Looking around the table, she wondered which seat Adam took when he ate here. She also wondered if Adam and Vida were a couple. Why the thought even entered her head surprised her. What did she care where Adam sat or if he was the new man in Vida’s life? She dug into her food with zest. The airplane food in first class was a step above that in coach, but as her brother Brad who worked in a hospital said about hospital food, it was still airline food, processed and squared into unnatural shapes. Vida’s meal was fresh off the hoof.
“Do you miss the life?” Rosa asked.
“Modeling?” Vida’s eyebrows went up and she waved a dismissing hand. “Not a single day.” After a moment Vida relented and said, “I do miss some parts of it, my friends, the new clothes, but dieting, never being able to indulge in a good meal, always being on display at any event, that I don’t miss at all. I’m too busy with school and my new business.”
“How’s that going?”
“I love it. I’m designing the kind of clothes I like and putting in all the ideas we used to complain about.”
They laughed. Rosa could tell Vida loved what she was doing. Her face lit up when she said it and she went on to talk with enthusiasm about her classes and the designs.
“And you know it was Adam who got me interested in designing.”
“Adam?” A small current went down Rosa from her throat to her belly.
“When he first came back here he spent some time at the local university. I think he taught a journalism seminar. One night we were out and talk got around to what to do with our lives from this point on and Adam suggested I try something that I liked and would love doing. I was going to go into psychology, but after one class I knew it wasn’t for me. When I stepped into the design room, it was like coming home. In a few years, I hope to have my own label.”
“What does Adam do now other than care for his father?”
Her frown opened a question, but Rosa didn’t know what it was. Obviously Vida and Adam had a bond, but Rosa was unsure if it was friendship or something more. “Bailey isn’t doing too well.”
“Bailey?”
“Adam’s dad. He used to run the ranch, but Adam’s taken that over. Bailey still rides his horses, though.”
“Is that what it is? A horse ranch?”
Vida shook her head as she put a forkful of eggs into her mouth. “It was a horse ranch, but most of them have been sold. They have a few horses for riding. It’s no longer a working ranch. And that doesn’t make Adam or his father the best of companions.”
Rosa seized the word companion. Vida had mentioned Adam before, when they were on the road and sharing living space, but it was because he was an up-and-coming newsman, not to mention eye candy, and Rosa hadn’t got the impression that they were lovers. She was getting it now. “Do you and Adam have a…a…” She trailed off. “A special relationship?”
Vida laughed. “You could say that. But if you mean are we lovers? The answer is no. And we never have been. Adam is a special friend. I could always count on him. I feel about Adam the way you feel about your brothers.” She paused. “I thought about having Mike pick you up from the airport,” Vida continued hesitantly. She’d just started dating Mike.
“And you decided not to. Why?”
Vida shrugged. “It’s the kind of request you make to a boyfriend. I don’t want him to know I feel that way about him.”
“Then it’s serious?”
“Only on my side. Not totally sure of Mike yet, but he’s coming along.” Vida’s expression was bright, almost glowing. She was in love, Rosa thought as she bent her head and drank from her coffee cup.
She thought about Adam and Vida’s comment that they were very good friends, not lovers. Rosa couldn’t believe she actually felt relief at hearing that. She didn’t like Adam. Even though she’d forgiven him for his rudeness earlier, he wasn’t her type. She did like the rugged-ranch-cowboy look, but she also went for polish and class. Adam Osborne had it. He could turn a head. That was a contributing reason why the TV station had put him on the screen more times than not. He had an honest quality about him, but he was straightforward and concerned in his presentations. And in Rosa’s case, rude.
Glasses clinked and the splatter of sporadic laughter cut through the general noise of the party. Rosa smiled and mingled, making associations to remember the names of everyone Vida had introduced her to. This was a technique she’d learned during that long-ago Italian summer when she’d fallen into modeling. At least this time she could do it in English.
