by Irene Brand
“I’m at Riverside, Mom. Give me a half hour and I’ll be home.”
Why had he been so sure the call was from Kennedy? Was it wishful thinking?
With the phone still in his hand, he sat up. If he wanted to talk to Kennedy, why didn’t he stop acting like a teenager and call her? He walked through the house, found that everything was all right, and locked the house behind him. He activated the alarm system that Kennedy had asked him to install and sat down on the top step of the porch.
It would be mid-afternoon in Los Angeles. He dialed her number.
“Blaine residence,” a man’s deep voice said.
Derek was stunned into silence for a few minutes. He would have thought he had the wrong number if the man hadn’t said it was the Blaine residence.
“Hello?” the deep voice prompted.
“Is Kennedy there?”
“Wait a sec. She’s out on the patio with Rosita. I’ll call her.”
Derek considered hanging up, but he knew he shouldn’t jump to the wrong conclusions. There could be numerous reasons why a man would be in the house.
Kennedy’s voice soon answered. “Hello.”
“This is Derek. If this is a bad time, you can call back.”
“Oh, no,” she said with a lilt in her voice that convinced him she was glad he’d called. “I can talk now. What’s new?”
“I’ve just checked out Riverside, and I thought I’d report that everything is all right. The new security system you ordered is working well. We’ve tested it, and we get a warning at the ranch if anybody is messing around.”
“What have you been doing today?” she asked, and he told her, all the while wondering who had answered the phone.
“Right now I’m sitting on the steps at Riverside looking toward the river, where I see plenty of fall colors. What have you been doing?”
“Oh, Derek, you make me homesick. I wanted to see the autumn leaves. But to answer your question, I had an appointment with Mr. Talbot this morning, and we’re finally getting Dad’s affairs settled. This afternoon I’ve been reviewing court cases. Steve, a friend from law school, and I are working together. Mr. Talbot is coming to the house shortly to counsel both of us.”
“Is this the Steve who wanted to marry you?” he asked hesitantly.
“Yes, but he’s okay with my refusal. I think he realizes, too, that we’re only friends and will probably always be. It takes more than friendship to have a happy marriage.”
“I guess so. I try to picture you in your home, but I just can’t get a clear picture of what it’s like.”
“Then why don’t you come to see me? I’d love to show you around this area. You can’t imagine how beautiful the Pacific Ocean is.”
“Thanks, but I can’t manage the Circle Cross in California.”
“I’m sure that the guys can handle everything for a little while,” she insisted.
It distressed Derek that she didn’t give any indication of when she planned to come back to Nebraska. “Maybe, but I can’t get away right now. I won’t bother you anymore. Go ahead and study.”
Ending the conversation and wishing he hadn’t called her, Derek vaulted into the saddle and headed for home.
Chapter Eighteen
Kennedy turned off the phone and left the bedroom where she’d gone to talk to Derek. Steve didn’t know about her interest in Derek, and she didn’t want him to know. If he did, he’d ask too many questions.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. That was the manager of the Circle Cross reporting in.” By a sheer force of willpower Kennedy focused on the advice and instruction Mr. Talbot gave them over a three-hour period while she made notes on her laptop.
Once she closed the door behind the lawyer and Steve, her thoughts returned to Derek, remembering how often through the spring and summer they’d sat on the porch together. Wasn’t it time for her to swallow her pride and admit that she’d never be happy at any other place but the Circle Cross?
During the meeting with Mr. Talbot this morning, she had signed the necessary papers to transfer the Circle Cross to Derek. By now, the documents were probably on their way eastward by special delivery. It was possible that Derek would receive them tomorrow or at least the day after that. What would he do? She had a feeling he would call, refusing to accept the ranch. She was convinced he would be angry. June might be able to reason with him, but she wouldn’t say anything to his mother until she heard Derek’s reaction.
A week passed and Kennedy didn’t hear from Derek. When he didn’t call, she haunted the Internet, expecting an e-mail from him. Her sleep was troubled with dreams about the Circle Cross. Rosita scolded her for not eating.
