“No problem.” Jared smiled, and continued opening his mail. “Super! The draft for the brochure is here. They’ve sent a copy of the proofs for us to ok. If we like the layout of the brochure, we’re to do nothing, and they’ll go ahead with it. If there’s anything we want to change, they want us to let them know by tomorrow.”
“Wow! That fast,” Sara said, half-heartedly. “I thought it would take a little longer for them to get it processed.”
“Well, the speed at which they got it done had something to do with the fact that we were gone, when they originally requested us to do the photo shoot.”
“Ah,” Sara said, knowingly. “That would make a difference.”
Jared started combing through his hair, his back to Sara. “So how are you feeling this morning?” He softly chuckled. “You were pretty upset with me last night.”
“Other than throwing my toenails up and having an extreme craving for sardines and pickles, covered in chocolate sauce, while you were gone – I’m good.”
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Lucy got up, got ready, and sat down to an empty breakfast table. She stared at her cereal, pushing the raisins around her bowl until the bran flakes were nothing but mush. She didn’t have an appetite. She couldn’t stop thinking about Steve, and how last night had ended. Had she made a terrible mistake? Did she have feelings for Steve, and was just too proud to admit it? Or, was she still hanging on to a thin thread of hope that Jared and Sara might somehow break up.
She glanced at her watch. “Forty minutes before I have to be at work! What in the hell am I doing? My job is five minutes away! Why am I sitting here staring at a bowl of soggy Raisin Bran that I don’t even want? Do I have feelings for Steve? Am I using Jared as an excuse to push Steve away? Because now that Jared is not available, is that why I’m pushing Steve away? Is that what I really want? Lucy – you may very well have made the mistake of your life!”
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Jared’s eyes turned crimson. Sara knew two things would make them change that fast, and she doubted sexual arousal had anything to do with it. He whirled, face white with fear. Despite the number of times she’d seen them change color; it still frightened Sara when they turned red. It reminded her of what Myra had said about not getting on Jared’s bad side. “What?”
His pale skin and crimson eyes made Jared look remarkably like a vampire. Sara took a step backwards, “I’m just kidding Jared. I’m fine. I still don’t agree with you, but I’m ok.”
Jared breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes slowly started changing to their original color, but his voice was still tense, agitated. “Don’t do that Sara!”
“Sorry,” Sara said. “It’s just a joke Jared.”
“It’s not funny Sara,” he groaned.
Sara laughed. “Well, it was funny until you tried to blind me with your eyes.”
“Have you checked the results yet?” His tone hadn’t changed. It was still hard and indifferent.
Sara glanced at her wristwatch. “No, but it’s been about half an hour. I’ll go see now,” she said, heading for the bathroom.
Jared took her hand, “We’ll both go.”
“You don’t trust me. Do you Jared?”
Jared snorted. “Don’t be silly Sara. Of course, I trust you. I just thought it might be better if we did this together, that’s all.” He kissed her temple to lighten her mood.
They walked in the bathroom, and Sara reached for the probe. She thrust it at Jared. “Since you’re the one that’s so interested in the result – you look at it!” Now he’s starting to treat me like a child!
“All right,” he said taking it. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, swallowed, and then opened his eyes. Sara turned away, determined not to be a part of this. Jared sighed, “It’s negative, thank God!” he said jubilantly. “We’re ok. You’ll need to start taking those pills now, and until the pills take effect, we’ll just have to be very careful.”
“So,” Sara said, throwing the galling thing in the waste basket by the tub. “Can life get back to normal now?” Sara wasn’t disappointed with the results, but she was disappointed at how happy he seemed to be. If the results had been positive, Sara could have learned to live with it. The question was, could Jared?
“Yes, it can,” he said, leaning down to kiss her.
“Good,” Sara said and moved away. “So what do we do today, then?”
“Don’t you think we ought to get some extra practice sessions in while we can? The gig is awfully close,” he replied.
“Sure, but what about Lucy? Isn’t she working today?” Sara countered.
