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"Cody, will you get that?"

Abra sat on the side of the bed, pulling on her work boots The knock at her door had her scowling at her watch It wasn&039;t often she had visitors at seven o&039;clock in theit close if she wanted to be on the site before eight

Cody came out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in one hand His hair was still damp from the shower and his shirt only half buttoned when he opened the door to Abra&039;s mother,

"Oh, hello" There was an aard pause before Jessie s" Cody stepped back to let her in "You&039;re up early"

"Yes, I wanted to catch Abra before she left Then I have a dozen things to do" Jessie cleared her throat as she pleated the strap of her purse "Is she around?"

"In the other room" Cody wasn&039;t quite sure how a man handled his lover&039;s mother at 7:00 am "Would you like some coffee?"

"Actually, I&039;d - Oh, there you are" She turned her nervous smile on Abra

"Mo an aard triangle Abra found that she didn&039;t knohat to do with her hands, so she stuck the out at this hour?"

"I wanted to see you before you left for the day" She hesitated again, then looked at Cody "I would love a cup of coffee"

"Sure" Setting down his own, he stepped through to the kitchen

"Abra, could we sit down a moment?"

Without a word, Abra took the chair across fro to lecture her about having a &039;s wrong" She took a deep breath, then accepted the cup Cody brought out to her

"Why don&039;t I leave you two alone?"

"No" Jessie spoke quickly, then ed a slad, very glad, that her daughter had soht as she studied his face, who obviously cared for her very much

"Please, sit down, Cody I&039;, and I&039;" She drew a second, longer breath "I&039;ve just gotten back froned herself to that, Abra smiled "Did you lose the fa to be easier than she&039;d thought, Jessie decided She plunged ahead "I got ht up in her chair "In Vegas? To who for ten hu each word "You o" She held out her hand to show off a twin set of diamonds&039; &039;When we decided it e wanted, there didn&039;t seem any reason to wait After all, neither of us are children"

Abra stared at the glittering rings, then back at her otten to know hi to be hard, Jessie realized as she watched Abra&039;s face Very hard "He&039;s a wonderfuland steady I&039;ll admit I didn&039;t expect hiht there, and there was this funny little chapel, so we got ood at it by now"

Jessie&039;s eyes flashed, but her voice remained mild "I&039;d like you to be happy for me I&039;m happy But if you can&039;t, at least I&039;d like you to accept it"

"I should be getting good at that, too"

The pleasure went out of Jessie&039;s face "Willie wanted to coht it best that I told you hly of you as a woman and as a professional I hope you won&039;t make this difficult for him"

"I like Mr Barlow," Abra said stiffly "And I suppose I shouldn&039;t be surprised I&039;ll wish you luck"

An ache passed through Jessie&039;s heart "Well, that&039;s soer "I have to go in early and type upyour job?"

"Yes, I&039;ll beto Dallas Willie&039;s home is there"

"I see" Abra rose, as well "How soon?"

"We&039;re flying out this afternoon so I can meet his son We&039;ll be back in a few days to tie up details" She would have stepped toward her daughter, but she thought it best to give her tiet back"

"Fine" There was no affection in the word, only a brusque dismissal "Have a nice trip"

Cody moved to the door to open it, then touched Jessie&039;s arh "Best wishes, Jessie"

"Thank you" Jessie was grateful the office would be eood, healthy cry "Take care of her, will you?" she murmured, and walked away

Cody shut the door, then turned to see Abra standing in exactly the sah on her, weren&039;t you?"

"Stay out of it" She would have storrab her arid as ice, and just as cold Except for her eyes They boiled with emotion "What&039;s the probleure your mother&039;s free to marry whomever she chooses?"

"Absolutely She&039;s always been free I want to finish getting ready for work"

"No" He kept his grip firet this out of your systeet it out of es" He heard the despair under the fury and gentled his hold "It&039;s the same pattern with her, over and over and over First there was Jack, my father He died before his twenty-fifth birthday" She pulled her arm free, then snatched a picture from the table "He was the love of her life, to hear her tell it"

Feeling his way, he spoke carefully "He&039;s been gone a long tione right along Speeding right along It&039;s been hard to keep up Husband number two Bob" She plucked up another picture "I was, oh, about six when she decided she was free to marry him That one lasted two, maybe three years Hard to keep track" She dropped those pictures to grab another "Then we have Jiet Jim, husband number three Now before hiot around to ed a convenience store They met over a carton of soft drinks and werethey were together afterward Jessie doesn&039;t really count Jim She didn&039;t bother to keep his name

"Then there was Bud Good old Bud Peters I don&039;t seem to have a picture of him, but this is Jessie on the day they were raphs on their faces "Bud sold shoes and liked to putter around the house He wasn&039;t a uess Jessie liked hiether almost seven years That&039;s a record" She set the photo back "Good old Bud Peters holds the record"

Cody took her shoulders, ently "It&039;s her life, Red"

"It was my life, too," she said passionately "Damn it, it was my life, too Do you have any idea what it&039;s like never knohat last na which &039;uncle&039; is going to be your next stepfather? What house or apart to live in? What school?"

