Hearts of Emerald Bay

by D G Barnes

  “Okay,” she said, settling back into her seat and cinching her seatbelt.

  Mac stole a quick glance of Dana’s long slender legs before straightening in her seat. Releasing the brake, they started their trek into the woods. Once beneath the canopy of thick leaves that filtered the amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor, the temperature dropped. Mac stole glances at Dana and thought she might wet herself from laughing so much. Dana had a death grip on the leather handhold attached to the roll bar above the door opening, and she shrieked whenever the Jeep bounced and shook after traversing a deep rut or when a wheel dropped after rolling over a large rock. However, the broad grin and sparkling eyes told Mac that she was having a blast.

  They were almost at their destination when Mac slowed to a stop once again. She glanced at Dana and saw the color had drained from her face. In front of them was a wide ravine, no more than two meters deep. At the bottom, a trickle of a creek bubbled and gurgled as it flowed over small rocks.

  “Mac, please tell me you’re not going to do what I’m thinking.” Dana’s eyes pleaded with her.

  Was her lip trembling? Mac’s heart skipped. That was so cute. “What do think I’m going to do?”

  Dana’s eyes moved quickly, back and forth between the ravine and Mac. “Jump it?” Her innocent face looked almost on the verge of tears.

  Mac tried hard to keep her expression serious and suppress the urge to laugh. She cleared her throat but couldn’t help the snicker that escaped her mouth. She leaned over, placing a hand on Dana’s neck, and pulled her in for a kiss. “Oh, Dana sweetie. Does this look like the General Lee?” She waved her hand to indicate the Jeep. “Of course, we’re not going to jump it. We’re going through it. Down one side and up the other.”

  Dana breathed a sigh, then shot Mac a horrified look, but it was too late to protest, and she screamed as the Jeep approached the edge and went over, its nose pointed sharply downward. The vehicle descended the steep slope under its own power. The low gear ratio kept their speed to a crawl. Still, Dana screamed and Mac laughed. Once at the bottom, Mac shifted gears and gave the vehicle some gas. They splashed through the creek, then rocketed up the other side, seeing nothing but sky out the windshield.

  Cresting the ravine, the front wheels remained in the air for a long moment before the Jeep fell forward. Bouncing on its suspension, the vehicle settled, and Mac slowed to a stop before looking at Dana. She glared at Mac for a moment, then laughed as she swatted her arm.

  “Ow!”

  “You deserved that,” Dana said. “Scared the crap out of me!”

  “But it was fun, right?”

  “Yeah, but once was enough.”

  “Hate to break it to you, babe, but we have to go back this way.” Mac rubbed her arm.

  Dana groaned. “Lovely,” she said looking over her shoulder at the ravine. “Are we almost there?”

  “Few more minutes.” Mac drove on.

  Less than five minutes later, they left the cool shade of the woods and emerged onto the sunny expanse of a grassy field. Thirty meters away, the grass gave way to a sandy beach. Dana unfastened her seat belt and stood up on her seat, looking all around them.

  “Mac, it’s beautiful here.” Dana sat down. “Is this private property? Are we allowed to be here?”

  Mac nodded and drove to the end of the field near the sand. “Yes. The owner is a friend of Dad’s, and I have permission to come here whenever I like.” She pulled the key from the ignition and hopped out of the Jeep.

  Mac met Dana at the rear of the Jeep and opened the tailgate. She pulled out a rolled-up blanket and handed it to Dana, then she grabbed the large wicker picnic basket from where she had secured it. On the beach, they spread the blanket out, and Mac rid herself of her sneakers and socks. The cool breeze off the water lessened the heat of the afternoon sun, but it was still bright under the cloudless sky. Mac adjusted her ball cap and realized Dana wasn’t wearing one. “Be right back,” she said and dashed to the Jeep. Fishing around in the back, she found an old ball cap she had there for such an occasion.

  Handing it to Dana, she said, “May not match your outfit, but it’ll keep the sun out of your eyes.”

  Dana looked discouragingly at the old, battered hat and slapped it against her hand; the dust from many kilometers of dirt roads and trails drift away in the breeze. “Um, thanks. But I’ll pass.” She handed the cap back.

