Liz shakes her head at me.
“I just think you bake some really good stuff. It would definitely sell,” I add, hoping she doesn’t think I was proposing a career opportunity while at the cabin.
“I know you didn’t mean anything more, Jake.”
Liz pats my chest and smiles, and I melt.
Customers come in and out of the store to purchase fountain drinks and pay for their gas. Liz picks out some red licorice and peppermint candies. Liz smiles at the people, passing with drinks in their hands, who do not exchange pleasantries.
“There are a lot of people up here who are off the grid, so to speak. They do not want to see anyone and they do not want to be seen for whatever reason. Don’t think they are being rude when they don’t smile or say hello to you,” I explain quietly to Liz.
She sets her potpourri bag of trail mix, licorice, and candies on the counter to have the clerk ring up.
“So, when I pass anyone my name, address, phone number either verbally or on a slip of paper, no one will really do anything about it?” Liz states loudly, not trying to conceal our conversation.
I swipe my debit card for the transaction. The clerk snickers under his breath at Liz’s comment.
She rolls her eyes. “I get it. Nothing. No one needs any unwanted attention drawn their way around here.”
I kiss her near her ear. The clerk hands me a receipt and gathers Liz’s treats into a small plastic bag.
The bell overhead rings as we walk through the front door of the convenience store. I grab Liz’s hand to redirect her to the drug store. I need to pick up a few items before returning to the truck. I keep her hand gripped in mine, not letting go as we walk.
“Jake, what’s with the public displays of affection toward me? Not that I mind, but it’s like you are trying too hard,” Liz asks, looking down at her hand tightly grasped in mine.
“Even though it seems like people aren’t watching, they really are. I want them to know you are with me. I don’t want them to think you are a tourist, someone passing by, or a private investigator. It’s safer this way, for you. If you return to the store or gas station at any time, for any reason, people will help you, not hurt you. They won’t be a hindrance in what you need to get done,” I explain as I direct her through the door of the drug store.
Liz wanders with curiosity to look at the few items stocked on the shelves. I ask the attendant for all prescriptions filled by Dr. Howard under my name.
Liz is by my side within minutes with a bottle of lotion gripped in her hands. “Can you please get this for me?”
“Liz, if there is something you need, get it. You don’t have to ask; just put it on the counter.”
I take the bottle from her hands and place it on the counter.
I lean down to speak quietly so the clerk cannot hear. “Liz, I don’t want you to feel like I am depriving you of anything. This isn’t a super center store with an ample supply of everything you are used to, but if there is something you need or want, then it’s all yours.”
Liz turns on her heel to pick something off the shelf, something she was eyeing while she was wandering. She returns with a package of emery boards. She bats her eyelashes. Liz raises her index finger to excuse herself. She returns, placing a package of pink women’s razors and a small plastic bottle of baby oil on the counter. She scrunches her nose and smiles. I return a smile, trying to assure her it is perfectly fine.
The clerk places all the prescriptions and items into a plastic bag. I hand it off to Liz. She looks directly at the filled prescription bottles. Her eyes well up with tears.
“Jake, you got my medicine for me?” Liz says with a shaky voice.
“Of course; you were almost out.”
She grabs my hand and intertwines my fingers in hers. She takes the back of my hand to plant a soft kiss on it.
She whispers, “Thank you.”
With her hand still in mine, I suggest we walk across the street to talk to the guys at the small engine repair shop about the small ATV. The guys working there are total grease monkeys.
Liz meanders to the corner waiting area, reading all the scraps of paper pinned on their bulletin board that lists machines for rent and for sale. I talk to the mechanic about whether I should get the clutch repaired on the smaller ATV or trade it in for a different model.
“It all depends on what you are going to do with the machine and who is going to be operating it,” the guy from the shop says.
I look over my shoulder at Liz and she smiles. The man follows my eyes.
“Say no more.” The man raises his hand to me. “Get a new machine. We can have one here by the end of the week if I make the call today or you can go into Calgary yourself.”