Sipping her ice water, she saw Liam Wilkerson across the room. He wore a belt with a huge silver buckle sporting the letter L, an indication that he hadn’t won it in rodeo competition. As Liam was an unusual name, she had no difficulty remembering it, or the fact that he towered over everyone else in the room. He was as tall as he was wide, with a booming laugh. He also told her he was a Realtor and handed her a card.
Loretta Stanton was of model height, at least six feet tall before slipping her shoes, or rather her boots, on. She wore white, custom-designed boots that skirted up her thighs, where they almost met the hem of her short dress. Just shy of an inch of skin was visible unless she made the mistake of bending over, which for the last half hour she’d never done. Trying not to think of her as “long legs, short skirt,” Rosa associated her last name, Stanton, with “stands tall” and her first name with “nothing low.”
Rosa was used to meeting people. It wasn’t long before she’d shaken hands, kissed, hugged, nodded to, smiled at, or bobbed her head toward everyone in the room. That is, everyone except Adam Osborne and the man with him who’d come through the door ten minutes ago to much fanfare. Adam was obviously the favored son of Waymon Valley. And he was lapping it up like a cat with a fresh bowl of milk. The smile he apparently reserved for friends, of which she was not, split his face to show his even white teeth. His brown eyes crinkled at the edges and women flocked to him as if he were a money tree. Wearing a soft brown sweater and Dockers, he moved with ease through a crowd as familiar as family.
A man walked toward her. He was huge, bald, with arms the size of small trees—a mountain of a man was the only phrase Rosa could think of to describe him. Everything about him looked tough and solid except his smile, which showed gleaming white teeth, and his eyes, which crinkled into his temples.
“Hello,” he said. “Name’s Mike Holmes and I’d told Vida I could pick you up from the airport. Sorry I didn’t.”
So this was Mike Holmes. Rosa would never have put him and Vida together as a couple. But as his big hand enveloped hers, she could feel that his size and strength were controlled.
“Rosa Clayton,” she said, sure he already knew her name. “Adam Osborne took your place.”
Both of them glanced in Adam’s direction. He was talking to at least three women.
“My loss,” Mike said.
Vida joined them. Her arm went around Mike’s waist and she planted a kiss on his mouth. “I see you two have met,” she said, turning back to Rosa, but continuing to hold on to Mike.
“I’m the county engineer for the Valley,” he said. “We had a bridge collapse the day you arrived. I had my hands full.”
“I hope no one was hurt.”
Mike shook his head. “There was no one on it at the time. I got the call when Joy Stapleton-Jones—she’s the librarian—couldn’t get to work that morning.”
“And if you know Joy,” Vida said, rolling her eyes to the ceiling, “not opening the library is tantamount to the earth stopping its rotation.”
“I’m going to get a drink,” Mike said. “Can I get you two something?”
“Not for me,” Vida said. Rosa raised the glass in her hand, showing she had a nearly full glass.
“You should stay off that leg,” he told Vida.
She nodded.
“So, that’s Mike?” Rosa said as they watched him walk away.
“Yep,” Vida said proudly. “That’s Mike. He’s a big man, but he’s a teddy
bear.”
Vida had told her about Mike, and that the two of them had renewed the friendship they’d had before she became a model. Rosa envied her friend. She looked happy. And while Rosa wasn’t unhappy, there was no one in her life like Mike.
“Excuse me a moment,” Vida said. “More guests are arriving.”
Rosa sipped her drink and walked toward a window. The room was full of people. They hailed each other, hugged and kissed as if they hadn’t seen each other in years.
Her eyes went to Adam Osborne. He was clearly the best-looking man in the room. She felt drawn to him, felt a tingle inside her that was unfamiliar and scary at the same time. She refused to analyze it, even give it a name. He had a harem already. He didn’t need her to join it and he’d made that clear.
“A rose for Rosa.”
