Stranded in Oasis Read online

  "We already talked about that and came to an understanding."

  Pilar nodded. "Good."

  They reached the trail.

  She asked, "Which way do you want to go? Toward the canyon or the wilderness road?"

  "I've never been to the canyon. Didn't even know about it."

  "It's hidden pretty well. It's actually a giant wash, but I think canyon sounds more adventurous than wash."

  "Let's head for the canyon, then."

  After following the main trail for about half an hour, Pilar ventured onto a smaller one and they walked it for maybe fifteen minutes. Unexpectedly, the path took a sharp right turn and gradually inclined. At the top, they stood over a ravine. Pilar pointed to the trail leading down. Max took the lead and before long they reached the bottom. He said, "I wonder how long it's taken to carve this out?"

  Pilar responded, "My cousin and I used to come here when we were kids. To my recollection, it looks just the same. Once, while we were walking along the top, it started raining, and before long, a river rushed through here. It was amazing how one minute there was nothing, and the next, a raging torrent. It can be a very dangerous place. I never let Willie come here without me."

  Max picked up a rock and tossed it. "How long have you lived here?"

  "About five years."

  "Where did you move from?"

  "Phoenix."

  Max changed the subject. "I wonder if I've met your cousin?"

  Pilar shrugged. "Maybe. He's the local mechanic and owns the garage, but his heart is into repairing and customizing motorcycles. He's really good and gets a lot of outside work. His house is the last one at the edge of town on Second Street. He was raised by his paternal grandmother when his parents died in a car crash when he was a baby. His mother and my mother were sisters."

  "I haven't actually met him, but I've seen him at his garage."

  Pilar laughed. "Somehow, he keeps my old vehicle chugging along. In fact, that reminds me, we'd better head back. Willie's father will be picking him up tonight and I need to get his clothes ready."

  Max wanted to ask about the boy's father, but couldn't think of a way to do so without sounding nosy.

  Chapter 11: Loaner

  The evening of his walk with Pilar, Max opened the curtains of his Bounder at dusk to watch a beautiful sunset—or so he told himself. A sleek Beamer pulled to the front of Pilar's trailer and a tall, blonde man, extricated himself from the lush vehicle. Watching the guy ignited a backfire of questions in Max's mind. Apparently, her ex wasn’t hurting for cash, so why was she living in a trailer? Had she been stiffed in the divorce? She seemed intelligent enough to keep that from happening. And what man in his right mind would want his child to grow up in a trailer park?

  Pilar stepped outside with Willie. She spoke with her ex in a civil manner and he patted his son's head. Dad and son got in the car and drove away. Pilar waved.

  The woman was an enigma, for sure. His cell phone rang and he groaned. Lilac was calling. He hadn't heard from her since that morning and he'd hoped for a respite from her calls for the rest of the day. For god's sake, what could she want now?

  "Hello, Lilac."

  "Goodness, it's like magic, the way them cell phones tell you who's calling."

  "It's quite handy. What can I do for you?"

  "I just called to let you know everything's set for our first country western dance."

  Max frowned. "I thought you said we were having a bingo bash."

  "My bingo caller will be cruisin' the Bahamas the day of the party, so I switched things around. I got Clyde and Cora Cooper, who live in town and teach line dancing in their garage, to volunteer as emcees. I'm callin' this party the How Do-Ya-Do Mixer. Well, actually, Goody came up with the name so's I can't take credit for it. Course, old lady high-and-mighty, I mean, Vera Hightower, didn't like it, but since I'm in charge, I told her I did and I wasn't changin' it. She…"

  Max sighed and broke into Lilac's rambling. "Thanks for letting me know. Is there anything else you need?"

  "Nope. Jus' checkin' in with boss man." She laughed at her own joke. "You jus' be ready to kick up yer heels in two weeks."

  Max said goodbye and tossed his phone on the table. He'd never danced country in his life and he had no desire to learn. He figured he'd make an appearance and then hightail it out of there.