  Mac took the hat from her. Doing the only thing she could, she pulled the much cleaner cap from her head and handed it to Dana, then donned the old one. Dana took the offered cap and placed it on her head.

  “Well, aren’t you the chivalrous one.” She stepped into Mac and pulled her into a kiss; the peaks of their ballcaps collided and tumbled to the ground. They giggled against each other’s mouth but never broke contact.

  “Hungry?” Mac asked when the kiss ended. She knelt on the blanket and opened the basket.

  “Famished.”

  Mac retrieved several clear plastic containers that held sandwiches, assorted pieces of fruit, and what appeared to be cheese and crackers. There were also plates and napkins along with two wine glasses and a bottle of wine.

  She sat next to Dana who sat cross-legged on the blanket. The bare skin of her knee brushed against hers, causing a pleasant tingle to move through her.

  “Well, this looks absolutely wonderful.” Dana bumped her shoulder.

  “It’s nothing really. Just some sandwiches and stuff. There’s bottled water too if you’d prefer it instead of the wine.” Mac enjoyed Dana’s closeness and the feel of her touch.

  “Wine is fine.” Dana picked up a plate and gave Mac a peck on the cheek. “So, what kind of sandwiches do we have?”

  “Um. Let’s see.” Mac picked up the container and selected one of the wrapped sandwiches to examine. “This one’s roast beef.” As she went through the remaining wrappers, she found egg salad, tuna, and ham with swiss. All of them were on whole wheat. She offered the container to Dana who selected egg salad.

  “Thanks.” She laid the sandwich on the plate and unwrapped it. “Tell me about Doris. What is her problem?”

  Mac shuddered at the mention of the woman’s name, pausing as she reached for the sliced fruit. The thought of her made her stomach turn. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to discuss this now. Pulling the fruit closer to them, she sat up and sighed.

  “What isn’t wrong with her would be more the question.” Mac chose a sandwich for herself and picked at the ends of the plastic wrap. “First off, she thinks she’s a socialite. Which she’s not. Owns a couple clothing stores. Big whoop!”

  “Yes, I noticed the way she was dressed. A little over the top for downtown Emerald Bay.” Dana laughed. “What else?”

  “She’s never liked me.” Mac fumbled with the uncooperative wrapper. “Damnit.” She became frustrated with the poor sandwich. Half tempted to toss it across the blanket, she stilled when Dana’s soft hands covered hers and pulled them from the battered sandwich.

  “Here. Let me.” Dana reached for the sandwich.

  “I can do it!” Mac snapped, grabbing it before she had a chance to.

  Dana pulled back quickly as if she had touched something hot. “Sorry. I was just trying to help.”

  She sounded hurt, and she had every right to. Mac winced and suddenly felt ill, wishing she could take back the last 30 seconds. Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! She looked down at her hands and sighed; the poor sandwich still sat in front of her unwrapped.

  “No. I’m sorry, Dana. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.” She spoke in a low, defeated voice.

  “Then why did you?”

  Mac squirmed, and the heat rose in her face again. This time it wasn’t frustration but embarrassment. She met Dana’s eyes and held them, surprised they weren’t flashing with anger. “It’s a bad trait I have I guess. Been like that all my life.” She took a breath and held the sandwich out to Dana. “Whenever I run into a problem I know I should be able to solve, I get possessi
ve of it. I must fix it myself no matter what. If someone else solves it for me or tries to help,” she motioned toward the sandwich Dana was now expertly unwrapping, “it drives me batshit crazy.”

  Dana nodded and handed the sandwich back. “I can understand that. It’s a good feeling when you can solve your own problems. Still, there is nothing wrong with asking for help or accepting it if it's offered.”

  “Thanks,” she said taking the food. “And you’re right, I know. I’m working on it. Ricky says I suffer from stubborn-assed pigheadedness. His words.”

  “Smart man. But I don’t think that’s a real word: stubborn-assed,” Dana said playfully.

  “Right? That’s what I tried to tell him.” Mac grinned and bit her slightly squished sandwich.