Rosa shifted her gaze to the man who now stood in front of her. She’d been concentrating so hard on Adam, she hadn’t seen him approach. He’d come in with Adam, and Rosa was in no doubt that this man was Adam’s father. Adam wasn’t a replica of the older man, but there was enough of a resemblance to defy objection.
“Thank you.” She accepted the bud vase, its sole content a single-stem rose surrounded by baby’s breath and tied with a long red ribbon. Raising the flower to her nose, she breathed in the fragrance. Rosa had received flowers before. She’d accepted them from many men, but none more elegant, none more sincerely given than that from the silver-haired man standing in front of her.
“Bailey Osborne,” he introduced himself.
“Rosa Clayton,” she said.
“You need no introduction. I think everyone in the Valley knows who you are.”
Bailey was the same height as his son. He stood tall, with a rugged face that spoke of years of experience, his eyes as brown and intelligent. Rosa felt as if he were looking into her mind. She would have said he was the picture of health, but both Adam and Vida mentioned he needed care.
“My son said you looked like your photos, but he withheld the full and complete truth.”
Rosa held her smile but was unsure of his meaning and distrusting of his son’s assessment of her.
“No way does a picture tell the whole story,” he continued.
Rosa blushed, something she couldn’t remember doing in a long time. Bailey Osborne was a character. Rosa liked him immediately. Despite his words, she understood that when he looked at her, he saw more than the runway model.
“How do you like our Valley?”
“I haven’t seen much of it. But I’ll be here for the summer and I’ll let you know. So far, it’s beautiful. I love the openness, the green grass, and those stunning mountains in the distance.”
“Vida could use someone around until she’s fully back on her feet.”
“Vida is extremely self-sufficient.” Rosa had learned that the first day she arrived when she saw Vida’s foot in a cast and the breakfast table covered with food. She didn’t mention that the house was also immaculate. In the three days since, she’d witnessed Vida doing what was needed. The only thing she didn’t do was drive. Rosa had been her chauffeur to the doctor’s office yesterday, where the air cast had been removed and instructions given for her to take it easy.
Easy didn’t seem to be in her vocabulary, since this party was planned for just twenty-four hours after removal of the leg brace. Rosa helped as much as she could and Vida had hired a caterer to prepare the food.
“I’m not planning to stay the entire summer with Vida. I’m taking a house,” she told Bailey.
“Oh,” he said, clearly surprised at this revelation. “Where?”
“I don’t know yet. Liam tells me there are several properties in the area I can rent for a few months.”
Bailey glanced over his shoulder at Liam. He was talking to Wes Gilchrist, the owner of a local dry cleaning business, whose image Liam nearly obliterated. He nodded as if thinking of something, but decided not to say it.
“Bailey,” someone called. “Good to see you.”
A man no taller than Rosa approached them. He had gleaming white teeth, and was near to Bailey’s age. His hair was equal parts black and white.
“Well, Sam, when did you get back?” Bailey smiled and the two men pumped each other’s hand. Rosa didn’t know how long their separation had been.
“Moments ago,” he said. “Came straight here.”
“Sam Stone, meet Rosa Clayton, our guest of honor. Sam consults for a company in Seattle and spends a lot of time in airplanes.”
Sam looked at her, his smile as big as the sky. Saying hello, he shook her hand as if she were a one-arm bandit.
“Vida’s done nothing but talk about your visit for a month,” he said. “Glad you made it.”
“Thank you.” She looked from one man to the other knowing they wanted to reacquaint themselves. “Excuse me, I’ll put this away.” She indicated the bud vase she was still holding.
With a nod she left them, going to the kitchen and placing the flower on top of the refrigerator. She took a moment to breathe. The kitchen was momentarily empty. The caterers were seeing to the tables of food in the other room.
Rosa raised her arms above her head and stretched. The kinks in her back and neck eased. The kitchen door swung inward and she turned. Adam Osborne faced her. His presence surprised her as did the current of electricity that bolted through her when she saw him. Rosa wanted to say something, but could think of nothing. Falling back on her manners, she asked, “Can I get you something?”
