CHAPTER TWO
Dinner was a tense, yet noisy affair, with Jennifer carrying the brunt of the conversation. She had only been on the mountain for a short time, and everything was new to her. She raved about the eagles, deer and waterfowl that she'd seen. And she begged Cody to go with her in the morning to try to identify some animal tracks that she'd found.
Matt let Cody take the lead in responding to her conversation, since the first couple times he'd attempted to talk to her about anything that happened on the mountain, Aaron had grunted out his opinion that Matt, being a 'city boy', knew little about what happened on the mountain.
Jesse and Cody both jumped to Matt's defense, but it did little good in Aaron's mind, and by the end of dinner, Matt wasn't adding to the conversation at all. He finally excused himself and after taking his dishes to the kitchen, he headed outside for some fresh air. Five minutes later, his brother joined him.
"You okay?"
Matt glanced over, then sighed. "Yeah," he said. "Nothing I haven't heard before."
"I don't think I've ever heard Aaron talk about you like that before."
"I told you this was mistake. I'm gonna head out in the morning, go back to town."
"NO! Matt, you can't. You promised."
"I never promised anything, Cody. I just think it'll be better if I leave. You and Dad can enjoy your weekend, and we'll get together some other time."
"Please don't go, Matt," Cody pleaded. "I'll spend all my time with you and we don't have to stay in the cabin."
"Cody…"
"He's right, Matt." Both turned to see Jennifer standing behind them. "I know my Grandpa gets grumpy at times, but you don't have to leave on account of him having bad manners."
Matt sighed. "Look, you two, I appreciate the support. But Aaron is one of Dad's oldest friends. I don't want the fact that Aaron hates me to change that. And if I stay, and he continues the way he was tonight, Dad's gonna get upset and say something they might both regret. I'll leave and you all can visit like you always do. Now, I think I'm gonna take a walk around the lake."
Cody watched his brother walk away, Matt's shoulders slumped and his gait slow, hands shoved deep in his pockets as he headed down the path to the water. Cody chewed on his bottom lip as he debated whether to follow or let Matt be for a while. The decision was made for him as Jennifer gave him a gentle shove.
"Go. I'll speak to my Grandfather," she said. Cody didn't argue, just trotted off to catch up with his brother. Jennifer turned around and marched back into the cabin. She moved over to the table and stood beside Aaron. He glanced up and smiled, only to lose the smile at the angry look on her face. She slammed her hands against her hips.
"That was mean, Grandpa. You made Matt feel like he wasn't welcome in this house."
"He's not one of us, Jennifer."
Jesse muttered, "Oh, for crying out loud."
"He's more 'one of us' than I am," she insisted. "From everything I've heard from Cody, Matt was raised on this mountain, just like Cody was."
"Until he decided to move to town with his mother." he began, only to be interrupted by Jesse.
"He was Cody's age when he left, Aaron. If Cody moved to town now, would you say he wasn't fit to be here anymore?"
Aaron stuttered. "Of…of course not, Jess, but you raised Cody. That wife of yours raised Matt."
"So you think I had nothing to do with Matt before he moved to Tahoe with his Mom? You think he never came back to visit? You know better than that, Aaron."
"That was just plain bad manners, Grandpa!" Jennifer insisted. "You hurt his feelings. That's not right. And you better make it right when he gets back," she insisted, waving a finger in his face, before turning on her heel and stomping to the kitchen to clean the dinner dishes.
Jesse could help but smile. "She reminds me of her grandmother."
Aaron, at first shocked that his granddaughter would talk to him that way in front of others, suddenly chuckled. "She sure does, doesn't she?"
"Yep, Jennifer always spoke her mind," Jesse recalled. "And she never let you get away with shit. Especially when you were wrong." Jesse looked pointedly at his old friend.
"Now, Jesse…"
"Don't 'now Jesse' me, Aaron. You and I have known each other too long to mince words. I have always defended you when Matt complained about your attitude toward him. But I don't think I've ever seen it so blatant before. Is it because you have Jen here now? Or just because you're getting even more crotchety in your old age? Because whatever it is, you better fix it. Because I won't stand for you speaking to my son that way. If you can't abide with Matt being here, then me and my boys will leave."