  * * *

  Pilar turned the key in the ignition of her mechanically challenged vehicle and it groaned a couple of times before becoming completely silent. No. No. No. She turned the key again. Not even a groan this time. Although she knew it was useless, she tried once more. Nada.

  Laying her head on her steering wheel, she wanted to cry. She was already running late in picking Willie up from one of his bimonthly visits with his father. Parker would be furious if she called and said she couldn't make it. He was never late for anything and the earth would have to be in the throes of catastrophic disaster altering the ability of humanity to survive, for him to even take a day off. The man was an anal workaholic.

  A knock on the driver's window startled her and she jerked her head up. Max stood beside her 1989 Ford Taurus that would soon register 200,000 miles if her cousin could get it running again. She opened her door and said, "The car just gave up the ghost. I need to call Kade to look at it and ask to borrow his car. My ex is going to have a fit when I don't show up on time." She was being a motor mouth, spilling out her frustration, but she couldn't seem to help it.

  Max reached in his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys. He dangled them in front of her. "Here, just take my car."

  Pilar blinked, glanced at his shiny—well, dusty—Mercedes, and looked back at him, expecting him to laugh and say he was only joking.

  He looked completely serious.

  She said, "Are you actually allowing me the use of your fantastically expensive vehicle to drive all the way to Phoenix?"

  Max cocked a half grin and Pilar's heart stumbled over itself. He winked. "I am. Is there some reason I shouldn't? Do you have warrants out for your arrest or are you planning an escape into Mexico?"

  Pilar grinned back. "No and no." She accepted the keys. "You have just saved my bacon, Max Rutherford. Do you want to come with me?"

  "I was afraid you'd never ask. Let me lock up and I'll meet you at the car in two minutes."

  Pilar grabbed her purse off the passenger seat and exited her pathetic vehicle. She walked the few steps to Max's car and waited beside the passenger door for his return. He stepped from his RV and she started to toss him his keys, but he said, "No. You drive."

  Another shockwave flooded Pilar. Max opened the driver's door, motioned for her to slide in, and then rounded the car to join her on the passenger side. After a quick perusal of the dash and console, she slipped the keys into the ignition and it fired up as smooth as butter. She'd once owned an expensive car, well, nothing like Max's, but that was light years in the past. A past she rarely dwelt on.

  They were silent as they exited Desert Princess Trailer and RV Park and turned in the opposite direction from town, onto the old road that would eventually meet up with the highway.

  Max tapped the CD button and the car was filled with Sarah Brightman singing Deliver Me. Pilar was surprised at his choice in music. She had expected something straight-laced, like Mozart.

  They listened to the song while a silent desert whizzed past and a black sky littered with glowing stars gave magic to words about two people delivering each other.

  "Do you like Sarah Brightman?" Max asked softly.

  "I do. Have you ever watched her concerts?"

  "I attended the one in Vienna at St. Stephen's Cathedral."

  Pilar gasped." I can only imagine how wonderful it was. I watch her concerts on video and get chills every time."

  Neither of them spoke as they listened to the remainder of the CD. By the time it ended, they were well on their way down the U.S. 93. Max reached to lower the volume when another CD started. "So, at the risk of sounding nosey,
how long have you been divorced?"

  Pilar knew that if she told him she didn't want to talk about her life, he would respect her wishes without argument, but she responded, "Six years."

  "I suppose you know my next question. If I'm out of line, just say so and I'll shut up."

  She glanced at him and then back at the road. "No doubt you've seen Willie's father pick him up and you want to know why I live in a trailer park when he obviously has money."

  She looked at Max again and he slightly nodded.

  Although she and Max had gotten off to a rough start, she'd come to believe he was a man of integrity and compassion after the way he'd righted the wrong done to Lilac, Goody, and Vera. She decided to expose herself. After all, Max would be gone in a few months and she'd never see him again. "My ex-husband is a successful attorney, but as a husband and father, he's a failure. Oh, he loves Willie. But as far as being there for either of us, he never was. After years of neglect and loneliness, I finally woke up and realized I could do something to change my life and Willie's."

