Bluegrass State of Mind (2 page)

Kenna sat on her bed in the
extend-a-stay hotel with the smell of chocolate in the air and
started looking for a job. She started with Alabama and worked her
way through the states alphabetically, looking for places that were
hiring. She kept an eye out for cities that were small, but not
isolated. Cities that Chad the Bastard wouldn’t think of looking
for her. But most importantly, cites that were looking for
prosecutors. One week later Kenna pumped her fists in the air and
jumped up and down on the bed when she saw the opening for a
prosecutor seventeen states later. Not too big, not too small… just
right.

It was a good thing she found the
opening when she did, Kenna thought to herself. She couldn’t put on
any more weight after spending a month in Chocolate Heaven. She
pushed the thoughts of the past back in her mind and opened her
eyes again. Mayberry was still there. When she was in Hershey the
week before, waiting to hear back about an interview, a memory
floated up to the surface from some hidden depth of her mind. That
memory was Will Ashton. “What the hell,” Kenna thought. It’s not
like she had any place else to go and no idea what the future held
besides a job application for an Assistant District Attorney
position. Kenna knew her subconscious had led her here to Will
Ashton and to Keeneston, Kentucky.

Kenna pulled herself out of her
thoughts as she drove up the driveway surrounded by Bradford pear
trees and made her way towards the bed and breakfast Paige had
recommended. “It is picture perfect” Kenna said to herself as she
got out of the car and looked up at the three story white brick
Victorian.

The green front door opened and a
little woman with a helmet of white hair stepped out. "Can I help
you, dearie?" she asked Kenna with a soft, Southern lilt to her
voice.

"Are you Miss Lily?" Kenna asked as
she started up the steps to the wraparound porch.

“
Yes, surely I am.” Miss
Lily answered, her hands clasped in front of her and with a
dishtowel casually draped over her shoulder.

"Paige Davies said you had a room to
rent for a couple of nights?"

"Yes, I do have a room for you,
dearie. Come on in." Miss Lily turned and walked into the house
presuming Kenna would follow right behind.

Kenna turned back to her car, grabbed
some of her bags out of the trunk, and hurried into the bed and
breakfast just behind Miss Lily. The house was huge with a grand
entranceway whose focal point was a wide sweeping staircase. There
were large square shaped rooms off to her right and
left.

"Over here are the private quarters,"
Miss Lily said, pointing to the right. "This first room here on the
left is the sitting room for our guests. There are books and such
in there and we have a fire at night in the old fireplace. The room
behind the staircase is the dining room.”

“
I love it.”

“
Well then, I will put you
on the second floor. If you go up these stairs here will be another
sitting room. Your room is off to the left."

“
Thank you, Miss Lily. I
am McKenna Mason. It’s nice to meet you, and thank you for making
me feel so welcome in your lovely house”.

“
Not a problem, dearie. I
will give you a moment to settle in and lunch will be served in an
hour,” Miss Lily said as she turned to head into what Kenna guessed
to be the kitchen.

Kenna grabbed her bags and headed up a
staircase obviously made for a different time; a time when ladies
wore ball gowns so large they needed the six foot wide stairs to
sweep down while making a grand entrance for a ball.

The sitting room on the second floor
was as large as the entrance way and full of overstuffed furniture
and a braided rug on the floor. It was the perfect place to curl up
and read a book. Two large windows overlooked the front yard and
the street. Kenna turned to her left and opened the door to the Man
O' War room. She had seen a lot of Man O' War names and couldn't
figure why a large and deadly jelly fish was so prominent in
Kentucky. Oh well, another Southern mystery she thought as she
tugged her bags into the room.

In the center of the room stood a huge
king sized four poster bed so high up, it had little steps to climb
up to get into bed. A TV was on top of an old oak dresser that ran
the length of the opposite wall. A window seat looked out to the
side yard and down towards Main Street. A private bathroom with an
iron claw tub finished off the room. It was amazing. Just sitting
in the room with the white lace curtains billowing softly with a
spring breeze coming in the open window was enough to make her feel
safe for the first time since she left New York City.