“Oh, darn! That’s right – she is. Well, there’s nothing to stop the rest of us.”
Sara sighed. “No, I don’t suppose there is….”
Halfway down the stairs, Jared’s cell rang. He looked at the display and put the phone to his ear. “Hi Mom, what’s up?” Jared sounded cheerful.
Sara tapped Jared’s shoulder. “Tell her, I said hi.”
“Sara says hi and sends her love. How are things?” He listened intently. His eyes turned red, and his face flushed with anger. “What? He can’t do that!”
Sara furrowed her brow, questioning him with her eyes.
Jared waved her off, concentrating on the phone call. “So what does he plan to do about it? Surely, he’s not giving up that easy…? Thank goodness for that! He shouldn’t even have to ask Seth!” Jared listened again. “Yeah, we’re still planning on coming back down as soon as the gig is out of the way. Tell Dad, he has my full support on whatever he decides. All right…. I will…. See you soon, Mom.” He ended the call.
“What is it Jared? Is there something wrong with your father? Mother? Myra?” Sara bombarded him with questions so fast he shook his head.
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Steve was awakened to what sounded like a jet airplane, crashing through the living room. Then there was a horrible pounding thud, and cracking sound like a wrecking ball going through a sheet of glass.
He groaned and rolled over on his back. A Bad mistake. A beam of supernova blasted through a tear in the universe, and nearly burned out his eyes before he could get them shut. He whirled over, flinging his foot and smashing it against the bottom of the bed.
“Shit!” He realized it was the morning sun, flashing through a tiny gap in his drapes. If the window hadn’t been on the other side of the world – across the room - about six feet away, Steve would have gotten up and closed it.
Steve slowly sat up on the side of the bed. His stomach felt like a rumbling volcano, threatening to erupt at any second. He glanced at his bathroom door – judging the distance in case he had to make a run for it. What the fuck is wrong with me? What’s wrong with my damn foot?
It was at that time his pounding head, and throbbing foot reminded him. After he’d had a kicking match with the snack bar – it won – he’d finished the last of the Jack Daniels. Not quite half a bottle. To ease the pain of his damaged ego, and drown a painful memory, he’d taken well over ten shots of Jose Cuervo. “Now why in the hell would I – oh yeah – Lucy.”
Last night, he’d decided to declare his undying love to her, and it went straight south. How could he possibly think he would ever be able to compete with Jared? He was nothing but a grease monkey, drum playing misfit. He didn’t have a large fancy mansion, or a flashy new BMW sitting in his garage. Hell, his garage was crammed full of motor parts and beer bottles, and he didn’t even own his own home. Well, not entirely. It belonged to him and his older brother Carl. “Give it up Steve,” he moaned as he stepped out of the shower.
After he’d dressed, he carefully made his way into the kitchen. For once, the smell of frying bacon smelt more like a wet dog. Carl sat the tower of pancakes on the table and looked up. “Man – you look like….”
Steve held up his hand. “Yeah, and I feel like it too,” he interjected as he ambled to the coffee pot. “How can you call yourself a brother, and let me do what I did last night?”
“Hey, when somebody tries to use their foot as a wrecking ball – brother or no brother – I get the hell out of the way.”
Steve gingerly sipped his mug of black coffee. “I wasn’t talking about that.”
Carl’s eyes lit. “Oh… you mean Lucy. Steve, I told you before you did it, how she was likely to react.”
“Yeah, but she kissed me back – both times! When we were out on the lake, I thought maybe. But then she turned away. Then when we got back home, I don’t know, I guess I lost it. She was rattling on to me, about how stupid I was for waiting this long to tell her. I just grabbed her and kissed her again.”
“What happened then?”
“She slapped the shit out of me and stormed across the street. She’ll probably never speak to me again.”
Carl sighed and sat to the table. He started piling pancakes and bacon on his plate. “Telling her this close to a gig was not a good idea either little brother.”
“Yeah, I know. Jared is gonna blow a gasket, and I’ve probably fucked things up for the rest of the band. What if Lucy won’t play with us anymore? Poor Sara – I’m such an asshole! What am I gonna do?”
