“Did you answer?”
“No.”
“Be careful. I’m telling you she’s not going to stop until you get it through her head that it’s over.”
Julia leaned in and whispered. “She can’t be coming around over the next couple of days. I don’t want anything to get in the way of my time with Rina.”
Cass nodded. “If you’re going to be busy this week, when do you want to plan out and order the food for the first catering job?”
“Let’s do it this afternoon when we close between lunch and dinner. It’s also time you and Isabella got a bonus for all the extra work and for keeping our doors open.”
“Thanks, Jules! I’ll go ask Isabella if she can stay after the lunch rush.”
Cass flipped the CLOSED sign and locked the door. Two of the three diner masterminds slid into the large round booth in the corner. Isabella joined them toting her order clipboard.
“So…whose party are we catering?” Julia asked.
“Nicki’s cousin,” Cass replied.
Julia exhaled. “Great. I’m not having much luck keeping her away from me, am I?”
Isabella comforted her with a pat on the hand. “Don’t worry about her. She’s afraid of me.”
The girls laughed.
“Afraid? Of you?” Cass mocked.
Isabella stared her down.
“Stop that,” said Cass. “It makes you look creepy!”
Isabella nodded and laughed. “Exactly!”
Julia picked up a pen and slid the clipboard in front of her. “Let’s see what you have so far.”
Cass flipped the top page and pointed to the list. “I spoke with the clients and based on that, Isabella came up with this menu.”
“Since it’s a brunch,” Isabella began, “I thought we would do an omelette bar, a taco station, then the cooked entrees and sandwiches.”
“Did you give them a soft quote yet?” asked Julia.
“No,” said Cass.
“Okay, we’ll offer two kinds of sandwiches—customer’s top two preferences from their list. What cooked entrees have they decided on?”
“Barbeque chicken and grilled salmon,” Isabella answered.
Julia made some notes on the clipboard. “Got it. I’ll call this in as soon as we’re done. Isabella, I’ve already told Cass you’re getting bonuses, but I want to thank you both for all you do. Let’s talk about your vision.”
“Vision?”
“Yeah, Cass. You know, that retail idea you and Isabella have been tossing around.”
“The population has grown with all the new golf community retirees. There’s a lot of business passing us by on this road and on the freeway,” said Isabella. “If we carry some specialty items in addition to prepared foods and frozen ones, we would expand our business.”
Julia nodded. “We have enough room in the freezer, and we could get a small refrigerated case in the diner for customers to buy meals to take home.”
“I think it would help a lot to advertise on a freeway billboard,” Cass added.
Julia didn’t have to think twice. “You’re right. I think you guys have a winner. So, in catering and retail we’ll be equal partners.”
Isabella smiled wide. “Really? You sure we can afford it?”
“Well, sure! You two have been picking up the slack for me for the past few months. And this is your idea—so you should be sharing the profits.”
“Partners!” Isabella twisted to look over her shoulder.
“Are you looking at Lucia?” asked Cass.
Isabella turned back to her. “It’s more like Lucia is staring at us!”
“All three of us will have to work the first party,” said Julia. “But we need to start hiring for the catering side of the business—especially before the big party.” She looked at Isabella. “We need to hire you some kitchen help to train.”
“But that will really cost a lot,” Isabella replied.
“It’s not a cost. It’s an investment—a good one,” Julia said.
Isabella nodded. “Jimmy has really been a big help here. I’ll talk to him.”
“Great,” said Cass. “We’ll need him to do some of the heavy lifting and to help clean up.”
“Maybe he knows some people looking for work,” Isabella added.
“Good. Anything else we need to address?” asked Julia.
“No.” Cass stood and removed her apron. “Can you give me a price today on the first party so that I can call the customer before the dinner rush?”
“Sure,” Julia replied.
“See you in a couple of hours.” Cass grabbed her purse and left.
