Wind River Mountains. Some of her happiest moments had been spent rocking contentedly on her front porch, listening to the joyful trill of the meadowlarks’ songs as she painted the world the way she thought it should be. Her new boss may have a veritable castle in comparison, but Ella was nonetheless hesitant to leave her own place behind. After years of thankless servitude, she thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of having no one to take care of but herself.
Remembering all the times she had given her heart to a needy family only to have them roughly return it when her indenture was up, Ella told herself not to get overly involved with Billy and Sarah. It wouldn’t surprise her if their well-to-do papa didn’t give up on Wyoming before the end of his first winter, soon tiring of the state’s harsh climate, forced isolation and dearth of urbane culture. Her new neighbor’s fancy furnishings suggested William Fawson Hawk III was more into highbrow society events and yuppie comforts than rodeos and ranching. Ella suspected that like many rich transplants, he considered the latter more a hobby than an actual profession.
Not that it mattered to her one way or the other. The extravagant salary he was offering her to take care of his children was enough to help Ella set aside any qualms about her “hottie” new boss. Haughty was more like it, she thought to herself, mentally engaging in an imaginary conversation with Phoebe, the long-time friend who introduced her to that latest college expression for an attractive member of the opposite sex.
Phoebe was certain to go wild over Hawk. Boy crazy since seventh grade, her best friend was still breaking her neck following any cute male butt that happened to sashay by. Secretly Ella suspected Phoebe had taken a college art course with her simply to ogle the nude male models who were paid to pose for the class. A hopeless romantic, Phoebe was one to create great love stories out of harmless flirtations and the most innocuous glances.
Depositing her treasured box of art supplies into the back of the pickup, Ella set about the task of gathering up the litter of abandoned kittens. Despite the affectionate petting they received beforehand, they mewled in protest at being confined to and transported inside a cardboard box. Though Ella doubted anyone would actually bother breaking in to her humble abode, she nonetheless locked the front door and said a silent farewell to her home. With a regretful sigh, she placed the kittens on the front seat of her pickup, tossed her suitcase in the back, and headed for her new job.
The distance between her cabin and Hawk’s Red Feather Ranch was relatively short as the crow flies. Wearing tennis shoes, Ella could make the trek through aspen groves and crisscrossing creeks in approximately fifteen minutes. Unfortunately since roads were not engineered according to a crow’s good sense, she was compelled to drive the perimeter of her few acres and around Hawk’s vast pastureland. She rolled down the windows to cross-ventilate the aging pickup. She didn’t mind the wind messing up her hair on such a glorious day as today.
The meadows clung tenaciously to the last green of the fading summer season. It wouldn’t be long before the aspen leaves would be devouring the hillsides in fiery bursts of red and orange. Ella was sorely tempted to pull over and capture the way the morning light cast a celestial halo around Gannet Peak. The highest summit in Wyoming, it towered above the granite back of the Wind River Range. Ella loved hiding fantasy creatures in the backgrounds of her paintings. Squinting against the rose-colored sunrise, she could just make out a satyr’s frosted beard in the snow that remained on the Peak all year long.
A black-and-white speckled kitten she’d dubbed Holstein crawled out of the nest of drowsy siblings and toppled over the edge of its box. Ella picked it up and set it on her lap with a gentle admonition not to interfere with the driving task at hand.
“Now that I’m back to punching a time clock,” she told the kitten, “there’s no time to tarry.”
Filing the memory of that panoramic scene in her mind for future reference, she continued down the washboard road that led to the Red Feather Ranch. A half an hour later, Ella was standing on her employer’s spacious front deck, pressing the doorbell. And pressing it again. And again. When both her finger and her patience wore out, expediency directed her to simply let herself in.
She was certain that she had not misunderstood either the day or the time they had agreed upon for beginning her employment. The instant she stepped inside it was apparent why no one had bothered answering the doorbell. It was impossible to hear anything over the television blaring out cartoons at full volume. She shook her head at the monstrous big-screen set. Why anyone would want a movie screen dominating their living space was beyond her understanding. Personally she considered television a major waste of time and was put off by the constant drone of commercialism trying to convince her that her wants and needs were one in the same.
Ella picked her way across a room littered with toys to shut the abandoned appliance off. Following the noise of a video game reverberating down the hallway, she proceeded to Hawk’s den where she found him once again glued to his computer.
He needed a haircut, she noticed. His dark hair was beginning to curl over the collar of his expensive shirt. Standing safely in the open doorway, Ella was free to study him without his knowledge or permission. She had little fear he would feel her gaze upon him. It appeared the entire house could fall down around those football shoulders of his without him losing focus.
That such a gorgeous hunk was in actuality a computer nerd would no doubt disappoint Phoebe, but Ella wasn’t about to argue with the facts before her. Or acknowledge the increase in her heart rate as she covertly admired her employer’s physical attributes. The ability to concentrate entirely upon one’s work was something Ella understood and respected. She had just never realized that business could hold the same all encompassing allure for someone as art did for her. Deciding it would be best not to disturb Hawk when he was so wrapped up in his work, she silently continued on with her search for Billy and Sarah.
Drawn to their playroom by the electronic sounds of alien destruction, Ella unearthed them at last. They were sitting slack-jawed in front of a video game, nimbly maneuvering their respective joysticks and mumbling incoherently.
“I think you’ve done your part to save the universe for today,” Ella said, getting their attention by shutting the game off.
They reacted as if she had cut off their oxygen supply.
“We were in the middle of a game!” Billy protested, an unpleasant whine tingeing his voice.
“Yeah!” Sarah reiterated, placing her little hands defiantly on her hips.
Billy reached over to reactivate the game. He was perplexed when the screen remained blank. Swinging the disconnected cord around in her hand like a modern-day lariat, Ella was determined to let them both know from the get-go who was in charge.
“Hey!” they hollered.
“Straw!” she rejoined with a grin.
Determined to limit the amount of time the children spent in front of a glowing screen, Ella informed them both that she needed their help unpacking. They groaned. Sarah threatened to “tell my daddy on you” if Ella didn’t plug the set back in immediately.
“Go ahead,” Ella told her, not in the least nonplused. She wasn’t about to be manipulated by two small children, no matter how precocious they were. Of course, she didn’t want to start her tenure off with an angry confrontation either. Hoping to avert a power struggle, she tried distracting them from the crisis of the moment.
“I brought you both a surprise,” she said.
Two pair of curious eyes studied her with sudden interest.
“What is it?” Billy wanted to know.
“A toy?” Sarah inquired.
“No, not a toy.” Ella laughed, thinking of all the discarded playthings strewn throughout the house. Without giving it a thought, she plopped down on the floor beside them to meet them at eye level. “It looks to me like you have more than enough toys than are good for any boy or girl. Tell me, do you like animals?”
They both nodded their heads enthusiastically.
“What do you think about taking on