Page 51 of Apex of the Curve

Chapter Thirteen

Aspen…

When I pulled down the farm’s long driveway, there was another car up ahead that I hadn’t seen before. It was a black and white Jeep of some kind, heavily modified for off-road capability, the top soft and awkward, not typically ‘Jeep’ in that it didn’t cover the back seat area – which didn’t have seats in it. It gave the beastly looking vehicle the appearance of being a Jeep/pickup hybrid and made me wistfully lonesome for my brother. Copper loved off-roading. It was something he was super excited about sharing with his son, Silver – yes, I know, I’d argued with my brother and sister-in-law slightly over that one, too… but that was Copper. Always joking, always smiling, and he was seriously hoping that when the time came, he would have a grandson named ‘Gold’ or ‘Golden.’

Such a big dork.

While the memory made me sad, it also made me smile and that smile that ghosted my lips was everything. It was the first time I think I’d managed since, well, everything, to smile instead of immediately crying. I think this timeout, or break, or whatever it was from my mom’s place where I was sorting through so many photos and old things was good, needed. That despite there being no use for them, going through them was good. I mean, they somehow held sentimental value for my mother who had been just two steps shy of being a hoarder, I swear to God, and going through them was sort of this long but necessary goodbye.

I sighed as I rolled to a stop and put my car in park, careful to leave enough room for the Jeep to back up and go around the main pasture and around and back out. Fenris had plans to gravel the rest of the track around that pasture but hadn’t gotten to it yet.

My little Prius couldn’t do the mud, but the Jeep looked like it would definitely have no problem.

I looked over at the overhang off the back of the house and the men gathered beneath it. It was Fen and Vyking, but the third man and likely owner of the Jeep, I didn’t know.

He wasn’t nearly as tall as Fen or Vyking, but he was still taller than me. He had his arms crossed over his chest, which was covered in a black tee, the spill of his beard fiery and impressive as well as nearly to his belt line.

He was bald, his light eyes smiling and kind as he turned his head in my direction when I got out of my car.

“Hey, Aspen. Like you to meet my buddy Jon Oppegaard.”

“Hi!” I called out over the roof of my car.

“Hey, how’s it going?” he called back, and his tone was friendly. He was the kind of guy who was instantly likeable – clearly laid back and genuinely nice.

“Good! How about yourself?” I asked as I crunched across the drive.

“Aspen makes heavy earthenware plates and mugs and shit, I like ‘em,” Vyking said, taking a drink out of one of my coffee mugs I’d gifted Fenris.

“I’m glad,” I told Vyking.

“You made that?” Jon asked, jerking a thumb at the mug in Vyking’s hand.

“I did! I run a shop called Clayrity in Georgetown off Airport Way.”

“Oh, cool. Another mead guy, Brandon has a shop out that way on Airport called Mr. B’s Meadery. He’s a good guy, does a real nice Ginger Cardamom mead I hear, which is all him. I hate ginger.”

“Oh, nice,” I said, faltering a bit. I had no idea what he was talking about.

Fenris, as ever, came to the rescue.

“Jon’s the owner of Oppegaard Mead out there in Tukwila. He came buy to check on a batch we were making, to determine if it was infected.”

“Infected?” I made a face.

“It’s all good,” Jon said affably. “Sounds worse than it is. Just means your equipment maybe wasn’t properly sanitized and you got some bacteria growth going on that you maybe didn’t want in there. Mead is a lot more forgiving than wine or beer, but it’s still subject to similar issues in the brewing process.”

“So, was it?” I asked, as Fenris tucked me under his arm and into his side.

“Looks like it,” Vyking grumbled.

“So, what’s the cure?” I asked.

“Start over,” Jon said with a shrug.

“Geesh, that doesn’t sound fun.”

“It’s not too bad, it was just one carboy, the rest seem to be alright,” Fen said.

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