“Forget the bread,” Sam replied. “I can’t wait to dig into that deep dish pumpkin pie.” He pointed the end of his beer bottle at Jack. “Did you really make it, or did Jen do all the work and you watch?”
Grinning, Jack stole a glance at Jen. “The other way around. Our city mouse watched while I did all the work.”
“Ha!” she shot back. “Equal work for equal pay, and considering my kitchen looks like a bomb hit, you’ll be paying with sponge duty.”
He leaned in, pecking her cheek. “Promise to suds me up, and you’ve got a deal.”
“Hey!” Tess laughed. “This dinner is my first dinner party, let’s keep it rated PG.”
Sam kissed her cheek. “My very own party pooper.”
“Then count me in, too. I’m not much of a partier either,” Jenny countered.
Tess shook her head, taking a piece of bread from the basket. “He didn’t mean it like that, Jen. Though this town does know how to have a good time. I told you, from Halloween straight through New Year’s we don’t stop, but there’s also the Sweetheart’s Ball for Valentine’s Day. The proceeds go to help the school. Then St. Paddy’s Day in March—”
“I don’t do St. Patrick’s Day, Tess.”
“Oh, but the parade is so much fun.”
Jenny didn’t comment, and an awkward silence fell over the table.
“Well, on that note, I think we need to shift gears back to the present.” He lifted his beer, giving Tess a wink. “To old friends and new friends. To new loves, and loves lost but not forgotten. Merry Christmas.”
Jenny lifted her wine glass as well, her lip trembling. A heaviness settled in her chest, and she couldn’t breathe.
“You okay?” Jack asked.
Tears pricked her eyes, and Jen pushed her chair back with a sharp scrape. “If you’ll excuse me—”
She rushed from the table toward the powder room. Snapping on the light, she glanced at herself in the mirror before gripping the edge of the porcelain vanity.
“Jen?”
Jenny looked up at Jack in the mirror. “I’ll be okay. Just give me a minute.”
“Do you want to go home?”
She shook her head. “Tess went through a lot to make dinner tonight. I’m not going to ruin it. I just need a minute.”
“Was it something we said?”
His pained expression in the mirror made her feel worse. “No, of course not. I guess I don’t know how to do this.”
“Do what?”
She shrugged. “Be out with people.”
“You make yourself sound like Quasimodo. You’re fine with people. I hear it when I’m out and about in town. They love the shop, and how you and Loretta are with customers.”
“It’s not that kind of be with people I mean. Everyone back home knows the circumstances surrounding the accident. It happened on St. Paddy’s Day. A drunk driver hit us and that’s all she wrote. Life as I knew it died that day. I don’t know how to be with people whose lives are still free and easy.
She wiped her eyes, glad she wore waterproof mascara and liner. “It’s not fair for me to react like this either. It’s not their fault they’ve been spared.”
“The universe doesn’t come down with a gavel on people, Jen. We joke about fickle fates, but it’s just the luck of the draw. It’s why there’s a saying, that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”
“Then I must be Supergirl.” She huffed a sarcastic laugh. “Supergirl who convinces herself she’s ready to swing from the chandelier with her legs wrapped around your hips, but can’t get through dinner conversation and a heartfelt holiday speech without devolving into tears or resentment.” She shrugged. “I am clearly not ready for prime time.”
“What triggered you?”
She inhaled and then turned to lean on the vanity, facing him. “This is my first holiday season without my family…well, the first where I’m back to normal physically. I spent that first Easter in a medically-induced coma, then surgery after surgery.
“After that, it took the better part of a year to relearn everything. To walk. To talk…” she lifted a hand. “Et voilà. Here I am. Physically fit, but emotionally a mess.”
“You’re not a mess, Jenny. You’re just figuring it out.”
She blew her nose in some toilet paper. “Run for the hills, Jack. Before my rollercoaster makes you wish you never walked into my shop.”
“Nope.” He pulled her into his arms, and she didn’t fight him. “I don’t run, unless I get to chase you.”
