Sierra Hearts (Part One) (4 page)

The fire going in the fireplace drew Jenn to it its
warmth a welcome change to the now outside. Jenn sat on an over
stuffed sofa that felt as soft as velvet. Her eyes drifted across
the remainder of the room. Intricately made wood furniture dotted
the room, the kind people passed down to their family. All of the
pieces looked old. There was a broad dark wood bookcase in the
corner with an ornamental curving top that reminded Jenn of icing
on a slice of cake. In the corner there was a straight chair with
feet that looked like claws and armrests that spiraled. Last, but
certainly not least, was an ornate coffee table that sat between
the fireplace and the sofa Jenn found herself. It looked like it
was one large piece of wood that had been polished until it was
smooth with rounded edges. Jenn followed the lines in the grain of
the table from one edge to the other, completely mesmerized by its
hypnotic ability to calm her. This was so much different than the
sleek designs of the apartments of some of the people she knew in
LA. All of these things added a bit of personality to the room and
made it feel more like someone actually lived here. If the pieces
could talk, they would probably tell stories or share family
secrets the way a kind grandparent does. In short, it didn’t look
like an IKEA showroom.

She tried to remember the last time she had seen
Danny. Their families had always been friendly. Jenn’s mother and
Danny’s mother were always close, and when Jenn and Danny were
children, the two families would exchange Christmas cards and
family photos. He was a few years older than her and had been a few
grades above her in school. It wasn’t like they had classes
together or ran in the same social circles, but they knew each
other enough to say hi in the hallway at school. He had graduated
high school before she did, and afterwards Jenn had lost touch with
him. He had joined the army and gone to Afghanistan. Maybe that
explained why he had turned from scrawny to buff.

Danny emerged from the kitchen with two steeping
mugs in his hands. He offered one to Jenn. She gripped it with two
hands, letting the heat warm them. Danny took a seat on the sofa on
the opposite end from where Jenn sat.

“So,” he began, “how is LA?”

Jenn, despite her best efforts to suppress it, let
out a big belly laugh.

“LA? LA is kind of a hot mess. But part of the fun
is knowing it is a hot mess. To live in the now and enjoy the
sprawl and different groups of people all pushed up against of each
other,” she said.

“Some of the people there—”

She almost choked on her words. She fought back the
images of Max that all of a sudden came streaming through her
mind.

“Some of the people there are jerks, but all in all
no more so than here. It just is a different flavor.”

“See any movie stars?” Danny said, obviously teasing
her.

“Ha! No.”

Danny grinned and sipped his tea.

“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to see a
movie star in person,” Danny said. “Maybe it wouldn’t be that
great. I mean, to only know someone by their picture on a big
screen, what if in seeing them in person you notice they aren’t as
tall as you thought they were or their hair is starting to thin out
or maybe they walk funny or something.”

“Yeah,” Jenn said. “It would be weird to see someone
you thought of as perfect suddenly as a human being.”

“Exactly, exactly,” Danny said. There was an awkward
pause now. Jenn wasn’t sure what else to say. She heard a loud
crash
that resonated and echoed in the room. It sounded like
a freight train had come of the rails and smashed into the side of
the house. Something was wrong. What had made that sound?

“What was that?” Jenn asked, more than a little
frightened.

“I’m not sure,” Danny said. He stood up and went to
the front door. He opened, carefully. Jenn tiptoed over to him. She
did her best to avoid puddles that were forming on the floor from
melting snow.

“It looks like a branch from that tree over there
broke off and fell,” he said. Jenn squinted to where Danny was
describing. She could just barely make it out. The storm was even
rougher now, and the snow was coming down at a monstrous pace.
Visibility was low, and almost everything was just a snowy white
color. If it got any worse, Jenn wouldn’t be able to make it back
home. She looked at Danny, and the look on his face revealed he
must have been thinking the same thing.

“It is getting pretty treacherous out there,” he
said. As if on cue, a strong gust of wind began to howl.

“Do you mind if I use your phone?” Jenn asked.

