Chapter One
Cricket threw her suitcase on the bed, stripped out of her traveling clothes and tossed them onto the nearest chair. She took out her new bathing suit and quickly put it on. She couldn't wait to get to the beach! All her life, she'd waited to go to Hawaii. And now that she was here, she could hardly believe it. She gave her arm a quick pinch to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
Cricket stared out the sliding glass door and sighed with contentment. She'd specifically selected this hotel in Waikiki because of its location. Right on the beach. She was not disappointed. It was costly, but worth every penny. After all, she didn't think she'd ever make this trip again. Not with her busy schedule. Cricket smiled to herself, and wrapped her arms around her waist. She was going to enjoy this week to its fullest.
On her king-sized bed, Cricket's suitcase lay, waiting to be unpacked. She'd packed it in such a hurry, she hardly knew what was inside anymore. She hoped she'd packed everything she needed. Back at home, Cricket's business kept her very busy. She designed and made children's clothing. One day, in the near future, she hoped to be able to hire more people, but for now, she had to make do with the employees she had--a secretary and several reliable people cutting and sewing garments. Other than that, she was it. She was the CEO, President, Bookkeeper, Designer, Sales Manager and all around flunky. But frankly, she loved it.
Cricket sighed again as she stared around the elegance of the room. It hadn't been easy getting where she was, but it'd been worth it. The company was hers. All hers. At least, the business belonged to no one but her and the bank. The loan officer at the bank had suggested that she might be better off with partners. She had flatly refused. Sink or swim, she wanted to manage the company on her own. She didn't want to answer to anyone.
Cricket's mother had taught her how to sew when she was just a little girl. First she was taught how to make doll clothes. Later her mother taught her how to cut out and design her own clothing. Cricket found she had a natural talent for it. In the sixth grade, she designed and made her first blouse. She'd been making most of her clothes since. When she was sixteen, she started designing and making clothing for her niece. When her nephew was born, she made clothes for him. It didn't take long for friends of the family to notice her work and start asking her to make clothes for their children or grandchildren. Cricket loved being able to make money doing something she loved.
The first premise for Cricket's little business was the spare bedroom of her parent's house. Cricket worked hard at getting the room set up just right. She scooted the bed against the wall to make enough room for her sewing machine and ironing board. She bought a piece of plywood, covered it with material, and drove nails in it to hang thread, zippers and trim. She ordered cloth labels with "Handmade by Cricket" and sewed them into everything.
By the time she graduated from High School, Cricket had a thriving little business. She hired two of her friends who liked to sew to free up more of her time to work on designs. At this point, she sold strictly by word of mouth.
Her father suggested that she talk to a loan officer at the bank to see about a loan for her own building. She did. And they did. Scared out of her mind, Cricket had her plant build, bought commercial sewing machines and cutting tables and started sewing. She registered her label, Crickets--a small cricket dressed in overalls and red cap--and was in business. But with the added overhead expenses, Cricket now didn't have enough customers to keep afloat. On the advice of a good friend, she started selling to specialty stores in the area. It gained her little.
Cricket was almost broke when someone suggested she go to the Designer's Mall in Dallas, Texas. Having nothing to lose, she packed up every design she had and went to Dallas. Everything had been downhill since. Stores ordered everything she had in stock and Cricket had to go home and hire more help. Cricket pinched herself again. Inside, she was bubbling with excitement. She had to make sure she wasn't dreaming. This vacation was the first time she'd been away from the business since she'd graduated from High School. She was determined to see everything there was to see, and do everything there was to do in Hawaii. But first thing on her list was to swim in the ocean.
She grabbed a beach towel from a holder in the bathroom. Before today, she'd never seen the ocean before. She'd never seen any of the Great Lakes. The most water she had ever seen was a lake not far from where she lived . . . and she'd thought that it was huge! What a joke! Flying over the ocean had sent chills up her spine. For hours, all she could see when she glanced out her window was water. Now, to think that she would swim in the same body of water that stretched from Hawaii to California was awesome. She knew this was going to be one of the greatest thrills of her life.
