Page 14 of Red Mountain Burning
7
Normalcy
On the third of May, Brooks woke with the dread of Carmen’s first day bearing down on him. He spent an hour with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling fan, wondering how Carmen would ruin what he and Jake had built at Lacoda. Because it wasn’t a question that began withif.Not at all. Carmen was a ticking time bomb. No, the question waswhenwould Lacoda come crashing down?Could Brooks pull off another vintage? Two? Or would Carmen come in fast and furious, destroying all that was good about the winery in a matter of days?
As the morning sun poked through the blinds, Brooks let it all go, hoping his worry was unwarranted. If they were lucky, Carmen would try out the gig for a week or two and then choose something else to do with her time. With her newfound sobriety, she was surely going to be all over the place until something stuck.
Brooks rolled toward Adriana and kissed one of the scars on her cheek. “Good morning, sunshine.”
The lines marking her face had come from a day toward the end of her marriage when her husband, now her ex-husband, had flung her into a china cabinet. They weren’t the only scars left from that day. When she opened her eyes, he saw a very strong woman who was fighting to get back to the person she had been before her abusive marriage. That’s why Brooks kept feeding her slack when she sometimes turned a cold shoulder to him.
“Buenos días,” she said. She often slipped into her native tongue.
Never knowing whether she’d wake up hot or cold, he edged closer and pushed a hair away from her forehead. “How’d you sleep?”
Adriana covered a yawn. “Okay. It took me forever to fall asleep.”
“I wasn’t snoring, was I?” She’d never mentioned it, but Abby had said something a couple of times.
Adriana glanced at him and then to the ceiling. A subtle shake of her head. “No, I was just thinking too much. My mother used to call itmente desbocada.The runaway mind.”
Unable to resist his Mexican temptress lying naked in the sheets next to him, Brooks slid his hand down her side. “I call this the runaway finger.”
She caught his hand and pushed him away. “Oh no, you don’t. Zack will be up any moment.”
Brooks conceded and turned away before she could see his disappointment. Every time he thought he was getting somewhere, she would pull back, and not only sexually. Her affection toward him was a roller coaster of screaming downhills followed by slow upward ascents. He couldn’t help but wonder if she was questioning her love for him.
* * *
The coffee was just kickingin when seven-year-old Zack came barreling into the kitchen, bright-eyed and beaming, as if he’d been up for hours. “Did you know there’s a giant island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean? And only a small part of the items we put in the big blue bins actually get recycled?”
Brooks looked up from his iPad, where he was catching up on the latest wine news while his first cup of coffee worked its way through his veins. “Slow down, my man. Once you get to be my age, it takes a minute to wind up the engine. How do you know all this, anyway?”
Zack wore green pajamas, and his hair stuck out in every direction. He’d just lost an upper front tooth and spoke with a slight lisp. “Lots of animals, like turtles, get trapped in all the plastic. Sometimes they die.”
“Is this what you’re learning about in camp?” Adriana asked, turning from the stove.
Zack nodded while sticking a finger up his nose.
Brooks pointed at him and asked, “You mining for gold up there?”
Having already heard this comment from Brooks a hundred times, Zack pulled his finger from his nose and dropped a few more facts about plastic.
Adriana eventually interrupted him. “I’d better get a kiss in the next five seconds or else.”
Zack ran to her and wrapped himself around her leg. “I’m hungry.”
“That makes two of us,” Brooks chimed in, standing up from the table, breathing in the simmering concoction of cilantro, jalapeños, and eggs. He couldn’t get enough of Adriana’s cooking; the savory smells constantly filled the kitchen. She’d learned from her mother first, and had mastered the flavors of the Yucatan, and now, under Margot’s tutelage, she’d taken her skills to the next level.
“Just a few more minutes,mis amores.”
Even just this term of endearment was enough to make Brooks want to keep trying. He knew deep down how much she cared. It was just a matter of supporting her while she fought her demons.
Zack ran up to Brooks and smacked his shoulder. “Tag, you’re it.” With that, he raced out of the room.
Brooks set down his coffee and bulleted after him. He made monster sounds as he stomped up the stairs and into Zack’s room, which no longer resembled the guest room it used to be. Brooks and Adriana had worked hard to make him feel at home here. Now it was full of toys and art projects—the boy’s room Brooks had never had growing up.
In his best attempt at scary-yet-silly, Brooks whispered, “You can’t run forever, little boy.”
