I’m full-blown jealous. He glanced at Victoria, who now sat alone in her booth. She seemed busy writing something on a notepad. The green shirt complimented her dark curls and light complexion. She looked like a breath of fresh summer air. But he couldn’t be jealous over Victoria. The notion was ridiculous on too many levels.
Just get your deposit done and get on out of here. It’s been a long week. He walked toward her and placed his checks and deposit slip on the counter. “Hi, Victoria.”
She jumped. “Chris, I didn’t hear anyone come in.”
“I see you got the job.”
“I did.” She clasped her hands, and Chris couldn’t help but notice how perfect her nails seemed, how soft her hands looked. He also noted her fingers were bare of any jewelry except a small silver band on her right hand ring finger. She added, “And I love it already.”
“That’s great.” All thoughts and words seemed to escape Chris. He stood looking at her, taking in that he’d never before noticed her lips actually had a kind of pouty shape to them. They were appealing and seemed to be more enticing with each blink.
She cleared her throat. “Did you want to make a deposit?”
“Yes.” Chris pushed the checks and deposit slip closer to her.
“It may take me a minute.” She smiled. “I’m new at this you know.”
“Take your time. I took the day off to run errands, get my hair cut, stuff like that.”
She glanced up at him before turning back to her computer. “Your hair looks nice.”
He felt his ears burn at her compliment. “Thanks.”
She finished the transaction and handed him the receipt. “You were my first bank customer.”
Chris noted the slip with the correct amount and account numbers typed on it. “Well, you did a great job.”
“You know I’m supposed to come by and spend time with Abby today, but I don’t know if I will be able to.”
“She’ll understand that you had to work.”
“It’s not that. I get off at four, but I hate to ask Sondra to come pick me up, take me to your house, and then have to pick me up again.” She sighed. “I’ll be glad when I get my Suburban back.”
“I’ll be in town. Why don’t you let me pick you up at four, and then I’ll take you home whenever you’re ready?”
Victoria peered at him. “Do you really want to do all that for the Mary Ann Mangler?”
“I’m beginning to see that the Mary Ann Mangler is a very nice woman who doesn’t deserve that nickname.”
Victoria’s eyebrows rose. “Oh? And what nickname does she deserve?”
Chris felt his stomach knot and his chest tighten. He had to admit he was falling for her. Falling for her hard. Now he had to decide if he wanted to ignore his feelings or if he wanted to go after this girl. He cocked his head as nicknames of endearment and love filled his mind. “Fresh air,” he whispered.
“What?”
He shook his head and willed his attraction to take a backseat in his brain. “Never mind. So will you come? Can I pick you up at four?”
“Sure. I’ll call Sondra and tell her she doesn’t have to worry about me.” Victoria placed her hand on Chris’s. His heart sped up with the touch, and he feared she could feel his racing heartbeat through his veins. “Thanks for trusting me with Abby.”
Abby? Trusting her with Abby wasn’t anything. It was the fact that she seemed to be taking hold of his heart that had him worried. “Think nothing of it.”
Victoria pulled her favorite pink grapefruit lipstick from her purse. She applied it to her lips and then smacked them together. Four o’clock had arrived quicker than she would have imagined. She rearranged the curls she’d allowed to frame her face. The clip in her hair had held tight, but she couldn’t deny her longing to let her hair fall at her shoulders. She didn’t know when she’d kept it up for so many hours.
After placing the lipstick back in her purse, she pouted at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Zack had already left work for some type of meeting at another bank. Victoria had hoped to be able to talk with him more. She’d even come up with a few questions she could ask him intermittently through the day. She sighed. Her plan had been a sneaky one, and deep down she knew that wasn’t pleasing to God.
I’m sorry, Lord. I don’t know what to say to a man, especially one like Zack. But I don’t want to be sinful or manipulative either.
Determined not to ask Zack a single phony question when she saw him the following day, Victoria walked out of the restroom and bank to see if Chris had arrived. She spied him waiting in the parking lot in his green truck. Walking over to him, she poked her head in the passenger’s window. “Hey, thanks for picking me up.”