When the diner phone rang, Julia answered it. “Starlight.” She paused. “Hi, Vitty. Right. That weekend will work out great. I’m glad I’ll get to spend some time with my future brother-in-law. Let me know David’s favorite meal—I’d like to get on his good side before we’re actually related.” She laughed. “Love you too. Yes, I’ll tell her,” she said before she hung up.
“Hey, Isabella, Vitty said she can’t wait to see you because she has an important question to ask you.”
“Oh? You have any idea what it is?”
“Nope. Not a clue.”
Isabella held open the kitchen door and turned to Julia. “Are you coming to help or are you just going to stand there staring into space with that silly grin?”
Chapter Thirty
The saturated air at daybreak sank heavy in Rina’s chest. Even the parched desert flora strained to sift the humidity from the gray and homogeneous breeze. Clouds splintered into Rorshach patterns, celestial angels, and chunks of dancing bears drifting away to the east.
Rina placed her left foot in the stirrup and hoisted herself onto Thunder. She swung her leg over him and into the other stirrup, the leather saddle creaking as she centered her weight.
Julia watched her. “You’re getting good at mounting the horse, Rina. That looked real natural.”
Rina smiled. “Thanks to you, at least I’ll look good getting on the horse in The Big Picture.” She held her reins the way Julia had taught her. “There won’t be one take where I’m not thinking of being with you. Being here.”
Julia led Lightning to where Rina and Thunder waited. She grabbed the saddle’s horn and, in one fluid and seasoned move, seated herself on her horse. “Smells like rain.” Her boots slid into the stirrups with the same familiarity as feet sliding into slippers. “We won’t go all the way up the mountain just in case.”
“Are my eyes open?” Rina pulled her sunglasses down to the end of her nose and sighed at Julia. “Remind me again why we left your comfortable bed before dawn to come out here.”
“Because you have a riding lesson, Ms. Verralta.” She clicked her tongue to get the horses moving.
“So now I’m Ms. Verralta, huh?”
“Where else do I get to call you that? You don’t think I’m going to call you that in bed, do you? Right now I’m your riding instructor.”
“Yes, Miss Dearling. After you.”
“Well, of course.” Julia winked. “Lightning always precedes thunder.”
Lightning stepped ahead at Julia’s urging, his hooves clopping lazily against the desert floor. When they began the slow climb up the mountain trail, the percussion of hooves tapped out a natural equine synchronicity.
For the next several minutes Rina listened to every footfall the horses made and from behind watched the gentle sway of her lover in the saddle.
“I’ve never seen the saddle you’re in. Why does it have Cary Grant’s name stitched across the back?”
“Back in the day, Grandmother Lucia boarded his horse and they became friends. The saddle and stirrups were custom-made—no adjustments. So when he sold his horse, he gave the saddle to her as a gift. Of all the ranch hands through the years, my legs turned out to be the only ones long enough to fit the stirrups.”
“Cary Grant, huh? So the Y2 has a legacy and I’m not its first movie star.”
“No
, but you’re the only one I have hot sex with.”
“Julia!”
Julia laughed hard. “Look around, Rina. I could shout it from the top of this mountain and still no one but you would hear me.”
“If it wasn’t for us riding, I don’t think there would be a single sound up here. It’s so quiet. I mean really quiet.”
“That it is. Sometimes I wonder how my sister Vitty lives in New York. I’m sure it’s real exciting, but all that noise—all the time—day in and day out. No open space to get away.”
Thunder neighed.
“I think Thunder understood what you said and he agrees.”
Julia chuckled. “Thunder is her horse so I wouldn’t be surprised. He misses her, and I’m glad you two have hit it off. He’s liked you since the first time you brushed him.”
“Yes, he has.” Rina leaned forward and patted the side of the horse’s neck. “You’re such a good boy, Thunder.”
They climbed past the large striated rock. When they reached the first plateau, Julia turned Lightning around and pulled up beside Rina. She stood in her stirrups and leaned over far enough to get a kiss. “Good morning, lover. How are you feeling so far?”
