Be My Guest (8 page)

"I made the mistake of becoming engaged to
the son of my boss. Then, just before Christmas, he told me he had
never really loved me, and only asked me out initially to please
his father. It seems he was just trying to appease his father also
when he asked me to marry him. He said some very hurtful things
about my compulsive, over-achiever personality-type and said that
he couldn't go through with marriage to me even to insure that he
remained in his father's good favor financially."

Aurora shifted herself to make her back more
comfortable, then gazed back up at Will. He saw tears forming in
her eyes even though she tried to hide them. Will’s anger toward
this Russell character snowballed with her every sentence.

She threw her hands up and let them flop
down to her sides. Her eyes met his and she added quickly, "But,
Will, that's not why I left."

"No?" Will spoke softly. "Then why did you
leave?" He wondered what could possibly make a beautiful woman
leave a good job to wander around the countryside.

She paused again as if searching for the
words to convey her feelings. "I made a very good salary and made
some very good investments even early on in my career. Part of what
Russell said is true--I am compulsive about doing the best job I
possibly can. I know I tended to be a workaholic and worked far too
many hours, but that in turn meant that I didn't have a lot of time
to spend my money."

“That’s the person I was, but not anymore.
Working such long hours left me little time to myself. I vowed to
live more moderately from now on, but that vow would never lessen
my vow to become independent. I will have my own business and
depend on no one but myself for my livelihood!

Will wondered at someone too busy to spend
any time or money on herself. Maybe she worked compulsively to
offset deficiencies elsewhere in her life. He could supply numerous
reasons for her to relax and enjoy life more if he could only
convince her to give him that chance.

"Well, if Russell and I had actually gotten
married, I planned to buy into James' business and I had quite a
little nest egg built up. With the break off of that relationship,
I began to re-evaluate my entire lifestyle."

Aurora twisted the sheet with her fingers.
"I took the job in Houston because it seemed such a wonderful
opportunity for someone just out of college, but it's always been
my dream to own my own business. I decided to try a small town not
far from a metropolitan area."

“It seems absurd to me now that I ever
considered life in Houston, commuting downtown to my office each
day. The thought now of facing that congested traffic on a regular
basis appalls me. I’m amazed at how much I’ve changed in the past
few months.” She leaned forward and her eyes pleaded with Will.
"I'm working toward something, not running away. Please understand,
Will”

Will smiled. If only she would let him be
the end to her search. He tried to conceal the importance he gave
to the next question. "And what did you decide you really want from
life?" He picked up her right hand again, but this time he held it
firmly in his own hands.

Aurora sighed. "I worked all the time I was
in college, so never had free time. Once in the business world, I
never took vacations, other than a day or two to visit my parents.
So, I decided to first spend some of the money and tour around the
Southwest for about six months."

Her eyes twinkled as she added, "You know,
take time to smell the flowers for a while." Her eyes widened. "Oh,
that's what first got me into trouble yesterday."

Will nodded reassuringly as he played with
her fingers. "So, after traveling the Southwest, then what do you
plan?" The calm, casual tone of his voice belied his question’s
importance.

"It's my goal to find a place--probably
Durango--where I can open a small business of my own and keep my
personal life totally uninvolved until I get my new business on a
sound footing. The owner of the gift store in Durango has given me
until the end of the year to let her know if I want to purchase it
before she puts it on the open market. I left Houston the first
week in January and I've been travelling since then."

"You don't plan to start your own marketing
firm then?" Will asked. Alternate plans for her personal life were
racing through his mind, and they did not include her remaining
uninvolved or moving around the Southwest. Will's plans definitely
did not include Aurora living in Colorado.

"No. Other than the gift store, I thought
possibly a greeting card-gift shop combination would be good for
me. I'm not interested in the clothing business, nor in anything to
do with the food business--well, perhaps a health food store. If I
don't like the gift store or Durango as well as I think I will,
there might be another established business for sale in one of the
other areas I've seen."