  They sat on their shared blanket, eating lunch and sipping wine. Sandwiches consumed, they fed each other pieces of fruit, giggling like teenagers. Having eaten their fill, they cleaned up the area, putting the empty containers, plates, glasses, and the bottle back into the basket.

  Mac stood and held out a hand, suggesting a walk along the beach. Dana grasped the offered hand and pulled herself to her feet. They walked to the water’s edge and strolled hand and hand along the coastline. The sand squished between their toes, and the cool water washed it off. They didn’t speak, each enjoying the warmth of the day, the clear sky and the bright sunshine.

  “You never finished telling me about Doris. You said she never liked you?” Dana said after they had covered a large stretch of beach.

  Mac thought for a moment or two, deciding how best to explain it. “Well, first off it’s important to understand that Melissa was the polar opposite of Doris.” She gazed out over the water as fond memories of her sister-in-law flooded back. “She was kind and sweet, and she adored Jack. Melissa didn’t give a rat’s ass about social status. Unlike her mother. They, Jack and Melissa, met at the community college, where they were both taking the same business program.”

  “Jack didn’t own The Rusty Anchor at that point?”

  “No, and it wasn’t The Rusty Anchor then. It was a rundown, poorly managed dive that was hemorrhaging money. Jack had been working there part-time as well as at Dad’s store. Jack was smart and saw the potential in the place. So, when the bank foreclosed on the property, he bought it with mom and dad’s help, then he went to college and got the education he needed to run it.”

  “Awesome.”

  “By the time they graduated, he and Melissa and been dating for quite a while and had become pretty serious.” Mac continued. “That really pissed off Doris. There was no way her daughter was going to associate with a bartender and the son of an immigrant.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me.” Dana huffed.

  “I wasn’t privy to the conversation, but from what I understand, Melissa had a few choice words for her mother. Not that it stopped Doris from being a pretentious bitch.”

  “So, your being Jack’s sister was her reason for disliking you?”

  “Partly. When I was in my late teens, I was a bit of a handful you could say.” Mac thought back to her youth and the trouble she used to get into. “Let’s just say I have seen the back seat of an RCMP cruiser a few times.”

  “No! Honestly, I find that hard to believe,” Dana said, and Mac saw she was genuinely amazed at the revelation.

  “Yup. I wasn’t always the upstanding citizen you see before you today.” Mac chuckled. “Back then I got into all sorts of shit. Usually, it was underage drinking, smoking pot, all misdemeanors really. Sometimes I would stay out all night and worry my parents sick. I don’t know how they put up with me. All this somehow made its way to Doris, and of course being a lesbian didn’t win me any points in her eyes either.”

  Reaching their picnic blanket, they both lay on it and stretched out, Mac on her back and Dana on her side facing her. Dana propped her head up with one hand while the other traced lazy circles over Mac’s abdomen, sending little shiver through her.

  “So, what happened to straighten you out?”

  “Jack,” she said matter of factly. “He saw the destructive path I was on and put a stop to it before it became worse.” Memories of her brother flashed before her as she spoke, and she heard the sadness in her own voice. Dana must have heard it also because she moved closer, wrapped an arm around her and held tight.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “You don’t have to explain if it’s too painful.”

  Mac watched a solitary fluffy white cloud drift by and warmed, touched by her concern. “No, it’s okay.” She took a breath and went on. “Jack was always protective of me. Always in my corner. God help anyone who picked on me at school.” She laughed. “He made me help him renovate the bar. Worked me hard. Said it was for my own good. He was right; it kept me off the streets mostly.” She caressed the arm draped across her.

  Dana kissed her cheek before resting her head on her shoulder. “Go on.”

  “He never yelled at me. Never lectured. Just talked, and I loved him for it. The four of us, me, Jack, Melissa, and Ricky put in a lot of hours getting The Rusty Anchor to where it is now. During that time, I was on the straight and narrow. However, one day Jack found a jacket I had left in what is now my office and brought it out. As he tossed it to me, a baggie with a half-dozen joints fell out of the pocket. Dana, the look of disappointment on his face broke my heart.”

  “What happened? Did he get mad?”

