“I didn’t say I didn’t like kids.” He protested. “And this is taking a way wrong turn. Let’s catch our breath and start all over. Count to ten slowly. Both of us.”
One. She’s cute when she’s angry. Two. I’ll never be able to talk her into taking a step off the porch with me. Three. She’s going to tell me to drop dead. Four. I guess I can make a peanut butter sandwich or heat up a can of soup since I sent the cook home and there’s no food in the refrigerator. Five. I’m hungry. Six. I hope ten is far enough to cool off that hot temper of hers. Seven. Is she really interested in Joel and just playing hard to get? Eight. Maybe I better call for ten more cooling off seconds. Nine. She’s going to pick up that plate of cookies and throw them in my face. Ten. Well here goes.
Stella set her mouth in a firm line and drew her eyebrows down into a furrow across her slender nose.
One. He’s foolish to think I can cool down in ten seconds. Two. Maybe ten days. Three. More likely ten years. Four. He really doesn’t look like Mitch and I’d like to kiss him again, but that’s not even an option. Five. Why doesn’t he just go away and stop making me want him? Six. I do like those blue eyes. Seven. I’d like to pick up this plate of cookies and throw them at him. Eight. I’m not ready to start over yet. Nine. I don’t want him to affect me this way. Ten, well, here goes.
“Hello, Stella. Nice evening,” he smiled brightly.
“Hello, Rance. Yes, it is,” she said.
“You had supper yet?”
“No.”
“That’s good. We’ve said two whole sentences each and haven’t blown up in anger yet. Since you haven’t eaten, could I please take you to dinner? Name the place. Braum’s for a hamburger. Sonic for a hot dog. Steak at wherever you want?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m hungry and you haven’t eaten,” he said casually.
“Sonic for a foot long cheese coney with onions, fries and a thick chocolate malt. If you’ve got a problem with people eating in your pickup then we’d better take mine.”
He opened the door and stood aside. “No problem, my lady. Ready?”
She looked down at her jeans and sweat shirt with a picture of Bugs Bunny on the front. “You mean you’ll actually go out in public, even just to Sonic with me looking like this?”
“Yes, ma’am, I surely will. You’d be beautiful in a gunny sack tied up in the middle with a piece of worn out rope,” he drawled in pure Texas fashion. “Got a jacket? And don’t forget your key. We don’t want to get locked out and spend the night huddled up on the porch swing?”
“Why?”
“Because it’s getting cold and you might need your jacket,” he said.
“No, why wouldn’t you want to have to spend the night huddled up with me on a porch swing?”
“Hey, you’re the one who called the shots, Stella. You said there was no future so you didn’t want a present. I’m just asking for company while I have supper.”
“Fair enough.” But deep down she wished she could change her mind. Being his girlfriend might not be such a bad idea.
Not on your life, lady. I want the whole ball of wax this time. Not a wannabe actor or a spawn of the devil like Joel. Just a good man to make my heart do double time and . . . oh forget it. I called the shots. Now I’ll have to live with them.
She grabbed a gray zippered sweat shirt from the back of a chair, picked up keys from the sideboard and shook them at him. She wasn’t sure if she’d just been roped into a date or if he’d offered out of gratitude that she hadn’t blown her stack at the end of the ten second intermission from the argument. If it was the former then he’d wish he hadn’t offered by the time she asked for extra onions on her hot dog. Maybe that’s where she went wrong when she went out with Joel. She should have ordered a hamburger instead of ice cream and piled on the onions, then when he kissed her he would have fainted in a fog of bad breath.
Rance opened the door to his truck for her and then whistled all the way around to the driver’s side. That hadn’t been so hard and he really did like Sonic hot dogs, but seldom ate them. Usually when he asked a lady out they expected a nice restaurant with real tablecloths and napkins. In his wildest dreams, he couldn’t visualize his ex-wife eating a greasy hot dog at Sonic. Not even if it was part of a modeling contract and they offered her megabucks.
He attempted a bit of conversation as he drove. “Did you have a good time the rest of the weekend in Dallas? I thought I might see you in the restaurant the next morning at breakfast.”
“Yes, I did have a good time. We ate late and barely made check out time,” she said. If she had to answer twenty one questions just to get a foot long hot dog, it would be one tedious meal.
“Did you run into that fellow from the concert again?”
“No.” She said honestly and then wished she lied and said they’d spent the whole weekend together.
“That’s nice.” He started whistling “Rose Colored Glasses”.
That same song had been on her mind that day as she cleaned the rooms and got ready for the next bunch of boarders due Sunday night. It was as if he’d invaded her mind, stealing her thoughts, her songs and her desires; upsetting her entire world.
He turned to her once they were parked at the Sonic. “Name your poison. I’ll push the button so you have to think fast . . .”
A tinny voice came over the speaker outside the car. “Sonic, may I help you?”
Stella leaned past Rance and delivered her own order. “A foot long coney with extra onions, cheese and chili, tator tots and an extra thick chocolate malt.” She touched his thigh for support and a jolt flowed all the way up her arm to her neck. She pulled her hand away and resisted the urge to look at the palm to see if it was burned.
“Your turn,” she mumbled.
