Be My Guest

by Caroline Clemmons

  Nature called, and Aurora could lie there no longer. Her second effort let her sit on the side of the bed, though it made her head pound. The room swirled in her brain as she fought to get her bearings. What happened to her handbag and luggage? First things first. Find the bathroom, then check for belongings and her host.

  Will stood at the kitchen range in front of a skillet of sizzling ham slices. Fresh jeans and a red plaid shirt replaced the pajama bottom. He'd shaved, and his neatly brushed hair glistened with moisture from his shower. A newscaster spoke through the portable radio on the counter.

  Windows across the wall of the breakfast nook opened onto a patio and a door stood next to the windows of the large, airy kitchen. Counter tops of pale granite on cabinets of pecan colored wood brightened the room even on such a drab day. Stainless steel appliances and sinks echoed the gray tile floors and the gray sky visible through the window.

  The contents of Aurora's handbag lay spread to dry on the dark oak Windsor table in the breakfast nook. Nearby, the briefcase sat open but apparently unmolested. The hum of a machine from the direction of the garage must be the emergency generator.

  A frown furrowed Will’s brow. "You shouldn't be up. You're supposed to rest, especially until Nick can check you over." He let his gaze run over her, and a crooked smile replaced the frown. "You're perkier than I would have expected, though."

  "What are you doing?" she asked testily, ignoring his remarks as she stood braced by the doorway. She tugged at the hem of the pajama top and walked into the room.

  Amazement overwhelmed Will at how attractive this woman appeared, with a mass of tangled auburn hair, skinned knees and clad only in an oversized pajama top. Those flashing green eyes sparking directly at him created a strange sensation in his stomach--and lower. The pajama top covered only the first few inches of her thighs and left her long shapely legs bare. Even in her disheveled and battered state she revealed herself as one hell of a beautiful woman.

  When he noticed her attention focused on the contents of her handbag, he explained, "I tried to get the mud and water out of the things from your handbag and lay them out to dry. They aren't in very good shape, I'm afraid. Some are probably ruined."

  He nodded toward the briefcase. "The briefcase seems to have made out great, though. The lid sealed tight so no water got inside. The suitcase contents were mostly just damp, but definitely smell strange." He turned back to the range, grabbed the skillet, and turned out the flame of the burner ring. "How do you feel?"

  Aurora chided herself for thinking he’d rifled through her things to satisfy his curiosity. "Like a hundred-year-old woman who's been mugged. I'm in search of a hair brush, toothpaste, and toothbrush." Aurora inspected the articles on the table. Most of the items from her handbag had been salvaged but a few, like her address book, would never be the same.

  Will nodded toward another door. "The things from your suitcase are in the laundry room. As I said, they seem mostly just damp from the rain that soaked in through the canvas shell, so they're in better shape than the stuff in your handbag. Hurry up, though, or your breakfast will be cold."

  Aurora went in the direction he indicated. Her stiff and wobbly body moved slowly. Leaning forward to rinse out her mouth after she brushed her teeth, she almost passed out. She managed to avoid the area of her head wound while she brushed the tangles from the rest of her hair. The effect was an odd, lopsided hairdo.

  Desolation hovered around her when she wobbled into the kitchen with her cosmetic pouch in her right hand. She found nothing more suitable to wear than Will's pajama top. "Nothing has dried. I spread some things around the laundry room to air dry so they won't mildew."

  "While the electricity's off, I can unplug the freezer from the generator and plug in the washing machine long enough to wash the things that got wet--sort of mix and match with the electrical appliances. Unfortunately, I have the generator set up for 120 volts and it can't accommodate the 220-volt dryer. Maybe I can rig up a line in the garage to dry some of them. Is everything was okay?"

  "Most of the things I brought were washable. My new linen suit is probably a casualty, though." Aurora thought sadly of the stunning suit she purchased in Dallas only a few weeks ago.

  "Too bad. Right now, how about some ham and eggs?"

