City Girl (18 page)

She looked up for one brief instant into the deadly serious misleading calm of those entrancing blue eyes, then fled into her room. He didn't try to stop her, but it was some seconds before Crystal, her back pressed against the hard wood of her door, heard him move away.

The driving lesson was forgotten that afternoon, and Crystal made a point of staying in her room the rest of the day. That evening she dressed in a pale blue gathered skirt and matching vest with a blue print blouse and went to the kitchen to ask Lupe if she could help in any way with the preparations of the evening meal. As usual, Lupe assured her that there was nothing to be done, but she surprised her by revealing that she had invited the Hardestys for dinner.

It was not without tension, but dinner went off successfully that evening. Crystal was introduced to the top hands, all single men except Rod Hardesty, and enjoyed the company of the children and Connie. Gloria was her usual unpleasant self, moping around with her chin in her hand and generally snarling to everyone who tried to draw her into the conversation.

Rick was unusually quiet, and Crystal supposed it was on account of the angry exchange he had witnessed earlier between Garrett and herself.

She tried not to notice Garrett. He was tense and brooding. Strain showed around his eyes and mouth. Yet he managed to be pleasant and cordial, if unnaturally quiet.

All in all, Crystal was much relieved when the evening was over and she could go quietly to her room.

Sunday passed in a slow, boring blur for Crystal. She had awakened with a headache after dreams peopled with strange faces and laughing, sneering voices. At least the headache gave her a plausible reason for staying in her room, but it did nothing to assuage her depression.

Late in the evening Garrett sent Gloria to her room to say that he would hike to see her in his office. The girl was curt and unfriendly. Her lips curled derisively when she announced that Garrett was waiting. Crystal tried not to let it bother her, but the girl was unwilling to part without hostilities.

"Watch your step," she warned Crystal mysteriously; then she backed out of the doorway with a haughty toss of her long braid. "All the men on this ranch don't belong to you, you know," she snarled, and hurried away down the hall.

It occurred to Crystal as she walked down the hall to Garrett's office that Gloria was probably in love with Garrett. Then, like a thunderbolt out of the blue, it came to her:
she was not the only one
.

Crystal stopped dead in her tracks, fist raised in midair about to descend upon Garrett's door. Suddenly she went cold all over. She wanted to cry, wanted to deny it. But she knew that she couldn't. The only thing she could do was try her best to hide it and not let her emotions get the best of her.

Whatever happened while she was here, she could not let Garrett know how she felt about him. To do so would be to invite him to equate her with his dead wife, to let him think that because she loved him and looked so much like the woman he had loved, he could do with her as he pleased. And she was not sure how long she could resist him if he made a sincere attempt to make love to her.

Her hand trembled as she rapped it timidly upon the door.

"Come in," The resonant voice did nothing to quell the butterflies flitting about in her stomach.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked. He put down his pencil and indicated that she should take a seat. The lines of his face were stern and unreadable. The blue eyes seemed to take note of her every movement as she crossed to the chair and lowered herself into it.

"Will you be ready to begin work tomorrow?" he asked after a moment.

Crystal nodded affirmatively.

He paused, seeming to expect her to interject, but she kept her silence, preferring to let him do the talking as long as possible.

"Rod will bring the children over in the mornings, and Petie will take them home, but I want you to know that it is a great inconvenience, and it will only be for this first week. During that time, I expect you to learn how to drive well enough to pass a driving test and get your license. I've arranged for Cleave to give you lessons each afternoon, though that, too, is an inconvenience."

He studied her speculatively, as though waiting for some reaction from her. After a moment he went on. "I'll expect you to study this," he said, reaching into the top drawer of his desk. He pulled out a red-and-blue booklet and let it fall from his hand with a plop between them.

"It is a couple of years old, left over from when Gloria took her driving test, but I imagine it will suffice." A thought occurred to him, then, and he frowned. "How did you ever manage to get through high school without taking driver's education?"