Aaron was stunned at the ultimatum, but as he thought about it more, he really shouldn't have been. Jesse had always fiercely defended his son, like any good father should. Aaron knew that Jesse thought his feelings toward Matt were because of the young boy's decision to leave the mountain with his mother.
And he had been upset by that, not for himself but for Jesse. It had hurt his friend when his eldest decided to move away from his beloved mountain. But that wasn't the reason that Aaron found himself so annoyed whenever he saw the man….well, not the only reason anyway. But he wasn't about to explain himself to Jesse now, not in the mood the man was in.
Aaron just grunted and got up. After grabbing a bottle and glass from the fireplace mantel, he pushed through the front screen door and settled in a rocker on the porch. Jesse watched him go, shaking his head, before moving into the kitchen to help Jen with the dinner cleanup.
/
"C'mon, Matt, you have to stay."
"Cody…" Matt sighed, tired of arguing with his little brother. As much as he loved the teen, he wished he'd just have stayed at the cabin instead of following him to the lake. Matt sat on a low, flat rock that hung out over the water about a hundred yards from the cabin. He was tossing small pebbles into the lake, watching as the water rippled under the bright moonlight.
As the water stilled, he could see the reflection of that full moon on the glassy surface, softly out of focus and moving as the soft wind breathed across the surface of the water. He had to admit that Aaron Bass picked a fantastic site for his new cabin. He had planned to bring his Rangers up to help Aaron and his father rebuild the place, but during the major part of the rebuild, they had been busier than usual and he had two of his Rangers down with minor, but annoying, injuries, which increased the work load on the others.
He wished they could have made it up here, but wondered if it would really have made a difference to the grumpy old man. Heck, Aaron was just as likely to kick them off his place than accept their help.
"Look, Matt. I know Aaron's been pissy, but you can't leave. I want to spend some time with you. We can get up early tomorrow and go fishing, stay gone the whole day. You won't even have to see him."
"And what about later?" Matt asked. "Do you really think that dinner tomorrow will be any different than what just happened?"
"Dad will talk to him."
Matt sighed. "I just think it would be better if I left. I don't want to be the reason that dad and Aaron argue."
"Please don't leave. Please, please!"
Matt never could deny Cody much, especially when he begged so nicely. But he didn't have a good feeling about this. He sighed.
"Fine. Just quit with the begging."
Cody just smiled, having known full well that his big brother would cave.
Having won his argument, he knew Matt wouldn't return to the cabin any time soon, and leaned back against the tree at his back, content to wait him out.
/
Later that night, Matt headed into the living room, stopping when he heard his father and Aaron talking from where they sat on the front porch.
"...think he's out of step with what goes on up here," Aaron was saying.
"He's no more out of step than you are, Aaron," Jesse replied. "In fact, I'd venture to guess that Matt knows more about what goes on up here then you or I do, if only because he has to deal with all of it in his job. Whenever something is going on that needs to be handled by the law, who do think gets called? It's Matt and his Rangers that handle it."
Aaron grumbled a reply, but Matt couldn't make out what he said. He shook his head, then, not wanting to hear any more of the oft-heard argument between the two men, he headed upstairs to change out of his dirty T-shirt. Once he'd done that, he headed back to the kitchen to help Cody and Jen with clean-up from dinner.
Later that night, as he lay in bed across the room from Cody, he could still hear the voices of Jesse and Aaron coming up from downstairs, but wasn't able to make out what was being said. He hoped the two men had found another topic for discussion. He drifted off to sleep, wondering what he could do the next day to keep out of Aaron's way.
/
Matt woke before the sun came up the next morning, moving quietly so as not to wake up his brother. When he got downstairs, he stoked the fire and added another log, figuring he could at least make sure the cabin was warmed up by the time the others woke.
He hadn't slept well, his mind not letting him rest. Past memories of Aaron, his Mom and Dad, and the time when he and Jackie left the mountain, kept haunting his dreams. He moved into the kitchen and grabbed Aaron's ancient coffeepot that had been rescued from his old cabin that had been destroyed in an earthquake. It was a battered blue speckled camp pot, the same type that his father had in his own kitchen. He filled up the basket with coffee grounds and placed the pot on the wood stove in the corner of the kitchen, adding wood to that stove as well.
