Wild Ice

by Rachelle Vaughn

  Bonnie must have escaped or… Well, Lauren chose to believe the female escaped the scuffle and was waiting for Clyde to meet up with her somewhere.

  JD stood back and watched Lauren. There was love in his eyes. Something he hadn’t experienced in a long time. She was incredibly gentle and kind and holding her had felt right. And look at how she was saving that little bird’s life! She was setting it free, releasing it, and giving it its freedom back.

  The disheveled and disoriented bird flew away, his flight pattern zigzagged. After a few frantic beats of its wings, he was on his way back into the wild.

  Lauren looked up at JD, her eyes still wet with tears. “He’s going to be all right,” she said confidently.

  JD smiled and hoped she was right.

  * * *

  Lauren had some nervous energy to burn from JD’s scorching kiss. She bought the kind of hummingbird feeder that had suction cups on it so she could stick it to JD’s kitchen window. She didn’t buy a hanging feeder because the window was high up and if there wasn’t already a nail above the frame, she wouldn’t be able to reach to hammer one in. The type with suction cups would be quicker to install and she wanted it to be a surprise.

  She refused to be disheartened by the weavers’ demise. Even though the species was likely to become endangered in the near future, their numbers would rise with conservation.

  She mixed up a batch of hummingbird nectar, carefully poured it into the new feeder and followed the path that led to the manor. After attaching the suction cups to the window and placing the feeder on top, she walked back home.

  About halfway down the path, she turned around and waited. Within minutes, a rufous hummingbird buzzed around the window and scoped out the new feeder before landing on the perch to take a sip.

  Lauren smiled and went back to the cottage.

  * * *

  That night JD lay in bed and thought about the kiss he’d shared with Lauren. It didn’t feel wrong and he didn’t feel guilty about it. At first it had felt like a betrayal to Darla, but now… Now things were different. It was as if Darla was looking down on him and shooing him forward. “Go!” she urged. “Live your life!” And he was beginning to do just that.

  Things were definitely starting to change. The ache in his chest had even started to fade. He woke up in the mornings with new purpose and actually looked forward to the day ahead instead of dreading it and wishing it would be over with already. He was even able to sleep upstairs in his bed instead of in the recliner without being blindsided by memories.

  When he did think about Darla it didn’t cause him to unravel like before. It was getting easier to think about her and that scared him, but at the same time it was also somewhat of a relief. Just because it didn’t hurt as much to think about her didn’t mean he loved her any less. She’d never be completely gone. She’d live on in his heart and through her sister’s continuing charity work.

  In the morning, when he poured his morning coffee, something red outside the kitchen window caught JD’s eye. He looked out the window over the sink and saw a hummingbird feeder stuck to the glass with suction cups. That certainly hadn’t been there yesterday, he thought to himself.

  A hummingbird landed on the perch and drank from the feeder. JD froze, careful not to scare the little guy away and watched it drink. Its feathers were green and shiny in the morning sunlight and JD marveled at its tiny size. Then, as fast as it had landed, the hummingbird flew away.

  A few seconds later, another hummingbird darted toward the feeder, hovered and finally took a sip of nectar before flying off. Man, it was a quick little thing. Its little wings must beat a million miles a minute.

  Apparently the first bird didn’t like sharing because he swooped in to chase away the second one. The way they darted back and forth made it look like they were doing a mid-air tango. Their fierce hums sounded like dueling lightsabers. Emerald green feathers and ruby red throats shimmered in the sun.

  One after another, the hummingbirds took turns drinking, some sharing and others stingier. Some sat with their chest puffed out and some craned their slender necks to get a better look at him through the window.

  JD took a sip of coffee and smiled. The birds were so delicate that it felt like he’d been given a gift to be able to watch them up close like this. He slowed down his breathing and was careful not to move a muscle. Luckily the window was high up or else Mel’s helicopter of a tail would’ve scared the little birds away in a heartbeat.

