Escapade

“Both Lawsons are,” he mused. “The families go way back.”

He sat up. “Well, I need to get back in there and finish making up the paper. I’ll have to do a lot of this paperwork tonight. Would your family mind sacrificing you for an hour or two a couple of nights a week until I can catch up?”

“I’m sure they won’t,” she replied with a faintly nervous smile. “Edgar is taking a college course on his lunch hour this semester. He’ll be home with the boys at night, grading papers or talking to students or tutoring,” she said with more bitterness than she realized. “And all my boys do is play sports and talk about them. As long as everyone is fed and the house is clean, my time is pretty much my own,” she added miserably.

Ward couldn’t bear the thought of anyone as sweet and loving as Dora being taken for granted. “I’m sorry,” he said gently. “I can’t imagine any man grading papers when you’re in the same room. If you don’t mind my saying so,” he added, careful not to offend her.

But she brightened and flushed a little. “No, of course not!”

He smiled. He grinned. She made him feel like a man again. “Okay, then,” he said. “I’ll see you later.”

“Fine.” She nodded. She started to speak, hesitated, and then plowed ahead. “How...how about your family?” she asked. “Don’t they mind you working such late hours?”

He sighed wearily. “Gladys is...well, I’m sure you’ve heard about her drinking. Everyone else here has. Half the time I don’t think she knows if I’m there or not,” he said. “And my son...” He let out a long breath. “He blames me for his mother’s drinking. They’ll both tell you I’m a total failure.”

“That isn’t the Ward Johnson I remember,” she said gently. She smiled. “You could never be a failure.”

He stared at her. “You really think so?”

She nodded. “I really think so. I’m sorry things are so bad for you.”

The compassion in her blue eyes made him hungry and vulnerable. He wanted that caring for himself. He wanted someone to give a damn that his life was an unbearable mess. Dora appealed to everything masculine in him, and his body reacted suddenly, sharply, to her nearness.

“Can you come back about seven?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yes. Of course. I’ll just paste up the rest of the personals.” She went out quietly.

In the waiting room she hesitated, gnawing her full lower lip. She was going to get in over her head if she wasn’t careful. She was a married woman with young sons, and Ward was a drowning man looking for someone to jump in and save him. The problem with trying to save drowning people was that if you weren’t careful, they’d pull you down with them.

She couldn’t possibly risk getting mixed up romantically with her boss. San Rio was a small community, despite being a cosmopolitan suburb of sprawling San Antonio. She and her husband went to the local Baptist church. He taught Sunday school. Her boys were involved in every sports activity they could find, which meant the family was very well known locally. She was a pillar of the community, as an educator’s wife had to be, even in these permissive times. She couldn’t afford any hint of scandal.

But she’d known Ward forever. He was a part of her happier, carefree past, and she cared about him. She felt sorry for him. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to work late with him. She could listen to his problems and help him get home to his family quicker.

She passed by Lisa Marlowe, who was busily setting type on the computer, and spared the girl a faintly envious glance. Lisa was just eighteen. She had her whole life ahead of her. Right now all she talked about was boys and getting married. Dora wanted to catch her by the arms and warn her that there was no such thing as happily ever after, that romance was the stuff of novels. Be careful, she wanted to say. There are no happy endings. If you choose the wrong man and you’re too weak to break the chains of your relationship, you’ll live to regret it.

But even if she said it, Lisa wouldn’t believe her; she was too full of youthful optimism. With a sad little laugh she went back into the composing room to finish her work.

* * *

AMANDA HAD TAKEN a cup of coffee with her down to the beach while Josh was making telephone calls. Harriet pointed him toward the direction she’d taken. He grinned at the jovial black woman and took his own cup of coffee along with him as he went in search of Amanda.

He found her perched on a sand dune, clad in jeans and a silky top in peacock blue, her long hair blowing around her in the wind.

“Avoiding me?” he asked pleasantly. He sat down beside her, stretching lazily. He was wearing tan slacks with a beige silk shirt, but he didn’t mind the sand.

She had been trying to, yes. She’d hoped against hope the night before that he might kiss her, hold her, tell her that he couldn’t live without her. But she was living on daydreams. The reality was that if Terri couldn’t get a wedding band on his finger, she never would. She loved him, wanted him, would have been happy to live with him any way he liked. But he wouldn’t let her close enough. He’d told her that without saying a single word.

“I just wanted to watch the surf for a while,” she said at last. She stared into her coffee cup. “Can you have the jet fly me back to San Antonio in the morning?”

He drew up his legs and rested his hands, with his own coffee cup, between his knees. “Certainly. Are you sure you’re ready to go?”

“Work will be good for me,” she replied. “It will help keep my mind busy. Too much free time can be uncomfortable.”

He knew why. But he didn’t say so.

She didn’t look at him. Her coffee had gone cold. She let it trickle out onto the sand. “I’ve enjoyed being here,” she said. She felt him beside her. Every cell in her body reacted to him. Her heartbeat was already faster than normal just from the sound of his deep voice, from his company. She loved him, an unrequited love that was only going to hurt her more every time she looked at him. He probably was trying to be kind, but she wanted him so!

His broad shoulders moved as he settled lazily on his side in the soft, warm sand. He sipped coffee. “I just spoke to Ward Johnson.”

“Can you repeat anything he said about me?” she asked with a knowing smile.

“He thinks you’re bright,” he replied. He smiled back. “And ‘inquisitive.’”