Wasting time when she should have been working, she sat in her father’s office and stared at the painting of Riverside, imagining Derek sitting on the porch steps. It was the first week of October, and surely by now he’d received the deed to the Circle Cross. She had expected him to call as soon as he received it, if for no other reason than to bawl her out for what she’d done. Although she had believed his appearance and personality had been etched into her heart with an indelible pen, there were times when his features blurred in her thoughts. If only she had a picture of him it would be more bearable, but she hadn’t taken a camera with her to Valentine.
Rosita served Sunday luncheon on the covered patio area, which had been designed and maintained by Grace Blaine until her death. Although she didn’t love flowers as much as her mother did, Kennedy had tried to preserve the area. A half-canopy of native California evergreen trees shaded most of the garden, with just enough sunlight to nurture the plants her mother had planted.
After they’d eaten, Kennedy said, “Rosita, I’ll take care of cleaning up. You can have the rest of the day off. Go visit your sister. I’ll fix a salad for supper.”
“Thanks,” the housekeeper said. “I’ll go visiting, but not before I load the dishwasher and tidy up the kitchen. You look like something the cat dragged in. You need to rest. And don’t let me come home and find you with your nose in a law book. I don’t know what happened to you out there in Nebraska, but I’m worried about you.”
Taking Rosita’s advice, Kennedy strolled around the garden. She lifted a heart-shaped petal of wild ginger and sniffed the faint, spicy smell. Carefully lifting the leaves of a patch of wild strawberries, she picked a handful of the rich, sweet fruit and nibbled on them, listening to the singing of the orioles, mockingbirds, and finches in the trees above her head. The birdsongs only increased her melancholy and caused her to remember the robins and cardinals she’d heard in Nebraska.
Were the meadowlarks still singing along the Niobrara, or did they stop singing in the fall? She had picked a rose and was holding it to her nose when she heard a step on the patio’s tile floor.
“Rosita, the new rose you planted this spring smells as sweet as perfume. Have you noticed?” Suddenly the air seemed to be charged with electricity, and Kennedy knew before she even turned around. Derek stood behind her, the top of his hat grazing the patio’s awning. Kennedy was stunned at first, and she couldn’t speak or move. Her eyes moved from the scowl on his face to the brown envelope he held. It was undoubtedly the deed to the Circle Cross.
He slammed the envelope down on the table. “Just what are you thinking? Have you lost your mind?” She wasn’t intimidated by his attitude—she’d half expected it—and it was enough that she was with him again. Uttering a glad cry, Kennedy quickly closed the short distance between them, wrapped her arms around his waist, and leaned against him.
“Oh, Derek, I love you so much, and I’ve missed you more than you can ever imagine.” For a few moments his body remained rigid, unyielding, but suddenly he drew her into an embrace that almost took her breath. Her heart pounded an uneven rhythm as his hands caressed her back and he whispered her name over and over into her hair. She leaned back and raised herself to meet his kiss, which caused her pulse to swirl with excitement.
When he released her lips, he kissed her
forehead, whispering, “This is crazy—just what I never intended to do.”
“It is not crazy,” she said, and happiness filled her heart. “This is what we should have done weeks ago. Oh, Derek, I’ve been miserable not being with you. I’ve dreamed about you, and when I turned around and saw you here with me, I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven. When did you get to Los Angeles?”
“I came straight here from the airport to straighten you out about that deed, and I end up kissing you.” Kennedy stretched upward and brushed a gentle kiss across his lips. “Let’s go inside—it’s getting hot out here. You can meet Rosita, and then we’ll talk.”
“I met Rosita as she was leaving the house. She wasn’t too keen on letting me inside until I convinced her of who I am. She looked me up and down and said,
‘So I suppose you’re the one who’s breaking her heart. I knew she was lovesick. She’s been moping around ever since she came home, but I couldn’t get a word out of her.’ She told me how to get to the patio and left.”
“Have you had your lunch? I can fix you a sandwich.”
