Call It Destiny

Jake.“
    „So am I. That’s what I’m going to tell them.“
    „To reschedule everything for two weeks from today? You’d better not unless you want to find yourself standing alone at the altar again!“
    He turned to look at her as she remained sitting in the front seat of the car. The cool gray eyes were level and utterly unyielding. „You’ll be there this time, Heather. Believe me.“ He straightened, slammed the door and came around to her side of the car. Without a word they walked toward her parents’ home.
    Ruth Strand appeared in the doorway, an anxious expression on her face as she watched Jake and Heather walking toward her. „Oh, Heather, darling. We were so worried. That storm was so violent and those canyons can be so treacherous!“
    „I’m fine, mom.“ Tears sprang into Heather’s eyes as she ran toward her mother. „I’m fine. Oh, mom, I’m so sorry for that awful scene the other day. It was stupid, childish and…and….“ She hugged Ruth as she ran out of words.
    „And you had every right to be absolutely furious,“ Ruth Strand said quite firmly. „I was myself. Come on inside, you two. You need some hot coffee.“
    „Heather!“ Paul Strand came hurrying in from the terrace. „Are you and Jake okay? I was really worried about the two of you up in that canyon last night.“ He glanced at Jake.
    „The storm proved the least of our worries,“ Jake told the older man wryly. „Leave it to Heather to do everything with a bit of flair.“
    By the time he had told the Strands the whole story, Ruth and Paul had virtually forgotten the embarrassing event of the wedding. As she listened to his account of the tale, it occurred to Heather that Jake was going into the story in such detail precisely because he was trying to deflect the Strands’ focus to it rather than to the wedding scene.
    „I wouldn’t have believed she had such stubborn strength in her,“ Jake said at one point, his gaze roving over Heather’s figure as she sat sipping coffee at the kitchen table. „I told her to let go and, as usual, she just ignored instructions. There wasn’t anything else I could do except climb out of that stream. It was obvious she wasn’t going to give up.“
    „You should have seen Jake in the middle of a full-scale brawl,“ Heather put in quickly, uncomfortable under the cool admiration in his eyes. „Honestly, you would never have believed that in real life he’s a mild-mannered hotel financier! I have a hunch they don’t teach that sort of thing in accounting classes.“
    „Don’t you believe it,“ Jake said calmly.
    Paul and Ruth looked stunned by the whole tale. „Incredible. After all these years that punk Monroe showed up again,“ Paul murmured.
    „I don’t know for certain what he was using the cabin for but it sounded like it was a rendezvous point for his drug deals. Last night he kept saying he was going to be worth a fortune. We told the police everything we could and they’re going to watch the border. Rick kept saying he was going to head for Mexico.“
    „And take you with him.“ Ruth shuddered in horror.
    „Jake put a stop to that,“ Heather observed gently.
    „And had to abandon your car in the process, Ruth.“ Jake sounded apologetic. „Tomorrow morning we’ll drive back up that canyon and see what’s left of the Mercedes and your sports car.“
    „Just as long as the two of you are okay, that’s all that matters,“ Ruth assured him in heartfelt tones.
    There was a moment of silence as everyone considered that. It was Paul who broke it with the one remaining unanswered question. Calmly he glanced from Jake’s face to Heather’s.
    „Well? What are you two going to do now?“
    „Go to work,“ Heather said with a calm that equaled her father’s. „Jake and I are going to run the Hacienda, aren’t we, Jake?“
    „We work very well together,“ Jake agreed coolly. „We found that out for certain last night. So well, in fact, that we’re going to go ahead and reschedule the wedding. I thought two weeks from today would do nicely.“ He watched Heather over the rim of his coffee cup, daring her to contradict him.
    „Jake knows the conditions under which I’ll marry him. If he’s met those conditions by two weeks from today, we’ll be married.“ She smiled blandly but her pulse was picking up uncomfortably. She had made herself into a challenge for him and intuition warned her that it was a foolish move on her part. Heather wasn’t