“I don’t think it’s a huge rush. I can just pick it up here once it arrives. You can have any parts from my old one or if someone else around here needs an ATV, they can have it as is,” I tell the man.
The small repair shop has my number and assures me he will call if the new ATV arrives sooner.
When Liz and I turn to walk out of the shop, the man bellows, “Let me know if you want to rent your snowmobiles this winter or if you are ready to buy your own.”
“Keep me on the top of your rental list. That last snowmobile was too temperamental with its tracks coming off. It drove me crazy. Plus, I don’t know how to repair it on my own and it’s not something I want to figure out at this time.”
He adds, “One or two snowmobiles?”
Liz has taken a few steps away from the door; her attention is on Zeke, who is sitting in the cab of the truck. I hold up two fingers to make my winter request.
Liz is already halfway across the street when I catch up to her.
“Did you decide on two snowmobiles this winter or just one?” she asks with a rueful smile. “I’m okay with riding on the back with you, just like I am okay on the back of your ATV.”
I grin and tell her, “Let’s just get you your own ATV for now. It’s not even close to the first snowfall unless winter comes early, which I hope it doesn’t.”
Liz knew exactly what was discussed and what plans were being made in the shop. I don’t make plans, but now I am planning on snowmobiling this winter with Liz. My heart flutters over the thought that Liz is still with me and will be for some time. Time I need, time I want. Time the Marines have granted me.
We make our way back to the convenience store gas station where I left the truck parked with Zeke. There are more vehicles and more people out and about compared to when we first arrived at the gas station. Liz forgoes pleasantries as she walks, since many natives in the area have already ignored her.
As we walk, I suddenly hear an explosion. I duck and force Liz to the ground under my weight. I see black smoke. Sweat is beading on my forehead and on my upper lip. Liz forces her eyes over my shoulder. I drive her head down to the ground so she will not get hurt from flying debris. I feel as if we are in a crowded marketplace in Iraq and a car bomb detonated. My heart skips a beat. It makes me sick to think Liz may get hurt and I might not have been quick enough to keep her safe.
Liz forces her head from my strong grasp.
“Jake, it is okay,” Liz says repeatedly.
Her hands are on my cheeks. Her fingers run through my hair as we stay crouched on the ground together.
“It’s fine. Everything is just fine, Jake,” she says to me warily.
My eyes meet hers, those blue insatiable eyes.
“It’s just an obnoxious tail pipe back firing soot.” Her voice is soft, gentle.
My heart races uncontrollably. I’m all jittery. I thought it was a real car bomb and we were in imminent danger. I probably look like such a fool. I flipped out again and Liz witnessed it. However, everything is fine because she is with me. Her touch and her voice calm me. I return to reality with her before me.
As we stand from the asphalt together, Liz wraps her arms around me, supporting my weight. I feel like collapsing. I bury my face in her hair. I strok
e the golden strands of hair and I am comforted. What if Liz were not here with me? What would I have done? Would I have acted like a lunatic trying to secure the area? People would have panicked. I would have scared everyone. I am amazed Liz doesn’t take off right here, right now. How can she stand me? Hallucinations, night terrors, and reacting to a tail pipe as if it is a real car bombing. Liz has been there unconditionally. She understands without insisting I rehash everything I’ve experienced. No one has ever done for me what Liz has done in such a soft, gentle way. I think my grandpap would have slapped me upside the head if he were here with me now.
Liz has done so much more than anyone else has in my entire life. Liz is nothing less than perfect as I begin to restore a sense of sanity in my mixed-up, crazy mind. The worst crime, abducting Liz, has become my favorite crime. It’s so wrong for me to feel this way.
“Jake, come on. Let’s start heading back to the cabin.”
Liz coaxes me softly as if this has become her routine.
“Zeke has been waiting in the cab too long for us,” she adds.
Liz takes my hand to return to the parked truck in the parking lot of the gas station.
When Liz opens the passenger side door of the truck, Zeke jumps out only to bury his nose in her bags. Liz holds the bags containing chocolate, nuts, and dried fruit above her head.