Carl shoved his mouth full of food. Steve waited for him to answer. Carl took a sip of coffee, and then looked at Steve. “I’d say you’d better get yourself over there, and try to patch things up with her.”
Steve jerked his head up. “What? I can’t talk to her, not after what I did last night. That little wildcat has got one hell of a temper.”
“Do you still love her?”
“Well – yeah – I do – but….”
Carl finished his breakfast. “Then get over there and do something about it.”
“She doesn’t want me. She wants Jared – as always.”
“But Jared is engaged to marry Sara – her niece. Steve… Lucy is never going to be with Jared. He’s obsessively in love with Sara. That was his grandmother’s ring on her finger. We both know what that means. Lucy is just going to have to realize her chance with Jared ended the day Sara pulled into her drive – maybe even before then.”
“I know Carl! I know – but try telling Lucy that. She doesn’t love me, and she never will. I’m the idiot here.”
“Steve… you were the one that introduced them.”
Steve sighed deeply and poured another cup of black coffee. He turned. “Like I said. I’m the idiot here.”
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“Calm down, Sara. There’s nothing wrong with Dad. Mother is fine, and so is Myra. Dad approached Seth about what we talked about when we were in Arizona. Seth is being, I guess the best word to describe it is, mean.”
“How so?”
“I don’t know the whole story. All I know is that he’s trying to prevent my father from calling a Council hearing on our family’s behalf.”
Sara furrowed her brow, shaking her head in disbelief. “Can he do that? Can he stop your father from addressing the Council?”
“It would depend on how much my father is willing to risk. Seth, being the head of the Council, has a lot of power, but he doesn’t rule absolutely.”
“Then what did you mean by what you said?”
He sat at the bottom of the stairs. Sara sat beside him. “Well, Seth might try something underhanded. If he can get enough members of the Council on his side….”
“Then we’ve got to go back Jared,” Sara urged.
“I will not go back until the gig is over, and we’ve settled some things here Sara. This is too important. But we’ll go back, soon. I know how much you love it there, and I want to be there for my parents, but we’ve got a life of our own to attend to first.”
Jared stood and sighed. “Do you mind if we don’t practice? I don’t feel like singing, right now. I think I’d rather go for a ride on the bike instead.”
“No, I don’t mind. Let me run back upstairs and put my hair up, so it doesn’t get tangled,” Sara said, heading back up the stairs.
“You don’t have to go with me,” Jared called out.
Sara stopped dead in her tracks, her hand resting on the rail. “You don’t want me to go with you?” Sara countered, afraid of how he might answer.
Jared walked over to her and held her. “Don’t be silly. I always want you with me. I’m afraid I won’t be very good company though.”
“I’m not just here for the good times Jared,” Sara smiled, touching his cheek.
Jared half smiled. “In that case,” he said swatting Sara’s butt. “Get up there and get your hair done Squaw!” he said, joking.
Sara gave him a dirty look and hurried up the stairs. Using the mirror, she quickly French braided her hair, making sure it had plenty of hairpins holding the shorter pieces in place. She checked her appearance and dashed down stairs, excited now. Sara actually enjoyed riding with Jared.
The wind felt good in her face as they flew down the narrowly winding blacktop. Sara didn’t recognize where they were, nor did she know where he was taking her. It really didn’t matter.
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The ride seemed to be doing both of them some good. When Sara first crawled on the bike and wrapped her arms around Jared’s waist, it felt as if she were hugging a tree. His muscles were so tense and anxious. Now, she could feel him starting to relax. Sara felt better too. For the moment, she’d pushed the whole episode they’d had earlier to the back of her mind. Instead, of focusing her attention on future events, she probably couldn’t control anyway; Sara concentrated on here and now. That was all that truly mattered anyway – wasn’t it?
