
“I believe you. But you sure need to find a way for Gertrude to believe you.” He removed his arms when I took a step backward.
“Don’t worry about Gertrude. I’ll make it all good.” I wasn’t exactly sure how, but I’d figure it out somehow.
In the meantime, Mac and I had gotten the fur babies settled and decided to take Rowena with us since she really considered the farm her home. Plus, though I wouldn’t tell Buster this, Clara loved Rowena better. Probably because Rowena didn’t jump around and whack Clara with her tail like Buster did when he was excited to see her.
“Sara has cut the nursery hours back, so we better get going.” Mac had gotten me and Rowena in the truck.
Rowena nestled on the dashboard like she always did. When I’d first rescued her, she didn’t like riding around in the gator on the farm or the old truck I used to drive, which reminded me that I wanted to ask Revonda Gail if she needed a car. I was sure Grady wouldn’t care if she used the truck since he’d upgraded to the family minivan. The truck was just sitting on the farm next to the old barn. It wasn’t good for a vehicle to sit.
“I guess with it being fall and winter coming, Sara knows there won’t be many late customers.” I adjusted my seat belt and got lost in the beautiful colors sprinkled all over Sugar Creek Gap on our way out to the Leaf and Petal, which was on the old Rammond farm that’d been passed down from generation to generation.
Now Sara and her husband, Larry, owned and operated the only flower nursery in town. They even had a Christmas tree farm during the winter to help supplement their income through the cold months. Their main seasons were spring through fall.
No wonder why. Their mums and ferns were so big from the organic approach they used in growing them, and their colors were vibrant and varied. It was truly lovely to the eyes to see rows upon rows of mums still planted into the ground, not placed in pots. There was a row of yellow next to a row of red before it went into orange and some hybrid colors.
The fields went as far as the eye could see. It was up to me to walk the rows and pick out the ones I wanted before an employee would come dig it up for me to take.
“Those are some great colors to put together.” Sara Rammond was there to check us out. She watched Mac continue to walk back and forth to the truck with the nine different mums I’d gotten.
“Well, three are for me. Three are for Julia, and three are for Mom.” I pulled the cash out of my wallet and handed it to her. “You’ve outdone yourself this year.”
“Bernie, I think you tell me that every year,” she joked.
“Well, it must be true.” I decided to take the opportunity to question her about seeing Elton at the post office, even though he’d decided to help in our little investigation. “Elton said he’d seen you at the post office when he was picking up his copy of Beyond Boundaries.”
“He did?” The wrinkles around Sara’s eyes deepened. It showed just how much sun she got from working in the flowers and how she could’ve used a lot more sunscreen.
She was a lean older woman who probably hadn’t cared just as long as she’d gotten her chores done as a child when her parents ran the nursery, and that attitude had continued later as a woman.
But I wasn’t judging. Heck, when I first started as a mail carrier before Grady was born and before I’d quit after I’d had him, I lathered on the oil during my sunny walks to get some sun on my face and arms. Boy, I sure was paying for that decision now with all my sunspots popping up along my face and chest.