California Girl

by Rice, Patricia

  “Lifestyle change. I was sedentary at home. After marrying Fred, I wanted to do everything. Went to real estate school, worked, studied, tried to be the perfect wife and produce balanced meals. We only had one car, and I walked between work and classes. When he was first starting out in practice, money was tight, so I couldn’t buy snack foods.” She sent him a mischievous glance. “Didn’t read your books either.”

  “Balanced meals?” He was always open to new methods of eating properly. Different metabolisms required different diets, although Alys had to be the only person in the universe who could survive on a diet of pies.

  “We need a leash. How will I let her out in the grass?” Ignoring his question, she climbed off the bench and sat on the ground with the box, lifting the kitten out to sniff around in the area outlined by Alys’s legs.

  The kitten lifted its hurt paw and meowed and Elliot winced. With a sigh, he picked up the remains of his salad to sit on the ground with Alys, touching his boots to hers to give the kitten more wandering room between their legs. He felt like a little kid again.

  Alys smiled in approval and answered his question. “Fred liked steak and potatoes, and waffles with cream. He was skinny and ate like a horse. So a balanced meal was meat, lots of starch, maybe a veggie, and dessert.” Her smile disappeared. “He didn’t live long enough to develop colon cancer from his bad diet. He had a malignant melanoma that went to his lymph glands before it was detected.”

  He was a doctor, but he didn’t know what to say. Sadness lingered behind the crystal clarity of her eyes, but she sounded matter-of-fact, as if she’d come to terms with what had happened. “So now you eat your dessert first because the world could end before the meal is done?” he asked.

  She beamed at him. “Exactly. Want some?” She handed over her unfinished pie and licked a piece of chocolate from the corner of her lips.

  He wanted some all right. Pie wasn’t what he had in mind. He took her offering anyway, licking the Styrofoam plate clean of chocolate. The stuff was sinful. So was Alys. His gaze drifted to the shadow between her breasts as she leaned over to play with the cat, and he wanted the right to touch.

  Maybe he needed a little sin in his life right now. It wasn’t as if he had anything better to do while he waited for Mame to turn herself in.

  * * *

  The kitten meowed ear-scraping protests while Elliot dabbed its thorn-free paw with antiseptic.

  Purple’s sandpaper tongue licked Alys’s hand the instant Elliot released her. Liquid warmth flooded through her at the affectionate caress. She held the creature up so she could meet its green eyes, then kissed its perfect little nose. “You’re adorable, baby. Now how do we find your mama?”

  “I suspect Mame means for you to be its mama.” Elliot closed up the first-aid kit and returned it to the suitcase in Beulah’s trunk.

  Alys froze. She had no intention of being anyone’s mama. She didn’t ever want to be put in the position of losing someone—or something—she loved again. Footloose and fancy free, that was her.

  The kitten wriggled to be put down, and she was half tempted to set it loose in the parking lot. She couldn’t, of course. That would be the same as putting it to death.

  “I can’t keep a kitten. What in the world would I do with it?”

  “What does anyone do with cats? Feed them, give them a bed to sleep in, that sort of thing. They’re not demanding.” He slammed the trunk closed.

  “Here, then, you take care of it. You have a place to take it.” She handed the kitten to Elliot.

  He crossed his arms in refusal, looking like a stone statue of Hercules dressed in cowboy gear. “I travel too much. Hang on to her, and we can give her to Mame, if you like, but it looks to me like Purple wants to be friends.”

  The cat purred and bumped Alys’s jaw with its little head. She cuddled the kitten over her shoulder and glared at Elliot. “I don’t want to get attached. Let me drive. You hold Purple.”

  He raised skeptical eyebrows. “Are you planning on going through the rest of your life without any attachments? Is that why you want to be a travel writer?”

  She hadn’t thought about it. She preferred doing to thinking. Grumpily, she headed for the passenger seat. “We’ll need kitty litter and a box if we’re keeping her.”

  “Yes, ma’am. And a water mister for the orchid. I remember.”

