“Peggy was my mother, who passed away a number of years ago. I grew up in this place and once I got out of the military I decided to come back here and work in the family business, and now I run the place.”
“Oh okay, I wasn’t sure if it was your wife’s name or what?” mom replied.
“No, it’s not, I’m not married,” he said.
“Oh, okay.”
“So, if you ladies every need anything just come on over and knock. If we’re home, we’ll answer, if not, we’re here.”
“That’s very nice of you Neil, thank you.”
“Hey that’s what neighbors are for. And by the way, if your husband it interested some of us guys play cards about once a week, and he’s welcome to join us if he’s interested.”
At this point I could see that he was interested in mom and was trying to see if there was a man in the picture.
“I’m not married,” mom volunteered.
“Oh, well, you ladies come on over anytime, and once again it was good meeting you,” and he turned and walked away.
Annabelle asked me, “So you’re totally new to the area?”
I nodded.
“If you’d like, we could get together sometime and I could show you around, maybe we could even hang out or do something.”
“Thanks, that would be great, and I’m also trying to figure out where the best place would be to attend school here so maybe you could help me with that too?”
“I would be glad to,” she said. “Just stop by the hostess stand on the way out and I’ll give you my number and you can text me.
“Great,” I said, “I’d love that.”
“Well, I’d better get back to work before I get in trouble with the boss. See you up front,” she said as she walked away, and once again, I checked out her out as she shook her booty as she returned to the front of the restaurant.
Feeling a pair of eyes upon me, I stopped staring at Annabelle’s derriere and looked over at mom where she was sitting there staring at me. Throwing my open hands up in the air I asked, “What?”
Chapter 7
After finishing up our business in the café I walked mom to her car and told her I would see her at the house later that evening and I would be taking a Suber home as planned.
Before ordering a car to take me home I got a brainstorm and decided that I was going to start the process of trying to find out how I’d gotten changed into a girl and attempt to determine if there was a potential solution. Finding out more about the former owners seemed like the best place to start so I headed to the county courthouse, which was just across the town square from the restaurant where we had dined.
Walking into the building the first thing I did was look at the building directory, and I quickly found a listing indicating where the real estate records section was and headed in that direction. Entering the office, I didn’t see anyone on duty but walked up to the counter and saw a note on the counter which said, Be Right Back, so I took a seat and waited patiently. It had been about fifteen minutes and I was growing impatient. I had played with my smartphone all that I wanted and was hoping for some customer service.
Just as I stood up, planning to go down the hall to a neighboring office and raise hell, the door opened and a young man in his early twenties, right about my age entered the office. About 5’11 with medium brown hair and eyes he had a slight muscular build and was nice looking for a man, despite the fact that I did not swing that direction or had not historically anyway.
Smiling at me he said, “I am so sorry, I hope you’ve not been waiting long,” he said sincerely as he looked at me with his piercing blue eyes.
Disarmed by his sincerity I said, “Just a couple of minutes, but you’re here now and that’s all that matters.”
“How may I help you today?” he responded.
“I wanted to do some research on a property and find out who were the previous owners.”
“That’s pretty easy, come on over here and have a seat,” he said.
I followed him over to a wooden desk with a computer workstation on it and sat down on the side opposite of it from him.
“What’s the address of the property?” he asked.
“It’s 403 Old Masonic Road.”
Looking at me he said, “Ah, I can see you’re inquiring about my neighbor, or my former neighbor, should I say.”
“Really?” I asked.
“That’s right, I live next door at 401, or should I say I live with my parents next door at that address.”
“I live at 403.””
“That’s great, are you the new neighbors?”
“That’s right, me and my mom.”
“Well welcome to the neighborhood, I’m Cole,” he said as we shook hands.
“Dana,” I said.
“Great to meet you Dana.”
“I’ve not seen anyone over at your property since we moved in. I wasn’t sure if anyone even lived there.”
“We had been away for the last week and we just got home from the trip last night.”
“That would explain it,” I said. “I also met the neighbors on the other side of me a short while ago.”
“I bet you were eating at the café and met Neil or Annabelle.”
“That’s right, both. Boy, you can’t keep anything a secret in a small town.”
“Not around here you can’t. If somebody drops a napkin on the north side of town everyone knows about it on the south side of town before it even hits the ground.”
We both laughed at his comment.
“Do you work here full time?” I asked.
“No, I’m in my last year in college. I work here part-time.”
“That’s cool.” I said.
“What about you? What brings you to town?”
“My mom took a job here and I came with her.”
“Cool. What does your mom do?” he asked.
“She’s ER Director at Four Points Regional Medical Center.”
“A doctor?”
I nodded and said, “Hmmm. Everyone always seems to be amazed when someone’s a doctor it seems.”