She tells Zeke, “This will make you sick if I give you some.” Liz tries to verbally reason with the canine. “It’s not for you.”
I try to hide my laugh. It’s quite comical, watching her short stature keep something from Zeke, such a rambunctious dog. Liz sets the bags down on the passenger side floor and quickly shuts the door so Zeke cannot dig after its contents. Zeke is jumping all around Liz and licking her face. We left him cramped up for too long and he is unleashing all his energy onto Liz.
I should have intervened sooner, but I am too entertained by the two of them. I call to Zeke to climb in the back of the truck. I make him stay crouched down behind the truck cab, away from the filled gas cans. He whimpers, behaving as if I am punishing him, which I am.
I can’t stop chuckling under my breath as I help Liz into the cab.
Liz is shaking her head. “I was worried you wouldn’t be able to pull the boat and I would have to drive back to the cabin. Glad Zeke and I could be so entertaining for you,” she smirks.
Liz’s eyes widen as she looks over her shoulder through the glass of the cab.
“Zeke is getting huge and strong. What are you feeding him?” she asks.
I laugh aloud. “He’s growing, Liz, but he’s not that big. You’re just really small.”
I turn over the ignition and pull away from the tiny bit of civilization.
“Hey, at least he likes you more than me. I will never have to worry that something bad might happen to you. With Zeke by your side, he would never let any harm come to you.”
“He’s your dog, Jake.”
“I think it started out that way. Zeke was given to me, but he’s more loyal to you than he ever will be to me. His heart is with you,” I tell her as I drive. “As my heart is too, and I would never want any harm to come to you, either,” I say under my breath, not knowing if she hears me or not.
“What do you mean Zeke was given to you? You didn’t pick him out from a pet store or a new litter?”
I breathe in deeply, hoping Liz is ready for this explanation.
“He was sort of assigned to me. He’s a companion dog. I got him when I was in a counseling program. They thought he would help me. I haven’t had him very long. Someone else trained him from the time he was weaned from his mother.”
I think Liz knows exactly what a companion dog is, why they are used, and when they are assigned to people.
“Zeke was Doug’s idea. He applied for the dog without me knowing. He meant well by it. I wouldn’t have initiated anything like it on my own.”
Zeke was supposed to be there for me, but he has turned out to be a better companion for Liz so Zeke being with us has not been in vain.
Liz pulls a wrapped candy from her bag. “Peppermint?”
“No thanks. I’m not a big fan of those.”
Liz pushes a peppermint candy through the cellophane wrapper and pops one into her mouth to suck on. I hear it rattling in her mouth, intentionally trying to entice me.
“Really? Not a fan?” she says with a grin on her face.
Liz is working the peppermint thoroughly through her mouth, around her teeth, and her tongue. She unclasps her seat belt.
Liz speaks tenderly into my ear with the smell of peppermint on her lips. “I bet I can change your mind about not liking peppermints.”
I glance at her from the corner of my eye as we drive down the asphalt road, thinking she is going to force one into my mouth, but instead, she undoes the top button of my jeans and unzips my zipper. My eyes widen, not knowing what she is doing, but I don’t nudge her away.
Liz’s tiny fingers slide through my jockey shorts. I pop out, immediately hardened at her touch. Liz leans down and wraps her peppermint lips around me as I drive. Her tongue manipulates the mint around me, giving a sensation I have never felt before. I suddenly have a lead foot and inadvertently accelerate the truck to exceed far above the speed limit.
If I am not careful, I am going to roll the boat we are pulling. I am so distracted by what Liz is doing to me beneath the steering wheel, staying focused on the road is extremely difficult. I don’t tell her to stop. I don’t want her to stop. This is such a rush, one I have never felt before.
I turn off toward the cabin onto a bumpy gravel-paved road. Liz’s mouth does not disengage. Instead, there is a rhythm in her movement with the bumpiness of the road. I have to stop the truck. I cannot continue to keep control of the vehicle with Liz sucking on me the way she is. I don’t care who I might block on the road.