  Max turned the music even lower and Pilar paused in her revelations. "Go on," he encouraged.

  She shifted to the left lane to pass a slow moving eighteen-wheeler and continued, "I'm an only child and was raised in a middle class neighborhood in Mesa, Arizona. My mother was Caucasian and my father, Hispanic. I remember my parents shipping me to Oasis every summer to spend time with Kade and his grandmother. My mom and dad had a once-a-year standing date for a week of 'honeymooning,' as they called it. They were very loving and so, not long into my marriage, by comparison, I knew something was wrong."

  "Are your parents still living?"

  Hurt squeezed Pilar's heart. "Not my mother. She had a congenital heart defect and died when I was sixteen. It's a shame she never got to meet Willie. My father, on a visit to his family in Zacatecas five years later, married a woman he knew as a child. They visit every couple of years and I'm happy he fell in love again. His wife is wonderful to me and Willie."

  They were silent as darkness over the desert made the stars so much brighter than anything seen in the city.

  Pilar glanced sideways after several minutes. "What about your parents? Are they living?"

  "My father died when I was five and my sister was two. My mother remarried when I was almost ten and my stepfather died when I was twenty. My grandfather started training me in the family business when I was seventeen. I started out in the mailroom."

  "Exactly what is your family business?"

  Max decided revealing his history to Pilar would not compromise his position with his grandfather. "We buy companies on the verge of bankruptcy, restructure them to become profitable, and then resale them. Some of the companies have been so successful we've hung on to them."

  "What are some of the companies you own?"

  "Software Express, Green Universe, Responsible Financial Investments. Those are a few."

  Pilar shot Max a startled look. "You're kidding, right? Those are huge companies."

  "No. Not kidding."

  "But why on earth are you managing Desert Princess Trailer and RV Park?"

  Max laughed. "That's something I'd like to know myself. Four weeks ago my grandfather insisted I leave our latest acquisition in San Diego, a company that develops software chips for video games, and fly to our corporate office in New York. He then, basically, told me that if I wanted to continue with the company, the next six months of my life would be spent in Arizona managing a trailer park."

  Pilar's jaw dropped. "That's crazy."

  "Yeah. Except that the old man is as active and sane as a man half his age."

  "So you drove here in that awesome RV to fulfill his wish."

  "More like his order. But yes, and then, as you've seen, my RV was absconded and replaced by the one I'm now in because Max, Sr. decided he wanted to go on vacation."

  Pilar shook her head. "So what happened to the company in San Diego?"

  "My stepbrother, Bertram, took over the operation?"

  "You don't sound too enthused about that."

  "Bertram has done everything in his power to make my life miserable since we were kids."

  The exit for Phoenix appeared and Pilar slowed and turned onto it.

  Max laughed. "So, Ms. Armstrong we now know each others secrets."

  Pilar joined his laughter. "Yours are a lot more interesting than mine."

  "Actually, you didn't finish yours. If your ex-husband is a successful attorney, why do you live in a trailer? What about spousal and child support?"

  "Most people wouldn't understand, but when I was free of Parker, I wanted to be totally free. I didn't want him supporting me. Oh, I accepted child support, and that money goes into a trust for Willie to be used when he's ready to attend college, or do whatever he wants with his life, but the spousal support, I declined. After I was free I didn't want my ex supporting me. I sold real estate for awhile in Phoenix, but hated it. One weekend, feeling nostalgic, I decided to visit my cousin and his grandmother, and during that visit I just knew I wanted to relocate there. I love the desert. And when Princess offered me the waitressing job, I jumped for it. I had enough money saved to buy the trailer I live in and so, as you can see, my expenses are low. Frankly, I hate city living. Playing the role of Mrs. Armstrong, wife of successful attorney, Parker Armstrong, just about killed me. I hated entertaining his associates and business contacts. He always made me feel small, like I didn't matter. He despised the fact that I did my own cleaning and sewing and decorating. He wanted to brag about hiring everything out so his wife could lounge at their private club, shop, and beautify herself at spas. He always lived beyond our means and I hated it. He killed my spirit for years."

