‘You’re totally going to kiss,’ Rose teased as she downed the last of her bourbon. ‘Text me as soon as it happens. Like, literally the moment it ends I want you to pick up the phone. I want to know if this epic build up has been worth it.’
CHAPTER 14
‘Fuuuuuck’ Abbie swore as she stubbed her toe on the corner of the chest of drawers in her bedroom.
Three a.m. was not her preferred alarm clock time. In fact, she was pretty sure the last time she woke up at that ungodly hour was the dreadful night she had to go to the police station when John Sullivan was arrested. That felt like a lifetime ago. Even though it had only been three months, the longer she was in Salt Lake City, the further away from home she felt. She was happy she’d settled quickly and embraced the challenge, but she did feel every so often that she was forgetting her old life. She remembered again that Violet had been evading her messages and pushed the thought away. She didn’t have time to worry about it right now; Kyle was picking her up in half an hour.
That was the catch, it turned out. A 3:30 a.m. departure. What kind of a monster was this man? She was still worried it was all an elaborate practical joke.
He had broken the news of the early alarm call as they went their separate ways after a very successful shop on Thursday. He’d taken her to a huge warehouse outside of the city that had hundreds of pieces of end of the line and old season high-quality furniture. She found everything she needed at a fraction of the cost she would have normally spent, and they were going to deliver it all on the day she moved in.
If Kyle ever wanted to retire from football, he could make a fortune selling his moving house skills.
They hadn’t had time to hang out afterwards as they both had a lot of work to do ahead of the big Friday night televised football game, so his parting shot was to tell her that she wasn’t getting the lie-in and lazy Saturday morning that she’d expected.
It was chilly, as it was still the middle of the bloody night, so now she threw on a pair of light blue jeans, white Nike running shoes and a white cotton racer-back vest. She threw a soft grey hoodie over the top and tied her hair into a low ponytail, and then packed her bag with the baseball cap and sunscreen Kyle had told her to bring. She also threw in some denim shorts for when the bite was out of the air, some make-up and a few other things she thought she might need in the bottom of her handbag. Who knew what she needed, as he’d been so vague?
She should be nervous that she didn’t know where the hell she was going and was being taken away in the middle of the night by someone she’d only known a few months, but she was excited. Every bit of time she’d spent with Kyle so far had been fun, easy and comfortable, and it felt natural to be heading out socially again with him.
Her phone pinged with a text, which told her he was outside. She double-checked she had what she needed, even though she didn’t really know what that might be, and headed out the door.
She looked for the black Honda pickup, but couldn’t see it. Then she saw the headlights of an unfamiliar car turn on and she frowned in confusion. The lights flashed at her and she could see Kyle waving to get her attention.
He got out to come and join her and gesticulated at the car.
‘She’s a beauty, right?’ It was a proud statement delivered with a big beam, not a question.
The car was long and sleek and looked like it had driven straight off the set of the Grease movie. Bathed in light from the street light above, she could see that the bottom panels were a light cream, almost white, while the top panels and roof were a bright turquoise. Running the length of the wheelbase and horizontally down the centre of the sides of the car were gleaming silver metal panes. A huge silver grill housed double headlights either end of the huge bonnet. The detail was incredible and it was pristine.
‘What is it?’ Abbie gasped.
‘That, my sweet England, is a 1958 Chevy Bel Air, and she is the love of my life.’
Abbie glanced sideways at him, suppressing the desire to laugh. Men and their motors.
‘Will it fall to pieces?’ she asked. ‘That’s a pretty old car.’
Kyle clutched his hands to his chest in mock horror. ‘You’re going to hurt her feelings. She’s a perfectly maintained classic. She’s never let me down.’
‘It’s beautiful, Kyle. I’ve never seen anything like it.’ Abbie dropped the teasing because what she was looking at was a thing to be admired. Even though she knew nothing about cars, she could appreciate that it was special.
‘I know. She’s beautiful. But you’ll have to admire her properly later because if we don’t get a move on, we’re going to miss the main event. Hop in, England.’ He opened the door for her as he said it and she slid in, onto the turquoise and cream stitched leather bench seat. It was as beautiful inside as out.
Although, she still wasn’t sure something this old would get them very far. Maybe the departure time had to be so early because it would take them an extremely long time to get there in this. She amused herself with this thought as she clicked the seatbelt in and, at the same time, Kyle carefully closed her door.
Sliding in the other side seconds later, his frame filled the space which felt much more intimate than when they were in his truck. He passed her a hot Starbucks cup, which she could see had the word ‘England’ scrawled on the side with a marker pen.
‘Thought you could do with something to keep you awake after the early call,’ he said as he put the key in the ignition.
The beast roared as he turned the key. Abbie could feel the steady vibrations beneath them as the car came to life and the engine turned over. The sensation ran through her body and her heart pounded from the sound. This was already an experience worth waking up for and he hadn’t released the handbrake yet.
‘You’re going to wake the neighbours.’ She put her index finger to her mouth and shushed him, but he laughed at her and began driving away from the apartment.
Sipping at her coffee, she looked at him as he drove them in a comfortable silence. He really was ridiculously good-looking, and she felt a jolt in her stomach. ‘Are you going to tell me where we’re going now?’