Rina paused to gaze into Julia’s warm blue eyes.
Julia stilled Lightning and waited. “When you look at me that way, I swear I could forget my own name.”
“You’re so beautiful, Julia. Everything about you.”
“Each time we’re together I fall harder in love with you. Does that sound crazy?”
“Not to me it doesn’t.”
“Katarina, are you blushing again?”
“I like it when you call me Katarina. Not as much as when you call me Ms. Verralta, though.”
They both laughed.
Julia’s eyes opened wide. “Honestly? You like it?”
“There’s that certain way you speak it—different from everyone else.”
“Hmm. Then we must be ready to take this thing we have to the next level.”
“What’s the next level?”
Julia pointed into the distance. “Literally, the next level. There’s someplace special I’d like to show you.”
Rina winked at the cowgirl. “Someplace you haven’t shown me already?”
“I’ve been saving it for a special day with you—but they’re all special, so now is as good a time as any.” Julia glanced up at the cocktail of clouds that had swiftly coalesced. “By the look of that dark cloud to the north, we might not make it there before it pours.”
Rina stiffened. “What if we get caught in a storm?”
“I reckon we’ll just have to tree-up,” Julia said straight-faced.
“Tree-up? Tree-up! Please tell me that’s a euphemism.”
“Nope.”
“You mean ride out a storm under a tree?”
Julia laughed. “Don’t worry.” She clicked her tongue to get the horses moving again.
“No, really,” Rina began, “you know how storms frighten me. I’m not spending a storm under a tree!”
“Then you’d better get a move on, woman.”
Julia took off and Rina raced after her, going faster than she ever had. The wind lifted her hair, blowing through each strand and giving her a sense of newfound freedom—without fear for the first time. She let Thunder run full out to catch up to Julia.
Julia slowed down a little until Rina was beside her.
“I can’t believe I just ran on horseback!”
Julia smiled. “How did it feel?”
“Like flying. Have I told you how much I love the view of you in front of me? You ride like you were born in that saddle.”
“Sometimes that’s how it feels. As soon as I was big enough, I started riding bareback or with just a pad since I was too small for any stirrups we had. I fell in love with that oneness of motion. Being so close to the horse taught me everything I know about riding.”
“No wonder you’re so good in bed.”
Julia held her gaze with a deep stillness that made Rina need to take a full breath.
“You really think it will rain?” Rina asked.
“We’ll get something, but you never know what. In monsoon season all bets are off. Sometimes it looks like this all day, and the air is even heavier than it is right now, but then the rain never makes it to the desert floor. Other times, it comes on with the wrath of an evil spirit.”
They reached the next fork in the trail. “This way,” said Julia. They climbed a short path that quickly leveled out.
“You okay back there, Rina?”
“Just fine.”
“Do you feel safe going a little faster? I think we need to pick up the pace.”
“Lead the way.”
Julia glanced over her shoulder. “Follow me, gorgeous.” Julia tapped Lightning’s side with her boot and the horse loped across the open space. She looked back every few seconds to see how Rina was doing and slowed down when they reached the next vista.
“Look at that!” Rina sighed. “It’s magnificent—like a painting.”
“I’ll have to bring you here when the end-of-day colors are deep rose, periwinkle, and gold. So vibrant—and the air is crisp and dry.”
“Can I count on that?”
Julia looked up. “See that dark hovering cloud? We need to keep moving.”
As they cut across the mesa, a violent thunderclap echoed off the rocks.
“I’m grateful my horses don’t spook in storms.” Lightning neighed. “Don’t make a liar out of me.” Julia eased up on the reins.
Four steps later, the heavens opened into a downpour.
“Follow me, Rina!” Julia let Lightning set the pace on the path in the pouring rain.
“Is that some sort of shack up ahead?” Rina called out.
