by Nancy Adams
“Yeah, we’re still very close, but the boy, he made us something more—he made us a family.”
Claude clinked his beer with Jules’s and then patted his friend lightly on the arm.
There was so much joy in that garden and the friends spent the rest of the day and evening in jovial spirits, eating and drinking, rejoicing in their love.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jenna had been at the Cliff Face for a week now. Since his little outburst shortly after her arrival, Sam had been much calmer and the two had gotten on much better. Each day they’d spent the morning in session, Sam lying on an old red chaise longue that he and Marya had picked up in Italy eight years ago. While he lay there, Jenna sat in a chair beside him asking questions, probing him and writing down notes. They had spent much of the time discussing Sam’s feelings around Marya’s initial illness and around her death, as well as discussing his relationship with Marya and the close bond that had existed between them for fifteen years up until her death.
After that, they’d eat lunch and Sam would often take Jenna for walks around the reserve, showing her the beautiful nature that enveloped their solitude. The walks were also part of his rehabilitation and did his legs a lot of good. Jenna was, in fact, a keen trekker and had spent a lot of time in the Colorado Rockies already, having walked the many tracks that cover it like innumerable scratch marks. This had made her time at the Cliff Face very enjoyable, and the walks allowed her to get to know Sam on another level to what she could through the sessions. She felt a bond developing between doctor and patient, and saw that this bond was empowering Sam to be more open during their sessions. This was the main reason she encouraged their time alone together. She also enjoyed their time together immensely and felt at ease in his company. She had initially expected to spend most of her time on her own in her room, and it was a nice surprise that she had his company during most of her days, especially as they’d often spend up to four hours walking the reserve.
It was after this particular day’s session that Sam said to Jenna as he sat up on the chaise longue, “I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh,” Jenna replied as she packed her notes away, “and what could that be?”
“Well, all week we’ve eaten together around that lonely dining table. In my opinion, dining tables are only for large families or dinner parties. I’d like to take you somewhere else. Out for lunch.”
“You’re taking me out for lunch, Sam? I didn’t think you were the dining out kind of guy.”
“I’m not—but that doesn’t mean we can’t eat out.”
As he stood before her, Sam offered Jenna his hand and she took it, grinning all over. He then led her out of the house and toward the helipad.
“We need to use the helicopter,” he said as they left the house. “But it's nothing but a short journey to where we're going.”
When they reached the helipad, Sam's all-black helicopter, pilot sitting in the front, was waiting for them. Sam opened the back door and signaled for Jenna to get in. Once she was, Sam got in himself and slammed the door shut behind. He sat opposite Jenna in the back of the craft and they immediately felt it jolt as it lifted into the air.
As they loomed through the cloudy sky, Jenna looked outside at the rolling, tree-covered hills and mountains as they drifted over them.
“It's so secluded out here,” she commented as she watched the expanse of landscape drift by. “It must get lonely.”
“I have what I need here,” Sam replied. “I've never been fond of people and I get all the human contact I need from my daughter and the few people that I do have around.”
“It must have been hard growing up with six brothers and sisters—especially for someone who enjoys their own solitude.”
Sam was a little surprised. In all their sessions during the week, Jenna hadn’t really touched on the subject of his family. He’d expected her to; to bring up his childhood like all shrinks inevitably do. But she’d held back so far.
“So you've done your homework on me,” he commented.
“What type of professional would I be if I hadn’t? But it wasn't easy. You've only ever given five interviews in your life—all of which only covered your research and not your life—and the last of those was in 1997, before Marya passed away. Most of the information I got on you was from spurious tabloid articles from investigative journalists. Most of those relied on the testament of your begrudged family, who haven't seen you since you were sixteen.”
“That was the last time I went home for the summer from college,” Sam recalled, almost to himself.
“What happened that made you not want to go back?”
“At the time, Billy—that’s my oldest brother—was a fugitive from the police, having recently escaped from prison. When I got there, he was hiding out in the shed at the bottom of the garden. Of course, I never knew this and only found out when dinner was interrupted by a team of U.S. Marshals kicking down the door and arresting everyone, including me. After that, I saw no worth in ever going back.”
“Not even for your parents' funeral?” was Jenna’s next question, turning to him from the window as she asked.
“Wow! The shrink is never switched off, is she?”
Jenna smiled at this and Sam saw two dimples open up on either cheek. It makes her look cute, he remarked to himself.
“And neither are your defenses,” Jenna added.
Suddenly, the voice of the pilot crackled over the intercom. “We're here now, sir,” he said.
The craft had come to a stop and was hovering in midair. Jenna looked back out the window and saw a beautiful vista opening out over a wide, wooded valley with a silver glint of river weaving its way through it all.
“Are you ready?” Sam asked her as he grabbed the handle of his door.
But looking out the window that side, Jenna could only make out thin air beyond the tinted glass.
“What's out there?” she asked.
“Why don't we find out,” Sam replied, and with that he pulled open the door.
