Texas Sunset

Chapter One

The nighttime air was starting to get cooler, the leaves on the trees shake and fall with the wind blowing. Fall, her favorite season, is beginning in the quiet town of Hope in early October. Evalynn takes a deep breath of fresh air and looks around her, making sure it’s just her and her dogs.

She smiles as she watches Loretta, her rescue chiweenie, chase and bark after Dolly, her rescue pit-bull over their beloved rope-toy. A few months ago, Loretta wouldn’t have even gone near Dolly without peeing and shaking violently. Being part chihuahua, the shaking is normal but for Loretta, it’s mainly just fear.

Loretta was owner-surrendered at the local veterinary clinic. She was skin and bones, not able to walk due to a broken leg, cracked ribs, and her tail was bent from being broken a few weeks prior to being surrendered. After a few surgery that was necessary to fix her leg, Loretta was able to walk normal again and after month of being with Evalynn, she learned what a loving hand and home was and that she never had to be afraid again.

Evalynn checked her phone for the time and called her dogs to put their leashes back on to go back inside her apartment. Once inside, Dolly dropped their rope toy and ran to her water bowl while Loretta took the rope-toy to her bed for safe keeping. Evalynn made sure to lock all three locks on the door before turning around and sighing as she stared at the cardboard boxes in her dining room.

“Just a few more months hopefully before we move girls, then we won’t have to be crowded in this little apartment,” she said as she turned on the bathroom light.

Evalynn looked at her messy bun full of brown curls, her brown eyes looked tired. She always felt as if she was plain-faced. She wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous, but wasn’t ugly. “Just a plain-Jane,” she muttered while she turned on the shower. She turned around to see Dolly lay down in front of the bathroom door. She scratched behind Dolly’s extremely short ears and jumped into the shower.

After two years, it still bothers Evalynn that someone would clip an animal’s ears so short that it looks like they don’t have any. Dolly was rescued from a dog-fighting ring. When she was taken to the veterinarian clinic, she was covered in fresh bites, rips and tears in her beautiful brindle fur, with fresh tears leaving her eyes.

“Whoever said that animals don’t have feelings must’ve been a psychopath because they do,” Evalynn mumbled quietly. She immediately went to Dolly’s side and was heartbroken at how this sweet dog, covered in blood, could still manage to give kisses to kind hands. She knew she had to have her and give her a home full of love.

She turned the water off, wrapped her hair up in a towel and dried off with another. “I need to get more towels for our new place, don’t I? Two won’t be enough if I’m able to foster as soon as we move in. Maybe white towels so it’s easy to bleach or maybe something colorful? What do you think Loretta?” She said as Loretta came prancing into the bathroom and c***s her head to the side.

Evalynn brushed her teeth, she went and double checked the locks on the doors and windows, made sure that her pepper spray was ready to be used in the living room and kitchen before going to the bathroom to spit and rinse her mouth out. She turned off the bathroom light and went into her bedroom with both dogs at her heels. She scratched their heads as they laid down in their beds on the floor. Evalynn closed her bedroom door and locked it, checked the two window’s locks and then climbed into bed. As she put her phone on to charge, she made sure her gun was on the nightstand.

“Maybe one day I’ll feel safe again, but until then, the gun stays loaded and ready to use. Goodnight girls.” She said as she turned off her lamp and laid down. Evalynn said her nightly prayers and then thought of all the things she has to do in the morning and falls asleep.

Her alarm goes off at eight-twenty Monday thru Thursday. On Fridays, she goes works at noon. “Good morning girls! Its Monday so let’s make this week a good one!” Evalynn tries to motivate herself every week to have a good one as if it helps her to feel better.

Dolly stretches and yawns. Loretta is already spinning at the door. Evalynn walks to the kitchen to start the coffee, uses the bathroom, then to the front door to take the girls outside. She grabs their leashes and unlocks her door. Loretta is so eager to go outside that she doesn’t notice Dolly stealing their rope-toy. They walk towards the grassy area of their apartment complex, getting more excited as Evalynn is still trying to wake up.

As soon as they reach the grass, Evalynn takes off their leashes as she sits on the only bench then looks around her. She loves mornings but sunsets have always been her favorite time of day.

Evalynn notices that the apartment that was vacant for months, finally has someone moving into it.

“I wonder who it is. Maybe someone from town? Maybe someone new?,” she wonders. There’s a small moving truck with a two movers and a guy rushing back and forth with furniture and boxes.