  JD lost track of time as he stood and watched the birds. He started to relax and let his shoulders drop. The slight movement caught the little bird’s attention and it craned and swiveled its neck sideways, looking like a miniature swan and peered at him with its beady shiny black eye to get a better look. Then it did a typewriter move on the perch so it could reach the other opening.

  JD froze again and the bird, deeming he wasn’t a threat, continued sipping from the feeder. The hummingbird’s slivery tongue caused the nectar inside the feeder to ripple. It flew up from the perch, darted to and fro and then zoomed off like a maniac on a Segway.

  JD set his empty coffee cup in the sink and smiled to himself.

  Lauren had done this.

  * * *

  Lauren looked down at the piece of paper with JD’s phone number on it. Before she could change her mind, she dialed the number and held her breath as it rang.

  “Hello?” he answered.

  “Hi JD, this is Lauren.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  Panic rose in his voice and she laughed to reassure him. “Yes. Everything is fine.”

  “That’s good.” He sounded genuinely relieved. “What’s up?”

  “I just called to see if you’d like to go on a picnic.” She laughed nervously at herself. “Now that I say it out loud it sounds kind of corny.”

  “No, it sounds like a great idea.”

  His voice was warm and she didn’t feel silly anymore. “Meet me in the clearing at say….eleven? I’ll bring the food.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll be there.”

  Lauren hung up and went to work making preparations. She packed a simple lunch of sandwiches, some potato chips and store-bought cookies. Someone more sophisticated probably would have packed brie and wine and fancy buttery crackers, but Martha Stewart she was not.

  She’d tried her hand at baking, but after the incident with the cobbler and a subsequent incident with peanut butter cookies, Lauren abandoned her efforts altogether for fear of burning down the cottage. She’d been restless after their kiss and didn’t know what else to do with herself. Baking cookies had seemed like the perfect distraction. It would have been nice to bring them over to JD to erase the bad taste the cobbler left, but oh, well. Living in the moment wasn’t without its disadvantages.

  She blamed the peanut butter cookie disaster on the old oven in the cottage, but in reality, a white-breasted nuthatch had distracted her and she’d lost track of time. Marsh had signaled his disapproval of the burnt smell with a scrunch of his nose and an irritated flick of his tail. Marsh didn’t like most of what Lauren did and he especially disapproved of her stepping foot in the kitchen. So, Lauren hoped JD wouldn’t mind the simple meal reminiscent of a grade school lunchbox.

  When Lauren stepped out into the glaring sun, she was glad she’d put on her floppy hat out of habit. Big puffy clouds sailed lazily across the sky and soon blocked the sun to provide some much appreciated shade.

  JD was already waiting in the clearing behind Teal Manor. Lauren spotted him and lifted the picnic basket with a grin. “After the cobbler incident I’m surprised you agreed to this,” she said with a smirk.

  He smiled and she liked how it brightened his features. The hardness around his mouth and eyes was replaced with smile lines. He looked friendly and approachable and not at all like the man she’d met on the trail. He looked handsome and casual in jeans and a T-shirt and the change of mood looked good on him.

  “I don’t know,” he joked. “Yo
u make a pretty mean waffle.”

  “It’s not the meal, it’s the company, right?”

  “Right.”

  JD helped her spread out the blanket and then they sat down in the middle of the field. It was the perfect spot for a picnic with the tall grass surrounding them like a cocoon and the birds chirping their cheerful songs.

  Mel clomped over the blanket and practically lay down on top of the picnic basket. They laughed and JD pushed him aside.

  JD had never been on a picnic before. Eating Sunday brunch at a sidewalk café was as close to nature as Darla ever got. Lauren seemed to care more about experiences than decorum and that was fine by him. He stretched his long legs out in front of him and enjoyed the warm sunshine on his skin.

  When the phone rang that morning, he almost didn’t answer it. Then he thought twice about it and answered it anyway. He was glad he did.

