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They went up in his plane the next day, and she was thrilled with the sensations of flying in a small aircraft. Bobby Tom had announced that morning he was taking her to Austin so he could show her some of the city, including his old college haunts. The day was clear, and as he identified the rivers and canyons they flew over, she stole sideways glances at him.
Last night he’d been everything she’d dreamed he’d be: tender and demanding, praising her passion and refusing to let her hold anything back. She had given herself to him out of the fullness of her heart, and she didn’t regret anything. Years from now when she was holding a paper-thin hand through its last hours of life, she would find her own comfort in the memories of the night she had been loved so well by Bobby Tom Denton.
“It sure is nice to get away from that telephone,” he said, as he banked the plane. “Luther must call me six times a day, not to mention everybody else who wants a piece of me.”
“You can’t really blame Mayor Baines for being nervous about the golf tournament,” she pointed out. “Heavenfest is two months away and you haven’t given him a list of names. Don’t you think you should start calling your friends to invite them?”
“I suppose,” he said, without enthusiasm.
“I know why you’re stalling. You’ll do favors for everybody in the world, but you don’t want to ask for any in return.”
“You don’t understand, Gracie. Athletes have people hounding them all the time. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another.”
“Are you telling me that none of these men has ever asked you for a favor?”
“A few.”
“More than a few, I’ll bet.” She gave him a sympathetic smile. “Why
don’t you give me a list of your friends? I’ll make the phone calls first thing tomorrow on your behalf.”
“You just want to have Troy Aikman’s home phone number. Sorry, honey, but I don’t think he’s your type.”
“Bobby Tom . . .”
“Hmmm?”
“I hate to lower your opinion of me, but I don’t have the slightest idea who Troy Aikman is.”
He rolled his eyes. “He’s a pretty well-known quarterback, sweetheart. He’s taken the Cowboys to a couple of Super Bowls.”
“I guess I’d have a hard time passing the football quiz.”
“I just hope to hell none of the ladies around here ever decides to challenge you.”
She was a bit tense during the landing at the small airstrip, but he brought the plane in so smoothly she barely felt it touch down. Was there anything he didn’t do well?
Once on the ground, he procured a car from one of his acquaintances at the airstrip and took her on a tour of the city, including the state capital building and the University of Texas campus. As the sunlight faded, they walked along Town Lake, a popular spot in downtown Austin.
“Pretty soon you’re going to see something you won’t ever see in New Grundy.”
She gazed at the imposing buildings that surrounded the lake and the bridge that ran across it. People sat in boats on the water as if they were waiting for a fireworks show to begin, and she noticed a large number of dark birds swooping in the sky. She also smelled an odor that was faintly acrid, reminding her of a zoo. “I’ve seen a lot of things like that today. What else is there?”
His grin seemed to hold a trace of mischief. “One of Mother Nature’s better shows. You like bats, honey?”
“Bats?” She stared up at the strange, dark birds. The vaguely feral scent pricked at her nostrils. She was aware of a squeaking sound. “I don’t think— Oh, my God!”
As if on cue, a great dark wave of bats flew out from their roost under the bridge, thousands of them. And then thousands more. As she watched, spellbound, more and more came out until hundreds of thousands of them filled the sky like thick, dense smoke. She let out a startled shriek as several swooped a bit too close for comfort.
Bobby Tom laughed and drew her against him.
Gracie wasn’t a fainthearted person, and she wouldn’t have missed this sight for the world, but bats were bats, and as another came nearer than she would have liked, she automatically ducked into his chest, which only encouraged him to laugh harder.
“I knew you’d like it.” He rubbed her back. “Austin has the biggest bat population of any city in the world. A whole bunch of them roost under that bridge. I don’t know exactly how they figure it, but they say these bats eat something like twenty thousand pounds of bugs a night. Usually they don’t come out until it’s darker, which makes them harder to see, but it’s been dry lately and they’ve been coming out a little earlier so they have enough time to feed, which reminds me that I’m getting hungry. How do you feel about some good Tex-Mex?”
“It sounds wonderful.”
As usual, eating out with Bobby Tom meant that she got to meet lots of new people. They ended up at Hole in the Wall, one of Austin’s traditional night spots, listening to some of the city’s famed local musicians. She wanted to pay for her own meal when it was time to leave, but since he had predictably picked up the tab for a roomful of people, she waited until they were walking to the car to press the bills she’d counted out from her wallet into his pocket.