Kenna unpacked some of her clothes,
put them into the drawers, and went to wash up. It was almost time
for lunch and mouth watering smells were coming up from the
kitchen. Her mouth started to water as she thought back to the last
meal she had at McDonalds the night before in West Virginia. She
finished putting the clothes away and opened the door to head
downstairs. The door across the hall from her opened and two
impeccably dressed people stepped out. They were dressed casually.
Well, as casual as you can be dressed in Ralph Lauren, Kenna
noted.

"Oh, we have another guest!" sang the
women. She was a couple inches taller than Kenna and in her early
forties. Her makeup was perfect in that understated way only movie
stars could manage. Her blond hair was pulled into a perfect pony
tail tied off with a white ribbon. Kenna realized that if one
wasn't used to shopping the expensive department stores like she
was, one would never know the woman was wealthy. Well, except for
the eight carat diamond weighing down her ring finger. Compared to
this bubbly woman, Kenna felt much older than her twenty-nine years
after the pressure and stress of the last month. Kenna pasted on a
smile and turned to face the perky couple.

"So we do honey," her husband said to
her. He matched her perfectly. Kenna placed him at fifty years old
and dressed in Ralph Lauren jeans and a white button up shirt. His
salt and pepper hair was perfectly trimmed. He let his right hand
rest lightly at the small of his wife's back.

"Are you here for the sales as well?”
Mrs. Perky Ralph Lauren asked Kenna.

"Sales? I didn't see any department
stores in Keeneston. I could do a little shopping.” A happy feeling
washed over her and Kenna’s smile turned into a real one. The kind
of feeling that only spending money on the perfect pair of sexy
shoes or finding that little black dress that hid ten pounds and
increased your bust at least one cup size could do for
you.

“
Oh! Oh, ha, a joke. Good
one little lady.” Mr. Ralph Lauren laughed. Kenna darted a glance
back and forth between the couple and apparently Mrs. Perky picked
up on her creased brow and look of utter confusion at the apparent
joke she had made.

“
Julius, she’s not joking.
Dear, I am so sorry. We thought any visitors would be here for the
Keeneland horse sales”.

So, Mr. Ralph Lauren was Julius.
Apparently they had come from out of town, out of state by Kenna’s
guess, for horse sales. That was good news for her, as she had
found out Will still has a horse farm.

“
I am so sorry. Since June
and I are so horse crazy, I just assumed you were too. I am Julius
Kranski and this is my wife, June.” Julius turned and took his hand
off his wife's back to shake Kenna's.

June clasped Kenna's hand and lightly
held onto it when she introduced herself to Kenna. "So nice to meet
you!”

“
Nice to meet you both. I
am McKenna Mason, but you can just call me Kenna. It’s nice to meet
some other people from out of town. Where are you from?” she asked
as she looked back to June.

“
We have a horse farm in
Ocala, Florida,” June said as she smiled and gently squeezed
Kenna's hand again.

She's a toucher, Kenna thought as June
continued, “I hope we can be friends. I always love coming to Miss
Lily’s for the sales. We always meet the most wonderful people.”
June continued to talk as Kenna made her way to the dining room for
lunch, explaining all about the sales and about the horses they
were hoping to buy. Kenna looked around the dining room and noted
that it was casually set with a buffet of olive nut and pimento
cheese sandwiches. Fresh fruit was in a bowl and a large salad was
set in the middle of the round table were Kenna sat with June and
Julius.

"Come in, come in. Have a seat just
anywhere at the table ya'll. I will be out in jiffy with the sweet
tea," Miss Lily said as she quickly zipped into the kitchen.
Kenna's eyes widened slightly, Miss Lily was remarkably fast for
someone in her early seventies. She reappeared with a pitcher of
sweet tea and her white apron was blown back from her flowered
dress as her easy spirits sailed across the polished hardwood
floors. The room was bright with sun streaming in through the open
windows.