Tess poked her head in from the dining room. “You guys okay, or should I pack it in for dinner?”
“We’ll be right in, Tess. Don’t touch my plate,” Jack teased, winking at her from the mirror.
Jenny stepped back from him with a sniff. “You sure? I think I really did poop all over this party.”
He shook his head. “No one cares, Jen. They just want you to be okay. This town has been here for a very long time, and we’ve seen our share of tragedies.” Jack leaned in, giving her a soft kiss. “I want to show you something.”
“Now?” She couldn’t help a tiny smirk. “Does it involve locking the bathroom door?”
“Always with the dirty mind. You really are a merry widow.”
Her smile faded a little. “Don’t say that.”
“Nope. It’s about time you were merry in every sense of the word, and I have something that might help.” He kissed her again. “But after dinner. Sam is not getting that pie all to himself.”
***
“Where are we going, exactly?” Jenny watched the trees wiz past the passenger seat window. “I know we’re only twenty miles outside town, but it feels a little desolate, Jack.”
“You’ll see. Trust me. It’s worth the wait.”
He grinned, keeping his eyes on the swath from the high beams ahead. She crossed her arms, looking at him from the passenger seat.
“What?”
“Never trust anyone who says, ‘trust me.’”
He chuckled. “Yet you say it often it enough.”
A small smirk tugged at her lips. Busted. “Yeah, but when I say it, I’m not driving someone out to the middle of nowhere in the pitch dark.”
“Pitch dark is the only way you can see what I want to show you. The snow clouds really help tonight.”
Snow had been threatening for days, and the night sky was even darker than it should be at a half moon. The blanket of stars she’d gotten used to seeing since moving to Whisper Falls was obscured, and their absence made her a little sad. Living so close to the city most of her life, she’d taken the florescence of urban life as ordinary. Surprisingly, she didn’t miss it at all. Not when she traded it for a vast twinkling expanse.
Jack clicked his turn signal, and pulled onto a dirt road that seemed to appear out of nowhere. His truck bumped along, winding higher into the mountains.
“Okay, now I’ve got to know. Where are we headed? I get why you insisted on taking your truck instead of my car, and why you suggested I change coats and take a hat and gloves. What’s our destination, captain?”
“I’m sure you’ve heard of the aurora borealis.”
Jenny’s brows pulled together slightly. “Of course. Who hasn’t?”
He shrugged.
“C’mon, Jack. Even if the Catskill Mountains were as high as Mt. Everest, we wouldn’t see Northern Lights. New York is the wrong longitude and latitude.”
He kept his eyes on the rough, narrow road. “I’m not taking you to see the aurora, but this is pretty impressive itself. Even more so since it’s not accessible to everyone.”
“No fooling,” she said, gripping onto the Holy Shit! handle above the door. “All I can say is I’m glad I peed before we left.”
The truck’s high beams cut a stark swath into the dark road. “Jack, is that snow?” She jerked to look at Jack, and then squinted out the windshield again. “Holy crap, we’re high enough there’s snow covering the road! Are you sure we’re not going to ge
t stuck? Is there even cell coverage up this high?”
Jack glanced at her. “Stop being so citified. It’s December. There’s bound to be snow in the mountains.”
“Bound to be nothing. You keep your eyes on the road.” She scoffed. “Or whatever you call this dirt thing.”
He shook his head as she gripped the Holy Shit handle with both hands. “Believe it or not, we’re still technically in Whisper Falls. Just not the town.”
“No. Really?”
He shifted the truck into low gear, and she closed her eyes with an anxious groan. “Relax. We’re almost there.”
Jack turned off the dirt road into what looked to be a makeshift parking area or turnaround. He put the truck in park, but didn’t cut the lights or the engine.
“Are we here?”
“Not yet. We have to hike a bit in through there.” He pointed toward the dark shadows beyond the truck’s headlights.
“Are you nuts? In case you missed it, it’s pitch black. Even more so than before we turned into this twisted winter trek.”
“I’ll turn the truck around if that’s what you want, but you’re going to miss out on something magical.”
