Pilar watered the plants she'd potted and placed beside her new fence and kept an eye out for her neighbor. She may not like him, but she certainly didn't want him to come to harm. Over an hour earlier, he'd run with a vengeance toward the trail leading to the wilderness road. Glancing at the RV now residing in his space, she wondered what the heck was up with that. Never one to gossip, she'd avoided the gathering of neighbors motioning and asking questions of each other. Everyone had eventually returned to their own trailers or RVs when the object of their curiosity did not soon return from his run.
Again, Pilar glanced in the direction of the trail. The desert could be treacherous to a novice. There were snakes and scorpions, of course, but running without water could be more deadly than the critters.
Making a decision, she rushed inside her trailer. "Willie, I'm worried about Mr. Rutherford running in this heat. I'm going to drive out and see if I can find him. Do you want to come?"
"No, Mom. But can I go back to Desi's. He bought some old baseball movies at Dotty's Dime Store and invited me over to watch them anytime."
"Okay. But remember what I always say."
"I know. I know. Don't overstay my welcome."
Pilar grabbed her car keys off the hook by the door and rushed to her car. Driving past the entrance to the trail, she continued to a side road that would meet up with the wilderness road. She drove for about twenty minutes and wondered if she'd been overly concerned. Perhaps the guy hadn't even ventured onto the wilderness road. Maybe he'd stayed on the trail and was already back home gulping water.
She decided to drive five more minutes. A tiny speck in the distance captured her attention. She punched the gas pedal and sent dust flying behind her. Soon she caught sight of Max running hard, but showing signs of fatigue.
She gulped. Dressed only in jogging pants that rode low on his hips, his sweat drenched body could send any woman into a swoon. She'd guessed he was physically fit, but this was ridiculous. Maybe she should have left well enough alone. He seemed perfectly capable of battling the elements.
She pulled up alongside him and hoped the electronic window on the passenger side worked this time. He stopped and leaned over, placing his hands on his knees and breathing hard.
The window only worked until it was halfway down. "Hey!" she called.
With a look of irritation, Max slowly swiveled his head in her direction. He didn't say anything as his chest kept heaving.
Daunted by his cold stare, but unwilling to leave him in the desert, she warned, "It's not smart to run out here without water. Very dangerous, in fact. And even though the weather hasn't turned scorching yet, heat stroke is a real possibility."
The man stared at her so long and hard that she fidgeted. His breathing slowed and he stepped to her half opened window and said snidely, "You're the last person I'd expect to care whether I came back or not. Or have you come to finish me off? Hit and run out here would go undiscovered."
Pilar's mouth gaped. "You are one big A-hole, Mister." The man's muscular chest distracted any other scathing words she wanted to spew at him.
"So you've already told me." He glanced in the passenger seat at several bottles of water. "I'll have one of those, though. Can you roll the window down?"
Pilar felt her face flame. To counter her sudden embarrassment, she replied waspishly, "No. I can't. It's broken."
Her neighbor sighed, lifted his eyes skyward, and then opened the door. Pilar expected him to grab a couple of bottles and resume running. Instead, he grabbed one, swept the rest onto the floorboard, and then plopped his butt in her car. Twisting the cap off the bottle, he drank the whole thing at one time.
Pilar couldn't remove her gaze from the swallowing motion in his neck and the sucking motion of his lips. The man was gorgeous and the sooner she stopped fighting the obvious, the sooner she could move beyond this unhealthy attraction she had for him.
He finished the bottle and reached for another. This time, he turned to study her face as he drank. She quickly averted her eyes and stared out the windshield.
He finished and tossed the empty bottle in the back seat along with the other one. For long moments they sat in silence until he said, "I didn't know about Lilac's and Goody's money issues."
His remark surprised Pilar and she turned to gaze past his shoulder; she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes. He continued, "I'll think of something to make things work for them, as well as for the park."
Pilar moved her gaze to the hard plane of his jaw and then to lips that were neither full nor thin. She continued her perusal upward past a prominent nose that somehow worked with his chiseled features, to eyes as blue as the cloudless sky above them. "Mr. Rutherford, why are you here? You're obviously wealthy and this is the last place someone like you would choose to stay. And what happened to your RV? I can't imagine it being repossessed."
A slight smile tilted one side of his mouth and Pilar's hands tightened on the steering wheel.
"Please call me Max. May I call you Pilar?"
Pilar's heart whacked her chest. "If you want."
Max reached for another water bottle but didn't open it. "I'm here to fulfill the request of an old man. That's about all I can say, except that I can't leave for six months."
"So you're sort of stuck here?"
"Yes."
He continued, "As for the disappearance of my RV, it was unexpected. Let's just say that the afore mentioned old man has quite a sense of humor."
"Sounds like you have some interesting people in your life." Pilar leaned to grab a water bottle and then realized her mistake when her arm brushed Max's forearm, sending a jolt through her body. She jerked back. "Sorry. Could you hand me a water bottle."
"No problem." Max leaned forward and grabbed a bottle. Pilar accepted it, but he didn't release it. Instead, he said, "Do I make you nervous?"
Pilar jerked the bottle from his hand. "Of course not." She unscrewed the cap and returned her gaze to Max while she drank. He was leaning against the door with a slight smile.
She finished half the bottle and while she screwed the cap back on, she said, "What?"
His smile widened. "For being so small, you're not one to back down in a confrontation. You just about chewed my ear off at the diner. You were like a mama bear protecting her cubs."
Small. He thinks I'm small? Those words, more so than the others, stuck in Pilar's mind. She'd been called curvaceous, luscious, and many other adjectives, but never small. She almost smiled. The man was starting to grow on her, and that was something she could never let happen. Her bad marriage had cured her of all men, especially handsome, self-confident ones. She turned the ignition and started the car. "Do you want to run back or ride with me?" She could feel Max studying her profile.
"I think I've got the run out of me. I'll ride with you."