Reeling Hubby Back Home: Sowing 'N Reaping

By Katie S Watson

Instead of filing for divorce, Ellie takes friend Millies advice and reads a self help book on How to reel hubby back home. The gal who wrote the book advises the betrayed wives to FIGHT FOR YOUR HUSBANDS, dont give up a cushy retirement to some dame whod planted no seed money in the estate. Errant hubby, Joe Coulter, deacon, devoted father and (until Beth hanley, steno pad in hand, swayed into his office) was a devoted husband to Ellie. Middle aged Joe reaches for the brass ring on the merry go round and his life begins to whirl faster than his years can comfortably keep up with. Meanwhile, the how to book... transforms Ellie from duck to swan; shes now a working gal...with plenty of opportunity...to dally? Joe sheds the blond but finds Ellies not interest in his amour amour. Hes reaping what he sowed. However, theres always a prayer. Will it help?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496917478

Katie S Watson

Pastor, Pastor is Katies 8th book. Born Catherine Scott McNeill in Glasgow, Scotland. She was eight years old when she, with her parents, and her siblings immigrated to the United States. She was brought up in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Northwestern High School in 1935, with a summa cum laude. Catherine met and married Gilbert Hinton Watson in 1939. Seven children were born to this union. She turned 100 in 2017. Catherine (Katie S Watson) entered Eastern Michigan University as a 51 year old freshman. She earned a B.S. degree in education and a MS degree in Library Science. She then worked in the Detroit Public School system until retiring with Gilbert to South Carolina. She worked as a homebound teacher for the South Carolina Board of education for several years before she fully retired. She still conducts and teaches a bible study in her home which see leads and prepares lesson handouts. Her books are written in the Christian genre. Gilbert her husband entered a theological seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. Their combined ministry focused on started churches in Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Arizona, Missouri and Michigan. Gilbert passed away in 1992.

Book preview

© 2014 Katie S. Watson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 8/4/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-1748-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-1747-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014910396

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Written With The Following In Mind…

Book One

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty One

Book Two

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

About The Author

DEDICATION

45615.png

Rev. Gilbert Hinton Watson

Departed this life

May 13, 1992

Sorely missed by his wife,

5 sons and 2 daughters

**********

Pandora’s box of memories, shadowy detritus of our lives.

Glimpses of our early years, our love, our joy, our strife.

When loneliness pursues me, I root amongst its fold.

Reliving ancient moments, walking lanes of tales retold.

Awesome God!

The gift of recollection, resurrection of pleasures old.

Will one day be redundant, as we walk those streets of gold.

Love, Katie

45645.png

WRITTEN WITH THE

FOLLOWING IN MIND…

Great Grandchildren

synderfamily.jpg

Molly, Maggie, Allison, William, Gretchen and Robby

gaiagentry.jpg

Gentry and Gaia

Ken baptizes granddaughters:

46301.png

Sarah, Jennifer, andKatie

46308.png

Hallie, Sawyer and Hannah      Kamryn and Natalie

DrewAlexAidenMaureen.jpg

Drew, Alex, Aiden anf Maureen

greatgrands.jpgTrevorTC.jpg

Trevor and T.C.

Book One

ONE

‘Will you walk into my parlor, said the spider to the fly,

Mary Howitt

‘Q uit worrying; it’s not your problem.’ Ignoring platitudes from the inner man, Millie leaned over the kitchen sink and yanked open the window. The Spring breeze hit her face and helped clear out air laden with depression. Throwing cold coffee into the sink, she replenished her cup with hot brew and sat back down at the kitchen table. The usual pleasures derived from tracing the grains on the blond wooden table, weren’t there. Heartache for Ellie Coulter dominated her thoughts. Chirping birds, fluttering window curtains failed to elicit any morning pleasures out of her. Millie clutched her cell phone with expectations that by doing so, it would ring any minute. ‘Karen, Karen…where are you? I put enough urgents in that E-mail to alert the National Guard. What’s holding you up?’ Before her cell had uttered its full trill, Millie had it open. ‘Karen…what took you so long?’

‘Hey, Millie I’m a working gal…remember? Chaos at the office…I’m short a couple of gals this morning; and, I had to juggle my secretaries to facilitate my guys. No small miracle.’

‘Sorry… guess I forget there are other emergencies beside the one I E-mailed you about.’

‘Well, yeah. I read your E-mail; it’s already deleted; so worry not. I doubt if there’s anything I can tell you that we’ve not discussed before. However, I wasn’t aware that it had developed into a full blown affair till I asked one of the secs. She said, Yeah, Beth had been braggin’ for weeks about THE Boss squiring her round town.’

‘I need to know some specifics, ’cause Ellie’s coming over this morning to TALK. You said her name was Beth Hanley; fill me in on some particulars.’

‘Millie, she’s blond, petite, good figure. Her employment application lists her age as 35; I think she shaved a coupla years off. I’d guess she’s nearer 40. Her profile seemed familiar?’

‘Oh yeah,’ snorted Millie. ‘Who ever heard of hubby leaving wifie for a woman with love handles hanging out, hair needin’ a dye job…wearing bedroom slippers that came over on the ark.’

Karen whooped and snorted. ‘Millie you’re something else. I blame myself for not being more observant; maybe could have put a dent in the affair. But, hey, Joe’s the boss; even though we’ve been buds for years. I was the only sec in the firm when he joined us. I hired Ellie to be his sec when the business grew. Joe was one good looking guy. He brought business the moment he signed on with Baxter. His dad’s a retired judge; and Baxter and he were roomies in college. Joe’s dad sometimes takes the bench even now. Joe’s mom retired a few years ago from teaching law at the university. So Joe was a catch and Baxter caught him.’

