Free Bea by Peggy Webb Page B

going to leave her as soon as they got to Memphis. It would be better all the way around if he remembered that. No use getting sentimental over one night.
    “Listen,” he said. “Do you have anything in that suitcase besides skirts and high-heeled boots?”
    “A pair of slacks and some tennis shoes.”
    “Wear them. I’ll get out of here and let you get dressed.”
    “Where will you go?”
    “I’ll scout around, see what this place looks like, gather some firewood so we can have hot coffee…”
    His voice trailed off. She looked so good in the morning, so fresh, her black eyes shining the way eyes on a woman ought to shine.
    He left the tent quickly, but when he got outside he wished he’d stayed just a minute longer. Just long enough to reach out and touch her.
    Turning his back, he stomped off. There was too much temptation inside that tent.
    o0o
    They spent all day trying to clear the rocks off the mountain road. Before they got started, they discussed going back down the mountain to a dirt side road Russ had spotted about a mile back, but they decided the rains would have made it impassable, and anyhow, they had no idea where it led. It would be best all around to press forward.
    After that, neither of them talked much. For one thing, they were too busy working. For another, neither of them wanted the other to get the wrong idea. But they frequently sneaked glances when one of them thought the other wasn’t looking.
    Under the guise of wiping sweat off her face, Bea glanced at Russ from behind her hand. The day had turned hot, and he had taken off his T-shirt. The sun was slicking his skin and shining down on his blond hair, giving him a sort of halo.
    Come to think of it, a halo wasn’t such an inappropriate headpiece for him. After all, he’d rescued her more than once.
    She tried not to need guardian angels. If she could just get to her email, Janet would remind her in no uncertain terms that all the Dixie Virgins were independent women. Bea supposed once in her life she could be scared and pitiful and dependent. Besides, she didn’t have to tell the Dixie Virgins everything. Janet and Belinda and Molly certainly weren’t doing any tell-alls now that they’d landed Mr. Right.
    If Bea could just get through two more days with Russ, she’d be in Alabama and everything would fall right back into place. Then she’d be strong and independent and so bossy even her mother would call her down.
    Smiling as she thought about seeing Glory Ethel, again, she turned back to clearing the road.
    o0o
    By the time nightfall came, they were both too tired to do much more than eat some of his canned rations and flop into the canvas chairs.
    After supper Russ lifted his face toward the evening sky.
    “It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful night,” he said. “Warm, balmy. Even for the mountains.”
    “I don’t know. I think the mountains are capricious.”
    “Like a woman.”
    “Women are not capricious.”
    “The ones I know are.”
    “I guess you’ve known the wrong women. Up till now.” She figured the devil made her add that last part, but it was too late to take it back.
    Russ sat very still, looking at her in that watchful, expectant way of his. And then he smiled.
    “Are you the right woman, Bea?”
    “I’m the right woman for lots of things—for my ad agency, for my family, for my friends. Any way you look at it, I’m the right woman.”
    “Are you the right woman for me, Bea?”
    “I didn’t say I was.”
    “Yes, you did.”
    “Of course, I didn’t.”
    “I heard you, plain as day.”
    “Then you misunderstood.’’
    She stood up, stretching and yawning elaborately so he’d see how sleepy she was and stop talking to her.
    “I guess it’s time for us to turn in,” he said.
    He made it sound as if they were a team or worse yet, husband and wife, heading toward a four-poster with a feather mattress and a fuzzy blanket. In fact, he made the pair of them sound so inviting it scared