Under A Painted Sky (Spirit Warrior Series) (2 page)

The master bedroom was
the first one to the left. It was huge with the master bathroom door on the
left. As you go through the door, there are two sinks on the right with a
toilet on the left and a huge walk-in closet big enough for four people.
Straight past the sink was a huge jetted Jacuzzi tub with an enclosed shower
stall on the other side of tub.
Wow, could it get any better?
Yes, it could.
There was a door to a veranda off of the master suite. Walking out the door,
there was a wrought iron railing around the veranda. It had a round patio bed
with pillows on it and tables sitting on each side of the bed. You could lie
out there and look at the stars all night. It made me wish for a moment that I
still had a husband to do that with.

Oh, well, enough of
that.

The master bedroom
suite was gorgeous; the furniture looked like it belonged to royalty. There
were two other bedrooms of medium size and a bathroom. It had a laundry room
with washer and dryer in place. I loved it.

I reached for my phone
to call my Aunt Carol to let her know I’d made it and to thank her for this
awesome place. There was no answer, so I left her a message about how wonderful
the place is. I texted my brother and my mom to tell them I made it and how
incredible the place was.

CHAPTER 3

I still had to unload
my car, ugh!

First things first—I went
into the living room and plugged my iPod into the Bose music system.

Wow, the sound was
coming from everywhere and so crystal clear. It made it seem like you were at
the concert. I thought I was in heaven. I couldn’t live without my music.

After about two hours
had passed, I had my car unloaded and my things put away.

I realized I was
famished, so I went to the fridge to see if maybe there was something in it. I
couldn’t believe my eyes. It was stocked full with all the things I liked. Wow,
she must have talked to my mom. What a welcome home present. My aunt was
something special. I hadn’t seen much of her since she married James. They
traveled everywhere.

In the middle of the
fridge was a plate of sandwiches from Paradise Bakery that said welcome home on
a sticky note on top of the container.
“Sweet.”

I grabbed some water
and started devouring a turkey, avocado and bacon sandwich.

All of a sudden, there
was a knock on the door.

I went and opened it to
find a total hunk standing there. He was kind of tall and muscular with brown
hair and glistening green eyes.

“Hello, can I help
you?” I asked.

“Hi. My name is Logan
Hayes. I’m the caretaker here. You must be Isabella?”

“Yes, I am Isabella.”

“Well, I don’t want to
intrude, but I just wanted to check on you and see if there is anything I could
help you with?” Logan asked.

“Uh, no, not that I can
think of,” I responded.

“I hope the food I
picked up was okay. I tried to stock the fridge full as your aunt requested,”
he said.

“Oh, it was great! Thank
you so much,” I replied.

“Are you sure there’s
nothing I can do?” he asked.

“Thanks, but I think
you’ve done enough already,” I said.

“I guess I’ll be on my
way then. Oh, yes… I’ll be here tomorrow to do the pool about 10 a.m. if that’s
okay?”

“Sure,” I said.

“One more thing; I
promised your aunt to show you the town for however many days it takes, so tell
me when you’re available for the grand tour.”

“Oh, really you have
done enough. That isn’t necessary.”

“Your aunt paid me for it.
You wouldn’t want me to have to give the money back, would you? After all, it
will be the easiest money I’ve ever made just playing tour guide.”

“Okay, then. It would
be nice to be shown around. I’m available anytime.”

“How
about as soon as I finish the pool tomorrow?
Logan asked. “It will only take about twenty minutes.”

“That would be great.”

“I guess I’ll see you
in the morning then.”

“See you,” I replied
and shut the door.

Wow, I couldn’t believe
I had a pool guy that looked like that! I couldn’t believe he was showing me
the town.
Thank you, thank you, Aunt Carol.

I knew I’d better call
my mom before she totally freaked out.

“Mom, I made it. Yes,
I’m fine, everything could not be better. Yes, it’s very beautiful. Yes, I’ll
keep the doors locked. I have an alarm system here. I feel real safe. Do not
worry. I love you. Tell dad I love him, too. Bye,” I said.

I decided to take a dip
in the pool and cool off.

I hurried up the stairs
to the master bedroom and put my bathing suit on. I grabbed a towel, headed
downstairs and out the sliding glass door to the pool.

I dove into the crystal
clear waters and swam a few laps. The water temperature felt just right. I got
out of the pool and plopped onto the lounge chair. This really was the life! I
didn’t know how I’d gotten so lucky. I just lie there soaking up the rays and
breathing in the music.

After an hour had
passed, I decided I’d better get in the house and unpack my things. I must
admit, I am somewhat of a neat freak, something my friends had never understood.
I can’t help it. I guess I was born that way.

All of the things I
brought in the car were now properly in their place, so I felt better and I was
starving again.

I headed for the fridge
and got another of one of those glorious sandwiches, roast beef this time.

I grabbed a bottle of
water and headed for the living room. I couldn’t resist turning on the
fireplace to watch the fire even though it was the middle of June. One flip of
the switch and it was ablaze. I adjusted the AC a little so I wouldn’t burn up.

I watched a couple of
movies on TV, set the security system like the instructions said and then it
was off to bed. I went up to the master bedroom and tucked myself in. I had
never been afraid of staying by myself. I guess I had plenty of practice when
my parents would travel and leave me home because I had school. I went right to
sleep.

I was awakened by a
very heavy breathing sound. I looked around and I didn’t see anything. It
sounded like it was coming from the door to the outside veranda. I got up and
looked out the window to the outside and whoa! There was a hot air balloon out
there. I grabbed my robe and threw open the door. The balloon was about
twenty-five feet away from my porch. The guy in the basket of the balloon waved
and yelled, “Good morning.”