After about ten minutes of waiting for the dogs to pee, she calls her dogs to her to go back inside. Dolly sits patiently for her leash while Loretta is still jumping around and shaking the rope-toy. Evalynn laughs and tells Dolly that she’s such a good girl and that Loretta still needs some work as she finally gets Loretta’s leash on. She stands up straight and glances one last time at the new tenant and waves as he waves in her direction obviously catching her being nosey.

She starts walking to her apartment when Mrs. Perez calls her over. Evalynn smiles and walks to her favorite neighbor. Mrs. Perez is in her late sixties, with greying-black hair in a tight bun, her long, bright blue dress with colorful flowers makes her stand out next to her white apartment and flower pots. “Good morning Mrs. Perez, how are you doing?” Evalynn asks as she signals for her dogs to sit down. Mrs. Perez smiles, “Good morning Evalynn, Loretta, and Dolly. Did you see the new neighbor? If I was forty years younger, I’d definitely offer to help or bring some tamales to him,” she says as she glances towards the new tenant.

Evalynn laughs, “Mrs. Perez! I did notice him but what would Mr. Perez say if he heard you?”

Mrs. Perez laughs, “Mija, you know what he’d say, that he would’ve been skinner and richer if I didn’t marry him.” They giggle like little girls and talk about weather and the hometown football team. Mrs. Perez’s eldest grandsons are on the team and three of her granddaughters are on the cheerleading and dance team. Evalynn loves how close Mrs. Perez is to her family and wishes she lived closer to her family. She smiles and tells Mrs. Perez that she has to start getting ready for work and they say goodbye.

Both Dolly and Loretta are excited for breakfast and run to the kitchen once their inside the apartment. Evalynn pours her coffee creamer in her favorite coffee mug then her coffee and turns towards the dogs as she heads towards the cabinet with their dog food in it.

She takes their dog bowls and sets them on the counter, adds some dry dog food to each bowl, an egg, some carrots, and some chicken breasts for them. Both Loretta and Dolly sit patiently as Evalynn sets their bowls on the ground and wait until their command to eat. Evalynn gives them fresh water and finally gives the command and both dogs eat quickly.

She opens the refrigerator and pulls out bacon, eggs, bell peppers, and spinach. The bacon cooks first as she chops up the bell peppers, spinach, and a fresh tomato she had on her counter. “What do y’all think we should listen to this morning? Country? Sinatra? Selena y los Dinos? Maybe I’ll just shuffle my songs and we’ll listen to all of them.” Evalynn adds her veggies to the cooked bacon and drinks her coffee as she hums to Bidi Bidi Bom Bom and puts the dirty dishes in the sink. She adds cheese to her breakfast, warms up some homemade tortillas, and adds some hot sauce to make her breakfast tacos perfect.

After she eats, she washes the dishes and wipes the counter down. She heads to the bathroom, puts deodorant on, and takes her messy bun down. She adds water, oils, and mousse to her hair and does a simple half-up-half-down. She does her basic make-up of moisturizer, foundation, blush, mascara, and some lipgloss. Evalynn goes to the bedroom and picks out her favorite jeggings and t-shirt, puts on her converse that she’s had since high school, and sprays her favorite perfume on. Loretta comes bounding in the room and Evalynn goes to the front door, puts the leashes on the dogs, puts some plastic poop bags in her pocket and grabs the poop scooper she has hidden behind her flowerpots, then finally heads back towards the grassy area of the apartment complex.

Dolly and Loretta run around for a little bit as Evalynn texts her mom and sister her daily “Good morning” to them. She misses them and can’t wait for Thanksgiving when she drives the four hours to see them for the weekend. Thinking of Thanksgiving, she dreads about having to bake all the pies, cobblers, and cookies for her friends and coworkers but the extra cash helps for Christmas.

Dolly goes to her favorite pooping spot while Loretta takes the rope-toy and runs back to Evalynn so it’ll be thrown for her. Evalynn tosses the rope-toy and starts walking towards Dolly. Dolly runs after Loretta and Evalynn gets the poop scooper ready along with the plastic bag. She scoops up the poop and heads to where Loretta is. “Loretta, you need to hurry and poop so we can go. I work until two today and you’ll be stuck inside for a little bit today.” Loretta goes to her pooping spot and Dolly proudly prances with the rope-toy. After Loretta finishes, Evalynn scoops up her little poop and proceeds to put it in another plastic bag then tosses them in the trash can. Evalynn puts hand sanitizer on her hands and yells for the girls to come to her. She notices that the new tenant is walking towards her as the moving truck drove off.