“Yeah, I guess so. You know, I’ve always thought being a doctor would be kind of cool, probably why I’m on the premed track at school.”
“Wow, so you’re probably getting ready to take your MCAT and start applying to medical schools.”
“Pretty soon. So, what about you Dana? Do you work? Going to school?”
“Well, I just got out of the Army after four years, helped my mom move here, and I’m thinking about going to school.”
“Gonna attend college here locally?”
“I’m thinking about it, if I can get in anywhere. At this point I’ve not applied to any school as everything happened so fast. Two weeks before I got off active duty mom told me she was moving and all I could do was finish up, get home, and help her move.”
“Did you take any classes in the Army?” he asked.
Nodding I said, “I did, I’ve probably got close to 60 hours.”
“Then you’re a transfer student, and that’ll help a lot no matter where you decide to apply.”
“I hope so.”
As we sat there, we started to stare at one another, saying nothing, and I couldn’t even explain why. Finally breaking our gaze I asked, “So Cole, do you think you can help me finding out about the previous owners?”
Looking at his computer screen he said, “I can. The person that was living there was Dawn Mills who lived there about five years. She bought the place from her mother, a Loretta Ray who lived there for forty years according to the deed.”
Turning toward me, he said, “Now, here’s what’s not in the computer. Seems like I recall that Ms. Ray left after her husband passed away five years ago, and moved to Phoenix where she lived until last year when she moved back to the local area. Last I heard was that she was living in Center Point, which is not too far away from here.”
“I’m sure you don’t have an address? For Ms. Mills or Ms
. Ray?” I asked.
Shaking his head, he said, “No, but I know how you can find her. Head on over to the Murray Law Firm, it’s on the square near Peggy’s Café. Dad’s got a title company that also closes real estate deals, and he just happened to close that one. I bet he has Dawn’s contact information and I’m sure she has her mother’s phone number and address.”
“You are so smart,” I said, “You definitely know what’s going on around here.”
Leaning forward he said, “I think you and I are going to be good friends.”
With a perplexed look on my face I asked, “Why do you say that?”
“Because you think I’m smart.”
We both chuckled at his comment.
“Just tell him I sent you and that you’re our new neighbor. If he gives you any trouble just text me and I’ll take care of the rest,” and with that he took a business card, turned it over, and wrote a phone number on the back of it and slid it across the desk to me.
Standing up I said, “Cole you are the greatest, and I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Not to worry, I’m just doing my job.”
Shaking hands with him I said, “Well, I guess I owe you a favor. If you ever need anything let me know.”
“I’ll see you around neighbor,” he said.
Chapter 8
The Murray Law Firm had a sign in the windows indicating they would return at 9:00 a.m. in the morning which clearly meant I was finished with my research for the day, so it was obviously time to head home. I took my phone out and just as I was getting ready to fire up the Suber App to order a ride home I heard a female voice, “Dana,” and as I turned around there was Annabelle walking down the street toward me.
As she walked up to me, I said, “Hi, how are you Annabelle?”
“So, I see you’re out exploring Four Points,” she said.
“Yep, I wanted to visit the Murray Law Firm, but they’re clearly closed for the day,” I said pointing to the sign in the window.
“Pretty common. If somebody needs to close for the day they just put a sign in the window and go home.”
“Do you do that over at the café?” I asked.
Shaking her head she said, “I’m afraid not, we just can’t get away with that in the restaurant business.”
“That’s too bad.”
“So, where you off to?” she asked.
“Since this office is closed, I guess I’ll get a ride share and head home.”
“I just got off work for the day and am heading home myself. Want a ride?”
“If you’re sure it’s not trouble.”
Waving her hand, she said, “Nah, I live next door to you, no trouble at all.”
We walked to where the car was parked, got in and began the journey home. As we started driving, she began to point out landmarks of the local area telling me all about them as she drove. She’d grown up in Four Points and was definitely a native of the area.
“So, what did you need from the Murray Law Office?” she asked.
Before I could answer she said, “Oh my God, pretend like I didn’t ask that last question, please.”
Looking at her I asked, “Why?”
“That makes me sound like I’m a typical Four Points busybody, and I definitely don’t want to be in that category. We’ve got enough people in this town with no life that make a full-time job out of knowing what everyone else’s business is, and I’m not going to be one of them.”
Laughing I said, “It’s fine. I actually wanted to try and track down the previous owners of our house. I wanted to ask them some questions about the place.”
“Like what?” she asked, and then immediately said, “Once again, pretend I didn’t even ask that.”
“Annabelle you are so funny,” I said.
Not wanting to tell her that I found a necklace that had changed me into a woman I figured I would come up with something else versus disclosing that bit of information.
“It’s no big deal, I wanted to ask them about the bookshelves in the office. They’re made of a special cherry wood and mom wanted to find out where they purchased them.”
