Vicky gasped and jumped back from his touch, a look of fear on her face. At the sudden movement, the button fell on the ground and rolled away.
Phil paused. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I just wanted to grab that button before it fell off your blouse.”
Vicky looked down at the button and felt incredibly stupid. She reached down with trembling fingers and put the button in her purse. Jesus, girl. Come on, now. He’s not going to hurt you. She glanced at Phil. His face was very still and his dark green eyes looked at her steadily. He was standing with his arms to the side, loosely dangling. He didn’t move any closer.
“No,” she said flustered. “I know you didn’t mean to startle me. I just – I wasn’t expecting for you to –”
“You’re quite right,” Phil said in a gentle voice. “I shouldn’t go around touching ladies I don’t know. I apologize.”
Despite herself, Vicky smiled. He smiled back.
She heard a sound behind her and she turned to see another man approaching. A bit taller than Phil, but just as wide through the shoulders and chest, he had dark hair that fell over his forehead. He smiled at her too, and she responded.
“Afternoon, ma’am,” he said. “I’m Jake.”
“Hello. I’m Vicky.”
Jake handed the wrench to Phil. “You need a hand?”
“Nope, I got it. Thanks, man.” He walked around to the front of the car and disappeared under the hood.
Jake looked at Vicky again. Something about this woman reminded him of a skittish horse – she looked edgy and like she wanted to turn and bolt. His gray eyes took in the simple outfit and the cheap purse and shoes and something tugged at his heart. She reminded him of his own mother going for her first job interviews, way back after she left Jake’s father. His Mom had had the same look of determination and fear on her face, and it got more pronounced with every rejection. But she kept getting up in the morning and putting on her same good dress and cheap shoes, she kept going out the door to try again. This woman looked like she was buckling down for the long-haul too, like she knew she had no choice but to stick it out.
“You here for a job interview?” Jake asked.
Vicky fiddled with the fake gold clasp on her purse. “Yes. I finished a few minutes ago, but then my car wouldn’t start.”
“How’d it go, do you think?”
“Oh. I have no idea.” She lowered her eyes, but he saw the emotion flash through them.
She really, really wants this job. Needs this job?
Like Maria, Jake found himself warming to Vicky, rooting for her to get this job. He kept his voice low and gentle, trying not to spook her.
“So, if you do get it, would you want to move in to the main building?”
Vicky looked up at him, saw the kindness in his eyes. “Yes. That’s – that’s one of the reasons I applied in the first place, you see.” She swallowed hard. “The option to live on-site… to have my accommodation taken care of.”
“You’d want to live where you work?” Phil’s head popped up behind the hood. “You wouldn’t want to live away? You sure you’d want to be surrounded by these people all the time? They are a handful, some of ‘em.” He winked.
“I guess you don’t live here?” she asked him, a slight teasing note in her voice.
“Nope. I have a place just outside Clarity. But Jake lives here.”
She turned her attention back to him. “You do? How do you find it?”
“Great.” He pointed down the hill. “You see that cabin just behind the stables there? That’s my place.”
Vicky looked at it, feeling envy rise in her chest. It was small, to be sure, but it had big windows and a chimney. “You have a fireplace?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Jake smiled. “It’s cozy and warm and just fine for me.”
“You’re lucky. I imagine the view you wake up to is something else, huh?”
“Oh, yes. No bad views from any window around these parts.”
Vicky nodded and felt the want creep up in her chest again. Oh, please, oh, please. Let me get this job.
She looked around Open Skies Ranch, taking it all in. If this was the last time she was here, if she didn’t get the job, she wanted something beautiful to carry in her memory for when times got hard. Well, harder than they already were.
She looked up at the mountains, admiring their ruggedness and bright patches of wild flowers, and then down the hill to the sweeping green and gold prairies and peacefully grazing horses. Suddenly, something caught her eye. “Umm. I think that woman is trying to get your attention.”
Both men shifted their eyes from her wistful face down to the stables. A woman in jeans and a black sweater and flowing silver hair was waving at them.
“Oh, yeah,” Jake said. “That’s Mattie. I guess the kids will be here soon.”
“Kids?” Vicky asked.
“Yeah. We work with a local community center for troubled kids. They come here and tend to the horses, do some riding. It teaches them discipline and they pick up some hard skills with the horses. Plus they relax and have some fun, you know. Today Julie’s planned a campfire for them, for after the riding. She’s got sausages and marshmallows and potatoes to cook over the fire. It should be fun.”
God, Sonia would love to be here for this. If I get this job, maybe she can ride a horse and go to a campfire, for the first time. She’d be safe here.
Aloud, Vicky said, “It sounds wonderful.”
“It is. So, I best get back down there, get everything ready.” Jake slowly extended his work-roughened hand to Vicky, careful not to make any sudden movements. “It was very nice to meet you, Vicky. I really hope that we’ll see you again. Soon.”
She took his hand and smiled at him, and it was a real smile: open and warm and natural. Her tired, lined face looked so beautiful all of a sudden, and Jake saw how she must have looked before whatever trouble she had now had entered her life.