She regretted the words the moment she saw his eyes sweep her form from tip to toe.
“Water, juice,” she offered, her tone letting him know she was not part of the available menu.
“Water will do,” he said.
Turning to the refrigerator, she pulled the door open and took out two bottles of water. Her throat suddenly felt parched and dry. Handing him one bottle, she twisted the top from the other and drank thirstily. Adam held his, but didn’t drink.
“Feeling a little overwhelmed?” he asked.
She shook her head, but she was lying and she knew he could tell.
“You know it’s strange to think that someone so used to being stared at and admired could have crowd phobia.”
“I’m not afraid of the crowd.”
“What is it, then?”
Rosa wasn’t sure she wanted to tell her secret to this man. Yet she heard her own voice saying it. “I’m tired of being stared at only because of what I look like.”
“You think that’s how they view you?” He took a step toward her. Rosa held her ground.
She nodded. “How do you think they view you? Your legion of fans? Do you think they look past your face and into an intelligent mind?” She doubted it. The man had a raw sexuality that radiated from him. Any woman in his realm couldn’t resist it, except her. She’d seen this kind of man before. She had brothers with the same attributes, an aura that drew women. And Rosa wasn’t about to let the superficial outer layer of a man sway her. Yet she admitted to herself that her blood pressure had gone up a notch or two when she saw him standing in the doorway.
“I can’t control what people think.”
In lieu of speaking, she nodded. It was a good answer. One she’d adopted herself. It didn’t mean she didn’t want to show off her brain, but her face and body preceded her and men mostly didn’t listen when what they were seeing took precedence. Vida told her she’d constructed an invisible wall around her feelings and she wouldn’t let anyone get close to her. Rosa pushed the notion aside. She moved around too often to commit to a relationship. Of course, she had friends all over the world, but no one special.
“I’d better get back.” Rosa took a step toward the door. Adam moved in front of her, blocking her way. Without thinking, she instinctively moved back. She hated herself for doing it, but somehow she didn’t want him to touch her.
“I’m sure you’re missed out there,” he said. “But I have a question for you.”
“What is it?” He
r throat was dry and she opened the bottle of water again and took a drink. Although it was wet, it didn’t seem to satisfy her thirst.
“Why are you here?”
“Here?” Her heart beat faster. She didn’t know what he meant. From what she’d heard from the people in the other room, everyone had known for months she was coming. “I came for the waters. I hear they have healing powers.”
Adam didn’t take to the joke. His face went dark. She could see the blood paint a dark undertone below his brown skin.
“You don’t look broken to me,” he said.
“Looks can be deceiving. And I know the proper use of light and makeup.”
“You can stop being sarcastic,” he said. “It doesn’t suit you.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Vida doesn’t need someone she’s going to have to wait on. She had a bad fall and she needs to heal.”
“Vida’s not an invalid. And you don’t need to worry about her waiting on me.”
“And why is that?”
“I’m taking a rental. Liam says I might find a house.”
“What? When? Where?” Vida stood in the doorway. She hobbled inside, letting the door swing closed. “I thought you were going to spend the summer with me. When did you decide this?”
“Staying with you would be fine for a weekend, even a week, but I’m here for the summer.”
“So? We were roommates on the road. What’s the difference?”
Rosa smiled and looked at her friend. “We’re not on the road, Vida. On the road we were working ninety hours a day. We hardly did anything in those rooms but fall into a tired sleep and shower. At our age being roommates is like having dead fish in your kitchen.” Rosa spread her hands to encompass the room. “After three days they smell.” She smiled. “And we’d probably be ready to kill each other long before that.”
“But where will you live?”
“I don’t know yet. Liam is showing me some places tomorrow afternoon.”
Last Night's Kiss Page 2