“It’s all right.” He patted the seat. “Hop in.”
She had to yank hard before the heavy door squeaked its willingness to let her do just that. Lifting one foot up to the floorboard, she grabbed the sides of her skirt and giggled. “I didn’t know it was such a leap to get into this thing.”
“There’s a handle above your head.”
“You’re kidding.” She looked up, and sure enough there it was. Victoria grabbed it with one hand and held her skirt with the other. With a quick hop, she pulled herself inside and slammed the protesting door.
“I didn’t think about you needing a change of clothes,” said Chris.
“What?”
“There’s no telling what Abby will want you to do.”
Victoria frowned. “Aren’t I supposed to be the one influencing her?”
Chris laughed. “Yeah, and I hope you can do it. Just the same, you’d be more comfortable in jeans or shorts. Abby will probably have some you can wear.”
“Okay.” An uneasiness gnawed at Victoria. Surely she hadn’t gotten in over her head with Abby. She leaned over and grabbed the handle to roll up the window. Having never seen one before except on television, Victoria wasn’t sure exactly how to work it. The handle was stiff, but she turned it both ways until she managed to get the window to rise.
“No air-conditioning.”
“What?” She gawked at Chris whose mouth split in a full grin.
“The truck doesn’t have air-conditioning. You’ll have to leave it down.”
“Well, this should be an adventure.”
“I’d reckon it will be.” Chris turned the key in the ignition. It grumbled and then roared its willingness to start.
Bluegrass gospel music pealed from the radio as the inside of the cab shook like they were in the middle of an earthquake. Victoria felt as if she’d stepped out onto some newly remade Twilight Zone program. She grabbed for her seat belt only to have it fight her for several moments to stretch long enough to fasten into its lock.
Chris put the truck into drive and pulled out into the street. Heat from the engine seemed to wrap around her feet making her start to perspire. She could feel wisps of hair slip away from her clip. Her shirt blew hard against her skin as the wind whipped all around her.
The cab jerked and bumped over every dip in the road. Her purse fell onto the floorboard, and she bent over to pick it up. As she sat up, Chris must have hit a pothole because she was popped high in the air. She gasped when her bottom reconnected with the torn, vinyl seat.
“You okay?” asked Chris.
Victoria had never felt like this. She’d never been in anything so primitive, so rustic, so nostalgic. Okay, Victoria, you’re being a little dramatic. But she didn’t care. She felt so country … so free. She loved it.
Grabbing her clip from her hair, she shook her curls loose and kicked off her heels. She glanced at Chris whose expression bespoke nothing short of complete awe. “This is great.”
“Um … okay.” Chris peered back out the windshield. Victoria couldn’t help but notice his chiseled chin and how stubble, a much deeper red than his hair, covered it. Strong arms gripped the steering wheel, and she realized how protected she felt in Chris’s presence.
She shook her head and glanced ou
t the passenger window. The wind blew the blanket of flat, golden wheat in ripples before her. She shouldn’t think about Chris and his chin or arms or anything else for that matter. A country boy/mechanic obsessed with naming his inanimate treasures after women—no, Chris Ratliff could not be the man for her. He was nothing like Zack. And Zack was perfect.
eight
What have I gotten myself into? Chris watched as Victoria hopped out of the truck and held open the door. She giggled as she ran her fingers through the tousled curly mass that sat atop her head. Her wind-kissed cheeks matched the nail polish he’d inadvertently noticed covering her toenails.
Abby threw open the screen door. “Hey, Victoria.” His little sister waved at the woman who’d stolen his breath the entire trip home to come inside. “What’s so funny?” Abby asked as a smile split her much-too-dark-painted lips. The first smile he’d seen in days.
Victoria glanced back at Chris. “Your brother’s truck.”
Abby furrowed her brows. “What?”
“That truck is great.” She scooped her heels from the floorboard and slammed the door shut.
“What’s so great about it?”
“It’s like an amusement park ride. It bounces and turns, jerks and twirls.”
