“I was thinking…you used to run track in high school, and I run every evening. What would you say to running with me and Smudge tomorrow evening?”
“Sure. How far do you run?”
“I usually aim for five miles. Sometimes I have to do less if Smudge isn’t up for it, especially in this heat. How ‘bout it city girl, will you be able to keep up with us?”
“Definitely. I lettered in track,” she replied, treating Jake to one of his signature winks. “In all seriousness Jake, you’re sure it won’t be an imposition? Today, when you told me running is how you feel your mom’s presence I kind of assumed that was something you preferred to do alone.”
“Well, I am alone when I run, except for Smudge, of course, but I don’t have to be by myself.”
Gabby nodded thoughtfully at his words. “So, where’s your dad, Jake? I mean if your grandpa owned Harrison’s Garage why did it go to you when he died, why didn’t your dad take over?”
Jake tugged on Smudge’s leash, signaling the Labrador it was time to start moving again before he answered Gabby.
“My dad wasn’t really in the picture when I was growing up. My parents split up when I was six, and I saw my dad maybe once or twice a year after that. That’s what also made my mom’s death that much harder, she was all I’ve ever had,” he exhaled sharply and continued.
“Anyway, when my grandpa died and his business was brought up, my dad had no interest in keeping it. In fact, he was ready to sell it to the first person willing to take it off his hands, which just happened to be me. We don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. Most things. It’s not the way I want our relationship to be, but that’s the way it is. I haven’t seen or talked to him since I took over the business, and that’s been over a year,” Jake added quietly.
A wave of sadness washed over Gabby. She couldn’t imagine if the tables were turned and not only had she lost her mother, but had never had a relationship with her father. What kind of life would she have had? Where would she be now? She didn’t really want to know the answers to those questions. Gabby slipped her hand in Jake’s.
“Jake, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything else. I came to terms with it a long time ago,” he said as he smiled down at her.
They’d just gotten in line at the ice cream parlor, so there wasn’t much more Gabby felt she could say about his private life in public. It still bothered her knowing Jake literally had no one in the world to turn to. She was so lucky, she still had her father and he had always been there for her, and always would be. She vowed then and there she wouldn’t bash Clear Lake, or the newspaper and definitely not Jake, in front of her father again. He didn’t deserve that. He deserved something much better than she felt she could give him.
***
“What’s wrong city girl, can’t keep up?”
The two of them, plus Smudge, were enjoying a Wednesday evening run. Gabby was beginning to feel a slight stitch in her side, she hadn’t ran this far in years, but she’d be damned if she let Jake know. Determined to push through it, she gritted her teeth and kept running.
“I can…keep…up,” she said breathlessly.
Jake spoke a soft command to Smudge and slowed to a brisk walk.
“Oh well, I guess we’ll have to just walk the rest of the way. Look at Smudge, she’s worn out. She can’t keep up with you, you know?” Jake said to Gabby.
“Weakling,” Gabby said around a gasp as she bent at the waist and held her right side.
“That’s no way to talk about yourself, Gabby. You’re just out of practice,” Jake said with a wink.
“I was joking about your dog, and you know it,” she told him as she gave him a playful shove. “Thanks for the confidence builder anyway.”
“I was being truthful. I could tell you’ve had a stitch for the last few blocks, but you’re too proud to say anything. You can’t fool me.”
Gabby, who was still panting for air, decided it was foolish to pretend she was anything but out of breath and tired. She made a bee line for a soft patch of grass and collapsed on the ground in a heap. As she stared up at the mass of branches she recited one of her favorite lines from Frost’s poem Birches. The line about swinging on tree limbs always reminded her of childhood.
“I love Robert Frost,” Jake said as he reclined on his elbows beside her.
“You read Frost?” Gabby asked, looking at him puzzled.
“Yes, you seem surprised. He was my mom’s favorite poet, she used to read his poetry to me a lot growing up,” he said quietly. “Birches is one of my favorites.”
“Mine too,” she said with a whisper. “There’s something about that poem that can always take me back to a more carefree time in my life. I know that sounds kind of cheesy.”
“It’s whimsical,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Yes, it is. It’s more than that though. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve always been drawn to that poem ever since I first read it in high school.”
“You know what I’m drawn to?” Jake asked as he rolled onto his side to face her. “You and those luscious lips,” he said just before he planted several sensuous kisses on her mouth. He reluctantly released his hold on her mouth and lightly stroked her jaw as he gazed into her eyes.
As she stared back into his blue gaze, she could swear she felt her heartbeat get erratic. She remembered why she had plopped down in the grass in the first place and she realized the stitch in her side had gone away. Gabby had caught her breath and was rested enough to begin walking again, but she didn’t dare say anything. She didn’t want to ruin this amazing moment with Jake. A part of her thought she could lie in this spot with him forever.
***
Gabby sunk into her desk chair and closed her eyes. She had just submitted her piece on the Anderson family to Chuck. The story would run in tomorrow’s paper. Even with her eyes closed, the image of the youngest Anderson child was seared in her memory. She couldn’t forget the child and the way his big, soulful blue eyes seemed to cut right through her. She needed to get it together. She put her hands over her face and let out a big sigh.
