Jessie woke up wide-eyed to the snap and crackle of her alarm and Jimmy John’s obnoxiously awake voice saying, “Gooooood morning guys and gals! It’s time to rise and shine so move that behind! Time to put some giddy up in your get-along, so to get you going here’s a song – how about a quick trip down memory lane here’s a little Buck Owens.”
As the first strains of “Abilene, Abilene, prettiest town I’ve ever seen…” poured out of the tiny alarm speakers Jessie groaned, rolled over and buried her head in the well-worn feather pillow.
Her reply to her somehow-removed cousin Jimmy’s exuberant morning radio banter were a few, choice, unladylike words muffled into the mattress which caused Buck to get up from his spot at the side of the bed and rest his head near hers.
With the tickle of her sweet mutt’s very cold nose on her arm, Jessie peeked out from under the pillow to look at him with one eye.
“I mean really babe,” she asked Buck point blank, “Who talks like that anymore? He’s got an Adrian Cronauer meets the Big Bopper thing going today.”
A sharp yip and the rapid thump of his tail against the wooden floors was Buck’s only reply.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Jessie groaned and swung her bare legs out of bed. With a quick stretch and a good morning pop of the neck she ruffled Buck’s head and looked around the room.
Was she really here all on her own? Really home. It was hard to believe it had only been a few weeks since she’d settled in to the two-story house in Chancy, TX complete with a warren of dust bunnies and adorable dog. She chuckled to herself as she stood up and stepped over Buck who quickly settled into her recently vacated warm spot on the bed. As she looked through the window on her way to the bathroom she thought it was silly to think of Creekside as just a two-story house, and kind of ironic how much it already felt like home, the way it had always felt like home.
She’d inherited the cozy home turned bed and breakfast from her Great Aunt Bette. Jessie adored her Aunt Bette. Always had. Most likely because she took after her Hathaway side more than her Truitt side- thank the good Lord.
Bette Hathaway had run Creekside as an inn and B&B for 50 years after her husband L.B. died in Korea. It had just seemed natural to Bette, who had always loved company and cookin’, to turn her country home into a business, no matter how far off the beaten path it had been. Then four years ago the cancer had set in. And set in fast, Jessie remembered as she grudgingly decided to get a move on and headed for the bathroom. With a sad smile Jessie thought the cancer had finally taken Bette home to her maker and her beloved L.B.
