The Bachelor Project. Victoria Chancellor
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Bess greeted her friend. “I met your lovely great-niece today.” She proceeded to tell Sylvia about the chance meeting between Robin and Ethan at the hamburger place. “You should have seen the two of them tonight. The sparks fairly flew!”
“You don’t say!”
“Yes, I do, and I’m all for it. Ethan has just about given up on finding a wife, and I know Robin is understandably shy about getting involved again. That’s why I think we need to give them a little push in the right direction.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Well, I think I need a little vacation.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Ethan is already convinced I’m getting forgetful because I didn’t tell him Robin was moving in. He thinks I work too hard. If I went to San Antonio to visit Grace and Margaret at the retirement home, then Ethan would need someone to come by his house and check on him. Maybe fix him a home-cooked meal. Watch a little television with him.”
“I’m not sure…”
“Oh, I know this will work. All I need to do is ask Robin to help me out by looking after Ethan for a short time. Then you can call Ethan and ask him to watch out for Robin while she’s staying in town. You could suggest he take her to a movie, or out to dinner.”
“I thought you only had two restaurants and no movie theater.”
“We’re not that far from Fredericksburg or Kerrville. What could be more romantic than a nice evening drive through the Hill Country?”
“You have a point.”
“Of course I do! Oh, Sylvia, I know I’m right about this. Those two would be perfect for each other, if they could just spend enough time together to realize it.”
“You may be right, and I’ll be glad to go along. There’s just one thing you should know.”
“What’s that?”
“My dear, sweet Robin can’t even microwave a frozen dinner without burning it to crisp.”
“AUNT BESS, I’M HOME,” Ethan announced as he stepped from the late-afternoon heat into the air-conditioned kitchen.
Ethan’s shift had been fairly chaotic for a normally quiet, midweek day in the summer. Some cattle escaped their fence and wandered onto the state highway, leading to a two-car accident. No one was seriously injured, but he and his deputy had spent most of the afternoon directing traffic away from the evasive beasts.
As he pulled into his driveway about a half-hour late for dinner, he hoped Aunt Bess hadn’t fixed anything that might fall, congeal or generally taste terrible if it wasn’t served exactly on time. She was rather proud of her cooking, and rightly so. He’d rather be trampled by a dozen stray cows than disappoint his favorite relative.
A dozen different smells filled the air, but he couldn’t pinpoint what she’d prepared for dinner. The cabinet was lined with various plastic containers, each one neatly labeled in his aunt’s precise handwriting.
“Ethan, I’m glad you’re home,” his aunt said briskly. “I’ve had such a hectic day.”
“You and me, both.” He walked to the normally cheerful, uncomplaining lady and kissed her cheek. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, just this and that. I spent some time thinking about what you said the other day, and I’m afraid you’re right. Perhaps I do sometimes try to do too much.”
“You’re not feeling ill, are you? Did you fall, or—”
“No, no,” Bess said, waving off his questions. “Not yet, anyway. I’m just not as young as I once was, and today I realized I need to take things a bit easier.”
“I’ve been trying to tell you that, Aunt Bess.” Ethan placed his arm around her shoulder, noticing how small she was. Of course, she’d always been tiny, but now she seemed even more frail. He steered her away from the kitchen and back into the living room. “Have you been to the doctor? You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course I would, dear.” She patted his hand as he urged her to sit on the sofa. “But I’ve decided I need a little vacation. I’m going to visit Margaret and Grace in San Antonio for a week or so. I’ll leave tomorrow morning after you go to work. That way I’ll get in to San Antonio after the morning rush.”
“I’m sure you’ll have a great time with your friends. Just relax and don’t worry about a thing here. I’ll be fine.”
“I know you will, although I would feel better if I didn’t think you’d spend every night alone, watching baseball and reruns. Or working extra hours.” Bess sighed. “At least you won’t starve. I made some of your favorites—roast beef, meatballs and lasagna.”
His aunt didn’t paint a very flattering picture of him, although he couldn’t say it was totally inaccurate. He did enjoy an occasional baseball game in the evenings, and he had been known to go back to the office if he didn’t have a lot to do at home. But he also met with citizen groups and spoke on public safety. He filled in as an umpire at Little League games when one of the regulars couldn’t make it. And he worked out in the extra bedroom he’d set up with exercise equipment.
Ethan decided to deflect her fixation on his bachelor state, first by ignoring her comments, then by changing the subject. He’d learned more about evasive tactics in the last two years than he had during his FBI training.
His aunt pushed up from the couch and started toward the kitchen. “There is one thing you could do for me while I’m gone.”
“Anything, Aunt Bess. You know that.”
“Take a little time for yourself. Ask a nice young lady out to a movie and dinner. Don’t work all the time instead of sitting around the house.”
“Aunt Bess, this is a small town. The chief of police doesn’t need to be dating every single woman in the area.”
“How about just one single woman under the age of thirty-five?”
“There aren’t that many.”
“I can think of a few,” his aunt said in a knowing voice.
“I’m sure you can.” And one of them was no doubt the great-niece of Bess’s good friend in Houston. “I’m not looking for a relationship.”
“Then how about a little fun? It’s not normal for a man your age to be so, well…so celibate.”
“Aunt Bess!”
“Well, it’s not.” She left him standing in the doorway, shaking his head as she hustled off to prepare dinner. Just before she placed a casserole in the microwave, she turned back to him with a twinkle in her eye. “I swear, Ethan, half the men in the retirement home get more action than you do.”
SINCE ROBIN HAD LONG AGO unpacked her two suitcases, she had plenty of time to explore the house and make an inventory of items she needed from the store. Unfortunately, her current bank balance wasn’t nearly as healthy as her wish list. She’d have to economize while she was hiding out in Ranger Springs, but at least she had the satisfaction of knowing her bridesmaids had been reimbursed for their gowns and shoes.
Not that any of them had been hurting for money, but she would have felt even more remorse over calling off the wedding if she’d left them with the bill for clothes they’d probably never use again. After all, most of them had half a dozen used bridesmaid dresses hanging in the closet, if they hadn’t been donated to charity or taken to a consignment store. The difference between her and her friends was that her beautiful unused wedding gown now kept her bridesmaid dresses company.
She paused, her fingers clutching the pen and paper, as she imagined her friends and family wondering where she was, what she’d been thinking when she’d canceled the wedding just three weeks before