“What’s wrong, job getting to you?” Walter asked.
Just the sound of his sarcastic voice irritated her. Gabby bit back a hateful remark and merely shook her head.
“No, I just finished my article on the Anderson family,” she said with a shrug.
“Oh, the family who lost their house to the fire? Tough break for them. They’re good people, but you probably know that now that you’ve interviewed them.”
Gabby was shocked that Walter was trying to have a normal conversation with her. This was the first time since she started at the paper that he hadn’t criticized her or one of her stories. Maybe she had misjudged him.
“Their youngest is a real cutie. The poor thing doesn’t have any toys, they were all lost in the fire.”
“This is a tough job, kid. Rewarding, but tough. Let me give you some advice,” he said as he took a seat on the corner of her desk.
Here we go, she thought
“News happens everywhere. Everywhere. Even some place as small as Clear Lake. That’s what makes our jobs so important and unique. We have to tell other people’s stories. We have to let the public know when something’s going on.
“You’re a great writer, Gabby, but only when you’re writing about something that’s important to you. The secret is you have to make it all seem important to you. All of it. The best piece of advice I can give you is to write every story as though it’s going to be hung on the walls of the Smithsonian. Not so that everyone can see you’re a great writer, but to make sure you’re doing justice to the thing you’re writing about.
“It probably hasn’t sunk in yet kid, but it will. Trust me on this, the people you write about will share your article with their family and friends, they may keep it in a scrapbook. Hell, they might frame it and put it on their walls. Make sure you’re telling their story
like you care, because if you don’t, it’ll come through in your writing,” Walter said as he stood and walked back over to his own desk.
“Thanks, Walter,” she mumbled. Gabby was stunned. She honestly didn’t know Walter was able to be kind, and she must admit there was merit in his speech. She didn’t act as though news could happen in Clear Lake. Gabby had been writing her articles with the attitude that no one important would ever read them.
She knew her attitude was wrong. She’d known it the moment she looked into the eyes of the Anderson family this morning as she interviewed them. Walter was right. Gabby was wise enough to know she’d just gotten sound advice from a seasoned journalist. She’d heard Chuck talking about how Walter used to work for some large paper on the East Coast when he was younger. Turned out he was only working at the Lake Breeze for something fun to do in his twilight years.
Gabby resolutely gathered her things together and threw them in her large bag. She was now looking even more forward to her evening run with Jake. She hoped the evening air and exercise would help ease her guilty conscience.
***
Saturday night was hot and sticky. Gabby got ready for her date with Jake, but with the humidity outside, she didn’t really see the point in fixing her hair or wearing any makeup on her face. She braided her long dark hair across her right shoulder and applied some mascara. She threw on some wooden dangle earrings and a brown leather cuff bracelet that she’d had since high school. With the heat outside, she decided she’d wear a tank top, flouncy cotton skirt and some sandals. She hoped Jake didn’t plan on taking her to one of the nicer restaurants in Oak Valley. She wasn’t really dressed for it.
When Gabby heard him ring the doorbell, she grabbed her purse and greeted him at the door. “See ya later,” she called over her shoulder to her dad as she walked outside. On the front step, she leaned in to lightly kiss Jake hello.
“You look great,” he said as his eyes roved over her outfit.
“Thanks. So what are we doing tonight?”
“Dinner and entertainment.”
“Okay, that’s a little vague. Mind telling me where at?”
“You’ll see when we get there,” he said playfully.
It didn’t take Gabby too long to figure out where they were headed once Jake turned his truck onto County Line Road.
“Are we headed to the Hollow?”
“Yes. I guess it wasn’t too smart of me to try and surprise the girl that has been raised in Clear Lake. You know your way around the town much better than I do. But you don’t know which part of the Hollow we’re going to and you don’t know what we’re doing there,” he said mysteriously.
She had an idea what they could do there. The Hollow was an area on the south side of the town’s large lake that had caves, grottos, and estuaries. In the daytime the Hollow was full of kids swimming, doing flips off of the cliffs and shouting in the grottos and caves. In the evening, it was a place young couples went, but not for swimming. The Hollow provided lots of privacy, thanks to the various caves and grottos.
As Gabby stared out the passenger window, watching the scenery going by in a blur, she remembered the last time she had been out to the Hollow. It was the summer in between her junior and senior year of high school. Her mom had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and Gabby was an angry young girl with something to prove.
She remembered she’d earned the nickname “Trouble” that summer from her classmates. It seemed trouble had followed Gabby everywhere that summer. Starting that night. She’d gone to the Hollow with Stacey and her other girlfriends. They’d planned on having a girl’s night at the Hollow. They’d brought their tents and were going to sleep outside, swim in the Hollow and just have a good time.
They had a great time until Stacey’s boyfriend and a few of his friends had showed up. The boys had already been drinking and they brought alcohol with them. Jason McCourt was one of the boys in the group. Gabby had always had a crush on him, but he didn’t know she was alive. When he handed her a beer, she readily took it. After she’d had a few cans of liquid courage, Gabby decided to jump from the tallest cliff at the Hollow, and she made sure Jason was watching her.
