Call It Destiny

obtained.
    All she had to do was marry Jake Cavender – just as she had planned.
    It was with a sense of astonishment that Heather finally acknowledged the real problem this morning. She had fallen in love with Jake and quite suddenly she no longer wanted to be married for business reasons. Heather shook her head wryly as she guided the Mercedes along the highway that led into the hills where her father’s cabin was located. Jake had done more than compel her physical and emotional surrender last night.
    He had succeeded in reviving the passionate outlook on life that she had subdued so successfully for the past few years. Marrying for convenience or for business reasons, no matter how satisfactory to all parties concerned, was simply no longer good enough.
    When she turned off the road it was to take the much narrower, less-used trail that led into the canyon Heather remembered so well. The desert terrain gave way a bit to scruffy shrubs and trees. The stately saguaro cacti were prevalent, their candelabra configurations lending elegance to the surroundings. The road was not paved and Heather slowed the Mercedes to avoid raising any more dust than was necessary.
    It was going to be hot at the cabin. There was no air conditioning and not much else in the way of amenities. Heather wondered what her mother had thought when Paul had brought her up here on their honeymoon. At least Ruth had known she was being married for love and not for convenience. Heather sighed, slowing the car still further.
    The cabin was showing its years and lack of attention. It sat perched several yards from a stream that cascaded down out of the mountains, its wood gray with age. The roof tilted rather precariously and one of the front windows had been broken. Heather parked the Mercedes and climbed out to survey the scene of some of her childhood memories. Even though Paul Strand had given up hunting years ago, the family had continued to use the cabin for picnics in the summer. The cool stream, swollen from the recent rains, was an inviting place in which to swim, and the canyon had provided fascinating places to explore. There were even some caves tucked into the walls upstream, Heather remembered.
    The cabin didn’t have electricity, but there was running water. Heather, when she tested the rusty faucet in the small kitchen area, was astonished to find that it still worked. With any luck the bathroom facilities would, also. No hot water, of course, but she could live without it for a couple of days.
    A couple of days. As she prowled the environs of the one-room cabin, Heather considered the time factor Jake had placed on this retreat. He had seemed to sense that she needed the time to collect her thoughts and come to her own decisions. He’d let her go this morning with hardly any argument.
    For some reason that lack of argument was making her uneasy. It didn’t seem to fit his character. He must have known how thorough her surrender had been last night. Indeed, he’d reveled in it. Heather grimaced.
    But knowing that, and knowing him, it seemed far more likely that he would be the kind of man to press the advantage. Yet this morning he’d casually bought her a cup of coffee and waved her on her way.
    Not like him at all.
    Heather prodded the dusty, half-collapsed couch under the broken window. It was damp from rain that had made its way down the inside wall of the cabin. There were some floorboards loose, too. Experimentally she stepped on one, listening to the protesting squeak.
    Visions of Jake changing his mind and coming after her danced through Heather’s head. The romantic passionate side of her that had been freed by the emotional trauma of the past twenty-four hours longed for such an event. The realistic side of her nature warned her that nothing would be changed by such an occurrence. She would still be faced with the decision she faced now.
    She must decide what she truly wanted out of life, and that decision could not be made the way she had made it when she was eighteen. It had to be made logically and realistically. Unfortunately it was difficult to think logically and realistically when you knew you were in love.
    She ought to be thinking about the manner in which she’d lost her right to the Hacienda, Heather told herself grimly as she went out to the Mercedes and removed the suitcase her mother had packed. She ought to be concentrating on the sense of betrayal she had felt yesterday. But that red-hot emotion was