  She thought he was laughing at her as he slid behind the wheel to go in search of a discount store.

  “Pets are like children,” she said defensively. “They need loving care and attention. I don’t have it in me any longer.”

  He shot her another of his disbelieving looks but didn’t argue. Once they found a store, he helped her tie Purple in her box so they could leave her in the car. Inside, he threw a kitten-sized travel carrier into a shopping basket. While she looked for a book on cats, Elliot checked the ingredients of cat foods to choose the one with the most nutrition. Alys found a purple cat leash. Elliot chose the litter box and paid for it all.

  “I’ll need to start a list of how much I owe you,” she muttered as they lugged their purchases back to Beulah.

  “The kitten and orchid are my aunt’s fault, not yours. And I bought the hat and boots for me, because I like looking at you wearing them.” He opened the car door for her so she could dump her packages on the backseat.

  Startled by the warmth in his voice, Alys jerked her head back so fast, she clipped Elliot’s chin. He caught her shoulders to steady her, or attempt to steady her. Her whole world whirled when he held her like that.

  He liked looking at her?

  Finding her center again, Alys retreated from his hold to release Purple. The kitten writhed in her hands and licked her cheek, her furry tail wagging like a dog’s. She would not get attached. Would not. Gently, she set the disappointed cat into its new carrier. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”

  “I give out diet advice to girls,” he said dryly, handing her the rest of the packages, “not flattery.”

  That was an interesting aspect of Elliot Roth that she hadn’t considered. “I suppose some women might consider diet advice a seductive topic,” she murmured, hiding her smile.

  “We do not want to go there,” he warned. “I have had women standing at the back door of the radio station when I’m done taping a show. Suffice it to say that women who think diet advice is seductive are not high on my list of potential dates.”

  “You emit such negative energy.” She shook her head in sympathy. “No wonder you suffer indigestion. Diet and exercise are only part of the formula for healthy living. Cheerfulness and positive thinking ease stress and open the channel for spiritual healing.”

  “Heart failure is caused by the very physical buildup of plaque in blood vessels leading to and from the heart,” he corrected. “Lack of adequate blood supplies weaken the heart muscle. An electrical derangement of the heartbeat triggered by strenuous or stressful activity causes cardiac arrest. Cheerfulness will not clean out the arteries or build a stronger heart. Diet and exercise will.”

  “You really don’t let yourself feel the energy, do you?” Poking a cat treat between the bars of the cage for the protesting kitten, Alys tried not to let disappointment shadow her interest in Elliot. Men simply didn’t open their hearts and senses as women did.

  She’d hoped he was different, but he was a doctor. They were the least likely creatures on earth to look past their narrow physical view of the world, proving once again that she was better off without a man in her life.

  Not that she wanted one, she reminded herself. She would just like to think Mame had a nephew who was a little more sensitive.

  Eliot didn’t need to understand her to have sex with her.

  “I have tons of energy,” he said meaningfully, opening the front car door.

  She hid another smile as he took the driver’s seat. “Stamina is not what I had in mind.”

  “It’s almost three. Should we head back to the hotel?” Undeterred, he wat
ched her through eyes gone dark with desire.

  “To check in.” Refusing to give in to his sexy gaze—although it activated all her long frozen-hormones—Alys stared straight ahead. “I still haven’t seen the zoo or the butterflies.” If he was anticipating the evening half as much as she was, he’d be salivating by day’s end. That should give him some incentive to ignore her inadequacies.

  “Are we likely to see Mame at the zoo?”

  “We’re not likely to see her, but I’ll bet she was there. She’ll want to compare notes when we catch up with her.”

  “Will we catch up with her?” he asked, as if she had some special knowledge unavailable to him.

  “At the Balloon Fiesta, I’m sure. This really is what’s best for her, Elliot. She’s running scared right now.” Mame had given no indication that she was involved in anything except a few days of freedom, so Alys didn’t mention her suspicion that his aunt was up to something besides matchmaking. Mame was quirky, but this trip had gone a little far beyond just quirky.

  Not that a dense male who didn’t open himself up to spiritual energy would notice.