“Thank you, Jake. I hope so, too.”
He strolled down the hill, his shoulders massive in his jean jacket, his body strong and confident. She watched him go, admiring his easy grace.
“OK, Vicky,” Phil said. “You’re about ready, I think.” He stood up. “Can you try to start the car now?”
“Sure.” She slid in to the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition. The engine hummed to life, no problem at all. She climbed out again. “Oh, thank you. Thank you.”
He slammed the hood down. “You make sure to tell them about this at the rental place, you hear? They need to check the engine over before sending someone else out in this car. It could have broken down on some back road somewhere. We got plenty of those around here.”
“Yes. I will. Thank you.”
They stood, looking at each other. Now that her worry about the car had been relieved, Vicky realized for the first time that Phil was actually breathtakingly sexy. His body was muscular and huge, with real power in it. It was the kind of body that should frighten her, and when all that brute strength had belonged to someone else, it had scared her about to death. But in Phil’s case, that physical size and strength were balanced out with a kindness, a solidity. His face had signs of hard-living, she noticed: it was lined deeply, his green eyes had crinkles around them, he had shocks of gray in his brown hair. His body was one of a thirty-five year old, but really, he had to be at least forty-five.
She was gazing up at him, taking in his calm and quiet power, when a wave of heat washed through her stomach. It had been a long time since she had felt attraction to a man – years and years – and it caught her by surprise. She blinked and wondered what it would be like to be held tenderly by this man, to have those huge hands stroke her hair and pull her soft body against his hardness. She didn’t think it would frighten her.
From his side, Phil was taking Vicky in, wondering what had hap
pened to give her the look of a puppy that has been kicked far too many times. She had a toughness beneath that bewildered hurt, though, a spark of grit that he recognized. He was torn between wanting to keep his distance and get closer to her, as close as possible. His natural instinct was to protect people, and he felt strongly that Vicky was having a hard time of it right now. He’d just met her, but he’d still help her, if she asked.
Vicky looked away first, flustered. “OK. Well. I better get this car back. I need to return it by four o’clock.”
“Sure thing.” Phil forced the image from his mind of her smiling up at him from his bed, her eyes warm and lovely and sated. “So, you drive safe now. And maybe we’ll see you soon.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Vicky got in to the car and Phil closed the door for her. She rolled down the window a bit. “Thank you, Phil. It was nice to meet you.”
“You too, Vicky.”
She put the car in to gear and drove down the hill, away from him, away to whatever her life was.
Phil wondered if he’d ever see her again.
**
Julie smiled her thanks as Rob set a cup of green tea in front of her. After two hours of discussion, there were now two CV’s on the table: Vicky Thompson’s and Grant Riley’s.
“OK,” Rob said sitting down again. “It’s down to these two. What do you think?”
Julie looked at the CV’s again, thinking. “Well, it’s kind of weird. I mean, Grant is the much better candidate on paper, I know. Unlike the others, he has actual experience.”
Rob nodded. The other candidates were right out of college, and although they had glittering academic records and smart ideas and had talked about social media until they were blue in the face, they just hadn’t worked in the hospitality sector. Grant and Vicky had.
“Grant also has amazing contacts all around Colorado,” Julie continued. “He’s worked with some big companies in Denver and Colorado Springs, and I’m sure he’d bring us more corporate clients. So, that’s all a big plus for him.”
“But?”
Julie sighed. “But. Vicky really appeals to me.”
“Even though she’s been unemployed for six years and has no local contacts?”
“Yeah.”
“OK. How come?”
Julie took a sip of her tea and considered. “I’m not sure you’ll like my reasons.”
Rob grinned. If there was one thing he’d come to know about Julie Everett over the past year, it was that her instincts about people were rarely wrong. “I may, I may not. Hit me with it, boss.”
“OK.” Julie looked down at the CV. “She’s smart as hell, clearly, and Alina Katz couldn’t recommend her highly enough. That research she did shows me that she hasn’t lost her knack for the personal touch in business – and that’s what we need. Hotels and restaurants are about people and making them happy, in the end, and I think that Vicky gets that in a way that Grant doesn’t.”
“But those sound like very logical reasons – why’d you think that I wouldn’t like your reasons?
“Because those are not my real reasons for preferring Vicky.”
“OK.”
“The truth is that she’s almost forty, right? And she’s newly-divorced and looking to start her life all over again, on her terms this time. That takes a whole lot of guts and determination… and a bit of luck. I want to give her that luck.”
“I get that, Julie.”
“You do?”
He shrugged. “Sure. I mean, that was you a year ago, wasn’t it? Starting all over again at Open Skies. Leaving your whole life in New York behind and fighting like hell to build up a new one.”
“Yeah. It was. You think I’m making this too personal?”
“Well, if you are, so am I. You’re forgetting about Tammy.”
“Tammy?” Julie was puzzled. Her best friend had moved to Denver seven months earlier, and now worked as a freelance clothing designer in the city. She had spent almost two months at Open Skies after she had been attacked and badly beaten in New York. Tammy and Rob didn’t live together – yet – but they were together in every other sense of the word. They were happy and making it work, and Tammy just glowed with love every time Julie saw her.