Grabbing an apple from the basket on the counter, he lifted his jacket from the hook by the door, then stepped out onto the front porch. It was still dark, but the moon was full and the pre-dawn sky was clear, allowing millions of stars to light the path that led down to the dock. Sticking the apple between his teeth, he slipped on his jacket and sat down on the steps.
Leaning against the railing, he munched on the apple, letting his mind remember the good times he and his family had when he was younger. He was born on this mountain and lived here until he was a young teen. He tried to remember a time when Aaron treated him like he belonged, but couldn't. He didn't know if that was because it never happened, or it was just too long ago for him to dredge up the memory.
Jesse used to tell them that Aaron was a different man when his wife was alive. Matt couldn't picture the man any other way but bitter. He would have thought that having his granddaughter living with him now would have mellowed him. And maybe it did. But Matt doubted that he would ever see it.
Finishing his apple, he walked around to the side of the house, tossing his apple core into the compost bin, before heading inside to grab a mug and pour himself a cup of coffee. He took a sip, then walked back outside. He wandered down the lake path, taking some deep breaths of the crisp mountain air. He loved this time of day, when the night sky was just beginning to get a hint of light and color, but the sun had yet to peek over the horizon and it was so quiet.
He glanced back over his shoulder at the cabin, thinking back to when Cody first told him that they were coming up here for a visit. Neither his brother nor his father had mentioned it when he'd called them on the radio to let them know that he'd been able to get the weekend off. And he didn't want to ask if they had already been planning to visit Aaron and just forgot to tell him, or if it had been a last minute decision.
Either way, they didn't seem to have cared much about his feelings. If they had previously planned it, and didn't tell him, that meant they assumed he would join them, even knowing about the bad feelings between him and Aaron Bass. And if it was a last minute thing, and they'd decided to go even after he told them he was coming up, then they'd decided that Aaron's feelings were more important than Matt's.
He finished his coffee just as the sun peaked over the craggy mountain top across the lake. He shook his head, his scattered thoughts giving him a headache. He'd been having a debate with himself whether he was going to stay for the remainder of the weekend or just head back to Tahoe. On the one hand, he wanted to spend time with Cody and his Dad. On the other hand, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to deal with the animosity coming from Aaron Bass.
In the end, he decided that his desire to spend time with his family was more important than Aaron's issues with him, and he just hoped he could avoid the old man as much as possible. He headed back inside to start a fresh pot of coffee, then figured to might as well get breakfast started. Maybe if Aaron saw him making an effort to get along, the man would give him a break and lay off any more snide comments for the rest of their stay.
He really did want to be friends with Aaron, or at the very least, civil with the man, if only for his father's sake. Plus it would be helpful in his job, as Aaron knew these mountains well and would be a valuable asset to Matt, as he always had been with his father when Jesse was in charge of the Rangers. Once his Dad retired, the High Mountain Rangers suddenly became the enemy.
And things seem to get even worse when Matt took over command and he didn't understand why. He knew that Aaron had resented Merlin Pierce when he'd been in charge, considering Merlin an outsider, a "flatlander", which was worse than a criminal in Aaron's opinion. Even the fact that Jesse had hand-picked and trained Merlin didn't seem to matter. Aaron figured that anyone who hadn't spent their entire life on the mountain wasn't worthy. And living in town didn't count.
He pulled some veggies from the icebox and began to chop them up to go in an omelet. The others would likely be up soon. No one in the mountains usually slept long after sunrise. He was, in fact, surprised that his father hadn't already shown his face, as he was a notoriously early riser.
He'd filled up a medium sized bowl with onions, peppers, tomatoes and spinach when footsteps on the stairs alerted him to the arrival of someone, but he was disappointed to see Aaron enter the kitchen. Matt called out a soft "good morning", only to be rebuffed, as the older man barely glanced his way, only frowning and grumbling under his breath in reply.
Matt sighed and rubbed a hand across his face. It didn't look like today would be any better than any other day in Aaron's presence. He sure hoped Cody was up to a full day of fishing, because Matt wasn't about to put up with this attitude all day. He planned to spend as much time as possible away from the cabin and the grouchy old man in front of him.
"What's this?" Aaron growled. Matt looked up to see Aaron looking disgustedly at the bowl of vegetables that Matt had chopped.
"I thought I'd make omelets for breakfast," Matt offered.
