Virginia was raised by a very strict father. He was a simple working man who first worked "in the woods. He and three of his brothers had battled The Tillamook Burn. This disastrous fire spanned in stops and starts from 1933 to 1951.



Virginia remembered being a very little girl bundled in pillows and blankets in the backseat of a chartreuse 1951 Ford as her parents fled the smoke and encroaching flames. In the end over 350,000 acres had been destroyed.



Eventually, their father and his brothers built a shingled house on a steep hill. There were slabs of wood forced into the hill to climb, with furniture and all. When her father was injured in the woods, a log rolling over his leg and breaking it, the brothers had to struggle to get him up to the house.



Little Virginia grew up and became a shy and reclusive woman with little experience in the romance department. She had a few boyfriends, usually those nerdy guys without much more experience than Virginia.



She was a tall girl with a head of auburn curls that looked like fire under light of any kind. Her fair skin had a mole on her left cheek that looked like a beauty mark



Lacey Adams was Virginia's best and only friend. She was a short little pudge, who was like a kewpie doll. Lacey was very pretty and popular with men.



Lacey was always urging Virginia to accompany her to various bars and dance clubs.



"You don't have to drink or do anything you don't want to. But, Ginny, you are a really good dancer and you might have fun."



Virginia liked to be called Ginny. It made her feel more attractive and fun.



One Saturday Lacey finally got Ginny to agree to go out to a cowboy bar called The Corral.

It was dark, smoky, and filled with cowboys, what else did she expect?



Lacey was immediately pulled onto the floor by a good-looking man in a Stetson, who whirled and two-stepped her around the floor, men cutting in to have their chance at a dance.



Ginny found an empty table and sat down, ordering a Coke when the waitress made her way to her. She was uncomfortable...wanting to leave, but Lacey was having a good time and she didn't want to be a spoilsport, so she pasted a smile on her face and tapped out the tune with her nails on the tabletop.



A shadow fell on the table and Ginny couldn't breathe...something was wrong. Then a man sat down next to her.



"Why are you alone here...not dancing?"



Looking at him she saw a face that the gods must have made. He was the best-looking man she had ever seen. She knew he would get up and leave. Men like him didn't bother with the Ginny's of the world.



"Shy, huh? Please, don't be with me. My name is Damien, what's yours"



Ginny almost couldn't remember, but finally muttered in a hush, "Ginny."



"Well, little Ginny, how about a dance? It's a slow song next."



Ginny wondered how he would know that, but his hand found hers and pulled her to her feet.

It was slow and romantic. Damien held her close to him and Ginny felt things she had never felt before. Her heart felt like it was going to burst and she knew she was trembling. Damien raised her arm and whirled her around. Ginny's hand slipped from his and she almost fell from the momentum.



Quickly an arm was around her and Damien's lips were warm on her ear as he said,

"Don't worry, little one, I will never leave you."



to be cont.