  * * *

  Max stared at the approaching lights of Phoenix. His perception of Pilar as a woman of many layers was confirmed. As far has he knew, there wasn't a female of his acquaintance that would decline spousal support, live in a trailer, and work as a waitress in a nowhere town to support herself and her child.

  When they reached the outskirts of town, she said, "It isn't much farther. Parker wanted to live in a gated, fashionable suburb."

  A few minutes later she braked in front of a huge, ornate, wrought iron gate with spotlighted fountains gracing both sides of it. Punching a code into a panel, she turned to Max and said with a wry smile, "We are now entering my former prison. Thank God I was able to escape."

  Max gave passing interest to the houses as Pilar guided his car down several streets. He almost smiled. The houses were middle-class compared to the ones he'd been raised in. Actually, his dwellings had been a mansion on Long Island and penthouses throughout the world, including Paris, Venice, London, and Sydney. His mother lived in the Long Island home now, and the Paris and Sydney penthouses had been deeded to him, while the Venice one had gone to his sister and the London one to Bertram.

  She pulled into the driveway of the largest house on the block and said, "Here we are. Let's get this fun over with."

  "Do you want me to come with you or wait in the car?"

  "You can wait in the car. Parker usually has Willie's backpack beside the door and ready to go." She pointed to the Porsche in the driveway. "Oh, and that belongs to Parker's girlfriend, Sondra; his mistress when we were married."

  Max studied Pilar's eyes, but instead of seeing hurt, he saw humor. She said, "I actually like the woman and Willie does, too. She's been in love with Parker for years. She just puts up with his crap."

  Pilar opened her door and Max watched her sprint up the flagstone walkway. He grinned. She was still wearing faded jeans, the Duck Dynasty T-shirt, and tennis shoes that had seen better days. Her hair was tousled and she wore no makeup that he could discern. She wasn't dolled up in any sense of the word, but she was so desirable he wanted to kiss her until they were both crazy. Down, boy. She's not your type and she doesn't like successful men. She's a desert rat. You're not.

  Light spilled from the door when it opened and the tall, handsome m
an Max had seen before, appeared. Beside him, a blonde bombshell, as far as Max could tell, smiled at Pilar. The women chatted and laughed for a minute until Willie bounded out the door with his backpack. Pilar said something and then turned to follow Willie. The ex-husband stepped outside and stared at the car Pilar was driving. He called to her and she turned back around, listening to him. Max saw her making hand motions while Parker glanced from her to the car. Max reached to flip the key so he could crack his window. He heard Parker say, "I told you that piece of crap you drive was going to break down. I'll buy you another car–"

  "The hell you will. My cousin is repairing it."

  "God, Pilar. Why do you always fight me? I just want to help."

  "I don't want your help."

  "My son needs better–"

  "Your son is very well cared for, and you know it. Goodbye."

  Willie opened the back door. "Howdy, Mr. Rutherford. I like your car." Obviously, the child was used to words between his parents. He settled into the backseat with his backpack.

  Max returned his gaze to Pilar and her ex. He heard the man ask, "Who's in the car?"

  "The owner."

  "I saw the car when I picked Willie up. It was parked in front of your trailer. Who the hell owns an eighty thousand dollar car and lives in a trailer park?"

  "Why do you always do that?"

  "Do what?"

  "Evaluate everything by the almighty dollar."

  "Because money, my ex-love, is what keeps this world spinning."

  "That's bull crap."

  Parker made a motion of exasperation. "I'll see you in two weeks when I pick Willie up. Maybe your car will completely die and you'll let me buy you another one."

  "And maybe javelinas will fly."

  Parker just shook his head and turned back toward the house. When he reached the woman still standing in the doorway, she placed her arm around his waist as he closed the door.

  Chapter 12: Helping the Help