Cellphones were practically worthless at Bear Lake
except for a few pockets of coverage, so that meant betting on
people being near the phone when you called. Luckily Mick MacKenzie
was at home to answer. He was adamant about the current weather
pattern. To him it was a blizzard. And he wasn’t going to take no
for an answer. He said to ask Danny to drive her home, but the way
he said it meant she should
order
Danny to drive her home.
He barely paused for her to get a word in.

It was settled, then.

Danny was back on the sofa near the fire.

“What’d your Dad say?” Danny asked, quickly trying
to change the subject. He stood up and sauntered to the kitchen. It
was like he was physically retreating from whatever he had been
thinking about, and by getting up and moving around he could
somehow outrun it.

“He doesn’t want me to walk home in this,” Jenn
motioned outside with her hand. “Do you think you could give me a
ride?” Jenn asked.

“Sure thing. I’ll make this tea to-go,” Danny said.
“Just a sec.”

Danny went to the kitchen to get a travel mug and
dumped the remainder of his tea into it.

“Let’s roll,” he said.

Outside the snow was coming down in buckets. Jenn
could barely see anything. She was glad she wasn’t the one who had
to drive. She walked over to Danny’s car, an old Subaru wagon.
Danny unlocked the car and Jenn climbed in.

“Do you mind holding this?” he asked, holding out
his mug before he climbed into the car.

How could someone have such friendly eyes?
Jenn thought.

She could feel the steam from the tea pass through
the opening in the mug and rising past her cheeks.

“You sure do drink a lot of tea for a mountain man,”
Jenn said, clasping the mug from him. She accidentally grazed his
fingers, and instantly hoped he didn’t feel her hands on him. For a
moment she thought about his hands, how good they would feel on
her, falling down her back like the water from the shower had. Jenn
told herself to get a grip.

“You can blame my mom for that,” Danny said as he
slid into the driver’s seat. “She would have the kettle on morning,
noon, and night when I was growing up.”

“And you’re not worried it cramps your style?”

“If I can handle all of the teasing I got in the
army for my love of tea, I can certainly handle any other teasing
about it. I’m comfortable enough in my masculinity to not let
teasing about my masculinity upset me, if that is what you are
getting at, Miss MacKenzie,” he said.

“Miss MacKenzie? Wow, I must really have it a nerve,
Mr. Williams,” Jenn said, surprising herself with how much she was
enjoying this. “I don’t think anyone has called me Miss MacKenzie
since freshman year English class.”

“Are there not masculine tea drinkers in LA?” Danny
asked. “Or is that what you like most about it?” He grinned.

“No,” Jenn said, growing serious. “For the record:
My favorite part of LA is the ocean.” Jenn paused, unsure if she
should continue. “I worked as a waitress at this tiny little
hole-in-the-wall café in Venice Beach close to the water,” she
managed to blurt out. “The café was mostly a breakfast place, and
it slowed down in the afternoon.”

Now that she was on a roll, she figured she might as
well keep talking.

“I love Venice in the afternoon. People from all
walks of life go there. Everyone walking by the sand, sunglasses
on, and not a care in the world. Couples holding hands, people
riding bikes or skateboarding or rollerblading or whatever along
the concrete. But the best part is when the sun is beginning to
set.”

“And why do you love that so much?” Danny asked.
Jenn thought she might be rambling at this point, but he seemed
genuinely curious. So Jenn kept on.

“Well, even though all these people, all of these
different people are doing all of these different things, they are
still all at the beach. They all find themselves drawn to it and
want to experience in in their own way. And their experience of the
sun beginning to set with the sky shifting colors slightly from
blue and bright to soft and yellow to orange and warm to red and
subdued to finally purple and cool. That experience is their own
but they still share it with everyone there. I love that feeling
that the ocean can give you.”

Danny had straightened up in his seat. His face had
softened somewhat like he was completely relaxed. His eyes, though,
were focused hard on Jenn.