  “No. He never said a word. He didn’t have to. That look was like a sledgehammer between my eyes. I had let my brother down, and it damn near killed me. So, from that moment on all my energy went into the bar and living up to what Jack expected of me. I took a bartending course, and when The Rusty Anchor opened, Jack put me to work. Not just slinging beer either. He involved me in the day-to-day running of the business too.”

  “I’m so glad he was there for you, Mac, and you didn’t go down that other path.”

  “Me too,” she whispered. Emotions welled up inside her. She had never discussed her past with anyone before. Never told a soul just how important Jack was to her, or how much his passing had affected her. That included Ricky, who had been there since Jack first reined her in; he didn’t know everything. Somehow, lying here, staring up at the blue sky and spilling her heart out to Dana felt good. It felt right.

  She tamped down the emotion and cleared her throat before she spoke again. “After the accident is when things with Doris really came to a head. On the day of their funeral, as soon as the graveside service was over, my parents took Ellie home with them. I stayed for a little longer to be alone with my thoughts. That’s when Doris informed me, right there beside my brother’s grave, her lawyer, which happened to be her sleaze-bag of a son, had begun to draw up the papers to have Jack and Melissa’s estate liquidated and that she would be around in a few days to pick up Ellie.”

  “What a bitch!”

  “Un-huh,” Mac said. “I was too out of it to fully grasp what she was saying, but Ricky wasn’t. He had been standing a short distance away and overheard everything. It turned out that after Ricky drove me to my parents’ house, he went straight to Jack’s lawyer and let him know what was happening. He, of course, put a kibosh on everything Doris had in the works.”

  “Good for him. I bet Doris was pissed,” Dana said with a laugh.

  “To put it mildly. You should have seen her fume during the reading of the Will. Everything they had either went to me or into a trust fund for Ellie, which I control. Doris didn’t get a damn thing.”

  “Did she try and contest it?”

  “You bet. And when that failed, she tried to sue me for custody of Ellie.”

  “On what grounds?” Dana asked with irritation in her voice.

  “I’m a lesbian and unfit to be raising a child. Especially a girl. Like being gay was contagious or something,” Mac said with a snort.

  “Had I known this yesterday, I may not have held back from decking her right there in the street.”

  Mac laughed and
turned onto her side to face her. She brushed a strand of hair back behind Dana’s ear and gazed into her soft brown eyes. “I miss him so much.”

  “I know, Mac.” She pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.

  Mac’s hand tangled in the hair at the back of Dana’s head, and she pulled her close, deepening the kiss. Her tongue swept Dana’s mouth, and the sexy brunette moaned. Mac rolled her onto her back and sucked on her lower lip as she positioned herself on top.

  She dipped in for another kiss. Their lips, hot and moist, mashed together and Mac moved her hand over Dana’s arm and down her side. Slipping under her shirt, she pushed it across warm skin and cupped her breast. Heat pooled in her abdomen, and Dana’s hands caressing her lower back only added to her desire. She moved her body, pressing her thigh against Dana’s center.

  Dana groaned, then abruptly broke the kiss. “Jesus, Mac.” Dana panted. “We need to stop. Someone might see us!”

  Mac pushed herself up on her elbows and looked down at her, her hair disheveled and skin flushed. Damn, but she was beautiful. “Not to worry. The only way here is through the trail we took or by boat. No one is going to see.”

  Dana studied her for a moment, then reached up and caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes at the touch, enjoying the sensation of fingers on her face. “You are so beautiful, Mac Mackenzie,” she said softly. Then she shifted her weight and rolled Mac onto her back.

  “Ya know,” Dana said as she moved down Mac’s body, stopping when her face hovered over her toned abdomen. “You’ve been rather naughty, teasing me with all this exposed skin. I think I might have to do something about it.” She leaned in and softly kissed the heated flesh.

  “Oh yeah?” Mac’s belly twitched, and she felt her arousal grow.

  “Um-hmm,” Dana hummed, her lips over Mac’s navel. She played with it, dipping her tongue into its shallows. Mac twitched again and couldn’t help but giggle a little. “Ticklish, are we? I’ll have to do something to take your mind off it.” Her hot breath prickled Mac’s skin.