Page 8 of Promises on the Mountain

"Um yeah...she wanted to go out one weekend and I was kinda over it, you know? All those kids did was drink and smoke pot and-- stuff."

Raine grins without looking down at me.

"Was it the booze, the weed, or the stuff, that you didn't like?"

His arm tightens gently and I feel myself blushing.

"Uh well...I never really tried...stuff. So, I guess it was the drugs and the alcohol," I confess, waiting for his reaction.

"Never?" This time he pivots his head to look down at me tucked under his arm. "Shit, girl, how old are you now?"

"Twenty-three."

He makes a noise that's either a groan or a growl, I can't really tell, but it vibrates through his entire body like a big cat purring beside me.

Silence hangs between us, heavy with unasked questions before he finally says, "So who's the Kay chick?"

Raine

I take the truck up to the gold camp, driving slow along the road that loops through the main areas where the offices and first aid station are, the big mess hall that doubles as meeting space and the outdoor amphitheater where we do stage shows and campfires after dark.

April seems more than happy to take a break from her story and I can't blame her.

The deeper she gets into her friend's death-- a single vehicle drunk driving incident on a night that April had insisted on staying home-- and the family that dealt with their loss by projecting their grief onto April, the more I'm understanding the dark circles that shadow April's pretty blue eyes have less to do with her early mornings and more to do with the guilt she feels about moving on with her life.

"It's hard, you know? Death changes people. Mia's sister just kind of re-wrote the whole story after she passed away. She got really attached to me even though we barely knew each other, and now she has this memory of her sister that's totally different from the way I remember Mia...for a long time, I started to believe Kay's version too."

"And now?"

"Now it's time to move on." April answers softly, snuggling into my side in a way that brings something protective to life inside me.

"It's been five years. I got a two-year degree at the local community college to help me with the business side of things, I went through a high-end barista training program. I won a national latte art competition. I researched locations for my cafe, wrote my own business plan, and got a small business loan-- I'm living my dream and Kay's acting like I owe it all to someone who didn't know the difference between Colombian and Ethiopian beans.

"I thought maybe if I wasn't so close anymore, she'd finally let go but, honestly, it's gotten worse."

Promising to bring her back up to the camp when it's warmer, I turn back onto the main road and head for the cabin.

Problem is, now I've got a lot more on my mind than just getting my face between April's legs.

"Oh wow, is that the lake?" April leans over me to look at the lake below us out my window. "It's beautiful!"

"Not bad for a man-made reservoir, eh?"

Turtle Lake is part of the hydro-electric project that went in a few decades back. The power company leases the land from us for an outrageous amount of money, but it means allowing a wide easement around the perimeter that keeps the lake open to the public for recreational use.

"It looks like it belongs here."

"It does," I agree. I love seeing April wide-eyed with the beauty of the place.

The lower river valley is different than up at the top of the road where the hot springs are and where the Joneses run their river tours. There are still mountains all around us, but there's more open space for thick forests and meadows that fill up with wild flowers in the spring.

"We're going back there?" April's hand braces against the ceiling as the truck leaves the paved road and starts up the dirt track to the cabin.

Slipping the transmission into a lower gear, I notice she's holding her free arm across her chest. No doubt, she's trying to keep those pretty tits of hers from bouncing out of her bra on the bumpy back road.

Makes me think about picking up a Jeep that I could wheel fast and hard down the old lane instead of babying the old Ford.

"We have a hunting cabin back in there," I point toward the break between trees where I turn the truck in a few minutes later.

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