“I am hungry,” he said, “but I was so mad at you that I couldn’t eat until I found you and told you off.”
“You sure have,” Kennedy said with a laugh, leaning against him, and his right arm came around to circle her waist. “You can tell me off like this anytime.” She was deliriously happy, and she couldn’t erase the smile from her face as she took his hand and led him into the kitchen.
“Tell me about your flight,” she said, as she opened the refrigerator and found ham, cheese, and condiments for sandwiches. He perched on a barstool while she made two sandwiches and poured tea over a glass of ice.
“This was my first plane trip, but it won’t be the last. I liked every minute of it. I had a window seat, and I got a whole new conception of the beauty of God’s world and how He’d created it. The Rockies are awesome.”
“How’re June and Wilson?”
“Both of them miss you, but they’re all right.” He added with a mischievous smile, “Life has been downright dull since you left Valentine. The crime wave has disappeared, and everything is peaceful. You gave us an exciting summer.”
She sat across from him while he ate. Every time their gazes met, her heart pounded. The two sandwiches disappeared quickly, and she gave him a large portion of the frozen ice-cream cake dessert that Rosita had served at noon.
After he finished his dessert she poured two cups of coffee, and he filled her in on all of the news of Valentine and the people she knew. “I’m not sure what Smith Blaine is doing now. I hear he’s spending a lot of time with his lawyer,” Derek said.
Smith Blaine is doing now. I hear he’s spending a lot of time with his lawyer,” Derek said.
“I don’t intend to press charges against him, if he pays back the money he stole from the ranch.” Standing, Kennedy said, “Do you want anything else to eat?” After he assured her that he didn’t, she put the few dishes in the dishwasher. “You want to look at the rest of the house?” she queried.
“Sure do,” Derek said. “I want to learn everything about your California life.” She held his hand when she took him on a tour of her home. “Houses here aren’t like midwestern dwellings at all,” she said.
“It’s a super house, though. What surprises me is that it’s so quiet. I learned how noisy the city is on the way from the airport. And I’ll tell you that I feel safer on a bucking bronco than I did when that taxi driver was weaving in and out of traffic like a madman. Honking horns, squealing brakes, and the roar of hundreds of engines was deafening, but here in the house, I don’t hear anything from the outside.”
“We live in a gated area with restricted traffic. There’s plenty of noise in downtown L.A.” Still holding his hand, she said, “Let’s sit on the couch.” Taking a deep breath, he sat down and stuck out his long legs in front of him. “There wasn’t much room to stretch my legs on the plane.”
“Do you want to take a nap? I’ll be quiet.”
He stretched his left arm and pulled her close. “I’m not going to waste our time sleeping. I can’t stay long.” Turning her so he looked straight into her eyes, he said, “I will not take the ranch. I don’t know why you thought I would. Your lawyer will know how to cancel that deed—I brought back all the papers with me.”
“Derek, theoretically the Circle Cross has been yours for weeks. When I started receiving all those threatening notes and realized that my grandfather would inherit my estate if I died, I wrote a will by hand giving you the Circle Cross in the event of my death. I sent the will to Mr. Talbot while I was still in Nebraska.
And if you weren’t too mad to read the deed, you probably noticed that I’ve kept the West Eighty and Riverside. So you aren’t going to get rid of me entirely if you own the ranch.”
She felt he was weakening when he said, “I feel cheap to even think about taking it.” She knew he was struggling with his pride, and she said, “No one need ever know you didn’t buy it. Please don’t disappoint me—I want you to have the Circle Cross.”
“Nobody will ever believe I had enough credit to buy a spread like that.”
“It’s nobody’s business except ours. But please don’t argue about it now. Tell me how long you can stay so I can decide what to do while you’re here. I want to show you a good time.”
“I didn’t aim to interfere with your work.”
“I don’t have much to do right now.”
“Aren’t you studying for that bar exam?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure I can get ready for the one in October, and there isn’t another exam scheduled by the California Bar Association until February. Please don’t leave right away.”