  “If Mame knows as much as you say she does,” she continued, “she knows how to take care of herself. And she has one advantage that you don’t—she understands the power of the spirit. She’s generating positive energy, opening channels, and connecting with the spirit that flows through us. It would have been better if I was with her, but your negativity might counteract her well-being.”

  “I am not negative!” he shouted. “I’m positive that she can live until she’s ninety if she’d only follow the damned rules.”

  “Rules create stress, especially if they’re rules created by others. Mame needs to feel in control of her destiny. That gives her strength and feeds into her energy. Hospitals take away that control and sap energy. Hospitals are jam-packed with stress and bad vibrations.”

  “We don’t have medical phasers we can zap at people, like in some Star Trek movie,” he protested. “Hospitals are necessary.”

  “Maybe scientists ought to work on energy phasers.” Stubbornly, she crossed her arms. Maybe she didn’t want to go to bed with this man. He was even worse than Fred with his logical mind that required everything be proven. “No wonder men die young and widows populate the senior citizen centers.”

  “Could we go back to the part where I tell you that you look cute in the hat?” He parked Beulah in the hotel parking lot.

  She slanted him a glance from the corner of her eye. He looked dead serious. He really had his heart set on a repeat performance of last night. Cheered that the eminently successful, attractive Doc Nice wanted her enough not to argue with her, she pretended to consider his request. “Only if you promise not to tell me that I’m cute when I’m mad.”

  “That was next on my list, but I’ll refrain.”

  Laughing that he’d managed to say it without saying it, Alys followed him into the hotel lobby. The clerk had no messages and the room they checked into held no surprises.

  “Does Mame have friends here, too?” Elliot asked warily, canvassing the room as if he expected his aunt to leap out at them from hidden corners.

  “I don’t know. We know she was here while we were shopping, but she may be trying to get ahead of us now. Tomorrow is a longer journey, although I’d rather explore here than Amarillo.”

  Until she’d said it, she hadn’t realized how she’d exposed herself. Would he choose to race on to Amarillo tonight? It wasn’t as if he had any interest in zoos and butterflies. She tried not to look too interested in his decision.

  Elliot ran his hand through his rumpled curls and stared out at the Oklahoma City skyline. Absentmindedly transferring his hand from his head to rub at his solar plexus, he faced her. “I can’t kidnap her and heave her into a hospital. If she’s feeling well enough to keep going, the decision has to be hers. She has my cell phone number. It’s a little late to go traipsing through canyons or whatever she has on the itinerary for tomorrow.”

  The question in his dark eyes when he turned to Alys cemented the evening’s activities. He didn’t push or demand or take control of the situation. He left the decision up to her, and happy wings of freedom fluttered in her chest. “The zoo. Let’s release Purple so she doesn’t grow too bored in her cage.”

  He nodded, relinquishing the reins of worry he’d attached to his aunt. Now, if only she could get him to relax and enjoy himself, she would have channeled enough positive energy to keep Mame going a while longer.

  She hoped. She lived in dread of the phone call saying Mame had been taken to the hospital again. Positive energy, she reminded herself. No negative vibrations.

  “Seafood tonight,” she promised. “We can bring some back for Purple.”

  Oops, she’d forgotten she wasn’t supposed to become attached to the kitten. Well, a few nights of caretaking wouldn’t hurt.

  If she saved enough food money in this brief sojourn with Doc Nice, she could afford a bus ticket to her dream. She’d never seen the ocean. She thought she had what it took to be a California girl.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Elliot is in good hands.” In satisfaction, Mame pushed away from her hiding place off the hotel lobby. If her nephew didn’t recognize the value of a woman like Alys, she couldn’t help him if she had a hundred lifetimes.

  “He is a grown man. He has already healed Púpura. He can take care of himself.” Dulce slipped out of the ice-machine niche. “It is yourself you must worry about.”