‘Nope. You just sit back and enjoy the ride. No clues.’
As they left the city, there was complete peace, bar the soft growling purr of the car. The streets were empty at this time and the morning was still dark. Abbie found herself sinking lower into the padded seat and she shifted so she was facing towards Kyle. The glint of the street lamps lit up his face. He was all jaw and cheekbones underneath the well-worn dark grey baseball cap pulled low over his eyes.
She had thought it before, but this was a man completely at ease with himself, and he made her feel like she could be totally herself. She felt relaxed and carefree when he was around, and he never failed to make her laugh. She couldn’t believe she’d only met him a few months before. He was the kind of person who had that rare ability to make you feel you had known them forever.
Resting her arm along the back of the bench seat and leaning her head on it, she thought about the niggling doubts she still had about him. Leopards never changed their spots, and she knew he had a reputation, but that knowledge didn’t stop her feelings for him deepening, especially during the last couple of weeks when he really had come through for her. And the way she felt herself opening up whenever he was around was almost beyond her control. She knew it made her vulnerable, but she couldn’t fight it.
As the car continued to warm up, her eyelids started getting heavy. She tried to battle it but a wave of exhaustion passed over her, and before she knew it, she was asleep.
‘Wake up, sleepyhead. You’re going to miss the best bit.’ Abbie groaned as Kyle gently shook her awake. The smell of fresh coffee and pastries hit her nostrils and she stretched and winced, feeling the crick in her neck from sleeping awkwardly. The engine was off and she realised they were now parked.
‘Shit, did I sleep the whole way?’ She sat upright, looking at Kyle and feeling mortified that she’d flak
ed out and left him driving without company all the way to their destination. Given that it wasn’t completely dark anymore, that must have been quite a distance.
He laughed, handing her a paper bag with a cream cheese bagel inside. ‘I don’t think a herd of charging animals could have woken you up. Although your snoring kind of sounds like a wild boar. You didn’t even wake up when I restarted the engine after grabbing this breakfast.’
‘I don’t snore.’ She felt the heat rise in her cheeks.
‘That’s for me to know, isn’t it?’ He winked. ‘Anyway, I didn’t bring you here to look at me. I brought you to look at this.’
He pointed out of the windscreen and Abbie followed the direction of his finger.
She was speechless.
The first shimmer of sunrise could be seen on a mountainous horizon. The glittering rays from the emerging yellow orb were captured perfectly in the centre of an enormous natural red rock window in the middle of a rocky desert, dotted with dark green shrubs. As she took in the alien landscape, she saw windows and arches made out of orange and red rock everywhere she looked, from small curves to enormous constructions reaching high in the sky and everything in between, rising out of the rocky ground. The sky above was turning blue and was peppered with soft pink clouds, the changing light creating a real show.
‘What is this? Did we go by rocket ship to another planet?’ she whispered, not believing what she was seeing with her own eyes.
‘Pretty much,’ Kyle murmured, contentedly. ‘This is Arches National Park. We’re a few hours’ drive from Salt Lake, and the nearest town to here is a place called Moab. Do you like it?’ His voice faltered a little, as if it meant a lot to him that she did.
‘It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen,’ she said, unable to take her eyes off the incredible spectacle in front of her.
They sat in silence watching the sun continue to rise above the rocks, the vista bathing in the growing light as the reds and oranges gained in intensity and depth. The detail of the sandstone arches became more visible with the emerging day. Making any noise would have broken the peaceful magic.
It felt like they sat there for hours, drinking in the sunrise. Abbie knew this was a special moment in her life. She felt an appreciation for the simple things, like a rising sun that had the power to take your breath away. And she felt small as she looked out at the rock arches all around as far as the eye could see. The world was a big place, and she was sharing what had to be the most beautiful spot on earth with someone who was rapidly becoming extraordinarily important to her.
They both seemed to shake out of their shared trance-like state when a flock of jet-black birds swooped past the arch framing the sunrise, breaking up the stillness of the view.
‘Ravens,’ Kyle stated simply.
Abbie glanced at him and he returned the look before speaking again.
‘Sorry for all the mystery. I didn’t want you to google this place before you got to see it for real. It’s too awesome.’
‘I’m glad you didn’t,’ she replied, briefly resting her hand on his own down on the bench seat. A ripple of excitement rushed through her as she felt the soft skin on the back of his hand with the tips of her fingers for the first time. ‘It’s the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen. Photos couldn’t have done it justice.’
‘My dad and I used to come here a lot when I was growing up, and it never gets old. There are more than two thousand arches here. Indigenous people had lived here for thousands of years but it was only about a hundred and forty years ago that European settlers started to spread the word that it could be a good tourist spot. And less than a hundred years since it caught the attention of the National Park Service. How could something so big stay hidden from the world for so long?’
Abbie swallowed. She knew exactly how you could keep something big hidden for years. Even from the people closest to you.
She pushed the thought away. She wouldn’t let that ruin things.
Not today.
‘Ready to see some more?’
She nodded eagerly.
‘Okay, now we’re going by foot though. And it’s going to get hot.’