“And the law office has that information?”
I nodded and said, “I found out that they closed the deal when mom bought the place, and a nice young gentleman named Cole Murray told me that would be a good place to start.”
“Oh my God, he is so cute, don’t you think?”
Not know how I should respond as I had not yet become attracted to males I decided to go with a neutral answer and said, “He seemed very nice.”
“I don’t know about you, but I think he’s dreamy. However, it seems like every time that I run across him he is cordial but never talks to me for very long, maybe he’s just not interested in me.”
“Annabelle I wouldn’t worry about it, I’m sure he’s just busy going to school and working and stuff. He told me he’s finishing his last year in college this year and will be applying to medical school, and with mom being a doctor and all we chatted about that for a bit.”
“You are so lucky,” she said.
“How so?”
“Your mom is a physician, which is what he wants to become. That gives you an automatic in, a leg up on me. I bet he’ll be asking you out in no time.”
“I just met him today, and if he asks me out how do you know that I will even accept.”
“Girl he’s just too hot of a piece of ass to turn a date down with, that’s what I think anyway.”
I just sat there and shook my head.
“We attend the same school, Midwestern Central State. I see him around and occasionally we say hi but that’s about it.”
“Is that a good school? That was one of the colleges I am interested in attending.”
“It is? That would be awesome if you went there. So you’ve not applied?” she asked.
“No, our move out here was kind of a whirl wind and everything happened so fast. I guess I need to go online and apply if I’m interested in getting in. By the way, what’s your major Annabelle?”
“I’m majoring in Hospitality Management, believe it or not.”
“Awesome that fits right in with the family business doesn’t it?” I asked.
Nodding, she said unenthusiastically, “It does. I majored in it with a little nudging from dad.”
“You don’t sound super thrilled about it.”
“Yeah, I’m not. I finished high school and dad insisted I go to college and I did, despite the fact that I had no idea what I was even remotely interested in doing. On the plus side dad has paid for everything so far so I’m debt free, which is more than most kids these days. So, tell me about you, what are you interested in majoring in?”
“Psychology,” I said.
“That’s kind of a good general middle of the road degree.”
“When I was in the Army, I was a med tech and worked in the mental health clinic ….”
“Girl, you were in the Army?” she asked exuberantly.
Nodding I said, “I was.”
“That is so cool. Did you ever kill anyone?”
Looking at her seriously I said, “Only if they deserved it,” and after a few seconds I busted out laughing and she joined in.
“Dana you almost had me going there for a second.”
“I did not kill anyone, well not many.”
“So, as you were saying.”
“Anyway, I was stationed almost my entire time in the Army at Fort Hood.”
“Where is that?”
“It’s near Killeen, Texas.”
“Sorry to seem so dense,” she said, “But where is that?”
“Have you heard of Austin?”
“Now that I’ve heard of,” she said.
“It’s about an hour north of Austin. So, like I said I spend most of my time there. Fort Hood is one of the top places in the Army where no one wants to be stationed. However, I made the best of it, did my time and got out.”
“I think that’s awesome
that you were in the Army. Personally, I think I would be afraid to go in the military.”
“It’s really not that big of a deal.”
“I think you’re just being modest. Anyway, earlier you were telling me that you want to study Psychology?”
“Yes, I want to get a B.S., and then work on my Doctorate so I can open my own psychology practice one day.”
“So, you would be okay getting up, going to work, and listening to people’s problems every day?” she asked.
“Yes, I think it would be interesting.”
“Better you than me.”
The next thing I knew we had arrived at the road that cut off from the main highway that led up to our houses, and she proceeded up our circular driveaway and stopped in front of our house.
“I can’t thank you enough for the ride,” I said.
“Any time.”
I got out of the car and said, “Thanks again.”
“You bet, and if you ever want to hang out send me a text, I’m just across the lawn.”
“I’ll do it. See you,” and I closed her car door, gave her a final wave which she returned and then she slowly drove away.
Chapter 9
That night I got online and applied to Midwestern Central State, even though I’d never set foot on campus and the only thing I knew about it was what I’d read on their website. My motivating factors were that I already knew two people that attended there, Annabelle and Cole. Secondly, I needed to apply somewhere right now since school would start soon, and I couldn’t wait any longer.
After finishing my online application and submitting it, I looked at the clock and saw that it was about 7:00 p.m. and I was a bit hungry. Rustling around the kitchen I began to look through the pantry as well as the refrigerator and realized that I should have done a little grocery shopping before I left town, as supplies were running a little low.
To cook or not to cook, that was the question. I then remembered the local pizza place that delivered food to us a couple of days ago. Thinking back, it was okay, but not marvelous by any means. Perhaps, if I had a few beers before it arrived, it would taste much better, which was a trick that I learned in the Army.
Gurl Next Door Page 3