“Come on!” Julia raced to a quick halt at the door of the tiny log cabin. She slid off the horse and hastily removed Lightning’s saddle while Rina caught up. “Hurry. Open the door!”
Julia tossed her saddle onto the floor. “Get inside!” She returned to Thunder, removed his saddle, and laid it next to hers. “I’ll be right back after I tie these guys to the lean-to.”
A dendritic blue lightning bolt cleaved the smoke-gray sky from top to bottom. Julia raced to the side of the cabin, leading the horses. By the time she reentered the outpost, her clothes were drenched—plastered against her skin like spandex on a metal hair band from the 1980s.
“Damn, that came on fast!” She slammed the door against the blowing wind and horizontal rain. “You’d think a girl—born and raised here—would have known better!” She sat on the nearest kitchen chair and removed her slightly soggy boots.
“The temperature dropped like twenty degrees in a few minutes! I’m freezing,” said Rina, her teeth mildly chattering.
“Hold on, I’m going to fix that.” Julia opened the cedar chest in front of the old wooden and leather bench and tossed a towel to Rina, who wrapped it tightly around herself to stem the chill.
Julia pulled a plastic bag from her saddlebag. “Here,” she said holding it out to Rina. “Put these on.”
“What’s this?”
“Sweats.”
Rina shivered as she undressed.
Julia stood there, lips slightly parted, wide-eyed, watching. “God, you’re gorgeous like this.”
“Darling, is it sexy the way I climb into sweats? I haven’t worn sweats since the 1980s! Since Jane Fonda’s workouts.”
“The eighties, huh?” Julia peeled off her wet jeans.
Rina scrunched her eyes closed and shook her head when she realized what she had said. Her eyes popped open. “Oh my god, you weren’t even born yet. Aren’t you freezing?”
“Maybe. But it’s worth it to watch you look at me the way you are right now.”
“Were you a Girl Scout?”
“Nope.” Julia hastily stripped off the rest of her clothes. “I taught the Girl Scouts everything they needed to know about ranch life.”
Rina raised an eyebrow. �
��I’ll bet you did.”
“Wanna like me even more right now?”
“Not possible. You’re already naked.”
Julia smiled. “I have snacks. But I need to put on some dry clothes!”
Rina waited for Julia to return from the tiny bedroom and laughed when she saw her. “A Big Apple sweatshirt out here in no man’s land?”
“My sister gave it to me on her first trip home after she moved to New York.” She retrieved a pair of jeans from her saddlebag and slid into them. “That feels much better.”
“Talk about absolutely adorable,” said Rina. “Could you be any more adorable?” She kissed Julia lightly at first, savoring the pounding of the rain, the sweetness of Julia’s lips that fit hers perfectly. “I’m addicted to kissing you,” she whispered. “I can never get enough.”
“When you kiss me like that, Katarina, each time feels like the first time we ever kissed.”
As unpredictable as the lightning strikes, Rina grabbed Julia, pulled her in, and kissed her until they gasped for air. Their tongues teased, and the more their hands stroked the more erratic their breathing became. Each irreverent sensation belonged to this moment that transcended any passion Rina had known—any hope she’d ever held that had yet to be answered. All of it—in one kiss.
Julia pulled away slowly and flashed the shy smile that Rina had come to love. She lit some oil lamps and led Rina by the hand to the old leather sofa. “Let’s get comfortable. We’re going to be here for a while.”
Rina placed her head on Julia’s shoulder and sighed. She gazed up at the ceiling and took in the view of the cabin from where they sat. “What is this place? A log cabin in the middle of nowhere, and I do mean nowhere. Honestly, I thought the Y2 was in the middle of nowhere, but compared to this, the ranch is like being in a traffic jam in downtown Los Angeles on a Friday at rush hour.”
“Welcome to my cabin. I only bring special girls up here,” Julia teased.
“This is yours?”
“Yep. We’re still on my land.”
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