"You've put a lot of thought into this. It
sounds like a good plan." Mentally he reviewed the businesses in
Post for possibilities as he spoke. "Where have you visited so
far?

She pushed the same errant strand of hair
once more from her face. "Well, I went to San Antonio first, then
on to Austin. Next, I tried Fredericksburg, Waco, Dallas, Fort
Worth, and now here. I spent Thursday night in Abilene. I'd really
planned for my next working stop to be Lubbock or Amarillo. Now
I'll just make it Post or nearby until I get this car situation all
squared away” Aurora rubbed her temples and sighed.

Will stood and grabbed his crutches. "I'll
leave you alone while you call your insurance agent. When that's
done, I'll call the sheriff while you continue to rest."

Aurora retrieved her auto information from
the briefcase and called her insurance agent. The insurance company
office was closed for the weekend, but she left a message on the
answering machine and promised to call again on Monday. That call
completed, she sighed and settled back against the pillows. All the
activity of breakfast followed by talking made her head ache worse.
She closed her eyes and soon fell asleep.

Chapter Four

When
Will tried to retrieve the phone
from the bed beside her, she awakened. Sleepy eyes stared up at him
and a smile spread across her face. Will's heart pounded with
strange fibrillations. Under the covers she moved her legs aside so
he could once again sit beside her on the bed.

Her auburn hair lay spread across the
pillow. The neck of the oversized pajama top revealed ivory skin to
the cleft of her ample breasts. Will very much wanted to forget the
sheriff and just crawl into bed with Aurora. So strong was the
feeling that, for a moment, it took his breath away. She seemed,
however, to have no idea of the effect she had on him.

In spite of his carnal longings, Will sat on
the bed in the place she had made for him. "Sorry, I tried not to
wake you. This damn cast and the crutches make it hard to sneak in
and out of the room. I thought I'd better let the sheriff know
you're safe in case a pilot spots your car."

His eyes focused on the pale light from the
window across the room. "Rain may begin again any minute, but for
the present it's stopped. Small planes and helicopters are already
flying over the area to assess the extent of the flood damage."

Will called the Garza County Sheriff and
reported Aurora safe but the location of her car unknown. The
deputy with whom he spoke promised to alert the air patrols about
the car.

"Now, I need to call my daughter Kelly.
She's at my mother's home in Lubbock. She had an appointment with
the orthodontist yesterday. With my talk at the college scheduled,
my sister Lori Beth agreed to take Kelly to the orthodontist." As
way of explanation, he added. "Lori Beth's pregnant and had an
appointment with her doctor in Lubbock anyway."

Will tapped the cast on his leg. "I
consulted Nick in Snyder for this leg because Nick's a close friend
whose skill I trust. There's a medical school and teaching hospital
in Lubbock, though, so normally we go there for medical needs as
Lori Beth and Kelly have done. Nick's on the staff in Lubbock and
does his more complicated cases there."

He chuckled to himself, then explained, "The
trip also gave Lori Beth and Kelly a chance to go shopping for new
spring clothes. My daughter prefers shopping with her aunt as
opposed to shopping with me." He shook his head in bewilderment.
"Kids seem to grow in spurts and she recently shot up out of all of
her clothes. My brother-in-law Tommy Joe went with them to try to
reign them in before the two bankrupted both of us."

Aurora smiled at his description of the
outing. "How old's your daughter?"

He smiled again at the thought of his spunky
daughter. "She's ten--going on thirty. She thinks she has to take
care of me since Nancy died."

The mention of his wife was like a dousing
of cold water to Aurora, but she found herself sympathetic. "It
must have been very hard for both of you, your wife dying so
young."

The humor died from Will's eyes and a mask
came across them as he clenched his jaw. "Yes. Words can't describe
how hard it was...and is."

She saw the pain in his eyes at the mention
of his wife. Although uncertain she should probe further, her
curiosity forced her to ask, "Was she in an accident?"

