Chapter 20 #2
They grabbed some takeout, and he pointed the car in the direction of a lake not very far away.
As he pulled up and parked at a big grassy area with a picnic table, she just stared at it, then turned to him. “I’ve been here all my life, and I didn’t know about this place.” When he looked at her in surprise, she shrugged. “Fun wasn’t exactly part of my life experience.”
“No, I’m not sure anything was up until this point in time,” he noted, studying her. “It seems to me like you were in more of a prison than anything with that mother of yours.”
“And yet it didn’t seem that way at the time. I really enjoyed working the land,” she shared. “If I could have had that as an option, I would have been very happy to stay, but we couldn’t make it work.”
“How could you not have made it work?” he asked, staring at her intently. “That’s what eludes me after seeing the place for myself. What was the problem?”
“Part of the problem was my mother had advertised our produce as organic, which it wasn’t, so there were quite a few cries to shut us down, …and with good reason,” she agreed. “I had no clue that’s what she was doing, but it went right along with everything else she was doing.”
He just nodded and didn’t say anything.
“I’m just not sure that she was the person for the land. She wanted to be that person, but I don’t really think she could cut it.” When he still didn’t say anything, she looked over at him. “Maybe that doesn’t make any sense.”
“It makes a lot of sense because it takes an awful lot of work to run a farm, a profitable one. And an awful lot of understanding of the land and the ability to shift and to grow with it. She was trying to force the land and was scratching out a living, but it’s a lot harder doing it that way than actually looking at what the land can support, what it actually wants and is ready to support, versus forcing it to try and do something. ”
“Well, if you even mentioned that to my mother, she would have thought you were into crazy woo-woo stuff and would have kicked your sorry ass off the place.”
He grinned, happy to be here, sitting in his truck, talking to Chelsea about anything. “Not so sure she wouldn’t have been right,” he conceded. “I just have a tendency to believe that the land isn’t necessarily at fault for a lot of these things and that it’s more likely the people involved.”
“She wasn’t the worker that she could have been,” Chelsea noted. “That’s for sure. And just because I was out there busting my butt doesn’t mean she was.”
“I’m sorry about that,” he said, looking over at her.
She shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter now.
” She looked down at the birds flying over the water.
“It’s just one more of those things that you look at and wonder why.
I mean, why she was who she was, and what made her that way?
” She shook her head. “That’s just a never-ending thought that doesn’t have any good answers. ”
“It doesn’t have any good answers because you haven’t had a chance to get an answer at all,” he pointed out.
“I don’t imagine she would even know herself.”
“Probably not.”
“Every once in a while, I think maybe I should go talk to her. Yet I just know that I will absolutely hate how she’ll react.
I don’t know why I’m questioning it. She’s always been selfish and horrid to others.
I’m sure it’s not any different now. Being in jail, she’s probably more hateful than ever.
Then I remember all the terrible things she’s done, not just to me, but to others as well, and I realize I don’t want anything to do with her. ”
He nodded. “That’s very wise, in my opinion … yet you can see her later … if you want to,” he said, turning to her.
“I don’t think I want to, at least not yet, maybe down the road—maybe when she’s had a chance to think about who and what she is, and will be a little more open to seeing me.”
He laughed. “Makes good sense.” He suggested, “Let’s go take our lunches closer to the pond and enjoy just being outside and away from everything.”
“Sounds good to me.”
They hopped out of the truck and took their meals to the grassy area beside the water. As she collapsed onto the grass, she whispered, “This is really beautiful.”
“It is,” he agreed, with a smile. “I keep looking for places to convene with nature a little more, and this is definitely one that I prefer.”
“It’s gorgeous,” she muttered, gazing at him. “I’m still just shocked that I didn’t know about it.”
He didn’t say anything more, and they sat and munched through their lunch. Then he opened up another bag and handed her a coffee.
She smiled. “We probably should have had this first so it won’t be cold.”
“I don’t know about that,” he countered. “The last time I picked up coffees like this, they were so hot that, even twenty minutes later, I couldn’t take a sip.”
Surprised, she opened hers and realized it was still steaming hot. “These are quite the insulated cups,” she noted.
He nodded. “Now, why don’t we walk and bring our coffees with us?” He pointed to their left. “There’s a beautiful walkway in that area.”