I am now able to take both of my hands off the steering wheel and entangle them in Liz’s blonde hair in my lap. I breathe deeply and gasp as she slowly dissolves the peppermint around me. My legs straighten and the rest of my body tightens in a frenzy.
Liz tickles my tip and licks my shaft. Her peppermint mouth is consuming me until I am whimpering. There is an intense sensation as she sucks on me and devours me. I have to grab hold of the steering wheel to avoid pulling her hair as she continues to pleasure me. Liz swallows me along with the last of her candy. She zips my pants and buttons my top button as if nothing had happened. I am still panting as she kisses my red cheek and I grin from ear to ear. I grab hold of her face to kiss her minty mouth.
Her straight poker face quickly changes to a bright smile.
“I now love peppermint,” I tell her breathlessly.
“I thought I could change your mind pretty fast,” she smirks.
“In a way I never expected.” My face is glowing with pleasure.
I restart the truck with my heart beating a thousand miles per minute. I am trying to compose myself when Liz offers to drive. She is delighted, knowing she made me completely vulnerable to her. I don’t mind being vulnerable to Liz in this way. I am still trembling from her touch as I look in my rear view mirror before continuing the drive to the cabin.
Chapter 30: Liz
A loud, affirmative whistle echoes from the back door of the cabin. Zeke is already outside with Jake, so he couldn't be calling for him. I hear another distinct whistle. I turn on my heel out the back cabin door to see what is happening. I look around, confused, because I see Zeke, but there is no sign of Jake to discern.
Jake whistles a third time. "I'm up here."
My eyes shift upward to find Jake perched high in a pine tree.
"What are you doing up in the tree?”
"Putting up a new hammock. I cut down the old worn-out, ratty hammock my grandpap had. I'm finally replacing it. I dropped the rope I was tying up. I got lazy. Can you toss it back up to me?”
"You need my help so you call for me like a dog?" I exclaim with my hands on my hips.
"
I didn't mean for it to seem like that," he says, embarrassed.
"I'm just teasing. I am glad you’re being lazy and need my help. At least I can be of some use around here."
I look at the ropes lying on the ground. Some ropes lace together in a perfectly woven pattern while others lay like snakes on the ground.
"Which part do you need?" I ask, confused, not wanting to toss the wrong piece.
He points to the end he needs and I stand on my tiptoes to toss it up.
"I'm no hammock expert, but aren't you tying it up rather high?" I ask, shielding my eyes from the sun, which is beginning to set in the distance.
"You have to take into account the more you sit in the hammock, the more it will sag over time. I plan to use this hammock as much as possible. If it’s too high for you, I will get a step stool to climb into it," he says dryly.
"Ha, ha, real funny, Jake! You know I'm not going to catch you if you fall out of the tree.”
He gives me a smirk as if that were even possible.
Jake scrambles from the tall pine, assuring me he won't fall and then quickly climbs another to perch himself on a branch with ease as if he is Tarzan. He ties the hammock off, tugs, and secures all the ropes.
"Okay, let's give this thing a try." His eyes brighten as he rubs his hands together.
I turn around, holding the hammock ropes at my backside as I crouch down so it doesn't slip away like a bar of wet soap in the shower. I am on my tiptoes. I should get a stool to help give me some height, but I won’t disclose this humiliating fact to Jake.
"Will this hold both of us?" I ask.
"Of course it will!" he scoffs.
"Then go around to the other side. Get in at the same time to help balance it out," I insist as I motion him to the opposite side of the hammock. "If these ropes don’t hold, then you're going down with me," I say with a giggle.
I roll my body onto the weaves of the ropes simultaneously with Jake. The hammock sinks as we collapse together. We roll into each other as it bungees up and down, keeping us suspended midair. We find a comfortable spot, intertwined with each other. His strong arms wrap around me. I nestle into his chest as he kisses the top of my head. The sky is darkening and twilight encircles us quickly.
Hasty Resolution Page 17