Running Up the Score

by Jacqueline DeGroot

  I opened my laptop and typed a desperate message to Brick; totally oblivious to the fact that there was no way I could send it. When I hit the send button I realized how stupid I’d been—of course I couldn’t send an e-mail. It’s not like there was Wi-fi here in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

  I forced myself to zone out, to think of inconsequential things, to avoid the panic attack I was sure was brewing inside me. How nice that I had a comfortable bed, how freeing it was to look out my windows and as far as I could see, there was no pollution, no traffic, no noise, no rain, no people. Nothing but sunshine and shimmers of heat, rising from the pavement that unwound like a black snake ahead of me. Snake! O my Lord! The desert had snakes and lizards—no offense Stumpy—and Gila monsters, and my mind conjured up a hundred wild beasts roaming the prairie ahead of me, most probably not even of this hemisphere.

  Off in the distance I saw the sun beginning to set, turning the whole area into a kaleidoscope of colors too beautiful to describe. My eyes took it in for a moment and I even smiled at the sight, but then I realized what it meant.

  Come nighttime, there would be birds of prey, jackals and hyenas and all sorts of hungry, desperate critters clawing to get into my RV to get to me. I felt my heart speed up and my blood coursing quickly through my veins, pounding to the beat of an internal drum. I ran back to the bathroom and to my medicine cabinet and took out a small bottle. I downed a tiny white pill before I could talk myself out of it. The last thing I needed to do now was sleep, but I knew myself, I couldn’t afford to let panic take over. I needed to get some rest and come to terms with my situation. It wasn’t going to happen if I wigged out. I munched on a power bar while I locked up for the night, closing myself in against the night, sealing everything against any kind of predator, be it small or large.

  I sat back against the pillows on my bed, my legs curled up under me, my eyes wide with apprehension, until I felt the slow mellow feeling take over.

  When I woke the sun was just coming up over the hill behind me. The shades were drawn but I could feel the change in the temperature. During the night I must have become chilled because I was wrapped in my comforter. Now I was kicking it off and desperate to get it off my clammy body. It couldn’t be much past six I thought, and already it was hot enough to be stifling. Groaning, I eased out of bed and made my way up front.

  I opened the refrigerator and was surprised it was still cool inside, not cold, as it should have been, but not terrible. I decided I’d better use what food I could before it went bad and figure out what to do with the rest. I debated about taking a shower but just couldn’t justify the waste of water. It could be water I would need for drinking. My skin felt gritty and I didn’t like the way I looked when I walked past the mirror above the dinette. My hair was lank and my face, though shiny from perspiration, looked dry and it felt like it crackled between my brows when I grimaced at myself.

  Get over it! This is no time for a beauty analysis. This is a time to ensure you have a future, I told myself, not a time to primp and worry about your corpse. Whenever someone found me, I wanted them to know I was smart and resourceful, not vain. Still, a little moisturizer couldn’t hurt, I mumbled out loud and went back to the bathroom where I reached for one of my Clinique jars.

  While I was slathering a think layer of cream over my face, I heard a low droning sound. I stopped and cocked my head to listen harder. It grew louder, and louder. I ran to look out the window and saw the culprit. It was a plane, a little tiny plane! I unlocked the door and ran outside waving my arms. But it had already passed over and was flying away. Stupidly, I called after it, “Help! Come back! Don’t leave!” Of course, it continued on, making little putt-putting sounds as if it too were having engine problems due to the heat.

  I took a moment to look around and scope out the area. Nothing had changed since yesterday. Flat land, high hills, desolate empty road. Then I saw it—a glimmer of silver, just a flash really, far off in the distance. But as I continued to stare at the horizon where I’d seen it, it grew. I watched until it became recognizable as a car. I stepped out into the road, shaded my eyes and waited for it to approach. It was still very far away. It grew brighter and larger as it barreled down the road toward me. When I could see the chrome of the grill flashing in the early morning sun, I started waving and didn’t stop until it slid to a stop ten feet in front of me. The windshield was dark, I couldn’t see who was behind the wheel. I couldn’t even see what kind of car it was from the angle I was at but my first thought was that it was a silver Lincoln, just like the one Jared had been driving, the kind he usually rented when he traveled. I hesitated in my waving just long enough to quantify my thoughts. Was being rescued by Jared, better than dying out here alone in the desert? I was grappling with that thought when the front door opened and a man in a chauffeur’s uniform stepped out. He had a puzzled look on his wizened face and held onto the doorframe as if ready to rethink leaving the safe, cool confines of the car. Then the back door opened and another man stepped out behind him. This one was tall and it struck me as odd that he had just exited the car with a cowboy hat on. He must have said something to the driver, as the driver got back into the car and closed the door behind him while the cowboy sauntered over, his boots crunching on the side of the road.

  “Problem, Miss?” he asked and I could hear the drawl of a western gentleman.

  “Yes, I did something to my engine and I can’t get a signal on my cell phone to call for help.”