  "I didn't think I could eat anything until I saw the food." Aurora searched for a clean spot on the cluttered table. "Maybe some solid food will quell this nausea. I’m known in my family for my more than healthy appetite under any condition. I inherited my grandmother’s amazing metabolism that lets me eat huge amounts without gaining weight.”

  "Let's sit at the breakfast island if you feel well enough, or I can fix you a tray to have in bed. I seem to have made a mess of the table."

  "I'd rather eat sitting up." Aurora eased her battered body gently onto a bar stool and laid the cosmetic pouch beside her on the breakfast bar. Her green pajama top matched the curtains at the windows as well as the rows of herbs alternating with small green stripes on the wallpaper.

  She tugged the pajama top down to cover as much of her legs as possible as she realized just how much of her seemed exposed. Match the kitchen or not, she wished she’d remembered to grab that robe of Will's.

  Will set two plates on the counter top and reached into a drawer to produce cutlery. Now, how could he be expected to control himself with her looking like that? He poured two glasses of apple juice and placed them beside the plates. Into a mug he poured tea from a teapot.

  "I made more of the sweetened tea you had last night. I've always heard tea's better for nausea than anything."

  Palms of both his hands sweated. Maybe it had something to do with them being alone and Aurora seductive even in her injured state. Awareness of her every move zinged through him, every flash of ivory skin beckoned to him, every breath caused her breasts to rise and fall. He ran a hand through his hair and cursed to himself. Breakfast just starting and already his reactions to this woman left him in a sad state.

  "This is perfect." Aurora smiled at him. "Let's eat."

  "Hmm, did you have any dinner yesterday?" Will used his crutches to hobble to the stool beside Aurora.

  "The last time I ate was with you in Snyder...except for the tea and crackers last night." She peered around as if getting her bearings. "That seems days ago."

  "Seems a hell of a long time ago, doesn't it? You had the A-1 prime example of a bad day yesterday, didn't you?"

  Will watched in fascination as she ate. She sliced each bite of ham into precisely the same sized bite. The neck of the over-sized pajama top she wore fell forward to reveal perfect breasts as she leaned toward the bar. She sat with each of her legs hooked around a leg of the bar stool, her thighs parted slightly. If he reached out...Damn, what on earth was he thinking?

  He cursed to himself. This woman was a guest in his home, a guest with severe injuries, someone who needed his care and protection. He had to reign in his hormones. What made this one woman cause those hormones to boil when other women did not even induce a simmer?

  Will hoped Aurora remained unaware of his lecherous feelings. Get yourself under control, Harrison. Three years of celibacy is messing with your mind and body.Already this shaped up to be a long day. Better get Lily over here as soon as possible.

  Aurora's voice brought him back to consciousness, "If the phone lines are down may I use your cell phone? Mine was one of yesterday's casualties. I dropped it as I crossed this appalling bridge with the water roaring beneath me."

  "That must have been frightening. If it's the bridge I'm thinking of there's no railing on the bridge."

  "Yes, that's the one." Aurora shuddered at the memory. "I crawled across it on my hands and knees, trying to hold on to my phone and the flashlight while pushing my cases ahead of me. When something large hit the bridge’s center support, I almost fell over the side. Unfortunately, I dropped my phone as I tried to retain my balance."

  Will lifted the receiver of the wall phone nearby and held i
t to his ear. Shaking his head, he returned the receiver to its cradle. "We also need to alert the sheriff that you left the car in case someone sees it and starts a search for you. I talked with my family in Lubbock last night, so apparently it's only the local rural phone lines that are out." Will wanted something to think and talk about to take his mind off Aurora's appearance and her scanty costume.

  Aurora sighed heavily. "I suppose my little car is ruined, isn't it?"

  Will offered sympathy. "I'm afraid it'll be a total loss, but that's just a guess. By now, it's probably mired in several feet of sandy mud. With any luck it beached somewhere before it reached the Brazos River." A frown furrowed his brow. "I hope you have full insurance coverage."

  "Yes, but I guess it'll take several days to straighten out the paperwork and get my car replaced." Aurora became pensive as she organized the reporting process in her mind.