Jenna let out a gasp as she saw the mouth of a cave opening out in the middle of the precipice of a tall cliff. It was several meters away from the helicopter, so that the blades just avoided the rock face. Looking down, Jenna saw a metal ramp leading all the way out of the cave’s entrance and reaching out to the hovering helicopter. Sam stepped onto the ramp and, as he did, he turned to Jenna and offered her his hand.
“It's perfectly safe,” he said, spotting the trepidation written all over her face.
He stepped out fully onto the ramp, so that he was standing on it, as if to show her, and Jenna gingerly left the craft, taking ahold of Sam's hand as she carefully reached her foot out onto the ramp, which thankfully had handrails on either side. He smiled as she gingerly stretched her foot onto the metal structure, before feeling that it was safe and stepping out fully.
Holding her hand, Sam led her into the mouth of the cave along the ramp. Inside was an elegantly set dining table that awaited them, the seating area looking out across the valley. The whole of the cavern was decorated with fairy lights that ran along the walls, submerging the cavern in a dim light.
Once they were inside, the hovering helicopter whizzed away and the ramp began to telescopically fold back into the cave. As for the cave itself, it was about half way up a steep, vertical ridge of rock, and was made of a wide fissure running horizontally across the cliff face.
Sam pulled out one of the chairs of the table and offered it to Jenna to sit down. She took it with a grin, still feeling a little giddy that she was sitting at the edge of a rather large drop. Once she was seated, Sam took his seat opposite her and Jenna gazed out across the valley.
“The view's amazing, isn't it?” Sam asked.
“Yes, I don't think there's many restaurants that can boast such an awesome vista to look out upon. But are we safe up here?”
“The cave is perfectly safe. I’ve had it reinforced. That is, unless you suddenly get the urge to throw
yourself off!”
Just then, Jenna jumped as a glass was placed on the table beside her. Glancing sharply away from the view, she found a neatly dressed waiter holding out a chilled bottle of Chablis. She instantly recognized the bottle from a little vineyard in southern France that, strangely, Jenna had visited some years ago; she often had bottles of the same wine sent over to her in L.A. But she didn't say anything and instead merely tasted the wine, as if she'd never had it before, smiled and gave the waiter an affirmative nod. With a smile, the waiter poured each of them a glass, before leaving the bottle and returning back to the shadows of the cave.
“Where's he going?” Jenna whispered to Sam as the waiter disappeared.
A slither of a grin emerged on Sam’s face.
“There's a little room in the back with a kitchen,” he beamed. “He's gone to fetch our lunch. What do you think of the wine?”
“Like the view,” Jenna said in a playful tone, “I like it.”
The waiter returned with two silver platters, placing one each in front of Sam and Jenna. He then removed the lids and Jenna gave a big smile as she gazed down at the delicious filet steak, potato and parsnip dauphinois, and bundle of asparagus in lemon and butter. It was her favorite meal from her favorite restaurant, Francois's of L.A.
“I see,” she began looking down at the meal, “that I'm not the only one who's done their research. First my favorite wine and now my favorite meal.”
“I wanted to apologize for my behavior the other day,” Sam said solemnly. “Most people have an image of me as someone that's a little offish and cold. My actions when you first arrived—getting worked up like that—aren’t me, I can assure you. Anyway, today I wanted to show you that I too can be charming when I want.”
“I'm not sure that I would call spying charming.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, I take it that you gathered all this intel from my credit card activity?”
“Of course,” Sam replied firmly, lifting his glass and taking a big sip of wine, before placing the glass back down, looking over at Jenna and then back at the glass and adding, “That really is a good wine. You have exemplary taste.”
“That doesn't really get to the point, Sam. You were spying on me.”
Sam leaned his elbows onto the table, crossed his hands and rested his chin on them, gazing fixedly the whole time into Jenna's eyes.
“Jenna,” Sam said, “I’m not the average person. I have to be careful of anyone who gets close to me. I'm not just dealing with outside influences from the Chinese, the Russians or my own government. I have to deal with it from inside my own company too. I'll come clean now and tell you that I personally did a thorough sweep of you the moment I was informed three weeks ago that you would be coming. The wine, Francois's and all of that was something that I gathered on the side while checking you out. I needed to know if you were for real or just a stooge working for Bormann. I had to know.”
“You know what you did was illegal, and highly immoral.”
“You don't think the government isn't doing it already? I thought that it was common knowledge nowadays.”
“But that's the government. I have nothing to hide from them—”
“And you had nothing to hide from me,” Sam added. “Anyway,” he said in a lighter tone, taking his serviette, unfurling it and then placing it on his lap, “let's not argue and simply enjoy this meal before the mountain breeze turns it cold.”
Jenna frowned slightly, but let it drop. After that, they enjoyed the food and the conversation only touched on the lightest topics, such as the beauty of the surrounding nature and how Sam had come to find the cave.