“Double that order. And add a cup of coffee.”
“We’re going to fog the windows with onion breath.” She watched a group of high school kids gather around a low slung sports car.
“Quarter for your thoughts,” Rance said.
She turned her big blue eyes around to really look at him, sitting so close she could reach out and touch his five o’clock shadow. “It’s a penny.”
“Not in today’s world. A penny’s worth of thought wouldn’t buy even a dumb blond joke. No offense meant about your hair color. So with inflation I’m offering a whole quarter for whatever it was that made you look so wistfully across the grass and toward that little red car. You like sport’s cars or just Mustangs in particular?” Rance asked.
“Neither. I was thinking about those kids. Oh, to be that young and naive. To have all that confidence and be ready to set the world on fire. The most important thing in their life is whether to paint their fingernails blue or purple or which earrings to wear.”
“Or whether or not their father is really going to let him drive his brand new sport’s car to the Sonic to impress all the girls with purple fingernails,” Rance finished for her.
“Amen.”
“So tell me Stella, would you really go back and do it all over again?”
She shook her head. “Not for a guaranteed ride to the pearly gates. Once through that was enough. It’s just that they are so cocky and sure. I’d like to have that again. To know without even a little shadow of doubt; to make a decision without thinking about how it’s going to affect the whole rest of my life.”
“It is a magical age, isn’t? Did you hang around here when you were growing up?”
“Yes, I did. At least some of the time. Sulphur’s not very big so every body knows everyone else. What about you? Bet you went to a big school in Waco,” she asked.
“Actually I grew up in Grapevine. Went to the Grapevine High School. Home of the Grapevine Mustangs. Four-A school. Probably only a little bigger than Sulphur. But close enough to Dallas and big enough that we really didn’t know everyone. Just almost. Here comes supper. We may have to go to Wal-Mart for mouth wash by the time we finish all those onions,” he laughed.
He followed her lead, and bit into the aromatic chili dog. “It looks like it is.”
“And be danged to fat grams and calories.” She said between bites. “Who cares about all that when there’s good food in front of a body?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” he said. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten inside his truck like a teenager at a Sonic, much less taken a lady there with him, or when food had tasted so good. “What happened after you finished eating here when you were a kid?”
She popped a hot tator tot in her mouth. “Oh, we’d go to the park and put our toes in the water, but honey, not even a whole band of angels could talk me into dipping my bare feet in Little Niagara in the winter. It’ll freeze the horns off Lucifer himself on July 4, so we won’t be wading or skinny dipping at this time of year.”
“Chicken?” He teased.
“Nope, just sensible. We’ll go through the park and I’ll even let you dip your hand in the water and then you’ll believe me,” she said. She could have kicked herself for suggesting such a thing. A non-date didn’t include a moonlight visit to the park with someone like Rance.
“Sounds good. We might breathe on the water and make it a lot warmer,” he said.
They finished their hot dogs and tator tots and were sipping malts as they drove back through Sulphur and turned south into the park. She showed him which turns to make and in a few minutes they were sitting in the only vehicle in a parking lot beside a bubbling stream rushing down over a small waterfall. Not even by stretching the imagination and maybe closing one eye could it actually look like a very, very small specimen of Niagara Falls. She was out of the truck before he could open the door and headed for the water.
She sat down at the edge of the water, and pulled her jacket close around her. “I love the smell of water and night air at the same time.” She dipped her fingers in the water and whistled backwards through her teeth.
He sat down beside her, keeping a foot between them. He wanted to draw her close even just for a hug but even with two peppermints he could exhale on a drunk and put him to sleep for a week. He stuck his hand into the water and instantly believed her story about the cold. “Wow, it is cold. Did you really skinny dip in this place?”
“Couple of times,” she said. “But it was in July or August, not winter time. And it was after a couple of beers.”
“Can we come back tomorrow? How about some hiking? We’ll pick up breakfast at Braum’s and bring it with us in a paper bag. We’re supposed to have another warm day tomorrow and then there’s a norther blowing down from Kansas.”
“Okay.” She agreed then could have thrown herself into the cold water for such a rash decision, but the damage was already done, and besides if she was honest with herself, she might enjoy a day out.
“We’ll bring some cookies and I’ll pack us a sandwich.” She planned aloud. “And whoever tuckers out first has to buy supper tomorrow night at wherever I say.” She knew she was playing with fire and yet had absolutely no power over her words.
He wiped his freezing hand on the leg of his jeans and stuck it out. “Deal.”
She did the same. “Deal.”
Neither was prepared for the heat flowing from one body to the other in spite of the cool night air or their cold hands.
Chapter Six
The alarm clock started a mechanical beep at five o’clock and Rance groaned, swatted at the snooze button with his right hand and pulled the pillow over his head with his left one. Then he remembered what had been planned for that day and threw the pillow in the floor, sat straight up in bed and tossed the covers off to the side. He jerked on his sweatshirt and jeans, pulled on a pair of socks and his athletic shoes and combed his black hair back with his fingers. He’d shaven the night before and his face was only slightly rough but he could take care of that in the evening before they went to dinner. Which he intended to pay for, even if she did out hike, out walk, and out do him all day long in the park.
