His arms gripped my waist tighter and I kissed him back. My heart felt heavy with emotion as his words settled through my head. He had gone through so much losing his brother. I could never understand that. But for him to realize he was changing - I couldn’t imagine being so self-aware. He had such a clear picture of who he was -- and I finally realized it was the guy his brother saw in him. It seemed like he was the one drifting at first - lost, trying to figure out his way, set out on some crazy journey across the country. I hated realizing in that moment that I was the one standing here who was in fact, actually, lost.
“Do you really need to get back to Mountain Ridge now?” he said in a whisper, slowly moving the hair away from my neck.
“I’m sure they can email me the paperwork I need to fill out,” I replied softly, feeling a little guilty that I told such a lie in the first place. The honest truth was I had nowhere to be. That stung in a way. I certainly never planned to be so directionless at this point in my life. But then again, to think about it from Reid’s perspective, maybe that was the best thing I had going for me since it was the only reason I came to be with him here in the first place. And if this was where life meant for me to be at the moment, I could think of far worse places.
The door to the guesthouse swung wide open, startling Reid and me.
“Dog goneit, I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone today while we went hunting,” Uncle Buck exclaimed in his loud, jovial voice as he stepped into the room.
Reid let go of my waist just as Uncle Buck scooped me up with his one good arm into a giant half bear hug. His other arm still rested in the sling.
“I haven’t seen the front entrance of the ranch looking that good since I bought the place,” he continued, shaking me as I dangled awkwardly in his burly arm. He grimaced in pain, but he held his grip on me. “Oh heavens, did I just ruin a moment?” he exclaimed, looking back and forth at Reid and me as he set me down. “I have the worst timing.”
“It’s fine Uncle Buck. We have plenty of time for moments,” Reid said politely, winking at me. “Instead of leaving tonight, I was thinking we’ll just head out tomorrow morning bright and early instead. If Cassidy’s up for it.”
“That sounds great,” I replied sincerely. “I’d love to stay another night.” Hell, I would like to live here. I definitely had to admit that I wouldn’t mind another sweet night with Reid like we experienced last night.
“Is this about the GTO, boy? Or do you just want another night of my cooking?” Uncle Buck teased.
“Both,” Reid answered with a laugh.
We made our way over to the main house and Uncle Buck and Reid began preparing dinner.
“Can you believe I had to shoot this bird myself? That boy is a terrible shot,” Uncle Buck said to me across the kitchen.
“I guess no bird murdering for me today,” Reid whispered in my ear before making his way back by the sink to help. I assumed that outcome was intentional. I couldn’t imagine Reid was that bad of a shot if he had been out so many times with Uncle Buck before. I wondered if he did it just for me. A smile spread across my lips.
Uncle Buck began teaching Reid what to do with a pheasant, but I didn’t watch. I wasn’t opposed to eating it, but I just didn’t want in on the specifics. Reid didn’t seem overly enthusiastic about the process either, but he humored Uncle Buck and went along with it anyway, especially since he needed an extra arm to prep it. Uncle Buck also continued to thank Darla and I profusely for all the yard work we did.
“It was Cassidy’s idea,” Darla explained. “Kent and I have been shaking our heads at that entrance for years, but we never thought to do anything about it.”
“It’s the least I could do. I’m just so thankful you’ve let me stay here,” I said politely.
“If you ever let this girl go I’m gonna hurt you with my good arm, boy,” Uncle Buck chimed in as they continued to prepare the bird.
Reid laughed. “I have no intentions on doing that,” he said sweetly.
Once the food was all prepared and put in the oven, we all headed out to the front porch for some iced tea and relaxation. Reid quietly pulled me aside while Darla and Uncle Buck were deep in conversation.
“Cover for me, will you?” he whispered, hoping they couldn’t hear him. “I’ll be inside for a minute.”
“What are you up to?” I asked curiously.
He turned us around and mischievously held up a small picture of a beautiful blonde woman who looked to be in her thirties. He could tell by my expression that I still was unsure of what he had planned.
