Shoe Strings

that ran along side
the path.   “Of what?”  
    “You’re upset about something.   And since you just came from seeing them
off, I figured maybe you’d changed your mind about Bryce.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”   She turned and continued up the path.   When they crested the ridge, she stopped
to catch her breath.   The sun had
just slipped below the horizon and its afterglow cast a gorgeous pink hue over
the treetops and mountains in the distance.   “God, it’s stunning up here.”
    She could feel Jesse step behind her, lift the hair from her
neck, and hold it in his hands like a ponytail.   She knew her shivers were from his touch
and hoped he’d attribute them to the chill in the air.   “You’re stunning, Angelita.   What got you all worked up?”
    She turned to face him, alarmed to see how sharp and
dangerous the planes of his face looked in the fading light.   She’d be smart to head back down the
path.   But because common sense had
deserted her with every step up the hillside, she stayed put.   “I had a rather upsetting conversation
with my father.”
    He cocked his head, studied her face intently.   “Somebody die?”
    “I wish,” she said before she could stop herself.   “I don’t mean that.   He’s just put me in a bad position with
my work and I don’t know what to do.”
    “I’m a businessman, a pretty successful one if I do say so
myself.   Why don’t you tell me about
it and see if I can help?”
    He looked so sincere and not once did his eyes flicker to
the beautiful setting around them.   They stayed on her, as did his hand on her shoulder.   It would be so easy to lean on him and
so nice to bounce her quandary off someone who didn’t know her father or the
ins and outs of her business.   With
a sigh, she sat on the boulder atop the property and told him everything.
    “Wow,” he said when she’d finished.   “Do you think he’s telling the truth?”
    “I don’t know.   It wouldn’t be out of character for him to stretch the truth about the
danger he’s supposedly in.   He
probably knew that’d be the only way I’d agree to help him.”
    “You have long-standing relationships with most of your
vendors now?”   When she nodded, he
said, “Would you have to change vendors if you decided to mass market your
shoes?”
    “Some yes, but not all.”   She stood up and gazed at the sky.   The first stars had begun to pop out and
the moon twinkled through the trees.   “We’ve really only begun to research the process.   But regardless, I’d never do business
with him, never consider it, without this claim that his life is in
danger.”   She rubbed her now
throbbing head.   “I don’t know what
to do.”
    She heard Jesse stand up from the rock and walk behind
her.   He placed his hands on her
shoulders and began to rub.   Lita
let her head fall back and her eyes close as he worked the knots from her
muscles.
    “I’ve got a buddy who works for the Atlanta
Sentinel .   I could give him a
call.   I’d bet he could find out if
there were any rumors about the consulate closing.”
    She turned to face him.   “You’d do that for me?”
    “Make a phone call?”   He brushed a finger over her nose.   “No sweat.”
    “That would be a good start, a really good start.”   His offer felt like a life rope.   “Thank you, Jesse.”
    His hands, the same hands that had worked magic on her
shoulders and neck now circled her throat.   She felt his thumbs inch up the column of her neck and his fingers snake
into her hair.   “I don’t like to see
you so upset, Angelita.   You matter
to me—don’t ask me why or how, I don’t have a clue, but you matter.”  
    “Jesse.”   Whatever
she’d been about to say was lost when he dipped his head and brushed his lips
to hers again.   He didn’t push her
to respond, but she did.   He didn’t
ask her lips to part, but they did.   His essence surrounded her, mixed with the woodsy fragrance of the night,
and she could no more refuse him than she could stop herself from
breathing.   When his hands moved to
her hips, she found herself against him in a heartbeat.   The feel of his fingers against her skin
under her shirt brought her to attention in an instant.   She pulled away.
    “I…”
    “Angelita.   You
can’t avoid this forever.   Whatever
this is between us is going to happen sooner or later.”
    “My life is already complicated, in more ways than I