She immediately jumped to her feet. “Perfect.”
They walked around the corner, almost out of sight of the truck, and the place was amazing. “This is really and beautifully … private,” she muttered. “Just look at the bird life here, so many different ones.”
They walked in companionable silence, sipping their coffee and just talking about nothing, yet at the same time everything.
She realized just how much she missed simple conversations, missed the joy of being with someone like this.
“It’s weird just having these few hours today,” she shared, her face all lit up.
“It just changes—” She shook her head. “Or maybe it doesn’t change anything, but it reminds me so much of all the things I feel like I missed out on. ”
He nodded and squeezed her hand.
As they came up around another winding turn of the pathway, she pointed out another vehicle off to the side. “We have company.”
He nodded, and then he froze, checking out the vehicle. “Does it look familiar?” He immediately tucked her behind him.
She asked, “How can I see if you’re trying to step in front of me?”
“That’s because I’m afraid that I know exactly whose vehicle that is,” he replied, his tone hard.
She stiffened, peered over his shoulder, and whispered, “Uh-oh.”
“Yeah, uh-oh, is right.”
As he looked around, searching for another way to get back to their vehicle, a man called out, “I wouldn’t worry about it. You’ll never make it.”
She stiffened behind Joel, dropping her head against his shoulders as she realized how much trouble they were in.
She pulled out her phone, still hidden behind him, and immediately texted for help.
She sent messages to both Timber and Sterling.
As she stood here, Joel hadn’t moved, waiting to see what the other man would do.
“Either get over here,” the sniper snapped in exasperation, “or I’m coming in there after you.”
“And I care why?” Joel asked, his voice almost indifferent.
She didn’t know how he managed to stay so calm, but it wasn’t something that Tiger appreciated.
“I can still hit you from here,” he snarled, “so don’t think I can’t.”
“You’re not a real sniper though, are you? Not like John Peacock was.”
She gasped, almost pinching Joel in the back for the audacity to set off Tiger like that.
“I don’t know what the hell that means,” Tiger replied in an ugly tone. “That’s a hell of a thing to say to a man.”
“Are you military?” Joel asked, his tone still calm and cool. “Because if you aren’t military, then you aren’t a sharpshooter.”
“You have no idea. Sharpshooters come from all walks of life,” he declared.
“Sure, but you were friends with John Peacock, and he was military. I know that because I was military too,” he shared, with a hint of a smile.
“It doesn’t matter whether I was or I wasn’t.”
“But it does matter,” Joel argued, “because either you can make that shot or we’re too far away, with too much in-between us, so you can’t make that shot.”
“You really want to put it to the test?” Tiger asked, his voice deepening and turning even uglier.
“Maybe, because there’s absolutely no benefit for me coming any closer.”
“You’re trying to hide that girlfriend of yours behind your back.”
At that, he stiffened as well.
Behind him, she felt his muscles and every part of his being completely tense and become reactive. Still, they were partially hidden, with places to hide close by. She whispered, “Can he see us?”
“Yes,” he whispered back, “but he would have to be one hell of a shot to catch us here.”
“I really don’t want to put that to the test,” she muttered.
Joel didn’t say anything, just kept his gaze forward. “You never said what it is you want with my girlfriend.”
“You know exactly what,” he shouted back.
Looking around, she noted no sign of anybody else here. The place was completely deserted. What earlier had seemed gloriously private was now scarily empty. She whispered behind Joel’s back, “Can you see him?”
“No, he slipped into the bushes.” She immediately stiffened, grabbing his waist. He backed her a little farther into the dense brush. He looked around and then up and asked in a whisper, “How are you at climbing?”
She gasped and then followed his gaze. “Good enough, … I think.”
He quickly boosted her up to the branches of the tree above, and he whispered, “Hide up on that side and do not move. Do not speak, no matter what he says. He’ll be looking specifically for you.”
“Great, but will he look up here?”
“Yes,” he declared, his tone definitive.
She sighed and quickly moved as quietly as she could, hiding herself in the branches with thicker foliage.
When she realized he hadn’t followed her, she wanted to call out.
However, up ahead, she saw branches moving lower in the greenery, among the brush.
She wanted some way to warn Joel, but he was no longer there.