Chris shook his head as he stepped out of the cab. “The lady spent a long time stuck inside a bank today.” He looked at Abby and circled his finger beside his temple. “Too many hours counting greenbacks, I guess.”
With her heels dangling from her fingers, Victoria stomped around the truck toward him. She lifted her shoulders and peered up at him. “I’ll have you know I had a great time on my first day of work.”
A long strand of hair fell in front of one of her eyes while the mass of it hung down her back. Her tiny nostrils flared in a pitiful attempt at anger. Her eyes betrayed her as they sparkled with merriment.
He cleared his throat. “I’m glad you had a good day.”
“You”—she poked the middle of his chest—“were my first customer.” She smiled, and her face lit up brighter than the sun peeking through a batch of rain clouds.
He brushed the wayward strand away from her eye. His fingers caressed her soft cheek. “I’m glad I was your first customer.”
Her face flushed, and she touched her cheek. Chris gripped the door handle as he fought a primitive urge to scoop her lithe body into his arms and carry her off to a cave somewhere far away from civilization.
Instead, he turned and grabbed his keys and the papers from his day’s errands out of the truck. He shrugged at Abby as he walked toward the house. He looked back at the two. “Victoria doesn’t have a change of clothes. Would you mind her borrowing something of yours that’s a little more comfortable?”
“Sure.” She glanced at Victoria. “You’re a little taller than me, but I’ll see what I can find.”
“Let’s go then.” Victoria walked to the door. When she stood beside Abby, Victoria lightly bumped the teen with her hip. Abby giggled and grabbed Victoria’s hand, dragging her fully into the house.
Chris shook his head and grinned. Sondra Ward had to be the most intelligent person he knew. Victoria would be the perfect person to influence Abby.
Victoria squelched the gasp that threatened to escape when she stepped past the mudroom and into Chris’s kitchen. The furniture seemed to be in good condition, but the house was a wreck. Dishes, covered in every imaginable food, overflowed on one side of the double sink. Clean dishes had been stacked just as high on the other side. Do they even have any dishes in the cabinets? The stove had some sort of grime coating the top. Papers and notebooks, a purse, a pile of clothes, and even a lone tennis shoe sat on the counters and kitchen table.
“Sorry ’bout the mess,” Abby said as she guided Victoria past the kitchen. “I have a bad habit of dropping everything at the door.” Her teen friend looked back at her and a glimmer of pain shot through Abby’s expression. “Used to drive Mama crazy.”
“Oh, I don’t mind a bit.”
And in truth, what did it matter that the kitchen was a little disheveled? That’s what she had come for anyway … to show Abby how to be a lady. And Victoria knew that part of being a lady was learning how to pick up after yourself. In fact, she hadn’t spent too many hours of her life cleaning dishes and clearing counters—okay, she had never done any kind of manual labor in the home. Still, she always picked up after herself, and she knew how to clean dishes and whatnot. Surely Victoria could help Abby get on the right track.
They walked through a surprisingly clean living area. At a quick glance, Victoria marveled at how comfortable the room felt. Dark furniture circled an oversized, wood fireplace. Various pictures of Chris and Abby adorned the walls. Victoria wanted to stop and look at their childhood memories, but she hurried after her protégé instead.
“Here we go,” Abby said as she opened her bedroom door.
“Wow!” Victoria raised her eyebrows in surprise. Never in her life had she seen such a disaster. Tornados couldn’t do so much damage. Clothes, wrappers, CDs, books, more items than Victoria could take in were strewn all over the room.
Victoria shrieked, and her blood drained from her head and pooled in her feet when a small, yapping object leaped from atop a pile of clothes. Placing her hand on her chest, she willed her heart to slow down as Abby scooped the little furball into her arms and allowed the creature to lick her face.
“This is Sassy-Girl.” She buried her face into the ball of hair. “She’s my bestest buddy in the whole world.” Turning to the animal, Abby’s voice took on a high, childlike pitch. “Ain’t you, baby? You’re my precious wittle girl, ain’t ya?”
