CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Jackson
As we pulled out of the back lot, and climbed the hill up from the waterfront, I glanced over to my side mirror and inhaled sharply to see the shimmering lake falling away behind us.
"Geez," I said. "I forget how pretty it is here sometimes."
"Right?" Finn sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Feels weird to even be out and about in the daylight hours. Look how different everything looks."
We rolled slowly through Main Street, stopping at each stoplight in turn. There were pedestrians, tourists mostly, ambling along the wide sidewalks, taking their time as they poked through the shops and cafes. I took in the tidy brick storefronts of the Victorian buildings that lined the wide street, standing tall and proud in ordered rows. Shady trees stretched out their limbs from the center median, and the sun flickered in and out of their branches, casting shadows across the street like it was playing peekaboo.
After the last light, the shops sort of fell away, dribbling out in a series of low stores and less tidy looking houses. But just as the Main Street shops fell away, the countryside opened out into rolling farmland. At the junction a half-mile out of town, Finn took the right fork, turning away from the line of cars heading up to the falls in a slow motion parade.
The road began to climb up the side of the western ridge, doubling back on itself so that we rose above the valley we'd just left. I looked down to see a bird's eye view of Main Street now looking like some tiny little miniature village nestled snugly along the shores of the lake.
Ahead of us, facing north, that same lake stretched out to the horizon, long and narrow, like some kind of silvery fish swimming between the two mountains.
"I mean," I elaborated, catching my breath a little. "It's really really fucking pretty here."
"You haven't even been to the winery yet, have you?" Finn asked, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. "Wait 'til you see it."
He made another turn, switching back again so that we were headed south now, driving along a ridge that was almost alarming in its steepness. Reckless Falls was nestled so snugly in the valley that I hadn't even realized how wild the country was that surrounded it. High pines topped the mountain above me, stabbing the sky like the skyscrapers of Manhattan that I'd left behind. The trees all around us were an ocean of green, undulating out into the horizon in rolling waves. "Damn," I said.
"I told you," Finn said with a know-it-all grin.
"Your family vacationed here when you were a kid?"
"All the time. I told you," Finn said. "We'd get the same house every time too, so that it felt just like a second home." He tapped his finger on the steering wheel. "I sort of figured it'd feel like that again once we moved here but..."
"But we've been a little preoccupied," I said, finishing his sentence.
He nodded, still tapping his finger. "But I promised you. This'd be a good place for you to make a fresh start."
The image of Bee, naked and writhing underneath me suddenly popped into my brain. "Yeah, uh, I'd say you made good on that promise."
Finn turned his head sharply. "You mean that?"
"Hey fucker, eyes on the road!" I hissed.
"Sorry." He jerked the wheel back over and we lazily drifted back into our lane. "But seriously. You think I made good?"
This time it was my turn to tap my fingers on the dash. A strange wash of guilt flooded through me and I glanced at him, feeling slightly chagrined. "Have I not said that aloud?"
Finn chuckled. "Not exactly, no."
"Well, shit."
"I just want to help, dude." There was a plaintive note in his voice that I rarely heard. Finn wasn't one to make himself vulnerable.
I swallowed and took a deep breath. "Well, you did," I said, haltingly. My voice cracked, the way it always did when I tried to say something more significant than casual insults. "I was in a pretty bad fucking place."
"I know."
"And you took me to..." I spread my hands to take in the beauty of our surroundings... and the restaurant we were opening, and the woman we were... sharing. "A pretty fucking good place."
Finn shot a glance at me, his mouth twisted oddly. Then he nodded once, seeming to try to find words and then failing. When he finally did speak, his voice was rougher than normal.
"Well good," he said gruffly.
Then he turned right, sending us bouncing along a dirt road, clouds of dust falling like a curtain over our car, obscuring the view so that for a moment we were driving completely blind.
But when he parked, the curtain of dust gradually settled to reveal the slopes of winery surrounding us.
The vineyard clung to the side of the mountain, with the vines marching down the side in orderly rows of red and green. The air was warm and heavy with the smell of grapes. There was no sound other than the sigh of the wind and the occasional faint buzz of the bees.
I leaned forward. "Oh, now this is pretty as fuck," I commented.
Finn leaned forward, grinning. "You always were an eloquent motherfucker," he teased with a grin. "But you're right. It really is pretty as fuck."
"We should bring Bee here," I blurted. "She'd like it."
"You think?"
"Yeah," I said with a shrug. "She needs to relax more, and it's pretty relaxing here."
Finn nodded slowly. "Pack a lunch and come up?"
"Absolutely. But let me do the packing. Your picnic lunches are pathetic."
"What? I like peanut butter and jelly."
"Right. You have the palate of a child."
"God you're an asshole," Finn sighed. "Fine. You pack the lunch. But we we're here on business right now."
"I'm really fucking sick of business," I complained. I looked out across the vineyard to the view that swept around us. Not having Bee here right now felt very, very wrong.
I missed her. I wanted her to share this with me.
With us.
"This way," Finn said, interrupting my thoughts. "We are looking for Mike."
I nodded, feeling the sun on my shoulders. It had been ages since I'd been out of the restaurant, out in nature again. I never was one for the countryside. But this was my home now, and it was feeling like it more and more every day.