“Well, good morning. Thought you might have reneged and decided to sleep all day.” She teased when he arrived at the Inn.
Her heart skipped a beat when she looked up from the swing. Well, it could just carry on like that if it wanted. At the end of a day of hiking and talking, she was sure she’d have him completely washed from her mind and life. Give her a whole day with him and she’d find at least a million things she hated, and that would be that. God had heard her prayer after all.
Rance could scarcely believe how beautiful she was in the cool morning air. The sun barely rising behind the house threw just enough light to let him see all her features, including a full sensuous mouth and the biggest bluest eyes in the whole state of Oklahoma.
He propped a hip up on the porch railing. “Did you even go to bed? I figured I’d find you still asleep.”
“Get up every morning at five o’clock. Remember I have breakfast to fix by six. Already got the cookies in the bag and I know a special place on Travertine Island where we can eat. You ready?”
“At your mercy, Miss Stella. I thought we were going to the park. What’s this Travertine Island?”
“Part of the park. Good thing you got a jacket with you. Weatherman said there’s a twenty percent chance of rain and it feels like he might be right for a change. At least it’s not supposed to freeze. That usually doesn’t happen until the the first of January.” She stood up and stretched her long arms above her head.
He gasped at the feelings it evoked. The sheer catlike motion mesmerized him in a way no other woman ever had. Not even Julie and she was a professional model. But when Julie moved it was with the grace of years and years of classes, tutoring and experience. When Stella stretched or cocked her head that certain way, it was as natural and unaffected as his two cats, stretching in the morning sun.
“Give me a couple of minutes to get our backpacks,” she said.
He waited on the porch. Talk about a different kind of woman. Most of the women he’d known, including his ex-wife, would have had to check their makeup one more time, and stood in front of the floor length mirror worrying one hair to death trying to keep it behind her ear. Stella didn’t have a smidgen of makeup on; no lipstick, which suited Rance just fine. He hated to kiss lipstick. Especially if it had just been applied. He felt like he was sinking his lips into a bowl of greased Jell-O.
She returned and handed him a small black backpack. “Take this. It’s your breakfast and dinner, a bottle of real water because you probably won’t like the Sulphur water. It tastes like it’s been laced with rotten eggs. And I’ve also put in a couple of snacks in case you need a little sustenance along the way.”
“And where’s your dinner and breakfast? Am I carrying enough in this little bitty pack to feed us both?” He raised a dark eyebrow.
“I carry my own.” She held up proof in a bright, hot pink backpack. “You, kind sir, will have enough to do this day just keeping up with me. You don’t need the added burden of my daily needs.”
“Then let us be off to the wilds.” He led the way to his truck.
The sun was a bright orange ball peeking through the long limbs on the bare trees by the time they’d scouted most of the small island in the middle of the park. She sat down on a fallen tree log and declared it was time for breakfast.
“You will find a brown paper sack marked with a big B for breakfast,” she said.
He pulled out the right bag the first time. “Breakfast! Is that really bacon I smell? I thought we were having cookies.”
She nodded. “Yes, it’s bacon. Stuffed inside two big biscuits. Coffee in the small thermos, and then six of those cookies. That should keep you until lunch. So what do you think of this tiny, little island? We’re the only ones on it right now.”
Her honest smile caused his heart to do one of those cra
zy flip-flops that thirty year old men weren’t supposed to experience anymore. That was for sixteen year old boys. Mature men didn’t react like that and he promised he’d give his heart a good lecture later on that night.
“It’s not The Bahamas but I expect we could live for half a day here with the help of a couple of these.” He bit into the cold biscuit. The bacon was done to perfection, crispy and drained well. “You are a good cook, Stella. Would you consider leaving the Inn and jumping the fence to live with me and be my cook?”
She shook her head. “Nope, I’m not up for hire. Living or cooking.”
“Let me know if you ever are,” he said. “Hey, look at that squirrel. I think he smells the bacon.”
“Probably. Or the cookies. They’re spoiled to handouts. Even though it’s not a good thing. They need to forage for themselves on what nature provides.” She whispered while she broke a peanut butter cookie in half and tossed it closer to the squirrel.
“Yep,” he said, thinking that he should be taking the advice himself. Foraging for life amongst what fate had put before him. Who would have ever thought that he’d find someone like Stella when he bought the old Morgan ranch? And how did he convince her that he was seriously interested in more than a few kisses?
“Where to next?” Rance finished the last drop of coffee.
“You are in for a hike. We’re going to Bromide Hill and back.”
“Bromide Hill? Sounds like a place teenagers go to park after they’ve been to the movies.” He glanced up and caught her looking at him. He could swim forever in the cool blue of her eyes.
She nodded, a prickle starting at the base of her neck and crawling upward like a tickle all the way through her hair to her forehead. “It is but it’s a good steep hike, too. I imagine that if teenagers hiked up there rather than drove, it would cool their hormones a lot.”
They marched side by side, through pathways and tip-toeing across creeks on mossy covered rocks, until they reached the top of the hill. She sat down Indian style in a bed of crispy, crinkly scrub oak leaves and opened her backpack.
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