  His hand slid into the front pocket of his trousers, incidentally moving his sport coat aside and flashing a big silver buckle that practically blinded me. His shoulders were so wide they would have blocked out the sun, only the sun was behind me, casting my shadow in front of me. I thought it hilarious that the shadow of my head appeared to be in the area of his crotch. I had the urge to laugh and wondered if I was becoming just a bit hysterical here. As he drew closer my eyes were drawn to his, shaded by the brim of his hat. I had to guess at their color but not their intensity. He was assessing me from top to bottom. He flashed an engaging smile and white teeth gleamed between a full mustache. He was handsome in a just-got-off-a-bronco kind of way, every bit the rancher who didn’t have to do anything more than go to tractor dealers and haggle. He had a confident stance that said he knew he was a man women couldn’t help dropping their jaws over.

  “So you need a lift?”

  Hmmm. Did I want to do that? No, I thought not. “Can you just make a call for me?”

  “I kin try,” he said as he pulled a cell phone from an inside jacket pocket. He flipped it open, looked down at it, and sighed. “Nope. Caint. I don’t get a signal out here either. Maybe Carlton can.” He turned and motioned for his driver, who instantly opened the door and ran out to see what was wanted of him. I watched as they spoke and the driver went back inside the car. A few seconds later he popped his head out of the window and shook it.

  “It seems we’re not much help in that department. Why don’t you just ride into town with us and we’ll find somebody to come out and take a look at your uh, situation. Is it just you, or are there others? The word others was given a slight inflection that to me implied significant others.

  “It’s just me and Stumpy.”

  “Stumpy?”

  “My lizard.”

  “Your lizard?” Again that weird, hesitant inflection.

  “Long story. But I just can’t leave him.”

  “Well, by all means, bring him along.” His hand went up and his fingers snapped and the driver popped out of the car again and came running up.

  “Carlton, see if you can help . . .”

  “Jenny. Jenny, uh . . . just Jenny.”

  “I’m Craig, Craig Johnson—this here is Carlton.”

  Carlton nodded at me and I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. “Well, okay . . . just give me a minute to get some things together.” It was so hot that I could feel the heat making my tennis shoes sticky on the pavement. “I won’t be but a minute,
I promise.”

  I grabbed my purse, some clothes, a few toiletries, my laptop, and the terrarium. Juggling everything, I made it out the door where both men waited to relieve me of my burdens. I locked the door and followed them to the car, which now I could see was actually a limo. The abrupt change from the scorching heat of the desert, to the chilly confines of the air-conditioned interior, caused me to shiver and break out in goose bumps. I was experiencing a forty-degree drop in temperature in a matter of only a few seconds, so my overheated skin became clammy before equalizing itself to the change.

  I was settled in the back seat, with Stumpy in the terrarium on my lap, when I noticed an open briefcase on the seat facing me. It was full of money.

  Craig saw my eyes go wide and reached over to shut the case. “Just came from the casino, just counting my winnings.”

  “Well, glad you had a good night.”

  “Seems like the morning has been the real jackpot.”

  I blushed and tried not to meet his eyes, but this was a man who commanded your attention and held it. “So, uh, you live around here?”

  “I live in Texas, but I own property in Pahrump.”

  “Pahrump?”

  “Yes, it’s where we’re headin’ now.”

  Oh Lord, he was talking me to his home? That couldn’t be good. “If you could just drop me off at a hotel that would be great.”

  “That works out well for both of us, as I own a hotel in Pahrump. Also, several restaurants and a mall.”

  He could not know that none of this impressed me—not one iota. “Well, then maybe you could arrange a discount for me. I’m afraid it could be a while before I can get back on the road. I think I burned something up in the engine.”

  He was sitting beside me on the seat and I felt him shift and face me, “Discount? Little lady, you will be my guest. I wouldn’t hear of anything else. We’ll get you settled in a nice room, then we’ll go to the local RV dealership to see about getting someone to tow your vehicle. And it would honor me if you would allow me to take you to dinner tonight.”

  “Uh . . .” I really didn’t have any other plans, now did I? “Well, sure. That would be great. Thank you.”

  “Wonderful, always nice to share a meal with such a pretty little lady. Now tell me, what’s a fine looking woman like you doin’ on her own in a big RV in the middle of the desert?”

  I wasn’t about to tell him the whole sordid story of my life, but I found I could skirt the major issues and not be lying by just saying I was in the process of getting divorced and that I was taking some time to be off on my own. He told me about his life in Texas, where he was both a rancher and an oilman and I told him the story about how Stumpy came to be my traveling companion.

  He was pleasant, sincere, and very polite. If I hadn’t needed a shower so badly, and some food, I would have been disappointed when we pulled under the porte cochere of what appeared to be a fairly upscale hotel.

  “Here we are, is two hours enough time for you to settle in before we go see about getting your rig towed?”

  “Oh, two hours should be plenty of time.”

  “Good. I’ll leave you in the hands of my manager then.” He stepped out of the limo when Carlton opened the door and waved a bellman over. Within minutes Stumpy and I were ensconced in a beautiful suite and room service was on the phone awaiting my complimentary lunch order. As I read them my selections, I chanced to look into the mirror above the desk. I had a big smear of moisturizer across my forehead. I’d been applying it in my bathroom when I’d heard the plane and then saw the limo. What a sight I was.

