Chapter 4

Ray thought that the wedding last weekend had been a rather interesting experience. Peg had obviously gone through some effort with the table seating to insure that Ray had an enjoyable time. Ray wondered if Jane, his next door neighbor, was involved in some way with that set-up. Jane appeared not to be but she certainly promoted and didn't hinder Ray's getting to know the ladies at the table. Another thing bothering him was Katie's comments when he was leaving her condo, about periodically needing an escort to various functions. Why were these ladies unescorted? With their looks they should have no problem in having dates and having men fight over them. Ray just wondered about the whole situation.

It was mid-week and Ray had just logged off the computer from checking on some investment ideas when the phone rang. He picked it up and heard, "They are beautiful! Thank you."

"Excuse me," Ray said, "Who is this?"

"It's Katie," she said, "I just got the two dozen red roses you sent and they are all so beautiful. I don't know when the last time was that anyone sent me flowers. I feel ... I feel ... well, I just feel so good. Your note about how the robes of justice were opened to you has excited me ... Well ... let's just say I need to watch where I sit."

"Well, you are a beautiful lady who deserves beautiful things. You should get flowers every day. Thanks to you I had a most enjoyable weekend and the roses are my gift to you for making it so. That weekend and that night were very special to me."

Katie said in a subdued voice, "It was special for me too. I hope we will be able to see more of each other."

"I thought we saw a lot of each other," he said.

He could hear giggling and then laughing and she said, "Stop that. You have got me blushing to where I am almost as red as the roses you sent. Seriously though, I would like to see you again. I have a bar association dinner to go to in a few weeks. I was hoping you would go with me. I think you would enjoy going."

Ray said he thought he would as well as he wrote down the date and said he would call her a few days before to confirm. Hanging up the phone, he thought that he was a lucky guy to have such a beautiful and classy woman interested in him.

Ray called Amy to check on the coming weekend, but her secretary told him that Amy was in a trial and took a message. Amy called back in the early evening. Ray asked her how the trial was going.

"After two days they finally made a reasonable offer, so we settled. Might have seen a higher amount if we took it to a verdict but you never know with a jury. At any rate, the client is happy and we saved some trial expense."

Ray congratulated her and worked out the specifics on this weekend.

Saturday morning at eight o'clock, Ray was at the airport. On exiting his car, he saw Amy walking around an airplane doing what he presumed was a pre-flight check. She saw him and gave him a wave. He grabbed his overnight bag and walked to the plane. Amy had told him to bring a change of clothes and whatever else he needed, just in case they had to lay over. The weather would be the deciding factor if they were returning tonight. Why fly in bad weather if you didn't need too was her comment.

Ray put his bag in the compartment Amy pointed to while she continued the pre-flight check. Amy certainly looked like she knew what she was doing and Ray enjoyed watching her move. She was wearing a one piece light blue jump suit that must have been tailor-made for her. She had on flats, so she didn't look as tall as she did at the wedding. There was nothing she could do that could hide the size of her breasts. They were impressive and Ray estimated them to be at least a 38DD.

The plane passed her inspection and she told Ray to enter the plane and buckle himself in which he did. Amy did the same, put on her headphones and started the engine. All the gauges met with her approval and she completed her pre-flight check list. Amy called the tower and received permission to taxi. At the end of the runway she was cleared to take off. The plane took off in a northeast direction and after Amy retracted the landing gear and gained some altitude, she made a slow bank to the left and set a course of 172 degrees.

While Ray was looking at the gauges and studying the GPS, Amy spoke to Ray through the headphones. She told him that they would be flying at an altitude 11, o00 feet and the trip would take about two hours. Once they reached cruising altitude she would engage the automatic pilot and it should be an uneventful trip as the weather forecast was for clear skies and light winds.

He asked her about the plane and her experience as a pilot. Amy said that she had been flying for ten years. She had taken lessons, received her pilot's license and the success she has had as a lawyer enabled her to purchase this Cessna 182. This was her baby and she flew whenever she had the opportunity. Using it in her work and in her sideline of horse racing enabled her to write of a lot of the plane's expenses off as business related. The IRS was doing yearly audits on her returns but she said, "So far so good."

Ray started to ask her more questions but Amy said, "Stop that! You have a way of asking questions to anyone you talk with so that person just either answers your questions or talks about themselves. I don't know anymore about you now than I did last Saturday at the wedding. Now that I have you to myself up here I am going to find everything I can about this mystery man. We have two hours to go, so tell me about who Ray is and what does he do?" With that she turned on the automatic pilot, crossed her arms and sat back.

This was very interesting thought Ray. With her training as an attorney, Amy could cross examine him and learn all about him. He thought some more as he looked at her with her arms folded under that magnificent rack and finally said, "Okay." He put his hand in his back pocket for his wallet, took out a one dollar bill and gave it to her.

"What's this?"

"That my lady is your fee. I want to hire you as my attorney so that what I tell you is protected under the attorney-client relationship. You can't repeat any of our conversation to anyone. Are you my attorney?"