Jared started down another untraveled route. He began meandering through tall bushes and small trees. Sara wondered how many of these off-road hideaways Jared knew, and how much time he’d devoted to finding them. Was it because of her, or was it because deep down, Jared enjoyed his solitude. He’d spent most of his life, living in a dream. Had it become a habit for him? Maybe she shouldn’t have come with him. Maybe Jared was too polite to say that he wanted to be alone.
They’d been twisting and turning and bouncing around for so long, Sara was starting to suffer from mild motion sickness. At last, there was a break in the thicket, and they stopped on the banks of an obscured lake with tall reeds and cattails all around the edge of the water. The whole place was shaded with giant cypress trees adorned with long trails of Spanish moss. Mingled among the moss were spackles of yellow jasmine, and honeysuckle. The breeze was tranquil and filled with a sweet fragrance.
Jared stopped the bike, pulled off his helmet and hung it on the handlebar. Then he held out his hand to Sara. She took off her helmet and hung it over the other handlebar. Jared opened his side saddlebag and took out another elaborately hand-woven blanket, his sketchpad and pastels. He spread the blanket on the ground under one of the huge trees.
Sara watched him as he went back to the bike, opening the other saddlebag, and produced a medium-sized, ice chest. He brought it back and sat it on the ground next to the blanket.
Sara motioned to the blanket. “When did you do this?” She expected him to take his art supplies. They seemed to be his natural alternative to a digital camera. Sara didn’t need a digital camera when she was with Jared. His talent spoke for itself. He didn’t need a camera to record memories. He could create them with his own hands – better than photos. “I was only gone a few minutes. When did you find time to pack all this?”
Jared chuckled. “I only packed the food and grabbed my pastels Angel. The blanket stays in my saddlebag.”
“So you do this often? Ride off like this?”
Jared smiled. “Yes.” He took Sara’s hand and led her to the edge of the water. He put his arms around her shoulders, and pressed his cheek next to hers, his lips close to her ear. “If you lean out just a little bit, and look back there,” he said, pointing. “There’s a wolf’s den.”
Sara’s eyes widened. Her throat went dry with fear. “What?” she gasped.
Jared chuckled again. “Easy,” he whispered in his deep soothing voice. “You’ll scare
her. Don’t worry, she won’t bother us. She’s as afraid of you as you are of her.”
“And she won’t come around the lake?”
Jared smiled again. “No, Sara. She doesn’t seem to mind my being here as long as I keep my distance. If I try to approach her, she takes her cubs and runs off, but she always comes back. I think she’s a loner, maybe a reject, or past Alpha female.”
“That’s so sad,” Sara whispered.”
“She probably wasn’t alone to begin with. Normally, wolves run in packs or pairs, if they’re looking for their own territory, but on rare occasions, older wolves have been known to break away from the pack, when threatened by the younger more dominate pack members. Probably, what’s happened is her mate has died, or been killed, and she’s been left to care for the pups on her own.”
“How did you find her?”
He softly laughed, “By accident. I was riding around looking for new scenes to sketch, when I found this site. I didn’t realize it had tenants. We kind of had a common fright experience. I don’t know who was more afraid, me of her, or her of me. Whatever the case may have been, we both ran in opposite directions. I got on my bike and left immediately. This place was so picturesque, and I wanted to sketch it so bad, I decided I wasn’t going to have a single wolf keep me away. So, the next time I came back, I brought my pistol, which stays in my saddlebag, just in case. Knowing a little about wolf behavior, I wasn’t expecting her to be here, but she was, and this time she was more aggressive. She challenged me.”
Sara’s eyes widened. “So what happened then?”
Jared closed his eyes, to get a clearer memory. “When she heard me, she came out and stood at the mouth of her den, braced for conflict, growling and baring her teeth at me. Fearing she might decide to charge, I very slowly removed my pistol and took a dead-aim. I most certainly would have killed her if I’d fired. She turned her head back toward the den, and that’s when I’d realized why she’d been behaving aggressively. She wasn’t a lone wolf. She was a mother. A mother protecting her young. I started trying to talk to her, putting my gun away, showing her I meant her no harm. Oddly enough, she seemed to understand, and went back in her den with her cubs.”
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