“That’s Christy Brinkley,” he replied with a smirk. “Remember the scavenger hunt list? I have to replace one of Uncle Buck’s photos with this one. The sad thing is, even once he finds out, I doubt he’ll change the picture back to whatever family member I’m replacing.” He snickered as he said it, and I could tell he was excited for his mission.
“Awe, the things that amuse grown men,” I teased. Reid excused himself from the group, stating he had to use the restroom real quick. I sat down on one of the porch’s rocking chairs, sipping on my drink. It felt like the perfect summer day, like an image you would see on a postcard; iced tea, porch swings, and corn fields.
Reid came back out of the house and we sat around talking while the food cooked. He told the story of the hitchhiker he picked up, maybe as a gesture for me that he really had nothing to hide, or maybe just for Uncle Buck’s amusement. He explained that the guy had just turned eighteen and his parents had kicked him out so he was hoping for a ride to Colorado to stay with some other family members. Reid picked him up from Modesto, California, and the guy seemed harmless, although a little unusual. While at a gas station in Mountain Ridge, the night before he came into my diner for the first time, Reid went to the restroom while the tank was filling up. Sure enough by the time he came back out, the guy was gone. Preston had given Reid two thousand dollars in an envelope for his road trip. Half of it was locked in the glove box of the car at the time, and Reid came out to find the lock broken and the envelope missing.
Uncle Buck laughed throughout the story, giving Reid a hard time for his naivety.
“The worst part was I saw him later that night not too far from the motel I was staying at. He was heading down a small alley with some old homeless-looking junkies,” Reid explained. “For a brief moment I wanted to yell out the car window to say something to him. But then I realized the only way for that story to get worse was to be further jumped by a gang of homeless drug addicts. So I just let it go.”
Uncle Buck continued to laugh, which made me smile. Reid never mentioned the gun, but maybe it was better that way. It probably would have unnecessarily freaked out his mom.
“I couldn’t sleep that night because I felt like such an idiot,” Reid continued. “I just kept replaying it in my head as if it was possible to imagine it differently so it wouldn’t be true. But since I was unable to sleep, I went for a really early morning run and then stopped by a diner for some comfort food to drown my sorrows. The second I saw Cassidy in that diner, I didn’t feel so unlucky anymore. It was like she was my chance at redemption - like she was my good karma for not handling that hitchhiker situation differently when I saw him again.”
“So that’s how you two met,” Darla said softly, flushing a genuine smile at us.
“Yeah, but instead of a smooth ‘hi, my name is Reid, we should get to know each other’ line, I asked her to run away with me,” he explained with a sly grin.
“Well I’m glad she said yes,” Darla interjected.
“She didn’t, she said no,” Reid replied with a laugh.
“I knew that girl had too much sense for you,” Uncle Buck chimed in.
“It was too crazy of an idea for me. It seemed too impulsive,” I admitted, smiling back at Reid.
“Well Preston always said the purpose of life was ten seconds of crazy,” Darla said nostalgically. “Everybody has to have one of those in their life. I do believe he was onto something
there.”
Reid’s gaze burned through me as he sat opposite of me on the porch swing. This whole crazy idea made perfect sense to me in this moment.
The oven buzzer sounded, calling us back inside for dinner. The bird was delicious, as were the mashed potatoes and garden vegetables. We ate and drank and laughed, like a TV family around a dinner table - something I hadn’t experienced growing up. It felt like love - like familiarity and warmth, and I’d never been so grateful for a dinner in all my life.
“I’m going to take a late flight out tonight,” Darla explained as we cleaned up the table after dinner. “Phil’s going to take me to the airport in about twenty minutes. I can see my reconnaissance mission to straighten out Reid is completely unnecessary.”
Reid embraced his mom and they hugged for a minute. He gently kissed her on the cheek and wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye.