Crystal picked up the manual and rolled it into a tube in her hand. "It was a summer course," she said deliberately, keeping her tone flat. "I spent my summers working to earn enough money to buy clothes to go back to school in the fall."

He tapped his finger on the top of his desk, regarding her with interest. "Sometimes I just don't know what to make of you," he said softly. He straightened up in his chair and cleared his throat. "I'll make an appointment for you with the license bureau in Llano—-for Friday afternoon," he added pointedly. "Be certain that you are ready. And, Crystal, I've decided that your job here is contingent upon your passing that test."

She wanted to protest at that, citing that he had not made a driver's license part of the original requirements for the job, but wisdom told her to hold her tongue. Besides, it might be a blessing in disguise if she failed the test. Only, where would she go if he fired her?

"Have you anything to say?" he asked shortly.

"No, sir."

His eyebrows made twin arches as he leaned back in his chair to survey her coolly. She noticed the tiny muscle in his jaw twitching. He seemed to want to say something to her, but balked.

She found this strange, but only sat stonily, waiting for him to dismiss her.

Finally he gave an exasperated sigh and came to his feet. "It seems that our city girl has had some of the starch taken out of her," he observed wryly, pacing about beside his desk. Suddenly his hands were on the arms of her chair and he was leaning to her, his face just slightly above hers.

Crystal could feel every muscle in her body tighten, every sense quicken to his nearness.

"Crystal, do you want to go home?" he asked, suddenly tender and gentle, and she knew immediately that if she said yes he would send her away.

She covered her face with her hands, trying to camouflage the uncertainty she knew must have been displayed there. Over and over the word "home" echoed in her brain. Where was that mystical place? Where could she make herself a home without him?

"I've got no home to go to," she said at last, letting her hands fall to her lap.

"Then you don't consider Dallas your home?" he pressed.

Crystal pushed him aside and stood up, backing away from him. If he touched her, she might well blurt out that she only wanted to be near him, and since that couldn't be, she mustn't say it.

"I don't have a home!" she reiterated sharply. "Anyplace I can get a job will have to be my home, and since this is the only job I have at the moment, this place will just have to do." She drew herself up proudly. "But I can manage perfectly well if you throw me out!"

"No one is throwing you out!" A big tanned hand came up to cover the grimace momentarily contorting his face. "I didn't say I wanted you to go!"

"What do you want from me, Garrett?" The words just slipped out, and instantly she regretted them.

He stared at her a moment, eyes unreadable and shadowed. "I want you to finish the job you were hired for," he replied shortly.

Crystal clenched her jaw. What had she expected, a marriage proposal? "Fine. Is that all? May I go now?"

"Not quite yet." He made her wait while he retook his chair and leaned back, bringing up one foot to rest on the edge of his desk. "I've told Lupe to borrow a bathing suit from Gloria for you, something more-shall we say—modest than that thing you were wearing the other day."

"You needn't have done that," she snapped angrily. She did not need to be reminded of that embarrassing incident. "I can do without the pool."

"I'm not only thinking of your comfort," he informed her sarcastically. "Connie's kids expressed a desire to swim in the pool, but she is afraid of the water herself. I think it's a good idea that the children themselves learn to respect the water rather than fear it. Rod agrees with me. Therefore, you will take them for a swim each morning just before lunch. I imagine you can work that into your schedule."

"All right."

He might have asked her about this before committing her to it, but since she would have agreed anyway, she did not pursue the matter.

"One more thing," he said abruptly. "You haven't asked, but I'll give my permission for you to ride the mare if you want. Rick assures me that you are a capable rider. Just don't go getting yourself into trouble. Use some common sense for a change, and stick close to the house. I don't want to have to come looking for you." He stressed that last sentence unnecessarily. "Understood?"

"Understood."

"You can go now, then."

He picked up the pencil he had been working with when she came in and bent his head over the column of figures on the paper before him. She left quickly, closing the door softly behind her. Once outside Garrett's office, she breathed a sigh of relief before heading for the kitchen to ask Lupe for the suit. Doubtless Gloria would not like having to lend her a bathing suit, but there was nothing she could do about that. And, frankly, she didn't care, not one whit.