“Jack, it’s the twenty-first century. Magic is an illusion.”
“It may be the twenty-first century, but magic exists, Jen. You know that firsthand, Ms. Spidey Senses. What people call what we can’t explain is a matter of semantics.” Jack turned in the driver’s seat to face her. “Now, are we hiking, or am I turning the truck around and taking you home?”
Jenny looked out the truck’s windshield at the shadows creeping in from the darkness ahead. “Do you have a flashlight?”
He laughed. “I have everything we need in my pack.” Reaching behind to the two rear seats, he lifted a backpack between them. “Flashlight. Water. Blankets. I even packed snacks.”
“Snacks. We just ate like two plow horses.”
Patting the side of the backpack, he shrugged. “I told you. I have the kind of metabolism that needs food.” He looked at her. “Or you could let me get hangry and take your chances I don’t leave you up here.”
“Ha! I’d like to see you try. A panicked city girl is a dangerous creature.” She unlocked the passenger door. “Let’s do this crazy thing.”
Jenny got out of the truck and immediately put on her hat and gloves. “Jesus! It’s cold as hell!”
“I never understood that saying,” Jack replied, climbing out of the driver’s side. “Personally, I don’t believe in hell, but as I understand, it’s supposed to be fire and brimstone, right?”
“And?”
“So if it’s all fiery pits, then to say something is cold as hell should mean it’s extremely hot.”
She stood shivering in the truck’s high beams. “I never thought of it like that, but to be honest, who cares?”
Jack slipped his backpack onto his shoulders and then cut the engine and the lights.
“Jack!”
“I’m right here, Jen. Relax.” With a soft chuckle, he clicked on a tactical flashlight and then walked around the front of the truck. “Here,” he said, handing her one of her own. “Just click the soft spot under the shaft once for a high beam, twice for a warning strobe.”
“Why would I need a warning strobe?”
“On the off chance we get separated. It’ll make it easier for me to find you.”
Jenny moved to his side, taking his hand.
“Worked like a charm.” He gave her a slow smile.
“If my fingers weren’t so cold, I’d punch you.”
Leaning in, he kissed the side of the knitted hat on her head. “You are so cute when you’re mad.”
“I’m not mad, I’m freezing.”
“C’mon. Once we get moving, you’ll warm up. I promise, it’ll be worth the discomfort.”
Chapter Nine
“I’m glad you told me to put on hikers. At least my feet are warm.” Jenny puffed. “What I wish you told me was I needed to go into training first.”
Jack slowed his pace, waiting for her to catch up and take his hand. “Listen. Can you hear the water? The falls are just ahead.”
“The falls?” Jenny questioned, catching her breath. “Are they connected to the ones right outside of town?”
He nodded. “They feed the lesser falls near town. These are the real deal. Not the falls our chamber of commerce likes to hawk to the tourists.”
“If these are so much better, why doesn’t the chamber of commerce arrange tours up this way?
“Because these falls aren’t accessible to everyone.”
“I’m sure there are developers who’d love to build a ski resort around such a natural wonder.”
“By accessible, I mean only certain people can see the true falls.”
“Jack, there isn’t a square inch of the Catskills left unmapped. At least not since Rip Van Winkle. Like you said, technically we’re still in Whisper Falls.”
“You’ll see what I mean.”
The trees thinned, and though she couldn’t see much past the swath from her flashlight, a weird feeling of Déjà vu settled over her as they walked. The sound of the water ahead. The way it susurrated. Like a whisper calling to them as they approached. The shape of the trees and their shadows.
“I’ve the strangest feeling I’ve been here before.”
Jack looked at her across his shoulder, and gripped her hand tighter. “Maybe you have.”
“How? I’ve never been to the Catskills. I mean, not before moving to Whisper Falls.”
“Maybe you dreamt it.”
Jenny didn’t reply. Whether he was serious or not, Jack hit the nail on the head. She’d seen this place in one of her weirdo dreams. But how? Why?