They both changed into shorts, Kyle respectfully standing a distance from the car while she switched her clothes. He ordered her to slather on factor fifty and then emerged from rifling around in the boot with two canteens of water.
She wished he would have warned her they were going to be hiking in a desert. She might have got her arse to a gym a few times to work up to it.
‘Okay England, let’s go.’
She followed him as they crossed the clearing where he had parked and took a dusty, rocky path that could just be made out. She felt like she was walking on the moon with the arid red land spread all around her with little shoots of dark green foliage popping up from the cracks in the surface here and there.
The temperatures were rising quickly as they continued hiking the trail, and she was astounded that, no matter which direction she looked in, the park stretched out beyond where the eye could see.
A little while later she was out of breath and dripping in the searing heat.
When he told her, eventually, they had arrived, before she could look up she bent, rested her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath.
Kyle, who didn’t even seem to have broken a sweat, burst out laughing. ‘You idiot. We only walked a mile.’
She sat on the ground and looked up at him with mock indignation.
‘Yeah, well, you didn’t tell me you were taking me on yet another one of your missions to try to kill me. The snowboarding didn’t work so you thought you’d try to make me spontaneously combust by putting me on a boot camp in the bloody desert.’
‘You think this is boot camp? You haven’t seen anything. Get up, you need to see this.’ He reached down and she stretched her hand up to meet his so he could pull her to her feet. He seemed to pick her up off the ground awfully frequently.
As he led her around a rock, the view suddenly opened up to another spectacular arch. At the top of the formation was a large window looking up to the blue skies, with a smaller circle beneath it.
‘This is the Double O Arch. Pretty awesome, right?’
Abbie nodded. She still couldn’t really find the words to express how she felt in this place. It was otherworldly. It was like they had been catapulted onto another planet. This couldn’t exist on earth.
She tried to explain it to Kyle. ‘If you’ve been coming here all your life, I don’t know if you can understand how this is for me. I feel like we’re on Mars.’
He laughed. ‘That’s exactly what I was hoping. Believe me, I know how special Arches is.’
‘I don’t even understand how it’s possible for the world to make these things,’ she said, shrugging her shoulders.
‘Well, if you really want an explanation, take a seat, Miss Potter.’ Butterflies swam in her stomach as he called her the unfamiliar new nickname in a low voice, and he sat down beside her on a large flat rock. Before going on, he pulled two chicken sandwiches wrapped in tinfoil out of his bag and handed Abbie one. She was struck by his thoughtfulness as she started to eat.
Looking at her, he took a drink of water then started talking. ‘If you’re paying attention, I’ll begin.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Get on with it.’
‘Okay. Once upon a time, more than three hundred million years ago, before even the dinosaurs were a twinkle in their mothers’ eyes, there was a huge salt bed right where we’re standing, from when this whole area was part of a sea. The salt bed formed when the sea evaporated. And I’m talking salt beds upon salt beds upon salt beds. You think the chick from the Princess and the Pea had a high bed? That’s nothing. Some of these parts had deposits over a thousand feet high. Are you with me?’
She laughed. ‘Continue, Mr Geography Teacher, please.’
‘Your wish is my command. But it’s Mr Miller to you.’
‘Come on. If you don’
t hurry up, we’ll be here when the sun sets and we’ll never find the car.’
‘So keen to learn. I’m proud of you, England. Okay, so, over millions of years debris continued to collect from floods and winds and oceans and all types of bipolar, Targaryen Mad King level crazy weather conditions. This happened for many eras, and it all turned into rock. The salt bed got weighed down by this super-heavy rock, some weird geological shit happened and the salt beds threw themselves up and formed into a bunch of dome-like shapes. Still with me?’
‘You’re hardly explaining it to me like Stephen Hawking would, but I’m with you. How many millions of years are left in this story?’
‘Millions.’
‘Get on with it then,’ she teased.
‘So, all the crazy rock shapes started to get eroded. Then there was the small matter of a tiny little ice age that broke down that rock even more. The domes and shapes started collapsing into walls. Then there was even more wind and water. Like damn, you’d never have known how to dress for the weather here. Is it icy? Is it dry? Is it wet? Anyway, the wind and the water eroded the walls and all these magnificent arches formed that you, my lady, have the privilege to see today.’
‘Wow.’ She hadn’t enjoyed geography at school, but she hadn’t wanted this story to end. ‘You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you? Footballing legend, snowboarding superstar and now historical nerd.’
‘Hey, you watch out there with who you’re calling a nerd. You haven’t even heard the best.’
‘Tell me.’
‘There were dinosaurs here. Shit loads of them.’
She swatted him on the arm. ‘You took me for a ride there, didn’t you? This whole story is just a load of crap you made up to try to impress me.’
‘I swear.’ He held his hands up then reached down to take her hand in his and pull her up. ‘Follow me.’
They continued walking through the stark desert. She tried to push away her breathlessness and looked around at everything, drinking it in. The red sandstone rock formations, etched with millions of years of life, contrasted with the bright blue sky that the day had brought. Every now and then a fluffy white cloud broke up the endless azure.
Half the World Away Page 11