“I'm a keen climber,” his explanation began, “and so too was my wife. We used to climb all over the Rockies. We’d been all the way up along them, all the way up into Canada. When we first came here—to this reserve—we spotted this ridge of cliffs and couldn't help but try to climb them. This particular part was covered in thick bushes growing out of the rock face. In fact, where we're sitting there was a huge tree that knotted its way through the rock. I think it could have been this that opened up the cavity in the precipice. Anyhow, after several unsuccessful attempts, we finally climbed it and when we reached the bushes and trees here, we found this little cave hidden behind it. Last month, I had the vegetation removed and the whole cavern reinforced, putting a little backroom and the ramp in, so that I could bring my daughter here. It gave me something to do.”
“And why do you want to bring your daughter here? To this spot?” Jenna asked as she used her knife to scoop some dauphinois over the top of some steak that she had on the end of her fork.
“Back to the psychologist,” Sam replied with a knowing look. “Well, obviously, I want to bring Jess here because of what it meant to me and her mother, and I want to preserve the place because it was something—like Techsoft—that we'd achieved together. I guess this cave is a monument to our love—as is Jess.”
“Is that why you brought me here—subconsciously perhaps? Because you wanted me to see one of the spots of your love?”
“Maybe—you’re the shrink. It could be that; but then this whole reserve is a monument to our love and there are spots everywhere. Even the house is a spot.” Sam leaned forward and whispered, “Or perhaps it's because this is the best spot in the whole of Colorado to eat your lunch. Now,” he added, changing his tone and sitting back into his chair, “if you can guess what dessert is, I'll let you fly the helicopter back.”
Jenna smiled at his boyish charm. She'd expected a cold, distant recluse. But over the last week she’d discovered that there was a warmth to Sam that belied this notion. He was very playful and only very rarely sharp or offish, and only when she’d pushed him a little too far in their sessions, which was always to be expected from patients. It was also obvious—what with there being a lot counting on her subsequent report on him—that he was attempting to get her on his side. But something in his tone of voice and his body language also told Jenna that he was sincerely happy to have her company.
And it was true. Sam was more than pleased to have Jenna with him. She was smart, attractive and not put off by things. When he had planned the day, he had half expected that she would refuse to leave the helicopter and demand that he take her back to the house. He'd even had two sets of identical meals prepared—one in the cave and one at the house—just in case she couldn't face eating dinner in the cave. But even though it was clear that the episode took her out of her comfort zone—stepping out from a hovering helicopter onto a suspended ramp—she had still taken his hand and stepped out. He liked this element of daring in her.
“So?” Sam let out.
“So what?”
“So what dessert are we having?”
Jenna grinned mischievously at him from across the table.
“Mmm,” she mused out loud, closing her eyes in faux concentration. “What dessert,” she repeated to herself. “I like lots, so this is the hardest of the meals to guess, because I'd say that there could be at least five that have a chance of being top.” She then squirted an eye open at Sam. “And you say you'll let me fly the helicopter?”
“Of course, but with me or my pilot beside you. I wasn't thinking of letting you drive it all the way back, just take the controls for a few minutes while we're out of the way of anything.”
“That would probably be for the best,” Jenna agreed. She closed her eyes again and suddenly blurted out, “New York cheesecake!”
“Well, let's see,” Sam said, and with that, the waiter emerged from the shadows of the cave, making Jenna jump slightly once again. In his hands he was holding another silver platter.
The waiter placed the platter on the table, before disappearing again. Sam glanced over at Jenna and signaled the platter with his hand.
“Okay,” she said like an excited little girl, hovering her hand over the platter handle. With an abrupt movement she pulled up the dish's covering and looked down. Her look immediately melte
d into one of disappointment when she saw a tub of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream there. She looked up at Sam and said, “You cheated! I thought you meant something I'd eat in a restaurant.”
“No,” he boyishly grinned. “I asked you what dessert would be, based—like the rest of the meal—on your most popular credit card activity. This flavor of ice cream is by far your most popular purchase as far as dessert is concerned. So,” and he picked a spoon up and offered it to her, “dig in.”
After that, they ate ice cream, before gazing out at the valley as they finished their wines. Then it was time to leave, and the helicopter returned to take them back. As Jenna got on board, she glanced back at the table in the cave, lit dimly by the fairy lights. She smiled, shook her head and got into the helicopter.
Soon, they were making their way back to the house and a comfortable silence reigned inside the craft, Jenna once again staring out the window at the beautiful view as it whizzed by below. She felt good in his company and the day’s events had shown her that Sam wanted her to feel special.
And she certainly was feeling special.
However, she had a job to do and couldn’t allow her professional duty to be corrupted by an affair with her patient.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Claire woke with a sharp pain in her abdomen. She went to get up to switch the light on, but she instantly fell back onto the bed in agony, the pain forcing her to scream out. A violent panic was erupting in her and she began to sob, worried that she was losing the baby. That day the pregnancy had felt strange. She’d not felt much movement where lately there’d been a lot. She simply put it down to the baby having a day off and left it at that. But now that she was being hit with lightening strikes of severe pain, she felt that the baby’s earlier non-action had meant something after all.
Unable to get up properly, she reached out and took her phone from the bedside cabinet. She immediately called Paul.