“Thanks for being here with him,” she said sincerely, hugging me too as soon as Reid let her go. “I will forever be grateful for the smile he’s found with you.” She squeezed me tight. “We’ll be up in Michigan for the Fourth of July holiday. I hope to see you again, dear.”
I glanced up at Reid as she said it, wondering if her comment made him feel awkward at all. He didn’t seem phased by it in the least.
Uncle Buck walked into the kitchen holding Darla’s suitcase. He grabbed Reid’s hand and dropped a set of keys into it.
“I’ll be back in about an hour. If you hurt her, you’d better run while I’m still injured,” Uncle Buck teased.
“The sad thing is, he’s not talking about you, Cass. It’s his GTO,” Reid responded with a small chuckle.
“Same rules apply, if you get a scratch on either lady,” Uncle Buck said to Reid, winking at me. We said our goodbyes and Darla and Uncle Buck left the house. I could hear the old pickup truck roar as it pulled out of the ranch.
“How do you feel about fast cars?” Reid asked with a mischievous grin on his face.
“Leery and moderately afraid,” I replied, nervous as to what he had in mind.
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course. If you had any intentions on harming me, I would be buried on the side of the highway somewhere. Probably under that hideous green couch we found,” I teased. “No one in the world even knows where I am.”
“You’re gonna love this,” he said, intertwining his fingers with mine. “Get ready to live.”
Reid led me out to an old barn behind the main house that looked like a garage. Sure enough, as he opened up the two large sliding doors, several cars were parked inside. One was a flashy yellow convertible, one was an old green Jaguar, and the other had its hood up and appeared to be missing an engine.
“Aside from hunting, Buck also has an affinity for restoring old cars,” Reid explained, walking me around the vehicles. “He’s had that Jag forever, that’s the first car he ever restored. That old Vette there,” he continued, pointing to the car without an engine, “that’s his latest project. But this GTO… this is his baby.”
I had to admit, it was a beautiful car. Probably the nicest vehicle I’d ever touched. It had black slick tires and glossy yellow paint that had an ever-so-slight sparkle to it.
“Ready?” Reid asked, still beaming from ear to ear.
I nodded my head at him, smiling. “Sure. What could possibly go wrong?”
CHAPTER 13
Reid gently guided the GTO out of the barn towards the entrance of the ranch. When he got to the main road, however, he somehow morphed into a race car driver.
“There are some great country roads out here,” Reid yelled towards me over the wind whipping us in the face. Reid turned down a road labeled 200 E 450 N, which I’d never seen before. I always thought all street signs had actual names on them.
Reid looked over at me as if he was waiting for a signal that I was truly ready for what was about to happen. I nodded at him, smiling, making sure my seatbelt was fully latched. He hit a button on his phone and before I knew it, our self-proclaimed road trip anthem “The Outsiders” came blaring from the speakers. Reid hit the gas and I felt my guts launch towards my spine as we hit eighty miles per hour in about ten seconds. The speedometer crept up even higher from there.
With both hands on the wheel, Reid tilted his head towards the sky, still keeping an eye on the road. He let out an excitable yell, as if he was living every twenty-three year old’s dream at the moment. He looked purely happy, even somewhat delirious, and a smile spread across my face as well. The wind rushed over our skin and the speed felt exhilarating. The sun began to set in the distance and corn fields surrounded us on both sides of the road. We were the only car out and it felt surreal, like we were flying through time. The scene around us began to blur as we flew down the street.
Reid finally began to gently slow the vehicle as we made a turn down another country road that looked similar to the one we were already on. I appreciated that although we were doing something a little bit dangerous, traveling at such a high rate of speed, he was smart and safe when it mattered around the turns.
He punched the gas pedal again as we picked up speed on yet another long, straight stretch of road. I squealed as my body felt pressed tight into the back of my seat. Reid looked over at me briefly and winked, and I wished in that moment that time could stop. It was as if we were the only two people alive, reveling in the solitude and wind that simultaneously engulfed us.
