Rick climbed off the ladder and allowed her to climb up. She worked the window with no problems. He watched as she closed the window again and was about to climb down. Rick couldn’t help himself; he placed his hands on either side of her firm butt and steadied her as she climbed back down the ladder.
When she was on the ground again, she turned to him, and just stood there. Rick could not tell from her expression if she was mad at him or not. He braced himself for the worst. Then she raised her hands to either side of his face and planted a toe-curling kiss on his mouth. When the kiss was finally done, he opened his eyes and sought out hers.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for the last six months; I’ve been praying that you were not gay or worse, married. You just never seemed interested.”
“Oh, I’m neither and I’ve been very interested. I just didn’t want to get my head handed to me. Don’t forget I’ve seen you work; I know how strong you were back then; I can just imagine how much stronger you are now after six months of using those reformers.”
“Someday soon I’ll show you. Are you done for now? I’d like to get to sleep some time before morning comes.”
Rick smiled and said, “Sure, I’m done for the night, all I have to do is get my tools and the ladder loaded in my truck and I’ll be off. In less than five minutes he was headed out the door. Sasha watched as his truck left the parking lot and disappeared into the night.
What she didn’t see was him make a turn two blocks later and come back around the back of the office building. From his office moments later he watched as she moved her car from the back parking lot to a different spot in the front lot. Then he closed his office and took the truck home.
That night, try as he might, he just could not fall asleep. Her kiss was still on his mind. Things were happening faster than he had planned, in fact, they were almost out of control.
Now his mind switched to the conversation that he had had with his father shortly after he had graduated from high school.
‘Enrique, you know we have been truly blessed by God. We have wealth, more wealth than we could ever hope to spend. But with great wealth comes great responsibility as well. Your grandfathers sacrificed much to pass forward their legacy. We are just stewards of that wealth. We must always be vigilant; there are people out there who resent our wealth, who feel we are not entitled to have what we have; that somehow our ancestors stole their wealth from others, that it should be divided among the people who haven’t worked for it as we have.
‘There are others who wish to steal it for themselves. The internet is full of people like these. We must always be vigilant. Remember, a man with a briefcase and a computer can steal much more than a man with a gun.
‘But it’s a woman who can steal the most of all. You must always see into the heart of the woman with whom you fall in love. In a heartbeat, she can take half of everything you own, and worst of all, she can steal your heart and destroy your will to live. That’s why you must move slowly and carefully when courting a woman. You have to determine what is in her heart before you commit to each other. You must know her character, is she a strong woman, who can work through adversity and triumph over it. Will she be a true life-time partner, or will she cut and run when the going gets rough? And she must love you as much as you love her; must desire you as much as you desire her. If you find such a woman, don’t let her out of your sight. I met a woman like that a long time ago and almost let her get away, before I married her.
‘Your mother was the first Anglo in our family, you can imagine the heat we took from my family. Your grandfather almost disowned me, and probably would have if it hadn’t been for the fact that I showed him how we could turn our land into a money generating machine. And you know where I got the idea and the plan to do that, it was your mother and her family that showed me the way.’
His mother, the beautiful woman with the heart of gold and the drive to accomplish anything she set out to do; he should have known that she was the driving force behind the family empire. It was she who had come to him the night that he had told his parents that his high school sweetheart had dumped him during his freshman year in college.
‘Don’t worry my child. She was the first, but she won’t be the last. You are a good-looking young man, but the key word is young. There will be others and you will learn from each of them. Each disappointment will make you stronger, you will learn in time what you truly need in a woman. It won’t happen overnight. In fact it probably won’t happen until you have been working for a while, but when that special woman comes into your life, she will win your love without ever seeming to try. Suddenly one day she will be there right in front of you, and your eyes will truly be opened for the first time. Think with your head and not with your heart. You will know who your life partner will be because she will be standing right in front of you.
‘Now go, have your fun, be careful and learn all of life’s lessons before you settle down.’
_______________
The morning sun was just peeking over the Superstition Mountains when his eyes opened. His alarm was still going off when he finally became fully aware of where he was. He shut the alarm, glanced at the clock, moaned, and swung his legs out of bed. Not bothering to put clothes on, he took care of his morning business and headed downstairs, and out to the pool. The weather was already warm, probably in the low eighties. As Rick slowly walked towards the pool, he marveled at the expanse of mountain which stood less than twenty feet from the edge of the pool, in fact, if you were in the hot tub, you could touch the base of the two hundred feet high wall of stone that formed the base of the head of the camel.
The house itself was huge, but was dwarfed by the sheer size and proximity of the mountain. The back yard included a large pool, the hot tub, and surrounding patio. The house wrapped around the eastern side of the property. The garage and car port were on the west side, totally hidden from the house. Last night Rick had parked his truck facing out towards the long concrete driveway and had walked the path towards the main entrance, but instead of entering the house, he had veered off to the left and walked through the gardens to the patio, around the pool, and had entered his part of the immense structure which had been built originally to be a two-story pool and guest house. The house itself was built with multiple levels, and each of the five bedrooms included a private walled-in balcony. The living room had floor to ceiling windows which provided a panoramic view of the City of Phoenix and beyond. There was even an enclosed children’s playground complete with a two-story circular slide and playhouse. In terms of elevation, it was one of the highest that had been built on the mountain before the city fathers had banned the further development on the mountain. His father had grabbed it in a fire sale after the S & L crisis in the middle eighties. Too large for his existing family, he had hoped to see his children and grandchildren all live together in luxury. That dream had been partially dashed when it was discovered that his wife could no longer have children of their own and, of course, with the couple’s untimely death.