I waved back and said,
“Good morning.”

I couldn’t believe it.
It was like I could almost touch it. I had never seen a hot air balloon except
on television. It was red, black, blue, yellow and orange; each color in
teardrop, up and down the balloon. I stood at the porch rails and tried to take
it all in and there came another.

Wow! And then another.
I had three balloons in front of my porch.

I went back into the
bedroom to grab my camera and phone and called my mom from the porch to share
my joy. I was taking pictures as we talked.

“Mom, you are never
gonna believe what I am looking at off of my bedroom veranda,” I said.

“Well, what is it,
Isabella, that has you so excited?” she asked.

“I woke up to this
heavy breathing sound and it sounded like it came from the veranda and I looked
out and saw a hot air balloon about twenty-five feet away. I put on my robe and
went out; it’s just beautiful. There are these great colored balloons. There
was one at first then, two more joined it,” I imparted.

“How wonderful, dear.
Carol said that balloons come up almost every day and thought that might cheer
you. It sounds like she was right. I wish I were there seeing your face,” Mom
said.

“I wish you were here, too.
I know you would love it as well. What a radical surprise this was. I guess
I’ll let you go now. I just had to share it with someone. I was about to pee my
pants with excitement. I love you,” I said.

“I love you, too,
Isabella. Have a beautiful day, sweetheart,” she said.

By the time I got off
the phone they were gone, drifting off toward the mountain.

That was so cool! I
could wake up to that every day. My neighbor came out on her porch and yelled,
“Good morning.”

“Good morning,” I
replied back to her.

She said, “Welcome to
the neighborhood.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m Britney.” She
looked about my age.

“Isabella. Good to meet
ya,” I said.

“Good to meet you, too.
We see this almost every day when the weather is good, but sometimes there are
even more than three balloons.”

“I would never get
tired of this,” I said.

“Yes, it is pretty
amazing.”

“It was good talking
with you. I think I need coffee,” I said as I headed for the door.

“Yes, we should get
together sometime.”

“That would be great,”
I replied as I closed the door.
“The land of enchantment.”

Huh, I was enchanted
already.

I headed for the coffee
pot and found everything to make a cup of java, even my most favorite creamer,
pumpkin spice. Aah, I needed caffeine to catch up to the exhilaration of my
balloon experience. I hardly ever ate breakfast, but I drank my coffee and was
good for the morning. I went to the Bose dock where my iPod was plugged in and
turned it on, and I heard these lyrics by Train in their song “Drive By”.

“…
’Cause you moved
to West L.A. or New York or Santa Fe or wherever to get away from me…”

“Ain’t that the truth,”
I said out loud.

I drank in the
wonderful aroma from my cup of java and glanced over at the time. Wow, I
thought I had better get ready because sexy Logan was coming to get me this
morning for my tour.

I headed up the stairs.
I washed my face, brushed my teeth, put on my makeup and fixed my hair. Thank
goodness for a great hair day. So, what do I wear to go on a tour? I guessed
since it was sunny, a sundress would do the trick and sandals. That would be
easy.

I put on a V-neck ocean
blue sundress, added a necklace with seashells, and a belt of tiny shells. I
had white thong sandals with tiny shells and sand glued to the thong part of
the shoe. I looked in the mirror and gave an approving grin as I saw my tanned
reflection peering back at me. I stayed tan. It was partly because of my olive
skin and partly because I lived on the Southern East Coast and it was hard to
not be tanned.

And my figure wasn’t
too bad. I was 124 pounds, at 5’6” tall. To top it all off, I grabbed some
starfish earrings and I was ready.

CHAPTER FOUR

The doorbell rang and
it looked like I was just in time. I ran downstairs.

When I opened the door,
Logan turned around and said, “Wow. Nice.”

“
Thanks,
come on in.”

“I’ll just run out
there and take care of the pool so we can be on our way.”

“Okay; no hurry.”

I gathered my phone,
camera and purse and placed them on the side table by the door. I turned off
the coffee pot, went upstairs and made my bed, then turned off the lights.

By the time I got back
down the stairs, Logan was coming in from the sliding glass door and locked it.
“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Let’s go then.”

We locked up and headed
for his truck. He had an almost new looking black Ford F150 truck with black
and silver interior. The silver trim shined and looked luxurious. It was nice.
It had black leather seats with a console between the two front seats. The
truck had a backup camera that showed on the dash above the XM radio. It had
GPS and all the bells and whistles.

He said, “If you don’t
mind, I planned out the day’s activities if you’re game.”

“My life is in your
hands. No, really, that’s fine, since I am lost.”

“Why don’t you tell me
about yourself,” Logan said.

“Not much to tell, I’m
twenty-one from a small town on the Florida coast. I married my high school
sweetheart at nineteen. He left me for someone else about six months ago and
now, I’m divorced. I went to school to be a nurse; I passed my boards and am waiting
on my license to arrive so I can go to work. Let’s see, I love music, dancing,
swimming, reading, jewelry, hanging out and helping people. What about
yourself?” I asked.

“I moved here with my
family when I was six years old from Boulder, Colorado. So, I’ve pretty much
lived here my whole life. I’m twenty-one also. I’ve never been married and
haven’t been to college. My father owns our business called ‘Mi Casa Es Su
Casa’. I work taking care of vacation homes and selling real estate as well. My
sister holds the realtor’s license. I may get one before too long. I love New
Mexico and the people here. I love music as well, and watching movies,
exploring, collecting arrowheads; I just love life,” he expounded.