  “Now that your foolish Purple is in good hands, it’s you and Lucia we must worry about. I’m feeling healthy as a horse.” That was only a tiny lie. Her pulse rate was irregular, but that was because of Dulce’s difficult situation. By tomorrow, matters would be under control. How difficult could rescuing a child from a cantankerous old bigot be?

  Mame wasn’t quite so certain about what waited on the other side of this adventure, but at least she would have settled all outstanding matters before she subjected her traitorous body to whatever depredations the doctors had in mind.

  “I would never have agreed to this had I known about your health, Mame. You risk too much for us.”

  If Mame hadn’t had another fainting spell, Dulce would never have known. Maybe she should take two pills for safety’s sake. She dismissed her companion’s concerns with a wave of her hand. “I risk nothing but a few days and a bit of fun. We’ll be out of Amarillo and into Albuquerque before Salvador knows what hit him.”

  Mame ignored Dulce’s worried expression. Positive energy and blind luck had brought them this far. They couldn’t fail so close to their goal. The Universe must have meant for her and Dulce to help one another, or they wouldn’t have been heading in the same direction. It had been sheer coincidence that she’d mentioned going to Albuquerque to a student who’d known Dulce’s desire to go there, too.

  “You do not know Salvador,” Dulce murmured, hurrying after Mame. “He is a big man in the community, in more ways than one. He was a truck driver who bought the truck company for which he worked. He despised my sister not just because she was a Navajo, but because she was a woman. He will not respect you anymore than me.”

  “That will be his downfall,” Mame replied confidently. “God is on our side. Let us free Lucia and you will both be on your way to safety.”

  Mame trusted the words Dulce muttered under her breath were prayers. Their next task wouldn’t be quite so easy or pleasant as bringing Alys and Elliot together.

  * * *

  A bundle of gray fur darted from beneath the sofa fringe, hopped to a cushion, and took a flying leap at a lamp shade. As the lamp toppled, the kitten sailed from the shade to the top of the entertainment center, where it peered over the edge in confidence that it had eluded capture by the humans who had just invaded her territory.

  “Mighty Cat,” Alys declared in admiration of the kitten’s acrobatics. They’d put a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door and left Purple to roam in the hotel room while they visited the
zoo. He didn’t seem to have done too much damage. Standing on tiptoes, Alys reached for the culprit.

  “Wildcat,” Elliot suggested, righting the lamp and shoving the sofa cushion back in place. “We should have left her in her box.”

  “Keeping the poor thing penned up would be cruel.” Alys placed the purring kitten over her shoulder, absorbing its soft rumble with pleasure.

  She wouldn’t admit to nervousness as Elliot flung his Stetson on a table and reached for a phone. He’d been a complete gentleman all afternoon, patiently escorting her through the zoo and the butterfly garden, even expressing interest in the scientific displays of butterfly migration and propagation. He wasn’t the kind of man given to public displays of affection, but he’d held her hand often enough for her to learn to like it. She’d enjoyed sharing his intellectual interest and discussion, enjoyed it far too much for her own good. She’d be better off becoming attached to the cat than the tiger awakening behind Doc Nice’s laid-back façade.

  What was wrong with her that she couldn’t walk through the world alone without craving the company of others? How would she ever learn to stand on her own?

  Elliot ordered a bottle of wine from room service, then sat on the edge of the bed to remove his boots. Unlike the prior night, there was assurance in his every move. He had no doubt how this day would end.

  That knowledge shivered her timbers as much as the idea of a committed relationship. She didn’t want him counting on her for anything.

  “Would you like to shower first, or shall I?” he asked. He was always amazingly polite, even when on the verge of murder. Maybe she hadn’t driven him quite that far yet, but she calculated she and Mame had skirted pretty close to his boiling point a time or two. Or maybe she was wrong, and he really was just a purring kitty-cat looking for a good time.

  “Watch the news and Mighty Cat, and I’ll be quick.” Her heart suffered an erratic beat when Elliot fixed his smoldering gaze in her direction. She about had another attack when he rose to take the cat from her. Even without his boots, he towered over her. The brush of his big hand against her bare shoulder as he removed the cat stimulated far more than her starving libido.