She puts the leashes on the dogs and stands up just as the new tenant reaches her. He has dark brown hair that’s wavy-curly, he’s tall - “maybe six-foot-two-inches” Evalynn thinks. He has greenish-hazel eyes, a nicely groomed goatee- with his beard a couple of centimeters under his chin. “Oh my goodness, he’s so handsome. He kinda looks like a white version of Jason Momoa, I like that. He looks so familiar, I wonder why?”

He extends his hand towards Evalynn, “Hi, I’m Cody. I, ugh, just moved in and I’m new to town.” Evalynn shakes his hand and smiles.

“Cody? Cody Johnson! I haven’t seen you in so long!” Seeing his dumbfounded expression, “It’s me, Evalynn.Evalynn Jones.” His eyes grew wide and his smile let her know that he remembered her.

“How are you?! Oh my goodness, Evalynn Jones, I haven’t heard that gorgeous name in years. I can’t believe you live here still!” He hugged her and Dolly barked at him. Cody let go and stared at her two dogs standing at full alert by her side.

“This is Loretta and Dolly. I can’t believe you moved back. I thought I’d never see you again. I’m doing okay, could be better, could be worse. How have you been?” Evalynn is shocked by Loretta willingly going up to Cody and sitting by his feet. Dolly is standing between them and isn’t taking her eyes off of him. Evalynn loves how protective Dolly is over her, especially considering that she left her pepper spray by the front door.

“I’m absolutely perfect now. How are things over here? Anything change? Is there anything fun to do over here besides mudding and fishing in the river? Any good places to eat?” Cody asks while bending down to pet Loretta. Dolly sits at my feet and makes a groaning sound as if she’s jealous that she didn’t get petted. Cody laughs and pets Dolly.

“Um, things are good I guess. We still do a lot of fishing and swimming in the river, hunting, football games, and next weekend we are having our annual county fair. Other than that, it’s pretty boring. For food, we have the basic fast food restaurants, Ruth’s Diner for some home style food, lots of good Mexican restaurants like Guadalajara, Casa Ole, and Don Bravos. There’s one Chinese food place, one Italian place, and a couple of pizza places.” Evalynn responded, feeling a bit awkward that she talked so much . He smiled at her, bringing back so many good memories, and she blushed.

“So, why’d you move back here to Hope? There’s not much here to attract people, let alone have people move back.” Evalynn asks curiously.

Cody smiles and looks down at Loretta who currently is shaking the rope-toy. “I wanted a change of pace. Believe it or not, I missed it here. It’s home, you know? I also took the position at the vet’s office here. Oh, I’m a veterinarian.”

Evalynn knew that her clinic just hired another veterinarian at the clinic, she just didn’t know who. “Well, we’ll be working together then. I work there as an assistant. I’m also certified as a plumber, electrician, baker- sometimes I substitute teach at the high school.” She paused, and looked at him, “sorry, I’m talking too much.”

He smiled at her, “I knew you’d keep yourself busy. You’ve always liked learning and helping people and animals. You’re like a jack of all trades, that’s good. Not a lot of women I met, or men at that, like to get their hands dirty.”

Evalynn looked at my phone at the time “Oh shoot. It’s already nine-thirty, I need to start getting ready for work at ten. It was nice catching up with you, Cody.” She started walking away with Loretta and Dolly.

“It was nice seeing you too, Evalynn. I’ll see you at work later today, I should be getting there around noon. Should I bring pizza or something to make a good impression?” Cody asked walking towards his apartment.

Evalynn smiled, “We don’t ever turn down free food at the clinic. Don’t forget the sodas!” He laughed and waved bye again.

She was nearing Mrs. Perez’s apartment and waved at both Mr. and Mrs. Perez who were peeking out the window. They laughed and waved back, then closed their curtains. Evalynn put the leashes back where they go, turned the radio on for the dogs, grabbed her truck keys and locked the door, thinking about Cody, forgetting to grab her pepper-spray again.

As she drove to work, she couldn’t help but recall of the fun times with Cody and wished that maybe, she’d get her chance with him. She’s loved him since the first time she saw him as kids. “I can’t believe how he got even more handsome. Oh well, he’ll probably prefer skinny, pretty blondes like most guys. Besides, I don’t need another guy around, remember?