“I’ve only seen the ocean once, from a plane,” he
said. His voice seemed faraway and had gotten noticeably quieter.
He turned his head to the fire. “I was able to see out the window.
I remember thinking that from that far up it seemed like blue
cornfields, not ocean. Funny, I don’t know why I compared it to
cornfields in my mind…” He trailed off.

His mood seemed to change and darken, like he was
remembering something he wished he could forget. Jenn knew the
feeling well enough at this point from trying to push Danny out her
thoughts that she could recognize it in someone else. For a split
second, Danny stared out the window, looking lost, but just as
quickly he started the engine. Jenn felt herself shudder from the
cold. She felt like a polar bear that had lost its warm fur.

“I’ll take that,” Danny said, holding out his hand
for his mug of tea. His right hand reached towards Jenn. She held
out the mug for him, and when he clasped it, he said,
“
Merci
.”

Jenn couldn’t contain the laugh that erupted from
her. It was a deep sound that seemed to come from somewhere deep
inside of her torso. Terrified, she looked to Danny’s face,
scanning it for any sign that she had done something wrong. Instead
all she saw was an inquisitive grin.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, playfully.

Jenn did her best to stifle her laughter, which at
this point was a low rumble inside of her.

“My friend in LA, she’s French. You saying
merci
just now made me think of her.”

“And do you always laugh when you think about her?”
Danny asked, not seriously.

Jenn wanted to say,
Yes, I always do because she
is such a good friend and the person I trust most in the
world.

“She has a saying that you reminded me of just now,”
Jenn said. She realized that she wasn’t nervous anymore, or at
least, she had a handle on her nervousness.

“Never trust an American man who uses French phrases
to impress you,” Jenn continued. “It only leads to trouble.”

Now it was her turn to smile at Danny. Where did
this newfound confidence come from? Was Jenn flirting? More
importantly, was it working?

“And why is that?” Danny asked. His brown eyes were
glittering as if they themselves were smiling. Another jolt of
electricity shot up and down Jenn.

Jenn could feel herself giggle and the corners of
her mouth starting to reveal a full smile. She was slightly
embarrassed she had said anything to begin with, but with every
moment that passed by she felt more at ease. More sure of herself.
More playful.

“Well, my friend Dominique’s first language is
French, but honestly her English is better than mine sometimes. And
she likes coming close to crossing the line and loves to shock
people,” Jenn said.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Danny tutted. “No changing the
subject.” He started the engine and the machine whirred to life. He
held out the mug to Jenn.

“
Why does she say not to trust an
American man who uses French to impress you?” Danny
asked.

Jenn bit her lower lip, not sure if she should say
the real reason or to just make one up quickly. There is something
so intoxicating about being with him, though. And he didn’t seem
like he was making fun of her. After all, he seemed genuinely
interested in what she was saying. She would tell him the real
reason. There was no point in making anything up.

“Le petite mort
,” she cooed. “That is all
they are interested in.”

Danny’s forehead wrinkled and he narrowed his eyes.
Jenn’s heart sank. Had she gone too far? Had she upset him? A
million things buzzed through her head. Internally she started to
panic. She wished she hadn’t said it, said anything at all, even.
Coming here was a mistake, why did she come here.

Danny looked like he was about to say something.
Jenn gave all of her focus on what he was about to say, not sure
what was going to happen next.

“What does that mean?”

Jenn could feel herself unknot. She relaxed. The
panic slipped away. He wasn’t offended or angry. She bit her lip
again, but this time she exaggerated it, hoping Danny would notice
she was doing her best to rekindle the playful back and forth. Her
heart fluttered when she could see him register she was being
playful. His confused face melted, replaced by his warm grin and
twinkling brown eyes.

“It’s a French saying,” Jenn heard herself say. “It
means…” She paused and tried her hardest to get the right tone for
what was going to come next. “The little death,” she said. Jenn
felt herself blush. Danny cocked an eyebrow.

“It means orgasm… Sex,” Jenn said, feeling her blush
somehow spread from her forehead to her toes. She dared not look at
Danny and pretended to be enthralled with the world outside the car
window. She could hear him chuckle.