  I settled into a deep, frothy bubble bath with a glass of champagne in one hand and a huge chocolate covered strawberry in the other. I loved soaking in hot water and although my Dolphin had a tub, it was not one I could stretch out in, and to fill it this high would have had water running all over the place.

  A woman could get used to this kind of treatment, I murmured to the reflection of myself in the wall-to-wall mirror. But with my very next thought, I admonished myself. Yeah, sure she could, and then she’d end up right back where she was. Men of power tended to want to exert it in some way. Sure, Craig seemed perfectly affable and sincere, but they all did during the first getting-to-know-you stage. I wondered how Craig manifested his power. Was he one to swagger and show off all his wealth all the time? To demean all his underlings to boost his own esteem? Would he be the type to “buy” a woman with all he could do for her and then discard her after she had done all she could do for him? I mentally slapped myself. It was all just speculation, because pure and simple, I wasn’t interested. I was fairly well smitten with Brick. Lord, if he could see me now. I wasn’t living the simple life of a woman on the road in her trusty rig now. And speaking of trusty rig, I thought, I’d better wash up and get dressed. It was time to see just what damage I had wrought to my beloved Dolphin.

  Chapter twenty-nine

  The mechanic was as kind and polite as he could be, but he had some awfully rude news to impart. I had indeed fried my engine. The word “seized” was used several times before I heard estimates that were in the thousands, many thousands—like six and seven thousand. He had shown me the evidence, taking me under the Dolphin and insisting I feel the extreme heat still coming off the undercarriage.

  I plopped down on a bench, avoiding a long tear in the vinyl where the foam poked out. We were in the vintage waiting area and despite having grease from my fingertips to my elbows; I put my chin in my hands. This was not good news, but what choice did I have. This was my home. I had to fix it. I was a hermit crab with no shell.

  I nodded dully at the mechanic who left us to talk things over while he handled another customer. Mentally, I tallied my budget against what was in my household debit account. I would have to find an ATM and get some of the reward money out to cover the repair.

  Craig was leaning on the doorframe watching me, his arms crossed over his chest. I noticed that his hat, pushed up on his forehead, almost touched the top of the opening. From the deep creases at his knees, I could tell they were bent to accommodate the low doorway to the office. The dealership and repair facility had been modernized with the advent of the new casino but you could tell that the office was circa 1940 and had seen its heyday many years ago. My initial thought was that someone had decided to build around it, rather than clear out the accumulated clutter.

  Craig’s gaze met mine and he cocked an eyebrow as if to say, so what are you going to do? I hesitated before taking a deep breath and flashing a quick smile. It is what it is, I told myself. I did this out of ignorance and had learned a valuable lesson about thermal dynamics.

  “Well, it’s either trade it or fix it, and other than what I did to it, it’s really a wonderful RV. It’s the perfect size for me and I’m used to how everything works. It’s fairly new so I think I would stand to lose a lot if I traded it in.”

  I looked up to get his opinion, to see if he had any advice for me and was surprised to see a solemn, far away look in his eyes. My eyes followed his and saw that he was staring out the window to the boulevard and beyond. His eyes weren’t focused on any particular thing; it was as if he had gone inside himself to think this over. “So, what do you think I should do,” I asked, jarring him back from wherever his thoughts had been.

  “I’ll pay for it.”

  “Oh no, you won’t! I have the money to fix it. I just have to get to an ATM machine to get it.”

  “I’m happy to pay for it; it’s nothing, less than a wager at the tables.”

  “I don’t care. It’s one thing to put me up at your hotel for a few days, but definitely another to shell out thousands of dollars to get me out of a jam. I will pay for it, and that’s that. Thank you for your offer though, it’s very generous.”

  “It comes with no strings.”

  “I wouldn’t care if it did. I’m an independent woman now and I pay my own way. I am getting great pride from that. I don’t think it’s something you’d understand,
but this is the first time I’ve been on my own in a long time and it’s very important to me that I take care of myself.”

  He pushed away from the doorjamb and reached for my hand. “Okay then, let’s tell them to get started.” He took my hand and pulled me up from the cracked vinyl bench and I let him lead me into the shop where the mechanic waited for our decision.

  “Two weeks! I can’t wait that long! I have to be in Tucson next week.”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, it’s going to take at least that long to get all the parts and then four or five days to get the work done.”

  “Oh my,” I whispered as I turned away from both men and stared at my Dolphin over on the lift. Somehow it looked smaller high up in the air.

  Craig came to stand behind me. I could smell his aftershave, one I knew to be David Beckham’s Instinct. He put his hands on my shoulders and gently turned me to face him. “It’s okay, I can get you to Tucson. It’s a small matter really. Don’t fret over it. We can drive or we can take my plane.”

  Okay, so maybe I was a little impressed.

  “You’d do that for me?”

  “And more if you’d let me.” The look in his eyes was one I’d seen before and it scared me. It was the look of a man interested and not just in my welfare.

  I took a big breath and let it out, conscious of his hands still on my shoulders that were starting to caress and knead in little circles. “Well, those are nice options.” I looked over at the mechanic and nodded, “Take good care of her, she’s all I’ve got.”