"No" He thought of the steady and stable e of his parents, of the close-knit unit that was his farooe doesn&039;t have to affect you"

"It&039;s the same pattern, over and over Don&039;t you see? I&039;ve watched her fall in and out of love faster than a high-school cheerleader And every ti This is going to be best for all of us But it was never best, not for me Now she comes here to tell me about this after it&039;s already done I always heard about these things after the die was cast"

He held her tighter "If she&039;s had poor judgment, Abra, it doesn&039;t mean she doesn&039;t love you"

"Oh, she loves me" Now that the venoed, and her resistance with it "In her way It was just never the way I needed It&039;s okay" She pulled back The tears that had threatened were under control now, and so was she "You&039;re right I&039; I&039;ll talk to her, to theet back" She pushed her hands over her face and back into her hair "I&039;m sorry, Cody I took it out on you"

"No, you didn&039;t You just let it out"

"I guess I&039; stupid And selfish"

"No, you&039;re not Just hu just how badly those early years had hurt her and how many hurts were left "Come here" As he spoke, he pulled her into his arainst him "I&039;m crazy about you"

He couldn&039;t see the rush of emotions that came into her eyes "Really?"

"Absolutely I&039;ve been thinking that when things settle here you ought to co to scare her off "You can take a look at the house I&039;n Look at the ocean"

If she went east with hiain? She didn&039;t want to think about that, about endings and goodbyes "I think I&039;d like that" With a sigh, she rested her head on his shoulder "I&039;d like you to show me the ocean 1 haven&039;t had a chance to show you the desert yet"

"We could go AWOL today"

Her lips curved against his throat before she stepped back He&039;d helped By being there to lean on he&039;d helped her stand up again "I don&039;t think so It wouldn&039;t be right for lect my mother&039;s new husband&039;s resort"

She was in a much better frame of mind by the time they reached the site Without Cody - without his just being there - Abra knew she ood for her She wished she kne to tell hi pressure on their relationship

So far he seemed perfectly content to follow the blueprints she&039;d set up There had been no promises, no talk of the future, no pretense about happy-ever-after The invitation to visit back east had been casual enough that she felt safe in accepting

Now, as so often happened on the site, he went his way and she hers Later they would share the night

She was coht as she made her way to the cabanas It wasn&039;t wise, it wasn&039;t safe, but then there had to be some risks involved

"Tunney" Abra nodded to the electrical fore the fraood, Ms Wilson" He rubbed the back of his hand over histo fat, and he eating freely As he watched Abra he took out a bandanna and wiped his face "I thought you were still busy at the health club"

"I wanted to check things here" She stepped closer Tunney kept at her shoulder "You think the wiring&039;s going to be done on schedule? Thornway&039;s a little nervous"

"Yeah, sure You estured to a section across ould be a courtyard "The carpenters are reallyon it"

"Uh a unit, she walked forward "I haven&039;t checked with - Daed her boot on a curled scrap of wire "These places need to be squared away Safety inspector would slap our wrists for that"

She would have reached down for the wire herself, but Tunney was ahead of her "You gotta watch your step" He tossed the scrap into a trash druestured to three huge spools of wire "As long as the suppliers keep ahead of us, we&039;ll be fine" Absently she leaned against one of the spools

She liked the look of the site, liked the ring of buttes andgrowth conceived byto her This hat had drawn her When a person could stand under the wide arch of sky and see progress - the right kind of progress - it brought hope, as well as satisfaction

Though she hadn&039;t told hiun to see and understand Cody&039;s vision A little ic, a little fantasy, here in one of the harshest and most beautiful spots in the country There were still coyotes in the hills, snakes in the rocks, but ed here When the resort was finished, it wouldn&039;t sie with the desert, it would celebrate it

That hat he had seen That hat she was co to be quite a place, isn&039;t it?"

"Guess it is" He was shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he watched her

"Ever take a weekend in one of these places, Tunney?"

"Nope" He wiped his face again

"Me either" She sht?"

"Guess so"

He wasn&039;t the most expansive ofyou frohten, but the end of the wire caught at her jeans "God, I&039;m a klutz today" She bent to free it before Tunney could reach her Frowning, she pulled the length of wire out and ran it between her fingers "Did you say this just cao"

"Damn Have you checked it?"

He looked down as she crouched to examine the wire "No Like I say, it was just off-loaded"

"Check it now" She waited while he bent beside her to take the cable in his hand

"This ain&039;t fourteen-gauge"

"No, it&039;s not I&039;d say twelve"

"Yes, htened "That&039;d be right"

Swearing, she walked over to the other reels "These are all twelve, Tunney"

Breathing between his teeth, he pulled out his clipboard "Fourteen-gauge on the order sheet, Ms Wilson Looks like somebody screwed up the delivery"

"I should have known it was too good to last" She straightened, wiping her palhs "We can&039;t use this, it&039;s substandard Call the supplier and see if they can deliver the fourteen-gauge right away We don&039;t want to fall behind"

"No, we sure don&039;t Easy h Unit numbers almost match" He showed her the numbers on his invoice, then pointed to those stamped on the spool "Can&039;t tell twelve fro you can tell by feel, or else we ht have had a mess on our hands" She shaded her eyes with her hands as she looked toward the cabanas "Any chance soht have slipped by you?"

He balled the bandanna back in his pocket "I&039;ve been in the business eighteen years"

"Right Still, you lass and a scream "Oh, my God" She raced across the distance to the health club, following the sound ofhard by the tih, she spotted Cody leaning over the bleeding body of one of the workers

Her heart rose up to block her throat "How bad?" She thought she recognized hi sweep of dark hair and a tough, tanned body