Passing by the full-length mirror on the outside of the bathroom door, Cricket couldn't help but giggle to herself. She could hardly believe the amount of white skin her new bathing suit exposed! She sloughed off the thought quickly. Surely, there would be other white bodies on the beach . . . others, such as herself, who hadn't been in the sun for a long time . . .
She took a second, longer look in the mirror, and studied her features. Other than the pasty white skin, she knew she looked good. Quickly, she slathered sunscreen all over her body, wrapped the hotel towel around her neck and headed for the elevator.
Singing I'm the happiest girl in the whole USA, Cricket pressed the down button. Surprisingly, the door opened immediately.
Cricket rushed into the elevator and ran into a solid wall of human flesh. "Oops," she said and moved aside. As so often happens, the other person moved the same way. "Shall we dance?" she asked, laughing.
No response.
"No sense of humor," she mumbled as the man left the elevator. The whole incident had happened so quickly that Cricket hadn't gotten a good look at him, other to notice that he was huge. And obviously he didn't have much of a sense of humor. He smelled quite good, too. A subtle and she guessed, expensive cologne.
Cricket giggled to herself. This was not the first time she'd physically run into a person. In fact, it happened so often that she was quite used to it. Cricket knew she wasn't an average girl. A vivacious twenty-six year old, she was nicknamed Cricket because it fit her personality. She'd rather run than walk. She had always been that way. So in Cricket's usual way, she ran to the beach.
"You'd never catch me swimming in an ocean. Haven't you seen Jaws?" a friend questioned Cricket before she left for Hawaii. Nothing daunted Cricket though, especially not a movie. That was just fiction, but what she saw stretching before her was reality.
Dropping her towel on the sand, Cricket ran into the water. "Marvelous, simply marvelous," she said doing her best to imitate Billy Crystal. The water wasn't cold, but just cool enough to be invigorating. She struggled against the waves. It was harder for her to swim in the ocean than she'd suspected it would be. The waves kept trying to wash her back to shore. For someone not accustomed to swimming anyway, it didn't take her long to tire.
Breathless and completely satisfied, Cricket headed for the shore. She hadn't been in the water very long, but her arms and legs felt like jelly. Shakily, she reached her towel and lay down on the warm sand. Cricket was grinning from ear to ear. She had actually swum in the Pacific Ocean!
Cricket knew she needed to be careful not to get sunburned, but she wanted to soak up a little sun before she went back inside the hotel. Twenty minutes would be her limit. She checked her watch before burying her face in her arms. Ten minutes later, she turned over. When ten minutes were up, she threw her sunglasses on her towel and dashed to the water for a quick cool-down.
Again, she ran straight into someone. The good part was that no one was hurt. The bad part was that it was the same person she'd run into in the elevator. She knew him by the smell of his cologne.
Cricket blushed as she looked up into the large man's face. "Oops!"
"I'll bet that is the most used word in your vocabulary." There was a snarl in his voice.
Cricket stared, unbelievingly, at one of the largest men she had ever seen. The man was not fat, but huge. At least six-foot-six and well over two hundred pounds. All of which looked to be hard muscle.
He had blond hair and the bluest eyes Cricket had ever seen; and if looks could kill, Cricket would be dead, she thought. With his size, penetrating eyes and deepening frown, she decided that this was not someone she'd like to run into on a dark street some night. He looked like someone's personal bodyguard. Maybe even a mobster! Cricket giggled at her wayward thought.
"What are you laughing at?" he asked angrily.
"What are you frowning at?" she asked. "You aren't hurt and I said I was sorry." Cricket couldn't understand why the man seemed so angry. Sure she had run into him again, but neither of them was injured . . .
"No, you didn't apologize! You said oops. Where I come from oops is not an apology."
"Well then, please excuse me." She smiled her warmest smile up at the big man. Her grandmother told her years ago that a person could catch more flies with honey than they could with vinegar. Not that this man was a fly, but surely if she smiled, he would not do anything to hurt her, like break every bone in her body.
"Do you know who I am?" he asked. He was standing in front of her, his arms locked across his chest.
As he was blocking Cricket's way to the water, she decided not do anything rash. She placed her hands on her hips, looked up at him and smiled again. "No, I don't. Should I?" she asked in her nicest voice.