Reid slowed down the vehicle once again and turned onto a narrow dirt road. It led us to an old abandoned barn, torn apart and weathered from years of neglect. As we pulled up alongside the wooden structure, Reid shut down the engine and motioned for me to get out of the car.
“What is this place?” I asked curiously, feeling a little leery about going inside.
“The ultimate fort,” he replied with a big grin. “My brother and I only came here twice when Uncle Buck miraculously let Preston drive the GTO. One time, I was probably thirteen, we found a whole stack of nudie magazines hidden in there,” he continued with a laugh.
“So you brought me here to impress me with your magazine collection?” I teased.
“We actually buried them behind the barn so our parents would never know about them,” he replied with a boyish smile. “As if they would really come all the way out here just to find out what we were up to, right? But I guess we just felt guilty or something.”
“Do you think they’re still there?” I mused, wondering if something like that would stay buried for the last ten years. It didn’t look like there was much activity out this way.
“I don’t know. Are you suggesting you want to dig?” he said laughing.
“Not exactly,” I laughed back.
“One of the items on Preston’s scavenger hunt was to find a hidden treasure. Once we took off in the GTO, I figured this was as good of a place as any to find some treasure.” He flashed his perfect handsome smile at me.
“What kind of treasure are we looking for? Do you really think there’s something good in there?” I asked, looking around the old building. From what I could tell, the only things we were likely to find were dirt and possibly some ticks.
“I don’t know. Are you up for a treasure hunt?” he asked, holding out his hand for mine.
“Sure,” I replied, letting him lead me into the broken down barn.
The few slivers of sunlight we had left before the sun went down didn’t provide us with much light, but plenty of boards were broken off the roof, so the light filtered in reasonably well. It was at least enough for us to keep an eye on our footing. The main barn doors in the front had been completely ripped off, probably in a bad storm, so the openness of the building helped as well.
Several critters made noises as they scattered away from our moving footsteps. In my mind I told myself those animals all had to be cute, furry chipmunks. I didn’t want to imagine anything else living in there, though the birds flying around over our heads proved otherwise. At least I’d hoped they were birds.
The barn floor was covered in clumpy dirt, random weeds, wood debris, and some pieces of trash. The sides of the barn were lined with old wooden shelves that held a few dusty boxes and crates on them.
“What was this place for?” I asked, trying to replace the ominous animal sounds with conversation.
“There’s a pretty big farm up the road,” Reid explained, leading me over to the boxes on the open shelf. “I imagine this is their property. They probably just used it to store farm equipment in a long time ago. It doesn’t look like anyone has used it for ages.”
He dropped my hand and reached his arms into one of the boxes. I let out a quick scream as something grey and ugly scurried out of the top of the box and down the side wall of the barn.
“Are you doing okay?” he asked sweetly.
“I’m trying,” I admitted, “but I just hate not being able to see what’s crawling around in here.”
“Do you think it’s better to actually see it? Or to not really know what’s there,” he replied thoughtfully.
I gave him an exaggerated grimace, truly unsure in that moment as to which option was worse.
“Let’s take the box outside for some more light,” he said, lifting the box up into his arms. I quickly fled in front of him, making my way out of the barn as fast as I could. Reid laughed at me as he calmly walked out, setting the dirty box down on top of the car’s hood. The sun continued to slowly dip below the corn fields, but we still had plenty of light to see in the box.
Reid brushed some dirt off of a couple of items, but we couldn’t really tell what they were. Maybe a broken compact mirror? Some kind of old cigarette box or something? There was a small black Bible in the box, no bigger than Reid’s hand. He swiped the pages with his thumb and a small, old black and white photograph fell out. Reid picked it up from the hood of the car.
“This is treasure,” he said with a smile.
“It looks like a grumpy old couple standing in front of a farm,” I teased.
“That’s exactly what this is. Look,” he replied, holding up the photo right next to the old barn. Sure enough, the old couple was standing right in front of a beautiful, perfectly intact barn, positioned right next to a small white farmhouse. “This must’ve been their farm.”
Ten Seconds of Crazy Page 11