Kenna picked up her sweet tea,
tentatively gave it a sip, and found that she was pleasantly
surprised by the taste. Julius and June began to talk about one of
the horses they were hoping to sell and which barns they should go
to first when they went to the Keeneland sales after lunch as Kenna
listened with half an ear as she nibbled at the pimento cheese
sandwich. Not bad, she thought and then took a bigger
bite.

"So, are these horse sales a big deal?
I mean, do lots of people go to them?" Kenna asked while she tried
the olive nut sandwich. She was definitely going to have to learn
how to make these sandwiches and had a feeling Miss Lily would
teach her in a heartbeat if she asked.

"They sure are, hon" Julius told her.
"The Keeneland sales bring in tens of millions of dollars every
year. There are smaller sales in Florida and some good sized sales
in Saratoga, New York. But if you want the next big thing or the
best selection, you go to Keeneland."

“
It’s also the best place
to see the who’s who of racing” June chimed in. “For example, some
Middle Eastern royalty own racing stables. There is a Sheik from
some small oil country who is trying to build the next big stable
right here in Keeneston. He's not the only royalty. Queen Elizabeth
had been known to have a horse or two stabled in the area. She’s
also attended the Derby a couple of years ago.”

Kenna though that this was as good a
time as any to ask about one of the reasons she came to Keeneston ,
"When I was a kid, one of my Nana’s friends' families had a horse
farm here. This morning I found out the Ashtons are still here. Do
you know them?"

"The Ashtons!" June practically
squealed. She clapped her hands lightly together and beamed at
Kenna, "Of course we know them. Everyone knows them. After all,
they have Spires Landing at stud on their farm here in
Keeneston."

Kenna breathed a sigh of relief and
felt a little of the weight lift off her shoulders. Maybe June
would know how to get in touch with Will. That would be easier than
trying to find the entrance to the farm. She would feel strange
just knocking on the door. "So, you think they will be at the
sales?"

"Of course, although I don't know if
Betsy and William will be there. But I am sure someone from the
family will be" June said.

Will had gotten married. Kenna knew it
was wishful thinking or stupidity on her part to think that after
all these years he wouldn't be married. After all, he was a couple
years older than her, probably around thirty-two by now. She had
heard that he graduated from the University of Kentucky and played
in the NFL for a couple of years, so it was definitely stupid to
think him still unmarried. Childhood crush aside, she needed help
and he was the one she was depending on to give it to
her.

"If you want to go to the sales this
afternoon, we'd be happy to take you. Wouldn't we, sugar?" June
said, interrupting Kenna's thoughts.

"Of course we would. You just come
along with us if you'd like," Julius responded.

Kenna looked at her phone calendar and
saw that her appointment with the Keeneston District Attorney's
office was scheduled for two days from now, so time was a concern.
It was best to go track down Will now and beg him to put in a good
word with her potential boss. Or see if he knew of any other jobs
in town if she didn't get the D.A. job. "That would be great.
Thanks June, Julius".

After finishing lunch, Kenna went to
freshen up before heading out to the sales. She stared at her hair
in the mirror and attempted to fluff it, but then it just ended up
looking tangled as opposed to that Hollywood, windswept ‘just had
great sex’ look. She looked at her clothes hanging in the closet
and decided to compensate for not having the ‘just had great sex’
hair with her own Ralph Lauren skin tight green cable sweater. Mr.
and Mrs. Perky put her in the Ralph Lauren mood. She slipped her
small feet into her black Nine West two inch heel boots to boost
her shortened height up to what she thought of as normal height.
With that, she was ready to go. Wiping sweaty hands on her jeans
she headed downstairs trying to prepare herself for what would
equate to begging and pleading for help finding a job, something
she never, never, never did. Especially from an old crush she
thought as she rolled her eyes, who would probably not even
remember her name.