"No." He took a deep breath, as if even
talking about it hurt too much to bear. "She had leukemia--one of
the rapid kind that spreads immediately. We didn't even realize she
was ill. She'd been feeling tired for several weeks, but hadn't
mentioned it to me. One day when we waked up, she was covered in
bruises. I rushed her to the doctor, and the doctor did a lot of
tests on her that day." He shook his head and turned away to hide
the pain the memory brought with it.

After a few moments he swallowed hard a
couple of times before he continued. “I didn't know leukemia could
be that rapid. I had a friend who lived with it for twenty-five
years. Nancy only lasted two months after her diagnosis." He gazed
into space as if lost in the unpleasant memories.

The pain on his face left Aurora at a loss
for words. She was an intruder who happened onto a very private
scene. Quickly, she sought to divert Will's mind from his wife's
death. "Do your sister and brother-in-law live here with you now or
is it just you and Kelly?"

Will remained lost in memories for a few
seconds before he returned his gaze to Aurora. He took a deep
breath and smiled apologetically for momentarily shutting her out
of his thoughts. "Kelly and I live here alone. You haven't seen it
yet, but there are a couple of houses near this one that are part
of the ranch complex although they're...well...I guess it would be
the equivalent of a city block or so away. My foreman Bob Hankins,
his wife Mary, and their teenage son Greg live our former house my
parents built when I was about seven or eight. Bob's good at his
job and I've relied even more heavily on him since I've been forced
to wear this damned cast."

Will ran his hands through his hair. "In the
other house, my housekeeper Lily Chapa lives with her husband Raul,
who helps on the ranch and is also a partner with me on the cutting
horses. Raul and Lily are longtime friends of mine. They have two
sons, Juan and Hector, and a daughter, Catrina.

"Lily only works weekdays or she would have
been over here by now. I'll try to get her over here later to help
you. Her kids have flu or something, but I hope Lily can get away
for a little while."

Aurora wished this Lily would hurry and get
here if she were coming. "Where do your sister and brother-in-law
live?" The number of people and buildings associated with the ranch
surprised her. She could only guess at how prosperous the ranch
must be to support so many people. It was a lifestyle foreign to
her and seemed much more complex than she had imagined.

"My brother-in-law--Tommy Joe Vestal--owns a
ranch that's been in his family for a couple of generations. It's
about two miles east from here, which is how Lori Beth met him.
He's a couple of years younger than I am, but we all grew up
together. I try to remember to call him Tom now that he's older and
soon to be a father, but old habits are hard to break."

Aurora let her gaze roam around the room.
"This house is fairly new. How long have you lived here?"

"Nancy and I lived in Post until we built
this house six years ago. My father developed serious heart
problems while I attended college, so he and Mother moved into
Lubbock to be close to any medical care he might need. That's when
the Hankins moved into my folks' old house here on the ranch."

Almost as an afterthought he added, "When
Dad died five years ago, Mother wanted to remain in Lubbock. I
don't think she ever really liked the isolation of ranch life."

Aurora picked up his left hand from where he
rested it on the bed beside her. She couldn't decide whether or not
to mention it. The words came out while she was thinking them
before she had a chance to stop them, "You wore your wedding ring
yesterday. It's gone now."

He laced the fingers of his hand with hers.
"That's right," Will searched her face. "I took it off when I got
home yesterday."

"Why yesterday?" Aurora lay back against the
pillows, mesmerized by those gray eyes that now peered right into
her soul. The rest of the world failed to exist for her, and her
heart caught as she waited for his answer.

Will shifted uncomfortably, as if he did not
know how to answer her question. He paused and turned away, then
took a deep breath. "Kelly and Lori Beth have tried to get me, um,
back into circulation, as they phrase it, and pestered me to remove
my wedding ring."

Slowly, he turned his gaze back to hers. "I
promised Kelly that if I ever met a woman who aroused my interest,
I'd quit wearing the ring."