  “It’s not gourmet,” Lauren pointed out as she unpacked the food. “You’re probably used to something fancier, but I think it’s best if I steer clear of the kitchen. Marsh hides under the bed whenever I even open the fridge. I tried to make cookies last night and let’s just say that’s all I’m going to say about that. Come to think of it, you might have liked them. They turned out like hockey pucks.”

  She let the hockey reference hang in the air. Between the weaver incident and not wanting to pry, she hadn’t had a chance to ask him about his skate. When he didn’t volunteer any information, she let the subject slide.

  “Actually, I’ve been living off of cereal and mac and cheese,” he confessed. “So this is a nice change.” He took a bite of the sandwich she offered him and made a sound of approval. “You can’t go wrong with PB&J.”

  “I’m glad you approve.”

  “Thanks for the hummingbird feeder,” he said, taking a swig of soda to wash down the sandwich.

  She grinned. “What do you think of it?”

  “It’s great. My window is the hot spot for hummingbirds now.”

  “The hanging feeders are nice but the birds are easier to look at when they have a perch to sit on.”

  “Yeah, those suckers move pretty fast.”

  “Their wings beat up to ninety times per second,” she replied.

  “Jeez. I saw a few of them in the first five minutes, but then again it could have been the same one. I wouldn’t know how to tell them apart.”

  “We only have a couple of species around here, but they can be difficult to identify.” She took the field guide out of her backpack and showed him the hummingbirds that were native to the area. “Aunt Cora has three hummingbird feeders hanging from the back porch. They see so much action I have to fill them up every other day.”

  “Wow. What’s in that stuff anyway?”

  “Just water, sugar and food coloring.”

  “Huh. I guess if I drank nothing but sugar water, I’d be buzzin’ around out of my head, too.”

  She laughed and JD thought he could spend all day out here with her. “They sure are playful little birds,” he remarked.

  “They were probably fighting. They’re extremely territorial.”

  “Really? I never thought of them as being violent.”

  “Looks can be deceiving.”

  “I was surprised to see that they lap up the nectar with their tongues,” he admitted.

  “How did you think they ate?”

  “I don’t know. I thought they sucked up their food like…through a straw or something,” he admitted.

  She laughed and once again he let the delightful sound wash over him.

  “Actually,” she told him, “They have very efficient long tongues that trap nectar by curling around it.” Lauren shifted uncomfortably when she realized she probably shouldn’t be talking about tongues. The kiss they shared was still fresh in her mind and she was eager to find out if it was a one-time occurrence.

  JD studied her face and his eyes lingered on her lips. He hadn’t had thoughts of intimacy in a long time, but Lauren had a way of shaking things up.

  A plethora of emotions swirled between them. Besides sharing their first kiss, they’d witnessed the aftermath of carnage and found hope in the aftermath.

  Mel scratched behind his ear and his collar jingled. Lauren shifted on the blanket and helped him scratch his itch. “So, how was your skate? I haven’t had a chance to ask you about it.”

  The joy that flashed across JD’s face was unmistakable. She knew the feeling. Her body responded the same way when she saw a bird she’d never seen before.

  “It was long overdue,” he answered, choosing his words carefully.

  “So, you didn’t fall down?” she joked.

  “Nah. It’s just like riding a bike.”

  “I’m proud of you for taking that first step. It’s not an easy thing to do.”

  Emotion welled up and lodged in his throat. “You’re the reason I got back on the ice, Lauren. If we hadn’t talked about it…”

  She reached over and laced her fingers through his.

  “I never would have gone through with it if it wasn’t for you,” he confessed.

  She shrugged the way she’d seen him do so many times before. “If I suddenly forgot the beauty of birding, I would hope someone would come along and shove a pair of binoculars at me and push me out onto the trail to remind me.”

  “I’m sorry about the weavers,” he said softly.

  She sniffed and squeezed his hand. “Me too.” She knew it was just a part of nature, but she’d grown attached to them and it was still difficult. “I had no right to be upset over a coupla birds. You’ve lost more than I could ever imagine.”