Millie sniffed, unimpressed with the prowess of Joe’s genealogical background. ‘Ellie’s devastated after finding that jeweler’s receipt in Joe’s pocket.’

‘She usually go through his jacket pockets?’

‘No…not to snoop! She was checking the pockets of suits she was taking to the cleaners. That’s how she found the dynamite.’

‘Well, it’s a wonder she hadn’t found out before now. I guess it’s true… the little woman’s the last to find out about hubby’s dalliances. ’

‘Yeah,’ said Millie soberly. ‘I feel awful, ’cause I’ve known about Joe’s philandering for a coupla months. Hated to keep it from her; hated to tattle in case Joe got up one morning and smelled the coffee, and stayed home to drink it.’

Karen laughed. ‘Yeah, from what I hear, that’s how it started at the coffee bar near the office.’

‘Right…my Larry saw them one morning, said nothing at first. Then a week later…same scene…same actors, but their lines and actions were a bit cozier. That’s when he told me. I about died. Joe Coulter of all people! Still can’t get my mind to accept it as fact.’

‘Well, Joe’s at the age when Spring attacks the hormones and the male wants to revert to being Alpha male, before he enters the geriatric malaise.’

Karen laughed loudly. ‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Get me some info from her file…Ellie’s gonna quiz me, that I know.’

‘Like what?’

‘She play around with the other guys? She got a steady? She married on the sly. I don’t know Karen…just something to pass on to Ellie that’ll give her an idea who and what she’s dealing with.’

Karen sighed. ‘I hate this for Ellie. I’ll get back to you a.s.a.p.’

They hung up.

Karen reread Millie’s E-mail. ‘Ellie phoned this morning, crying. She found a Jeweler’s receipt in Joe’s jacket pocket she was readying for the cleaners; receipt for a lady’s watch… initials on the back to read BH…$2500 bucks worth. Ellie’d been suspicious of his comings and goings of late, but took the ostrich route. She called; wanted to know if I’d heard any rumors about Joe. I’m giving you a heads up in case she calls you. I’ve a sneaking suspicion that I’m gonna be the pigeon walking Ellie through this maze. Delete this.’ Millie.

Ten minutes later, Karen called. ‘Millie, Beth Hanley joined the firm a year and four months ago. Age given…34; as I said before, I’d say she’s more like 39 or 40. Petite, blond. No sign of a husband; boyfriends not listed. Not particularly liked by the other secretaries; does a bit too much bragging to suit their tastes.’

‘What’s her track record at the company? Got a rep for fooling ’round?’

‘Till Joe came to light… no one complained to me about her. A little perusing round however and I find she’d been hitting it off with some of the younger legal beagles. She’s not popular with the other secretaries; especially when she shows off a bit of jewelry given to her by a Friend. The chatter is that when she’s dumped, the guy buys her off with a trinket. (Think the watch is Joe’s way of saying bye bye)? The younger men are either newly married or have a steady and their foolin’ round doesn’t last long…soon leave her, recompensed. No big gossip…till now.’

‘She a good secretary?’

‘I’ve had no complaints about her work; must do a satisfactory job, or I’d have complaints from the men. It’s the gals who resent her. She irritates them with her tendency to swagger when she’s got a guy in tow. One of my secretaries let it slip that her swaggering increased tenfold when Joe became the lead pigeon. The affair’s supposed to be a secret, but the girls say Beth’s as subtle about it as a cat’s grin after catching a mouse. According to my snitch, she smirks all the time. Steno pool chatter has it, Beth’s going for orange blossoms; with unsuspecting Joe as the potential florist.’

Millie let out a shriek of laughter. ‘Karen what a great analogy; juxtaposing Joe the CEO, with the brawny gardener in Lady what’s her name’s, lover. Great day in the morning…this is gonna take some undoing.’

‘Well,’ Karen said dryly, ‘Joe dug the garden… planted the seed…now he’s gonna reap more than vegetables. He’ll need a bulldozer to fill up the hole he’s dug by his own philandering shovel. I think of that old ditty… the spider and the fly. Wonder if Joe is aware of this spider’s intentions, before getting caught in Beth’s web?’

Karen’s voice changed. Millie noted and remembered that Karen, Joe and Ellie went way back. Discussing personal ups and downs of friends you care about, makes one feel like a traitor. Millie appreciated Karen’s dilemma and opined. ‘You’ve known them longer than I; talking about them must really hurt…especially in a situation like this. I met Ellie when she joined our Sunday School class years ago. It was my Larry who put Joe’s name up for deacon.’

‘Yeah, mused Karen. ‘I was the one who hired Ellie. After Joe joined the firm and work escalated, Baxter saw I was underwater, carrying the water for both guys. Hire another secretary! I don’t want you collapsing under these briefs. So Ellie came on board. Joe saw Ellie in my office the morning I interviewed her. After she left, he came back demanding; You gotta hire that Earth Angel, Karen, Her credentials were fabulous. She was the best I’d interviewed; so she got the job… was hired to be Joe’s secretary. But it didn’t work out that way.

‘No! Joe was tongue tied in her presence; couldn’t get any work done with her sitting across from him. Finally he admitted it was a no go. "I can’t put two words together when she’s near me. I look at her sitting with her steno pad, pencil poised waiting for words of wisdom to pour outta my mouth. All I get out is… ahh…mmm, ahh, and more of same. I’m a wreck,