Cricket saw a grin forming at the corner of his mouth before he said, "Women!" and walked away.
Well, I guess the man does not like women, Cricket thought. Big deal! She did wonder who he was, then quickly dismissed the thought. She didn't know who he was, and quite frankly, she couldn't care less. She hadn't come to Hawaii to meet celebrities, after all, but as a much needed vacation. She was, however, going to pay more attention to where she was going, that was for sure!
Cricket had never been very careful about where she was running. She'd always been in a hurry to get to wherever she was going. Pretty, energetic, confident, amusing and hardworking were words often used to describe Cricket. Never careful, cautious and circumspect. As a child, she bumped into door facings, furniture and people in her rush to get from one place or another. She almost always had a bruise.
Try as she might to be careful, especially about bumping into people, Cricket still did it occasionally. Just as she had bumped into this man today. Vowing once again to pay more attention to where she was going, she ran back into the water. She sat in the shallow water and let the waves wash over her. She stayed in the water just long enough to cool down before heading back into the hotel.
Once at the hotel, Cricket opted to take the stairs instead of going up in the elevator. Nobody who was anybody ever went up the stairs in a hotel. At least, not anyone Cricket knew.
Rounding a corner on the second flight of stairs, Cricket ran into that same man again. Cricket started laughing. This had to be the most impossible man to get away from in the whole wide world! What were the odds she'd run into this same man three times in the last hour and a half? she wondered. Astronomical, she assumed.
"Oops!" Before he could say anything, she continued, "I really am sorry, but you have to admit, that it's not every day that you literally run into the same person so many times in the same day."
"I don't know about you, but I can honestly say that I have never ran into anyone this many times in the same day." Quickly changing from a frown to a smile, he held out his hand. "I suppose if we are going to keep running into each other this way, we should introduce ourselves. I'm Bruce Hargrove. I thought if I took the stairs . . ."
"I know. I thought the same thing. Great minds think alike I'm told." Taking his outstretched hand and giving it a firm shake, Cricket introduced herself. "Cathy Coleman. Nice to meet you." And before he could say anything more, Cricket continued up the stairs.
Cricket puzzled over the name, Bruce Hargrove; thinking she'd heard it somewhere. She could not place it. Oh well, it did not matter, she thought. If she were lucky, she wouldn't run into him again. Hopefully! Then again, her track record wasn't very good today, was it?
Cricket reached her room without another incident. It was not until she reached for the doorknob that she realized that she hadn't taken her room key with her when she'd gone to the beach. Hitting the center of her forehead with the palm of her hand, she told herself how stupid she was. Now she would have to go to the front desk and get someone to open the door for her.
"What a nincompoop!" Cricket knew she'd been absentminded lately, but this was ridiculous. Now she knew why her parents wanted her to take this vacation. Apparently, she needed it. Badly. If she'd been this forgetful lately, it was a nine-day wonder she was still in business! Resigning herself to the inevitable, she headed back downstairs.
Having never tried to get the desk clerk at a large hotel to let her into a room before, Cricket learned a valuable lesson. Yes, they had her registered. However, she did not have any identification on her. Cricket remembered her hotel-monogrammed towel so she beamed her brightest smile and showed it to the desk clerk.
"You could have picked that up that towel off the beach," the clerk informed her.
Cricket frowned at the man in his starched white shirt. "But, I didn't! I brought it with me from my room."
The man frowned right back. "Do you know anyone who is staying in the hotel that could identify you?"
"No. I don't know anyone in Hawaii who could identify me, much less anyone staying in this hotel. Couldn't you let me into my room, then give me time to show you some kind of identification? I have a driver's license with my picture on it." Cricket did not want to beg, but she would if she had to.
At that moment, Bruce Hargrove came strolling into the lobby from one of the adjacent shops. Cricket cringed. The one person in the whole world she didn't want to have another run-in with today was that man. Enough is enough, and this was too much.
Hoping against hope that Bruce would not see her, she tried to make herself as unobtrusive as possible. It didn't work.