  “Lauren, don’t. They meant a lot to you.”

  “I know, but it’s not the same. You can’t compare it to losing a person.”

  He sighed. “Let’s just agree that we’ve both suffered losses.”

  She was quiet for a moment and then said, “I’m glad you came here, JD. I owe Mel big time for going and getting help and bringing you to me that day I fell.”

  JD squeezed her hand. He didn’t want to know how his life would have turned out if he never met Lauren.

  “I have to ask…how did Mel get you to come down the trail that day?”

  JD laughed. “He used brute force, that’s how. All of a sudden he came barging through the dog door and then he clamped down on my pant leg and pulled me outside. I didn’t know what had gotten in to him. I’ve never seen him like that before in my life. He was frantic. He literally pulled me down the trail until I agreed to follow him.”

  “And then you found me.”

  “Yeah. Imagine my surprise at finding you out here in the middle of nowhere.”

  “And here we are hanging out with a bunch of birds.”

  They finished their lunch and after a while Lauren asked, “What does JD stand for?”

  “Jarrett David.”

  “My middle name is Elise.” Sharing her middle name with him felt intimate. She only ever used it on legal forms and sharing it with JD seemed like a special secret.

  “Lauren Elise,” he murmured. “It’s very beautiful.”

  They lay on their backs and looked up at the clouds and tried to find shapes in them. The wind picked up, pushing the clouds in a hurry across the sky.

  It would be the perfect spot to take a nap if JD’s senses weren’t on alert from having Lauren close by. On one hand he felt relaxed and at ease around her and on the other hand he felt anxious and jittery. He never knew what she was going to say next and sometimes she didn’t say anything at all.

  Lauren rolled over onto her stomach, rested on her elbows, and looked over at JD. Instead of looking up at the sky, he was looking at her. With his arms stretched over his head, his shirt had pulled up to reveal a patch of skin above the waistband of his jeans. She let her eyes travel down to his zipper and back up to his skin. A narrow trail of hair disappeared behind the button on his jeans. His T-shirt stretched tight across his broad chest and her eyes continued over to the arm folded
behind his head. His bicep muscles were defined and she wondered how he kept in such good shape all alone in that house of his. That kind of definition took a lot more than a treadmill to achieve. Her eyes continued their perusal over to his neck and up to the stubble on his chin and jaw. And then over to the curve of his ear and across his nose and lips.

  She wanted to kiss him again. Holding hands wasn’t enough. She wanted to feel his arms around her and his skin pressed against hers. Just as she was about to lean over, a raindrop landed on her nose.

  The only predictable thing about the weather in Red Valley and the surrounding area was how unpredictable it was. Thunderstorms in the middle of summer weren’t so unusual. Without warning, dark clouds rolled in and the sun disappeared for good behind a curtain of gray sky. Sure, it rained in Red Valley, but there was something about the wide open space of the refuge that made the weather seem more intense in Hayley’s Point.

  Another fat rain drop landed on Lauren’s cheek, followed by several more on her nose.

  It didn’t take long for Mel to get nervous. He trotted off toward the house with his tail between his legs. Lauren and JD laughed at his hasty retreat. Mel had never liked stormy weather and a doozy of a storm was about to roll in.

  JD looked up at the heavy clouds and squinted. “I guess that’s it for our picnic.”

  “This wasn’t in the forecast,” Lauren complained.

  They gathered up what was left of their picnic and Lauren shoved the damp picnic basket into her backpack. Together they hurried off in the direction of the manor.

  About halfway there, Lauren realized she didn’t want to go inside. She stopped dead in her tracks and dropped the backpack to the ground. “Wait,” she told JD. “Why are we in such a hurry to get out of the rain?”

  JD stopped and turned to face her and watched as she tilted her face up to the sky and let the rain caress her face.

  “Isn’t it wonderful?” She held her arms out, palms up and let the rain splatter her skin. Her hair stuck to her head and droplets ran down her forehead.