  He grimaced. "I hate to be the bearer of more bad tidings after the day you had yesterday. It could only take a few days, but if we can't locate the car to substantiate the claim or produce the car for salvage, it could take as long as a month."

  Her eyes widened as she registered the impact of his statement. "A month? Oh, no! Hmm, well, I suppose I could find a temporary job nearby," she said as if to herself.

  She caught Will's surprised expression and explained, "I've been traveling for four months now. When I want to stay for more than a couple of days in an area, I get a job through a temporary agency or a newspaper ad. Then I can enjoy sightseeing without depleting my funds. Of course, it's easier to find that sort of temporary work in a more urban setting."

  She paused, then resolutely squared her shoulders. "If I'm going to be in this area as long as a month while waiting for my insurance company to replace my car, I might as well get a temporary job."

  Will tried to imagine her as teacher, or maybe a nurse. "What sort of work do you do?"

  "Well, my degrees are in marketing, but I've been an accountant, a secretary or receptionist several times, a file clerk, a substitute teacher, and even stuffed envelopes. The longest I worked since I left home was four weeks for an accounting firm in Dallas--income tax time, you know."

  Will shook his head, "I guess I don't understand. If you're working, you wouldn't be sightseeing. Why not just stay a shorter time in a city and spend it sightseeing all day?"

  Aurora pushed a strand of hair from her face, "I know it doesn't make sense to anyone but me. I have a timetable worked out that allows me to travel until the end of summer. Sometimes I extend my stay in an area to see if that's a place I'd want to live and what sort of job opportunities there might be in the field of marketing."

  Aurora's playful smile sent Will's raging hormones into orbit as she continued, "After all, I might not like living in Durango, so I need a back-up location."

  Incredulous, the words slipped out before he realized it. "What on earth could your boyfriend have been thinking to go along with this kind of scheme--letting you wander all over the country alone?" He leaned with his elbows resting on the bar and shook his head slowly.

  She peered down at her hands to hide the pain that question revived, then with a toss of her head she faced Will, "Well, right now he's busy getting married to my cousin, so he didn't seem to mind in the least the last time I saw him. That was just before Christmas."

  A surprised expression appeared on her face. "Oh, wow. I haven't spoken of Russell to anyone in four months. I must say I didn't intend to mention that part of my life ever again."

  Will grabbed her plate and stacked it on top of his before he worked his way to the kitchen sink by edging along the kitchen counter. "Your confidence is safe with me. I'm not likely to tell anyone."

  Muttering his thoughts aloud but under his breath, Will said, "What kind of jerk is this guy? He must be deaf, dumb, and blind, as well as just plain stupid."

  Following him with her eyes, Aurora couldn't understand the mumbling. Her eyes inventoried the things spread out across the kitchen table. "Do you remember seeing any aspirin in all this stuff?"

  "No, but there's a bottle on the bedside table from last night. Nick said you should spend the day in bed, Aurora, to give your body time to recover from the traumas of last night. That must have been quite a whack on the head you got from the tree. If you'll get back in bed after you take the aspirin, you'll find the phone on the table near my side of the bed."

  Aurora flushed slightly at his phrasing. My side of the bed. It sounded as if they always shared a bed. She found it a pleasant thought, and the flush deepened. Remember your resolve, girl, she thought as she watched Will leaning against the kitchen counter. She had to admit he really made her pulse race when he was near.

  It's only that he's been kind, she thought. She mustn't let her imagination get carried away. Anyway, the last thing she needed was to complicate her life with a romance. She had learned her lessons about men the hard way. Aloud, she said, "I suppose we're trapped in here by the water?”

  He added detergent to the water gathering in the sink and dumped dishes into the water. "'Fraid so. According to the radio, we had over ten inches of rain last night and will probably get more today. It's a record amount of rain in that time span, or so the announcer said. Can't remember the water being this high before, so I guess he's right about this storm setting a record."

