Escapade by Susan Kyle

if you needed me for anything else,” Dora asked. “I only work mornings, you know.” She smiled, seeing Ward as he had been at eighteen when he was captain of the football squad and she’d led the cheerleading team. In her eyes he’d never aged.
    He looked at the computer and grimaced. “I could certainly use some help with this,” he said. “Can you operate a fax machine?”
    “Why, yes,” she said. “I did a little part-time work for an insurance company last year, and they had this same model,” she added, moving toward the machine.
    “Thank God,” he said. “Amanda Todd always works this one, and she won’t be back until Monday.”
    “Is she all right?” Dora asked. “I like Amanda. She’s always been so nice to me.”
    “It’s easy to be nice to you, Dora,” he replied quietly. “Yes, she’s fine. Sad, I imagine, but she’s got the Lawsons to pamper her for a week and a luxury island in the Bahamas to lounge on. She’ll manage.”
    “Mr. Lawson is very good to her,” she remarked.
    “Both Lawsons are,” he mused. “The families go way back.” He sat up. “Well, I need to get back in there and finish making up the paper. I’ll have to do a lot of this paperwork tonight. Would your family mind sacrificing you for an hour or two a couple of nights a week until I can catch up?”
    “I’m sure they won’t,” she replied with a faintly nervous smile. “Edgar is taking a college course on his lunch hour this semester. He’ll be home with the boys at night, grading papers or talking to students or tutoring,” she said with more bitterness than she realized. “And all my boys do is play sports and talk about them. As long as everyone is fed and the house is clean, my time is pretty much my own,” she added miserably.
    Ward couldn’t bear the thought of anyone as sweet and loving as Dora being taken for granted. “I’m sorry,” he said gently. “I can’t imagine any man grading papers when you’re in the same room. If you don’t mind my saying so,” he added, careful not to offend her.
    But she brightened and flushed a little. “No, of course not!”
    He smiled. He grinned. She made him feel like a man again. “Okay, then,” he said. “I’ll see you later.”
    “Fine.” She nodded. She started to speak, hesitated, a nd then plowed ahead. “How… how about your family?” she asked. “Don’t they mind you working such late hours?”
    He sighed wearily. “Gladys is… well, I’m sure you’ve heard about her drinking. Everyone else here has. Half the time I don’t think she knows, if I’m there or not,” he said. “And my son… ” He let out a long breath. “He blames me for his mother’s drinking. They’ll both tell you I’m a total failure.”
    “That isn’t the Ward Johnson I remember,” she said gently. She smiled. “You could never be a failure.”
    He stared at her. “You really think so?”
    She nodded. “I really think so. I’m sorry things are so bad for you.”
    The compassion in her blue eyes made him hungry and vulnerable. He wanted that caring for himself. He wanted someone to give a damn that his life was an unbear able mess. Dora appealed to ever ything masculine in him, and his body reacted suddenly, sharply, to her nearness. “Can you come back about seven?” he asked.
    She nodded. “Yes. Of course. I’ll just paste up the rest of the personals.” She went out quietly.
    In the waiting room she hesitated, gnawing her full lower lip. She was going to get in over her head if she wasn’t careful. She was a married woman with young sons, and Ward was a drowning man looking for someone to jump in and save him. The problem with trying to save drowning people was that if you weren’t careful, they’d pull you down with them.
    She couldn’t possibly risk getting mixed up romantically with her boss. San Rio was a small community, despite being a cosmopolitan suburb of sprawling San Antonio. She and her husband went to the local Baptist