A grunt was the only response as Aaron pulled a basket of eggs down from the shelf. As he began cracking the eggs in a mixing bowl, Matt stood up and approached him.
"I'd like to make breakfast today, if that's okay," the tall blond said.
"I am perfectly capable of making breakfast for my guests," Aaron snarled.
"I know that, Mr. Bass. I just thought..."
"Well don't think. Now, if you don't mind, this kitchen isn't very big..."
Getting the hint, Matt rinsed out the mug he'd been using. He walked toward the door, but turned back around before leaving the room. "Look, I know that you don't like me. And I know that you don't think I belong on the mountain or in your home. It wasn't my idea to come here this weekend. But Cody and I wanted to spend some time together and it was here or not at all. I'll try to keep out of your way. I don't want your hatred of me to affect your friendship with my father. Or my relationship with him."
He grabbed his jacket from the hook on the wall next to the door and slipped it on. "I don't know what your problem is with me. If I did, I'd try to fix it."
"You can't fix it," Aaron replied, still cracking eggs and refusing to look at Matt.
"Well, then I guess we just have to tolerate the fact that we both exist on the planet. Because I refuse to ignore my family just to make your life more comfortable."
Aaron stopped what he was doing and looked at Matt. He humphed. "You know all about comfort, don't you boy? Staying in town with your momma, not having to work for anything..."
Matt took a step closer to Aaron. "You don't know anything about the life I had in Tahoe. I still had to cut wood. I still had to do chores. I busted my butt in school and I had a part time job after school. I may not have had to shoot or trap my own dinner, but I still had to cook it and clean up after myself. And most of the time, I spent my nights alone because Mom was working. So, don't you dare tell me how easy I had it! You have no clue what my life was like!"
With that, he pushed open the door and stormed outside. Maybe a walk around the lake would clear his head...and diminish the anger and frustration he was feeling.
/
Two hours later, he trudged back up the front steps, seeing his father standing at the front door.
"Mathew." The tone of voice held a familiar note of disapproval.
"Morning, Dad," he said, hoping to side step his father and the conversation he knew was coming.
"Some reason you decided not to join us for breakfast?" Jesse asked.
"Just not hungry," he said with a shrug of his broad shoulders.
"Try again, Son," Jesse replied.
Matt froze, one hand on the door handle, his hope of glossing over this topic dashed, as he'd known it would be. Jesse turned to look out over the lake, but didn't abandon the conversation.
"Aaron went to a lot of work to make a nice breakfast for us."
"Did he?" Matt asked, the sarcasm not quite masked, judging by the raised eyebrow from his father.
"Something you want to tell me, Son?"
Matt looked up at movement inside, seeing Aaron staring back at him.
"No, sir," he said, his eyes never leaving Aaron's. "Sorry I missed breakfast." The old man looked away when Matt added, "I'm sure Mr. Bass went to a lot of trouble. I'll apologize to him for missing it."
Was that a flash of guilt? Matt wondered, shaking his head at that thought. No, he was deluding himself if he thought Aaron Bass would feel guilty about not mentioning the fact that Matt had been the one to do most of the work in the breakfast preparations.
"I think I'll go see if Cody still wants to go fishing," he said, pulling open the screen door. Walking through the living room, he tossed a quick "Morning, Mr. Bass. Sorry I missed breakfast. I hear it was delicious," before jogging up the steps.
Aaron didn't reply, just sipped his coffee, eyes following his friend's eldest son.
/
"You're awful quiet this morning, big brother," Cody remarked as he removed his catch from his line and adding it to the string, then lowering the catch line back into the cold water of the lake to keep them fresh.
When he didn't receive an answer, he looked over to find his brother staring off into space, obviously not having heard Cody's comment. A tug on Matt's line brought his attention back to the here and now. Cody watched as his brother hauled in his catch and added it to the string line as well. It was so automatic that Cody wasn't sure he was even paying all that much attention to what he was doing.
"Matt, are you okay?" Cody asked, baiting his line and tossing it back into the water.
"Hmmm?" Matt blinked several times, glancing over at Cody. "What?"
"I said, are you okay? You seem to be off in another world today."
Matt nodded. "Fine. I just have a lot on my mind."
"Anything I can help with? I'm a good listener, you know."