"Well, well, if it isn't Miss Coleman again," he said as he walked up to the desk. "I do believe you turn up more times than that proverbial bad penny."
"Do you know this lady?" the desk clerk asked. Cricket could tell by the desk clerk's attitude toward Bruce Hargrove that whatever he said would make a difference. She prayed he wouldn't tell the man she was some sort of menace and get her thrown out of the hotel all together.
"Know her, no. I have run into her several times in the past couple of hours. Why?" Bruce asked. He moved to stand close to Cricket.
"Well, she said she's locked herself out of her room and was trying to get me to let her in. You know how it is around here . . . she could be anyone trying to get into one of the rooms."
"True, but I believe her," Bruce told the desk clerk. "God only knows why. Judging from the past couple of hours, I'd say she's the type who would lock herself out of her room. Why don't you take a chance and let her into the room she claims to be hers?"
With that, the clerk was all smiles and called for one of the Bellhops to take Cricket upstairs. Cricket had never been more humiliated in her life. Standing in the hotel lobby in a wet bathing suit and having Bruce Hargrove come to her rescue was just too much. Swallowing her pride, however, she turned and thanked Bruce. She vowed again that she would try her best not to run into him again.
After she got back into her room and tipped the Bellhop, Cricket couldn't wait to get into the shower. Her bathing suit was beginning to dry and irritate her skin. She knew why when she saw the amount of sand that washed off her body. Now she just wanted to put on a pair of jeans and a tank top and get out of this hotel. But first, she had to call her parents. She'd promised she would call as soon as she arrived, and she hadn't done that yet. She'd been in too much of a hurry to get to the beach. And it had been her rush to get to the beach that had gotten her into all this trouble.
Cricket closed her eyes. Why couldn't she be like everyone else? Slow down, everyone told her. Stop and smell the roses. Life's too short, slow down and enjoy it. But Cricket did enjoy it. That might be her biggest problem. She enjoyed it too much. She wanted to do it all. She couldn't wait to see what happened next.
After she showered and got all the salt water and sand off, Cricket felt better. Refreshed and clean, she sat on the side of her bed and dialed home. "Mom, Cricket," she said when her mother answered. "I made it! I'm actually in Hawaii!"
"You're late!" her mother scolded. "We expected you to call hours ago. We have been worried to death." Cricket should have known her mother would be worried. She was the baby and had never been this far away from home before.
"Sorry Mom. I didn't mean to worry you. It took almost an hour to get from the airport to the hotel. Then when I got here, all I could think of was going to the beach for a swim in the ocean. You should see it Mom. The water is sooo blue!"
"Have you seen any celebrities yet?" her mother asked excitedly.
When Cricket was thinking about taking this vacation, her mother seemed to think that there would be a movie star on every corner. "No, Mom, I have not seen any movie stars. I did run into someone named Bruce Hargrove and . . ."
"Bruce Hargrove!" she heard her dad shout. She hadn't heard her father pick up the extension but she should have known that he would be on the other line. "You met Bruce Hargrove? I can't believe it! Did you get his autograph?"
"Dad, when I said I ran into him, I meant that I literally ran into the man. The first time was when I started to get on the elevator. Then I ran into him again on the beach. The last time I thought I would take the stairs and ran into him again. Believe me, he was not too happy with me. Who is this Bruce Hargrove anyway?"
"You don't know who he is?" Her dad sounded astounded. "I'm surprised. As much as I have talked about the Dallas Cowboys! How in the world did you miss the name Bruce Hargrove? Honey, he is the best quarterback in the NFL," her dad said. "If you happen to bump into him again, perhaps you could ask for his autograph."
"No way, Dad. If I'm lucky, I will not ever see the man again." Truthfully, Cricket hoped and prayed she'd not even catch another glimpse of Bruce Hargrove again.
After going over all the details of her flight, what her room looked like and in general what Hawaii was like, Cricket put the telephone back in its cradle. Before she left the hotel again, she made sure she had everything she needed. She checked her purse to make sure her money and credit cards were inside. She picked up her room key and dropped it in her pocket. Now, she was ready. Cricket had some exploring to do.
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Cricket and the Cowboy |
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since December 14, 2000.