[Desert Roses 03] - Beneath A Harvest Sky Read Free Page B

favorites.”
    They ate in silence for some time before Duncan braved the next round of questions. “So where do your parents live?”
    “Albuquerque. My father works for the university there,” Rainy added. “I used to work with him.” She immediately regretted the words. Oh, how she’d tried to bury that part of her life.
    “Oh? What did you do there?”
    Rainy tiptoed ever so cautiously through the memories of her scarred past. No sense waking sleeping dragons. “I worked with him in the history department. He’s a professor of history, and I hold a master’s degree in history with a special focus on the American Indians—particularly the Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, and Pueblo.”
    “How marvelous. You truly are the right woman to be leading the Detour trips.”
    “I love the Southwest,” she admitted. She forced herself to sound calm and unflustered when all the while her heart was pounding like a racehorse’s hooves in the final stretch.
    “As do I. My focus of study is archaeology,” he admitted.
    “I have a bachelor’s degree in archaeology,” she said, hoping he’d see how much they had in common.
    Instead, it led him back to troublesome waters.
    “Truly? Did you utilize your degree when you worked at the university?”
    Rainy felt light-headed from his question. She wasn’t about to get into the details of her past. Anything but that, she thought. How could she possibly hope to interest Duncan Hartford in becoming her husband if she had to share the memories she longed to forget? Yet, how could she hope to move toward marriage and not share those details?
    No, she thought. Until I can clear my name, no one else needs to know what happened .

CHAPTER TWO
    A week later Rainy was still contemplating her supper with Duncan when Sonny came into the boardinghouse dining room and interrupted her breakfast. The look on his face prepared her for the blow of bad news, even before the words came out of his mouth. They had always been able to read each other like a book.
    “You know how we planned to leave tomorrow for a week with Mom and Dad?” he questioned, plopping down in the chair opposite her. “Well, our vacation has been canceled.”
    She had already started to eat a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, potatoes, and ham, and the news didn’t set well with her stomach. “What do you mean it’s been canceled? We requested that time off months ago. Surely it’s just a mistake.”
    “No mistake,” Sonny said, reaching for the coffeepot.
    “Good morning, Sonny,” Mrs. Rivera said, coming into the room with a bowl of scrambled eggs. “Are you ready for breakfast?”
    “You bet I am,” he replied. “I need about a gallon of coffee, then I’ll take four eggs over easy, one of those thick ham steaks, and toast.” He grinned up at her and winked as she placed the bowl on the table. “That ought to get me started. I’ll let you know where we go from there.”
    She shook her head. “I don’t know where you put all that food. You’re just a beanpole, and yet you eat like my uncle Gordo.”
    “Ah, now,” Sonny said, lifting her hand to his lips, “it’s just that your cooking is the best I’ve had, except for my mother’s. If you were twenty years younger, I think I’d propose.” He kissed her hand.
    She giggled as if she were twenty years younger. Pulling her hand away almost reluctantly, she picked up Sonny’s plate and headed to the kitchen, still chuckling to herself.
    “You are such a flirt,” Rainy declared. “I don’t know what Mother would say if she saw you.”
    “She’d say I take after Dad.”
    Rainy laughed. “No doubt. Now explain what’s going on with our vacation time.”
    Sonny took a long drink of coffee, then replied, “There’s been a special request for our Grand Canyon trip.”
    “But that trip lasts over five days—and I thought that with the economy failing they were going to scale it back or eliminate it altogether.”
    Sonny nodded. “Well, apparently