Snippets of her dreams came back, and she shivered against Jack’s arm. “Uhm, are there any animals we should be wary of? Bears? Coyote?” She jerked toward a twig snap off in a shadow to her right. “Mountain lions, maybe?
At her soft gasp, he followed her line of sight.
“Do you see anything?”
“Just shadows, babe. It’s nothing.”
She squinted into the dark for a moment more, and when she turned back, Jack’s eyes seem to refract the ambient light like a cat.
“Have I grown whiskers or something?”
Jenny blinked, and what she thought she saw was gone. “Uhm, no. The light and shadow are playing tricks on me.”
“The forest can do that at night. It has its own built-in creep factor.”
The two walked out of the line of trees into another world. The moon, obscured by clouds in the valley, showed bright on the wide pool at the base of immense falls. Either side was coated in thin sheets of ice, making the rocky face look almost glass-like. Smaller cascades were frozen in place. Thick, white and silver.
“Jack! This is amazing. It’s three times the size of the falls near town.”
“I told you, but that’s not the best part.” He walked to the edge of the snow-covered bank, and knelt in to the frost. “Remember I told you only certain people could see the true falls?”
“I can see that. This place is hard to find.”
He shook his head, taking off one glove. “I’m not talking about its off-the-grid location. I mean the true falls. Not what you see right now.” He leaned over the edge and held his hand over the icy water.
“Jack? What are you doing?”
“Do you believe in magic, Jen?”
“What?”
He looked at her. “Do you believe in magic? Don’t tell me what you’ve been conditioned to believe or not believe. Look deep inside. Deep in your heart. Do you believe in things that exist outside the realm of understanding?”
Jenny held her breath, about to balk at the idea, but Jack’s eyes told her he’d see right through the canned response. She had no choice but admit the truth.
“Yes. I’ve always believed there was more out there than we’ve been taught to see.”
The man’s smile was as bright as the moon,
and he touched the water with the palm of his hand. In that instance, the entire pool turned phosphorescent. The water shimmered in iridescent pinks, greens, throwing glowing shadows across the clearing like a mini aurora borealis. Cascades flowed over the falls in a mix of silvery greens and blues, pouring and churning the gleaming shades in the pool.
Jenny stood staring with her mouth open.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“How?” She shook her head, stunned. “Is it some kind of natural reaction to something?” This wasn’t the woods playing tricks with light and shadow.
“Yes, it’s completely natural. Yes, it’s a reaction, and no, it does not happen for all people. I told you. Only certain people can see the true falls, and an even lesser amount can trigger the magic.”
She looked from him to the falls and back again. “Trigger the magic. What are you saying, Jack?”
“These falls are a portal, Jenny. Eons old. Only certain people have the ability to trigger visions into the past, and even fewer can see into the future. You call your gift your Spidey senses or supercharged intuition. It’s actually second sight.”
“I had a near-death experience, Jack. It’s not second sight or any other kind of sight. It’s that my perception of life has changed through trauma.”
He straightened from his crouch. “If that were so, you wouldn’t see what’s in front of you now. You’d see a beautiful winter waterfall, but that’s all. No colors. No iridescent pool. In that pool lies answers and closure. It’s part of the reason I brought you here.”
“What do you mean, answers and closure?” Unease crawled across her stomach.
“Maybe if you see the past as it was, instead of how you view it, it might help.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her hackles rose, and she crossed her arms at her chest.
“Through the eyes of grief and guilt. I recognize the signs, Jen. I had it when my parents died. You’re guilty you survived, but your family didn’t. Look in the pool, sweetheart. Ask what you will. It will show you nothing but truth.”
“That sounds an awful lot like a mirror. Yet you called this a portal.” She stepped closer to edge of the snowy bank. “There’s a difference, and don’t tell me I’m playing semantics.” She looked across her shoulder at him as they stood on the water’s edge. “Supposing this is all true, and I’m not in some carb-induced coma dream from Tess’s heavy dinner. A portal suggests a gateway. Is that what you really mean?”
A Little Mistletoe and Magic: Ho Ho Howls Romance Holiday Edition Page 7