“We’re rounding up cattle and herding them closer to ranch headquarters for the winter,” Derek said, a speculative gleam in his eye. “All of us are needed for that job, but I’ll stay a couple of days.”
She clapped her hands. “Great. We’ll have a good time. You need a vacation.”
“Okay, City Girl, you’ve talked me into it. I’ll call the airport and lock in my reservation for Thursday. Tell me how to find a motel.”
“You can stay right here in Dad’s room.”
Kennedy knew of his determination not to tarnish her reputation, and when he shook his head, she said, “Rosita stays here at night, so there isn’t any reason for you to go to a hotel. I don’t want to miss a minute of your visit. Did you bring any luggage?”
“A small bag. Rosita put it in the hall closet.”
While he changed his plane schedule, Kennedy put linens on the bed in her father’s room and fresh towels in the adjoining bathroom. Derek brought his bag from the closet and set it in the room. “I’ll call Mom and let her know I got here all right. She’ll want to know when I’ll be home.”
“Tell her I said hi,” Kennedy said. “After you talk to her, let’s walk around the neighborhood and then take a drive outside the city and into the mountains.
Tomorrow we’ll tour the city of Los Angeles.”
When he went to bed the next night, Derek’s mind was so conflicted with all he had seen since his arrival in California that he couldn’t rest. Kennedy had kept him on the go from the time he arrived at her home, but he knew they’d only seen a very small area of Los Angeles and its vicinity.
Derek hadn’t thought his admiration for Kennedy could become any greater, but as he’d watched her weave in and out of multilane traffic through and around the city, he could only look at her in wonder. And he’d had the nerve to josh her about not knowing how to ride a horse! She’d made arrangements for them to take a six-hour tour of the city, but at his insistence she let him pay for the tickets.
Sitting on the upper deck of the tour bus, they’d traveled to the city center of Los Angeles, the Farmer’s Market, Sunset Strip, Beverly Hills, and Bel Air. They saw a dazzling array of stars’ homes, well-groomed parks, manicured gardens, and hillside estates.
They had spent an hour at Grauma
n’s Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame, looking at the autographed cement blocks bearing the signatures of many of Hollywood’s famous stars. Perhaps the most startling revelation of the day was when they stopped by the tribute to James Arness, star of the long-running Gunsmoke television series. Derek remarked that as a kid he spent a lot of time watching Marshal Matt Dillon’s shows.
“So did I,” Kennedy said. Then, slicing a saucy grin in his direction, she said, “In fact, the first day I saw you walking toward me at the Circle Cross, you reminded me of Matt Dillon. I’d had a teenage crush on him, so apparently he had the qualities I wanted in a man. I fell in love with you that first day.” Derek had been stunned, and he stared at her without answering. He realized now that he should have said something, but when he didn’t, Kennedy walked on, pointing out other autographed blocks featuring celebrities she thought he would remember. Momentarily, he wondered if he should ask her to marry him. Was it pride or stupidity that kept him from asking for what he wanted more than anything else the world had to offer? He would marry Kennedy if she was as poor as a church mouse, however poor that was supposed to be, but would other people believe he wasn’t after her money?
He was even more aware of her wealth now than he’d been before, for when they were on the bus tour, he’d noticed a large edifice in the downtown business district that had Blaine Building carved in the stone lintel over the wide entrance. He’d asked about it, and she reluctantly admitted that her father had built it but that the building was hers now. Having seen the university she’d attended, the large church where she worshipped, and the widespread evidence of the extent of her wealth, he couldn’t humble himself to propose to her.
“I want to spend most of the day at the beach.” Kennedy was outlining her plans while they ate breakfast in the dining room with Rosita bustling around serving the ham and cheese omelet, mixed fresh fruit, and coffee she’d prepared. “We don’t have to swim. I just want you to enjoy the ocean. It’s awesome. But cowboy boots aren’t too good in the sand. I don’t suppose you could wear a pair of Dad’s sneakers. I haven’t done a thing with his clothes yet, as you probably noticed from his