The Rented Mule
Authors: Bobby Cole
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Text copyright © 2014 Bobby Cole
All rights reserved.
Biblical verse on page 7 from The Holy Bible, New International Version
®
, NIV
®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
®
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle
ISBN-13: 9781477808603
ISBN-10: 1477808604
This book is dedicated to all of my friends and family in Montgomery, Alabama. It was a fine place to grow up.
The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.
DEUTERONOMY 17:7 NIV
1
ST
FRIDAY
C
ooper Dixon was gently roused from an exhaustive sleep by the warm hand running down the top of his bare leg. Lying on his side, he blinked several times to adjust his eyes. With blurred vision, Cooper could see the dim glow of the alarm clock in the pitch black. 3:33 a.m. A sudden wave of anxiety washed over him as he tried to remember where he was. His business required that he travel frequently, and he often awoke in the middle of the night, confused. The major difference this time was the warm inviting hand, tenderly touching him. Cooper feigned being asleep, enjoying the gentle touch. He rolled over and eased his hand down her bare back and then slowly across her firm thighs. His touch was warmly received. She responded, hungrily. Pushing him back over, her dark hair spilled onto his face as she climbed on top, passionately kissing his neck. He could hear, “Cooper, Cooper.”
“Cooper!” a raspy, older female voice yelled. “Your wife’s on hold! Do you hear me? I said, Kelly’s on hold.”
Cooper slightly raised his head from his arm and looked around his office. He exhaled deeply and tried to focus.
“Ugh… yes ma’am, put her through.”
The electronic ringing of the telephone helped transport Cooper back to the agony of his daily life. This was the second time in two weeks that he had fallen asleep at his desk. Passed out is a better description. Exhaustion was setting in with a vengeance. He leaned forward to activate the speakerphone.
“Hello,” he answered, and then cleared his throat.
“Am I on speakerphone?” asked Cooper’s wife, instantly agitated.
“Yep,” he said, letting out another deep breath.
“Pick up, dammit!” she snapped.
Cooper grudgingly raised the handset.
“Yes, dear?” He asked with no small amount of sarcasm.
“Cut the crap, Cooper! I need you to run some errands. I don’t have the time. Millie’s blood pressure’s botherin’ her, so she didn’t show up, again,” Kelly said with urgency.
She must be tired from a long day shopping, he thought.
“Is she okay? Do I need to go check on her?” he asked as he leaned forward.
As the longtime family housekeeper, Millie was getting up in years. She had helped raise Cooper, and he considered her family.
“No, she says she’s all right, she always is. You gotta run some errands.”
“Fine. What do ya need?” he asked, unenthusiastically, picking up a pen. He loathed running errands.
“Get the dry cleaning. There should be six shirts and two dresses. Be sure and count them, and pick up two bottles of good red wine. Then I need you to get the party trays from the country club. They’re expecting you. I have the planning
meeting tonight here at the house for Alexandra Von Wyle’s daughter’s bridal tea next month. I happily agreed to host this tea, which will be the biggest social event of the year. Everybody who is anybody will be here, including the editor of
Southern Living
magazine, and it will be at
my
house. I’m so excited. Oh yeah… get yourself and Ben something to eat… I’m not gonna dirty the kitchen, and there isn’t much here to eat anyway,” she explained excitedly.
Cooper exhaled deeply. “Does this deal gotta be so extravagant?”
“You don’t have any idea about these things. Let me handle them, okay? Now hurry home. There’s still a lot of things I need you to help with in order to have the house ready by seven,” she added.
“What about Piper?”
“She’s spending the night with a friend. Don’t be late.”
“Okay, fine. Bye,” he replied and hung up the phone before she could give him any more instructions. He knew this event was going to eventually turn into a big headache for him.
Lots of yard work, maybe some remodeling. Some rich blue blood gets engaged, and I get a month of grief, complete with an inch-high stack of bills.
Cooper stared out the window and then down at his desk calendar and realized for the second time that it was a beautiful late August Friday afternoon and he was stuck. Stuck at work. Stuck with an unhappy wife. The only positive was that Piper and Ben were full of excitement that the new school year had started. He knew they weren’t typical kids and he loved them for it, but he dreaded going home. His life and wife were driving him crazy. Things weren’t exactly going as planned.
For most of his thirty-six years, he had done the right things. He cruised through high school, struggled through
college at Auburn, and managed to marry his college sweetheart. They had two great kids. Ben at eight was so much fun. Cooper coached his baseball team, and Ben loved to hunt and fish, so they spent a lot of time together. Piper was a teenager, and he could easily see her growing need for independence. Everyone had warned him about the stage she was about to enter, and he dreaded it. Cooper had already decided she wasn’t dating until she was twenty-one. Not really, but it made her nuts to hear him say it. The kids were by far the best things in his life; they’re what drove him to be successful. Like most parents, he would do anything for them.
Cooper’s perception was that Kelly had changed since the kids were born; she had gone from being his lover to being a mother. He realized that this was a natural progression, but nonetheless, he missed the old days. Kelly had moved on to her motherly and social duties and never looked back at Cooper, except for funding. She could spend everything he made, oftentimes before he ever made it. She had an image that she wanted to maintain, and Cooper was her ticket.
When they met at college, Kelly was simple and genuine. She was from a small town in Bullock County, Alabama, where her dad grew tomato plant seedlings and she helped after school and during breaks. Now, she spent all of her energy trying to be the socialite hostess for Montgomery’s elite. Cooper missed the modest small-town girl he’d fallen in love with and often wished that they lived in a quaint little town, without all the societal distractions. Feeling frustrated and tired of arguing all of the time, he woke up earlier, stayed later at work, and basically buried himself in his career.
Cooper Dixon was an owner of a successful ad design group in Montgomery, Alabama, called the Tower Advertising Agency. Actually, he owned only 30 percent,
while a college buddy by the name of Gates Ballenger owned the remaining percentage.
Gates came from old Montgomery money. His father had reluctantly loaned the young men the money to start the business, knowing that Gates needed Cooper’s sales skills to make it viable.
They formed a limited liability corporation with Gates having a controlling interest, which was of paramount importance to him; Cooper had a piece, but all of the daily headaches. Not paying attention to the formalities, Cooper considered himself an equal partner and did significantly more than his 30 percent of the work. Kelly Dixon got one of the things she wanted—the status that accompanied being married to a successful, independent business owner. Even Gates’s two ex-wives were pleased with the arrangement.