Mark was startled by a knock at the door. He was sitting on the couch watching TV. He got up and opened the door.
"Is Champ in here?" Kayla asked.
Mark looked at her. Her hair was damp and it ran down her back in ringlets curled from the dampness. Her cheeks were pink and flushed. She must have just gotten out of the shower.
"Yea." Mark said and held the door open.
Kayla caught his scent as she walked by him. Damn him he always smelled so good.
Like cologne, whiskey and leather. Even as a child she had noticed that.
Champ was lying in the floor asleep. Poor Champ he was getting old and didn't feel like doing much of anything anymore.
Kayla knelt down beside him and petted him. The old German Shepard raised his head and stared in Kayla's eyes. Kayla impulsively hugged Champ. She knew he was old and probably wouldn't be around much longer. Whet would she do if she lost Champ to. He was her best friend. Kayla had never had friends. She had lived so isolated on the Ranch. She had only had Champ and her dad.
Champ licked her face and Kayla laughed.
She stood up.
"Come on Champ, your moving to the stables with me." Kayla said.
Kayla looked at Mark.
"Can I go get his bowl and his dog food?" Kayla asked.
"Kayla you don't have you ask me that you used to live here for god sake." Mark said impatiently.
Kayla walked to the kitchen and grabbed Champs bowl and the bag of dog food. The house felt so good. He had the air condition going full blast. In Texas you had to it was hotter than hell out side and it was already dark but it was still like a furnace out side.
Kayla came back and called to Champ who rose up stiffly and followed her.
"Thank you Mr. Callaway for letting him stay in the house today. He sleeps a lot these days." Kayla said looking down at Champ with affection.
Mark looked at her. She gazed at the dog with affection. He knew she had Champ for a long time. She would be devastated if anything happened to him.
"How about calling me Mark? Okay." Mark said.
Kayla turned his gaze on him. Mark felt pinned by those beautiful eyes of hers.
She surprised him by agreeing.
"Okay Mark." Kayla said. She walked out the door and Champ followed. Mark watched them till they disappeared around the corner. He shut the door and went to get a beer.
Kayla fed Champ and climbed in the bed. It was only 9:00PM but she was used to going to bed early and getting up early. 4:00AM came early on a ranch. She had the little window fan on but all it was really doing was drying the sweat. It was hot as hell. Kayla was used to air conditioner. She sighed and turned on her side. Stop being a baby Kayla she told herself. You're lucky you got a place to sleep. Champ lay in the bed beside her and she wrapped her arm around him. She finally drifted off to a fitful sleep.
Mark stood on the back porch and gazed out at the stable. He wondered if Kayla was asleep. The window was dark so he assumed so. The girl was so damn stubborn. He wanted to help her, he had tried to be nice to her but she was having no part of it. He sighed and walked back in the house. He turned off the lights and headed upstairs to go to bed. He had a decorator coming tomorrow to redo a couple of the bedrooms, but he was leaving the rest of the house the way it was. He walked into what had been Rob's bedroom. He smiled. Taped up on one wall were pictures Kayla had drawn for her dad when she was a child. Rob had left them up all these years. Mark looked at them. Childish drawings of her and her dad and of champ, All the pictures had 'I love you Daddy' scrawled across the bottom. Mark started laughing there smack in the middle was a drawing of him. He looked like the devil himself, he swore it looked like she had put horns on him. Scrawled in crayon on the bottom was 'Mr. Callaway, daddy's friend.'
Mark sighed. Was that the way she seen him as a friend of her fathers or had she wrote that to please her dad. Him and Rob had never fought or argued. He would ask for the ranch and Rob would say no, then they would spend an hour just talking about sports the ranch or even Kayla. Mark turned around and undressed and turned the light off. He climbed into bed. He hoped him and Kayla could learn to co-exist here. He turned on his side and was soon fast asleep.