Rod came with the children promptly at eight. Crystal was ready for them. She had their lessons laid out on the table waiting. The morning went smoothly, but she did not try to do too much with them. She was more interested in letting them get the feel of it and gauging their individual responses to her teaching methods. She found them willing and capable, though little Cruz tired easily and had not the attention span of the older children. He would require a special effort, but she did not mind. In fact, she thought she would rather enjoy working with him.

They had their first swim that very morning. Lupe had given her the bathing suit borrowed from Gloria, and the children had come prepared with their suits on beneath their clothing.

To say the suit was modest was an understatement. It had little-boy legs that were almost as long as Bermuda shorts, and a high, tight neckline. It was a drab thing of navy blue with a ridiculous four-inch stripe of yellow going the length of the right side, but Crystal noticed with satisfaction that it conformed nicely to her shape.

Petie took the children home for lunch, and Crystal went to prepare for her driving lesson. Cleave arrived about two, and they went out in the El Camino, which she managed easily because it was an automatic shift and required much less dexterity than the expensive sports car. He was more nervous than she, being painfully shy with women, but before long they felt comfortable with each other and were working well together.

She spent the rest of the afternoon studying the driving manual, and took her evening meal in her room before retiring early.

That set the pattern for the rest of the week. She avoided Garrett whenever possible, kept very much to herself, and began to relax into her position. She enjoyed working with the children. They were making better progress than she had expected. All in all, it was a satisfying week, except when she had to see Garrett. She even had to admit that she liked the feel of the steering wheel in her hands and the independence that came with being able to drive.

Friday came upon her suddenly, but it was just as well, for if given time to reflect, she might have been more nervous about taking her driving test.

As it turned out, there was no reason for her to be nervous. She passed the written portion of the exam with flying colors and only failed the parallel-parking portion of the driving test. Cleave went with her to the license bureau. When she emerged with that tiny little slip of paper that said she was a licensed driver, he was so proud of her that he insisted that she drive them home.

Crystal pulled the El Camino into the garage and pressed the button on the box on the visor that let the garage door down. Before the sound of the automatic garage-door opener had died away, Garrett was standing in the side door, silhouetted against the bright sunlight, hands on hips. Crystal stepped out of the car and smiled over at him, then plucked the paper from her breast pocket and waved it in the air.

Garrett inclined his bare head. "Congratulations!" The soft, drawling inflection thrilled her.

"Thanks," she returned brightly, stuffing the paper back into its pocket. He stood looking at her for a moment, then turned and left. "Come on," she said to Cleave, feeling a little deflated, "I'll buy you a glass of Lupe's iced tea."

"Naw, better not," he refused apologetically. "Better get on back to work."

"I'm sure Garrett wouldn't mind if you just took time for a glass of tea," she cajoled.

He smiled but shook his head, hands worming down into the pockets of his jeans.

"Probably not if it was anybody but you," he blurted, his face slowly turning crimson.

"Just what is that supposed to mean?" Crystal demanded.

Cleave hunched his shoulders and licked his lips, obviously feeling that he had said too much already.

"Well," he mumbled, eyes glued to the ground at his feet, "you're sort of off-limits, if you know what I mean."

"No, I don't know what you mean!" Crystal flared. "Are you telling me that Garrett has told everyone to stay away from me?"

Cleave cringed. The man's ears looked as though they were about to burst into flame. He swallowed and shrugged, scuffing a toe across the cement floor of the garage.

"Well," he mumbled again, "he did sort of say that he didn't want anyone foolin' with you."

"Fooling with me?" she stormed. "That man has more gall than… than…"

Cleave danced uncertainly from foot to foot, eyes darting everywhere but at Crystal. Suddenly she felt compassion for him. It occurred to her why Garrett had chosen him to give her driving lessons. If there was one man on this ranch who would not dream of making a pass at a woman, it most decidedly was Cleave!