“Yeah. Tammy. Open Skies gave her a second chance, right? It was a place for her to heal and recover and get strong and figure out what she really wanted. The whole reason she’s living in my sister’s rental apartment and designing clothing is because she came here, right? This place brought her new chances and opportunities.”
“And new people,” Julie teased him.
He blushed a bit. “Yeah.”
“Well, OK. That’s all true.”
“So, this place changed your life and it changed Tammy’s. I don’t know why, but I think Open Skies can do the same for Vicky Thompson – I think it can be her new beginning. I even really want it to be.” He thought for a second. “I don’t know, Julie. Something about Vicky just really – speaks to me. I feel like this woman needs a break, badly. She needs something to give her a bit of faith.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I agree with you, Julie. She’s my preferred candidate, too.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Rob pushed Grant’s CV to the side and tapped his index finger on Vicky’s. “Let’s give Ms. Thompson a break, a bit of faith, a new life. Here. With us.”
Chapter Two
Vicky hung up the phone on the table and sat rigid on the lumpy single bed for a full ten seconds, shaking and staring out the window at the motel parking lot.
Oh, my God. OH, MY GOD. I got the job!
She wasn’t sure yet if she wanted to laugh and dance, cry from relief, or run screaming from yet another new life situation; all she knew for sure was that she had to call her mother.
She reached in to her purse for the burner cell phone she had bought before fleeing to Colorado. It had only one number saved in its phone book, and she dialed it.
Her mother answered on the fourth ring. “Vicky?’
“Hi, Mom.”
“Are you OK?”
“Yeah, really OK. How about you and Sonia?”
“Good, good. We’re at the playground.”
“Which one?”
“The small one near Ben’s friend’s apartment building.”
“The private, gated one?”
“That’s right.”
Vicky relaxed. “So, good news, Mom. I got the job, at the hotel and ranch near the Rockies.”
Diana Morgan clutched the burner phone that Vicky had given her and sat down heavily on the nearest bench. She closed her eyes as the relief flooded through her. “Oh, Vicky. Thank God, darling.”
“I know, Mom.” Vicky felt the tears start even as she smiled. “It’s going to change everything for us. We can start to live normal lives again. Soon.”
Diana was silent, thinking about the past three months. It had been rough on her and Sonia, no doubt about that, but she knew that Vicky had really been through the wringer. She could hear the stress and worry and fear growing in her daughter’s voice every time they spoke.
Vicky had left almost every penny she had with Diana, and she had kept almost nothing for herself. This meant one hell of a long bus ride from Kansas to Colorado and horrible motels in dangerous areas and lots of skipped meals. She had travelled light – Vicky had run with literally the clothes on her back and one small suitcase – but she had made sure that Diana and Sonia had everything they might need.
Thank God for Ben: he had offered without one second of hesitation to take in Diana and Sonia, to hide them and keep them safe. That meant that they didn’t have to pay for hotels, but Diana had insisted on contributing for food. She had been militant about keeping the costs down, and God knows she and Sonia entertained themselves for free at playground
s and open-air fountains and public parks… but still. The money was disappearing rapidly. Sonia was growing like a weed, shooting up like only a six-year-old can, and Diana had had to buy some second-hand clothes for school, along with coloring books and pencil crayons and gym shoes. And of course, her birthday had been last month and Diana had baked a cake and bought her a puzzle. Nothing extravagant, but it was all money.
The truth was that after three months of living like this, the miniscule amount of cash that Vicky had managed to hide from Carl and had left with Diana was almost gone. Diana had said nothing to her daughter: she knew that if she was struggling financially and becoming increasingly dependent on Ben, then Vicky must be suffering horribly. More than once, she had laid awake at night in Ben’s guest bedroom and wondered how Vicky was making ends meet. Vicky had sold her engagement and wedding rings and given Diana the money, so she didn’t even have those items to pawn anymore.
There was light at the end of the long, dark tunnel now, though, a spark on the distant horizon. This job could really change things for all of them. Maybe in a few months, Sonia could move to Colorado to be with her Mom, and Diana could go back to Topeka and find a new place to rent – assuming that Carl wouldn’t come after her when she did so. That was still a big question mark.
She shuddered. Good Lord, if he ever knew the part I played in taking Sonia away from him…
Forcing her mind away from her son-in-law, she focused on Vicky’s good news. “So, when do you start, darling?”
“On Monday morning.”
“So soon?”
“Yeah. I’ll move to the ranch on Saturday, and have one day to settle.” She sighed, happy. “It’s such a nice place, Mom. Beautiful and remote and quiet.”
“And the people?”
“So damn young.”
Diana laughed. “Yeah? No old ‘uns around, like you and me?”
“Well, a couple.” Vicky thought of Phil and Mattie. “But most of them are depressingly young, including the owner.”
“Julie, right?”
Open Eyes (Open Skies) Page 2