  "I can definitely believe that. I started searching for a big ark." When he turned to wipe down the counter and range top, Aurora saw his solemn face. "Oh, Will, I'm sorry. Here I've been worried about my car and a few clothes and things. I guess you must be frantic about your stock."

  "Yes, and this cast doesn't help me get around to see about them." He admitted his concern, but how could he explain the frustration of being trapped by his cast? "My foreman Bob Hankins has already been by here this morning. Bob, his son Greg, and Raul Chapa are out on horseback now searching the place over as much as they can with the water this high."

  She sensed his frustration as she watched his routine motions, feeling she watched a caged lion. "How long will we be cut off by the flood?"

  "Unless we get another downpour, the roads will probably be open late today--tomorrow for sure." His attention turned back to his guest as he let the soapsuds go down the drain and turned his back on the draining dishes. "I'll check with the sheriff when I call him about your car. In the meantime, you need to be resting. Want another ice pack?"

  The pounding in her head increased in intensity. "No, but you're right about the bed. I really do need to lie down now,"

  As she slid off the bar stool, the pull of the vinyl cover of the stool against her bare skin once again reminded her that she wore only Will's pajama top. Where had her good sense gone? She behaved totally unlike herself. It must be the concussion.

  She walked over to the table and closed her briefcase. Carrying the briefcase, she walked as sedately as possible back to the bedroom and crawled into bed. After covering her legs she sank back onto the pillows with a sigh of relief. For a few minutes she lay quietly to ease the pounding in her head, then reluctantly sat back up in the bed to use the phone.

  Her parents were just as upset as she had feared they would be, even though she glossed over the loss of her car, omitted most of her injuries, and carefully avoided any mention of the encounter with the two would-be abductors. Her father insisted on speaking with Will and apparently asked Will a lot of questions. She wished she could have heard the questions, especially when Will winked at her and laughed and then turned away to give several of the answers to her father.

  Her indignation rose. The nerve of Will, trying to prevent her from overhearing his conversation with her own father! By the time Will returned the receiver to her, however, her father seemed greatly reassured.

  Will sat on the side of the bed beside her while he spoke on the phone, and he remained there after he returned the phone to her. Again she reassured her parents that she was all right and did not need either of them or her brothers to come to her assistance.<
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  When her mom asked for Will’s description, Aurora sighed, knowing her mom was ready to pick out wedding invitations the minute Aurora mentioned a man. “He’s short, fat, and ugly as sin. Think Quasimodo.”

  Will grimaced grotesquely and pretended to be a hunchback and she had to turn away to keep from laughing.

  Her mom wasn’t buying Aurora’s description. “Okay, he’s six three or four, has gray eyes and sandy brown hair...Yeah, a real hunk...About thirty to thirty-five.” Will held up three fingers, so she added, “He says he’s thirty-three. Okay? Is the Inquisition over?” She assured her mom she would continue on her trip toward Colorado after remaining in the area only long enough to settle her insurance claim. When she disconnected the call, she gazed up to find Will giving her an assessing gaze.

  "What?" she asked testily as she held out her hand palm up in a questioning gesture. Pissed at being excluded earlier, she’d like to know what her father had said that Will found so humorous.

  "You weren't exactly honest with your parents, Aurora."

  Sparks shot from emerald eyes. "I was so...Oh...You mean lies by omission?" Aurora crossed her arms. "They're somewhat overprotective. Even though the woman in Durango who's selling her gift store is a friend of mother's, they wanted me to stay in the Texas coast area."

  She paused, heaved a great sigh, and continued, "Since the break off of my engagement last December, they think I must be having some sort of nervous breakdown to have quit a great job and put everything on hold while I tour the countryside." Her chin rose defensively again. "It would be counterproductive to give them too many details and have them worry even more when there's nothing to be gained by it."

  He gently pushed a strand of errant hair from her face. "And are you?"

  She ran her hands over her hair, anchoring each side behind an ear. "What? Oh, you mean am I having a nervous breakdown? No, quite the opposite." Normally a very private person, she realized with some surprise how much she wanted this man to understand, even though no one else seemed to.