Part 4 (2/2)
”You'll love it or hate it,” he said. ”Especially the part of it we're going to.”
”Sand and rattlesnakes?” she suggested nervously.
He smiled. ”Wait and see.”
They flew into Phoenix several hours later, and Ivy, who had the window seat, gasped aloud at the height of the jagged mountain ranges they flew over before they landed at the airport.
”I thought it was flat!” she exclaimed.
Ryder chuckled softly. ”Did you? This isn't the only surprise you'll get.”
He was right. When they got off the plane, she saw mountains rising right off the desert floor. And as they drove out of Phoenix after he picked up the rental car he'd reserved, she realized that what looked like desert from the air was alive with vegetation. It wasn't the green mountains and valleys and abundant streams of Georgia, but the changing colors of the landscape and the variety of plant life were beautiful just the same.
The air was clean and clear away from the city, and the pace of life itself seemed to slow on the long, rolling highways that arrowed toward endless horizon.
Ryder was enjoying Ivy's fascination with her surroundings. She made it new to him, and he watched her face as he pointed out the various types of flora and fauna on the long drive to the town where his retirement complex was planned. He'd reserved rooms in a luxury resort nearby. One, he was careful to point out, that wouldn't be compet.i.tion for his project.
”It's so much bigger than I thought it would be,” she remarked as they drove toward Mesa del Sol, a small grouping of buildings in the distance.
”The land, you mean?” he asked, chuckling. ”It's the lack of trees, honey,” he explained. ”The horizons seem bigger because there's nothing to hide them. If you think Arizona is big, you should see southeastern Montana.”
”Are there any ghost towns around here?” she asked suddenly, all eyes.
”As a matter of fact, there are quite a few. I'll try to find time to escort you around one or two of them. Okay?”
She smiled broadly. ”Okay!”
They settled in at the hotel, in adjoining rooms with a connecting door, and drove immediately out to the site, where a construction gang had already graded the area, laid the foundation and finished the ground floor of two buildings.
”It's beautiful, Ryder,” Ivy commented, approving of the way the stucco design fitted in with the jagged mountains and the desert.
”I think so, too,” he agreed. He escorted her to the main building, where the construction foreman-a redheaded giant of a man-was waiting for them.
”This is Hank Jordan,” Ryder introduced the other man. ”He's in charge of the project. Hank, this is my new a.s.sistant, Ivy.”
”Nice to meet you,” the foreman greeted cordially.
She nodded and smiled shyly.
”How's it going?” Ryder asked his foreman.
While they talked shop, Ivy wandered around what had to be the offices of the complex, enjoying the s.p.a.ciousness and simple lines of it. She could imagine potted plants and modern furniture filling it, and mentally she approved Ryder's choice of architects.
”What do you think?” Ryder asked eventually, taking her arm to lead her back down the long corridor toward the car. ”It will house approximately sixty couples, and include a doctor's building, a restaurant, a theater, a pharmacy, a small grocery store, clothing boutiques and even a hardware store. We'll have our own water and sewage system, not to mention built-in air filters and air conditioning.”
”It sounds like something out of the future,” she exclaimed.
He smiled down at her. ”Hopefully it will be. s.p.a.ce is already at a premium most places. This complex will make the most efficient use of its s.p.a.ce, with emphasis on complementing the existing ecosystem around it.”
”Greek,” she informed him.
”By the time it's finished, you won't think of it as Greek.” He slid back his cuff to check the time. ”Let's get something to eat. Hungry?”
”I could eat sand,” she said heartily.
”Tacos are better. In fact, fajitas are much better. Let's go.”
They said goodbye to Hank, and Ryder drove back to Mesa del Sol and the huge motel complex where they were staying. The temperature was surprising. Ivy had dressed for winter, but it was warm, and the heated swimming pool was a real temptation. She wished she'd had the presence of mind to pack a bathing suit.
She changed her suit for jeans and a pink striped s.h.i.+rt with a bulky pink sweater and sneakers. She pinned her hair away from her face but left it loose. When she met Ryder downstairs in the dining room, she found him similarly dressed in casual dark slacks and a burgundy pullover, but he was still wearing the boots and the Stetson that were such a familiar part of his usual dress.
”You look more comfortable,” she remarked, smiling up at him.
”So do you, honey. Tired?”
She shook her head. ”I can't remember when I've had so much fun,” she said, laughing, and meant it. Being with Ryder was an adventure in itself. ”I feel dishonest. I should be taking notes or typing or something.”
”Plenty of time for that later,” he a.s.sured her. ”I'll feed you and then we'll do some paperwork out by the pool if you like. Did you bring a bathing suit?”
”There was frost back home,” she pointed out.
”This is Arizona,” he replied. His eyes slid over her body possessively, and a darkness lingered there just momentarily before he seated her at a window table and broke the spell.
They ate tacos and fajitas and refried beans and drank incredibly large gla.s.ses of soft drinks. Amazing how thirsty you get out here, Ivy mused. Perhaps it was the evaporation rate on the desert terrain that accounted for it.
Ryder was unusually quiet throughout the meal. When it was over, he excused himself and went to get his briefcase before he joined her at the pool. He seated them at a table with a sheltering umbrella and started pulling out doc.u.ments. He pushed a pad and pen toward her.
”Time to pay the piper, then we can relax for a while,” he said. ”I need you to take down some figures for me. If I have a laptop sent up, can you transcribe them this evening?”
”Of course,” she said. She couldn't protest. This was why he'd brought her with him. But he'd been tense since they'd arrived in Arizona, and she wondered what was bothering him.
She couldn't know that her proximity was working on him like a drug, making him vulnerable and restless and hungry. He was doing his best to keep it from her, but the way she looked in those tight jeans was making him crazy. Work at least kept his mind where it belonged. Having enticed her into working for him, he couldn't risk losing her again by being impatient.
His eyes fell to her hand on the table. She was still wearing the wedding band Ben had put on her finger. Ryder longed to rip if off and throw it as far as he was able, to purge her of Ben's mark of possession, to make her his own. But even as he thought it, he knew how impossible it would be. Despite Ben's faults, Ivy had loved him. How could he compete with that?
Perhaps in time, she might turn to him. He had to hope that she would. It was all that kept him sane.
Chapter 4.
Ivy hardly had time to worry about being in a room adjoining Ryder's. He seemed to be deluged with paperwork and correspondence that had to be answered. The laptop was familiar to her, and it saved quite a lot of time, but it took the better part of her day to transcribe Ryder's terse dictation and produce emails that satisfied him. Often, he rewrote the same email three times before he allowed it to be mailed. He was on the run almost constantly and spent much of each day out at the site. When he was in his room, they were working.
The number of emails was incredible. There were the usual intercompany memos, notices of meetings, updates for his board of directors, problems to be solved overseas that required ma.s.ses of doc.u.ments, queries about sites and funding, replies to bank queries...enough to keep three a.s.sistants stoop-shouldered.
Ryder eventually noticed that Ivy was having trouble coping.
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