The copper-colored animal yelped and wagged her tail wildly.
Swallowing, Victoria hesitantly reached toward the animal. Yaps sounded from the dog in continual succession, so Victoria gingerly lowered her hand, palm up, under the animal’s nose. Sassy-Girl sniffed for several moments before her tail began to wag. She licked Victoria’s palm, and Victoria had to conjure up all the effort she’d ever known not to hurl on the floor.
“She likes you.” Abby squealed.
Victoria shrugged. “I guess so.”
“No, you don’t understand.” Abby placed her hand on Victoria’s shoulder. “Sassy-Girl doesn’t like anyone. All my friends tease about her being the grumpiest dog they’ve ever seen. She doesn’t even like Chris half the time.”
“Hmm.” Victoria cautiously reached for the dog. Sassy-Girl wagged her tail feverishly and practically leaped into Victoria’s arms. “I’ve never had a dog, but I always wanted one.” She held the animal in the crook of one arm and petted her with her free hand. “What kind of dog is she?”
“She’s a Pomeranian. You can love on her any time you come over.” Abby grabbed Sassy-Girl from Victoria’s grasp and placed her back atop the pile of clothes on her floor. “But let’s get you out of that snazzy outfit before she gets hair all over you.” Abby shifted her weight from one side to the other and then crossed her arms in front of her chest. She bit the inside of her lip and twitched her mouth. “I don’t think I have anything that will fit you.”
Victoria took in the tiny frame of the teenager. The girl was a good four or five inches shorter than she, and though Victoria’s size was on the slim side, Abby couldn’t be considered anything bigger than petite.
“Hmm.” Abby twirled a piece of her hair that was pulled up in a knot.
Victoria noticed how thick and lush the strand appeared. Her hair was long and dark and had potential to be stunningly beautiful. Why Abby had it tied in a ragged knot, Victoria didn’t have a clue. That style, if worn too often, would do nothing but break her hair off in uneven pieces.
The makeup Abby wore was worse. The lipstick plastered on her lips smeared dark, too dark for Abby’s light skin. Sure, dark-haired women often wore more bold lipsticks, but they were usually older and going to late-night events. On Abby, the color gave the impression of a girl that a law-abiding citizen wouldn’t want to meet
on the street when the sun went down. Her eyes were just as bad, covered in various shades of green. Note to self: Be sure to explain to Abby that a gal should never wear eye shadow the same color as her eyes. It makes others focus on her makeup and not her natural beauty.
Abby walked toward the bedroom door. “I’ll be right back.”
Victoria inhaled as she watched her young friend disappear down the hall. And those jeans are atrocious. They do nothing to compliment Abby’s slim figure. Yes, she had a lot of work ahead of her, but first things first. The two of them would need to go through the house and learn the fine art of picking up after oneself. Abby might just find she owned treasures she’d long forgotten about.
Abby walked back into the room holding a pair of sweatpants and a ragged Oklahoma State T-shirt. She lifted them up. “These are my brother’s from years ago. They’re too small for him now, so they may not be too awful big for you.”
Victoria widened her eyes and pointed to her chest then toward the clothes. “You want me to wear those?”
Abby frowned. “If you don’t mind.”
Victoria forced her lips to smile. “Of course I don’t mind.”
nine
“Ready to go?” Chris handed Victoria her purse from the cleared table. The entire kitchen had undergone an amazing transformation since Victoria arrived some four hours before. The sun had finished its descent into the earth, and Chris knew Victoria had to be exhausted.
“Ready as ever.” She held her heels in her hands. “Mind if I keep these off?”
“Would it matter?”
She shook her head and flashed him a smile that nearly knocked him out of his socks.
“Then I don’t mind.” He walked her to the truck and opened the door for her. Shutting it behind her, he went around the front and jumped into the cab. “I wondered if we could talk a bit?”
She gazed over at him. “About what?”
He shrugged. “About you. I figure if you’re going to be spending a lot of time with Abby, I oughta get to know you.”
By His Hand: Truly Yours Digital Edition Page 7