Amy looked at the dollar and then at Ray and said, "Oh, that's mean. All of the girls know you went flying with me today and I won't be able to tell them anything. That's mean. They knew I was going to ask you about yourself and now what you say will be confidential. That's mean. They aren't going to like that or may not speak to me. Well ... well ... well ... okay ... it looks like I have no choice and have a new client. Tell me the whole story about yourself."

"Well, there isn't that much to tell. Born and raised in the area, Catholic High School and State University, Business Major, ROTC Commission with two years of active duty. After the Army, an MBA from Northwestern in finance and was recruited by a private investment banking firm here and hired on with them. I must have done something right because in a relatively short time I made partner. I worked there for sixteen years mainly in the mergers and acquisitions side of the business. A few years ago the firm went public. The number of shares I received was substantial and the price of the shares tripled in a week. Sold most of the shares an exercised a stock option I had on additional shares. I sold those shares and re-invested the funds in other stocks. With a rising stock market the money was more than enough for me to retire on. I diversified my investments and live a very comfortable life. I quit the rat race and do what I want to do when I want to do it. Sometimes I do nothing. In fact right now I am two days behind in doing nothing."

Amy giggled at his remark and inquired, "Married?"

Ray said, "Never. Was engaged to a wonderful girl in college but she was killed in a car accident. Since then I have dated and have had some live-in female companions but marriage has not been an issue. Presently I live by myself. Jane is my next door neighbor."

Amy said, "I am so sorry," and reached across and touched his hand.

After a minute Ray said, "How about you?"

Amy responded, "Pretty much the same story. After the university, went to law school and was recruited by a large law firm. Found my niche in being in the courtroom as a trial attorney and won some big cases. About 4 years ago, I and two other female attorneys left the firm and started our own law firm. While we do both plaintiff and defense work, we have been pretty successful on the plaintiff's side. Hit for some big verdicts and that has caused business to come in either through referrals or walk-ins. I was married for two years right after school. It didn't work out. He wanted a stay-at-home wife and I enjoyed the courtroom. No kids and that's the one thing I miss."

They talked for little while longer but the time had gone by and the GPS showed they were 20 miles away from the airport. Amy called the tower and was told there was only one other aircraft in the pattern and it was 10 miles in front of her. She was cleared to land on runway 4L. She reduced the airspeed, went to a lower altitude, saw the airport on her left. She called and received final clearance to land. Amy went past the airport which was still on the left, made a smooth bank to her left and made a straight approach to land.

Amy taxied the plane to the parking area. She asked Ray to get the bags and she would make arrangements to have the plane secured and refueled. Off to the airport office she went with a bounce in her step. Ray stayed at the plane with their luggage. When Amy came out of the office, she had taken off the jump suit she had been wearing and underneath it was a dark blue blouse and white pants. Ray could see that the pants weren't tight but the material was a soft silk type fabric that didn't wrinkle. Pants like that weren't purchased off the rack but had to be expensive designer clothes. They fit nicely on her butt and showed every curve. Ray couldn't see any panty outline. She had the keys to a rental car that she had made arrangements for in her hand.

They stopped for a quick bite to eat and then it was a 25 minute drive to the horse auction. Ray observed that Amy knew her way around the auction. She looked at a few horses but seemed to be interested in a particular colt. She said hello to a number people there and received admiring glances from most of the men as well as a few of the women.

The auction started and it was fun to watch. It was a challenge in trying to figure out who was doing the bidding. The auctioneer knew who it was so that's what counted. The colt that Amy was interested in was brought out and the bidding started at $25K. The price went up and Ray saw Amy flick her program a few times. When the price hit $350K Amy stopped flicking. The horse went for $675K.

Amy said, "I just couldn't go any higher and it's too bad. He had such a good blood line but it doesn't look like I was the only one who saw it. Maybe I will be the high bidder at the next auction."

Since she wasn't interested in any of the other horses still to be bid on, they decided to leave the auction. Amy pulled out her cell and made a call. She listened and then ended the call.

Turning to Ray she said, "There is some rough weather moving in on our flight path home. It's still light out and we could take a chance on making it home all right but the safer play would be to wait it out here and go back tomorrow morning when it's suppose to be clear. It's your choice. Do you want to go back now or do you want to be stuck with me overnight in this town?"

Ray said, "Amy, my mother didn't raise me to be a dummy. When given a choice of a bumpy airplane ride or being in the company of a beautiful intelligent woman for the evening, it's a no-brainer. You are the one who is stuck with me for the evening!"

She smiled at his compliment and the way he explained his choice. That rough weather she mentioned would probably dissipate shortly, but there was no need to mention that.

Amy said she knew of a nice hotel in the area as she drove. At the hotel Amy insisted on her seeing if there were rooms available since with the auction they could be booked up. For some unknown reason which didn't need to be explained to Ray, while the hotel was completely sold out, there was a two bedroom suite available which Amy signed for. Going back to the car with the key in her hand and a smile on her face she thought, "Ray isn't the only one who has mother's sayings, my mother taught me not to let any grass grow under my feet."