Page 30 of Red Mountain Burning
“Brooks,” Adriana said from the driver’s seat, “your mother is wrong about us. I love you, and I want us to work. But she’s right. I don’t see us staying here forever. Red Mountain is not the end-all-be-all for everyone. I’m so tired of hearing people talk about this place like it’s the Holy Land. Maybe it saved you. Maybe it’s your Mecca. But it feels like more of a stepping stone for Zack and me. I don’t even like wine. What else is there out here? We have to drive almost thirty minutes just to take him to camp. More than that for soccer. Not to mention the bitter winters. I’m not sure this is the life I want to give him.”
She sighed as she slowed to a stop at a traffic light. “Why is the conversation always about us staying? What about you coming to Florida? You act like that’s not even an option.”
He locked his eyes on the dashboard. “What would I do in Florida? Ferment oranges and grapefruit? I have nothing else going for me. Need I remind you that I don’t have a college education? I have no other skills outside of winemaking. Besides, I have a duty to carry on what Otis has taught me.”
Adriana nodded. “Life is about making choices. And we make those based on our loyalties. Apparently, yours are with Otis.”
“And Jake. And the mountain.Andyou and Zack—”
“See where we fit into that? You just made my point.”
Dammit, she could be frustrating. “I wasn’t listing them in any particular order.”
“There’s a man who wants to harm me and my son. He knows exactly where we are. The mother inside me will not let that stand, even with Michael not getting out any time soon. I’m barely sleeping because I’m so freaking afraid, and I need out. If this mountain and making wine are more important to you than Zack and I are, then let’s say goodbye now. That breaks my heart to say, but Zack is my first priority. You know that.”
Brooks could never explain how impossible this choice was for him, how unfair it was to make him choose between the woman he loved and the place that had saved him.
He was relieved to pause the conversation once they arrived. They didn’t say a word to each other in the waiting room. When Brooks was finally called back, the doctor gave him eight stitches, prescribed a round of antibiotics, and warned him that he’d have a scar. All Brooks could think about was the gash that no doctor could help heal.
Adriana had just drawn a line in the sand.
* * *
“You should have seen it,”Margot told Carly as they walked in the noon sun along the dusty road leading to the sanctuary. “The tent was huge…like Cirque de Soleil huge. Jake and Jasper and the rest of the band sounded so good. I wish you and Remi could have been there. That was the night that launched my inn. I’ve been booked mostly every night during the season since.”
Carly pulled on her cigarette and then exhaled smoke with a curt response. “Sounds fun.”
“I think you’ll like Jasper. Having his music in the house is such a delight. I’m sure you’ll meet Jake soon enough. Did you ever listen to his band?”
With her eyes focused somewhere east, Carly shook her head. “Not really.”
When they entered the gate to the farm sanctuary, the sight of her happy animals dragged Margot out of the mire. She and Shay had saved every one of these guys and gals from unfortunate circumstances and were trying to find them new homes. As difficult as it was to say goodbye to many of these creatures, the rehoming process allowed Shay and Margot to continue to bring in and save new animals. Sadly, at the moment, they had reached maximum capacity.
“Hi, my loves!” Margot said, clapping her hands together.
Though the pigs didn’t get up from their mud bath, the four cows didn’t seem to notice, and the horse kept to himself, much of her harem of animals rushed toward her.
Margot grabbed the bucket of grain hanging on the fence and said to Carly, “These are all my babies. They act like they love me, but they really just like my snacks.”
Cody, the Australian shepherd, reached her first and sat on his haunches with his tail slapping the ground.
“I know,” Margot said, reaching into her pocket. “You’re the only one who doesn’t like grain. That’s why I brought you a couple of these!” She held up a salmon and sweet potato treat that she’d brought down from the house.
Cody chomped down as Margot said, “This guy is our guard dog, but he loves to break out and go visit Otis, who saved him from a really awful neighbor a couple of years ago.”
Carly petted his head but didn’t appear to be much of a dog person.
Margot dug her hand into the bucket of grain and fed the sheep and goats as she introduced them by name to Carly. “Last but not least is this girl here,” Margot said, putting her hand on the long, furry neck of the newest addition to their family, an alpaca named Fantasia. “Look at that face. Alpacas are herd animals, so we’re trying to find her a home quickly so she can have some companions. Aren’t we, Fantasia? And if we can’t, I’ll just bring you home with me.”
Carly hesitantly petted Fantasia for all of five seconds and then jammed her hands into her pockets.
Tough crowd,Margot thought. She pointed to the brown and white American paint horse that was grazing in a pen by himself on the other side of the property. “That’s Elvis, who I was telling you about last night. When we got him, his blindness was almost the least of his troubles. He was beyond malnourished and thin as a rail. Shay spent a lot of time with him and brought him back to life. Now he rides him all over the mountain.”
“Do you ride?” Carly asked.
Margot had to pause to appreciate that Carly actually knew how to ask questions. “I donotride. I love Elvis, but I was thrown off a horse as a little girl, so it’s not something I want to mess with. Shay keeps offering to teach me, though. Do you ride? If not, I know he’d be happy to teach you.”
Carly shook her head. “I don’t know that I’m a horse person.”