“Hey, I’m gonna jump!” Gabby called to her friends from the top of the peak.
She took a few deep breaths, and did a graceful swan dive into the water. When she broke the surface of the black water it stung her skin and she felt her bikini top slip off. Gabby quickly put the triangles of her swimsuit back in place and kicked her way to the top.
She heard a chorus of hoots and applause when her head finally appeared above the water. “I’m going again, anyone else brave enough to try?”
And so it had went, until almost everyone had a chance to jump off the cliff. By the time Jason McCourt had decided to jump with Gabby, she was skilled enough and drunk enough, that she had moved on to doing backflips off the edge and into the water. Jason had had a lot more to drink than Gabby and when he tried to do a backflip off the edge, he’d jumped too close to the rock wall and hit his head on the way into the water.
Jason had to be taken to the hospital and had twenty-two stitches put in his head. He’d ended up with a mild concussion and what would eventually be a scar that ran into his hairline. Gabby had gotten grounded for the rest of the summer. But she had snuck out of the house repeatedly over the course of the summer, to meet her friends, or to meet boys.
She sighed as Jake pulled into the Hollow, and she pulled herself out of her reverie. She wasn’t that same girl, with a chip on her shoulder and something to prove. Gabby stole a sideways glance at Jake as he was parking his truck under a large tree. He killed the engine and Gabby took note of the sun as it reflected off the water.
“Are you hungry?” Jake asked her.
“Yeah, I am.” She looked around the cab of his truck. “I don’t see any food, are you planning on catching me a fish?”
“No. For you information, Smarty-pants, I brought food. I just hid it in the back of the truck, away from your prying eyes. Come on,” he said as he motioned for her to slide out of the truck across the bench seat and out the driver’s side door.
“Can you hold this?” Jake asked as he passed her a blanket. He reached over the side of the truck bed and pulled out a picnic basket. “Do you want to sit in the back of the truck or on the ground somewhere?”
“Let’s go up by the water,” she suggested.
Gabby laid out the blanket while Jake unpacked the supplies. When they were all settled, he surprised her by pulling out a bottle of wine and two plastic glasses.
“It’s not the best quality stuff,” he said with a wince.
“That’s okay, it’s the thought. So what are we eating?”
“Cold chicken, tomatoes with mozzarella and French bread with butter, all courtesy of the deli at Charlie’s Market.”
“Sounds great, I’m hungry. This was a sweet idea,” she said as she helped herself to a piece of chicken. “How long did it take you to come up with it?” Gabby asked him teasingly.
“Not long. I have a confession to make. I’ve loved this spot since I moved into town, I come out here a lot by myself and with Smudge. I know that within the next few minutes, as the sun sets, it will move between those two bluffs right there,” he gestured to the narrow pass-through between two cliffs, “And it’ll shine down on the lake like a spotlight. It’s gorgeous, just wait.”
“Wow. I thought I was supposed to be the one here who knew all about the Hollow. I don’t think I’ve been to this spot before, at least not at sunset. Maybe I have during the day,” she considered.
They ate and drank, watched the sunset and chatted about the Hollow, the setting sun and the lake. When dinner was over, and twilight was settling in, Jake packed away the picnic basket and their now empty bottle of wine. He resituated the blanket and stretched out on his back, preparing to look at the stars. Gabby stretched out beside him and folded her arms up underneath her head.
“I was doing some thinking on
the way out here, Jake,” Gabby said.
“Yes,” he said carefully, taking in her serious tone.
“I was thinking about the last time I came out here. Believe it or not, it was when I was still in high school. It was right after my mom was diagnosed and I was feeling reckless. Like there was no point in being cautious, because life was so fragile and could change at any time, I might as well have fun.
“That summer kind of kicked off a rebellious point in my life. I didn’t do anything too crazy, but I definitely came out of my shell. I was a kid who was on the school newspaper, on the track team, the yearbook committee and honor roll. So, drinking and boys wasn’t on the menu for a girl like me. Until that summer.
“Did you do anything out of the ordinary for you when your mom passed away? Or were you older and wiser and not as immature as me?” Gabby asked him with a smile.
“I actually took up running. Not exactly bad boy behavior, I know. I did it for my mom, though. She was a runner and well, I guess I thought it was something I could do for her, and myself. I don’t know if that makes sense.”
Gabby rolled over onto her stomach and propped her chin up on Jake’s chest, so she could look him in the eyes.
“Yes, it does. I think that’s great Jake, and it’s definitely a more mature way to deal with your grief than jumping off of cliffs and sneaking out at night. How long ago did your mom pass?” Gabby asked him softly.
“Three years ago, and yours?”
“Two years. I took some time off from school when she relapsed though. That’s why I just now graduated, at twenty-five,” she was quiet a moment, then she asked, “How old are you, Jake?”
“I’m thirty-one. I’m not too old for you, am I?”
Love in Greener Pastures Page 6