Matt watched as his brother played out his line, then reeled it back in, trying to lure another fish. He desperately wanted to talk to Cody about Aaron, but he also knew how much his brother like the old man, and was leery of how he'd react if Matt told him that he was still thinking of heading back to town, even after their conversation the night before. Too often, Matt had been forced to cancel plans with Cody because of his job. He wasn't usually able to take off three days in a row to spend with his family and he really didn't want to leave early. He only wished they didn't have to spend the whole weekend at Lake Jen.
His muddled thoughts were interfering with the joy he usually felt when spending time with Cody. It wasn't fair to his brother. His problem with Aaron was just that-his problem. He vowed to make the most of the next two days, Aaron Bass be damned.
Smiling, he turned to his brother. "I'm good, Toad. Just some stuff that has been weighing me down. Nothing I can't handle. Now, aren't we supposed to be enjoying ourselves? What say, we go for a swim."
Cody grinned and jumped up, pulling in his fishing line and stripping down to his swim trunks. Both he and Matt had pulled their jeans on over their trunks, knowing they'd likely go swimming once the day warmed up. And the trunks were only because Jen might show up at any time. Normally, they'd swim in the buff, a product of living in the mountains, far away from anyone else and often using time at a lake as an opportunity to bathe as well.
They raced off to a huge rock that hung out over the water, Cody's dog, Dingy, right behind them, and for the next hour competed to out-do each other in dives, distance, somersaults, even length of time underwater after jumping off. Cody won the competition when he managed to surface with a fish grasped between both hands.
"Okay, mountain boy," Matt called out, chuckling. "You win! This time."
Cody laughed. "I always win. You've been in Tahoe too many years, big brother."
When he didn't get teasing reaction he usually got from Matt, Cody released the fish back into the water, then stepped onto shore, shaking his head like a dog. Dingy stood next to him, doing the same.
Cody looked up at the small chuckle from his brother. "They say that eventually people come to look like their dogs. They never said anything about behaving like their dogs," the elder brother remarked.
Cody, however, was not about to let Matt distract him.
"Matt, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, Cody. Everything is fine," Matt replied unconvincingly, turning to climb back onto the rock and laying down on his back in the sun.
Cody watched him go, his shoulders slumping at whatever it was he said to cause the good mood to evaporate. Thinking back over the conversation, he realized that Matt's mood sank when Cody made the remark about him not living in the mountains anymore. He grimaced and mentally slapped himself. That was the same thing Aaron Bass always said, which was sure to put Matt in a bad mood.
He slowly climbed the rock and sat down next to his reclining brother. "You know I was teasing, right?" he asked quietly. Matt didn't open his eyes and didn't reply. "Matt, you do know that right? You are as much a child of these mountains as I am. Just because you live in Tahoe doesn't make you any less of an expert in living and working up here."
Matt snorted. "Tell that to Aaron Bass."
"I would, you know," Cody insisted.
Matt opened his eyes, squinting up at his brother, seeing the determination on the younger boy's face. It lightened his heart and he smiled.
"I know you would and I'm grateful for that." He shook his head and sat up, leaning back on his hands. "I just don't think it would do any good, Code. He's had a problem with me ever since I moved to town with Mom. He thinks I abandoned you and Dad."
"You didn't abandon us!" Cody interrupted. "Even after you moved, you came up here almost every weekend when the weather was good!"
Matt pushed himself upright and turned his body to face his brother. "Cody, do you...you do know..."
Cody nodded. "I know why you left, Matt. You felt that Mom needed you more than we did," he said, looking down.
"No!" Matt exclaimed. "Cody...damn..." He slapped his hand on the rock. "In a way, I guess that's true," he struggled to explain. "Mom and Dad...there were fighting all the time...I don't know if you remember..."
"I do. You know what else I remember?" Cody asked. "I remember my brother taking me out of the house to get me away from all the arguing. I remember my big brother letting me crawl into his bed at night when I woke up with a nightmare because of all the arguing. And," he added softly, "I remember missing my brother like crazy after he left, but knowing that he would keep his promise to visit as often as he could, because he never broke a promise to me. And I remember him telling me that it would be up to me to keep Dad from being too sad and that he would do the same for Mom, and that things would be better without all the yelling. And that, as the big brother, it was his job to make sure that his little brother stayed on the mountain and that he would be the one to leave home so that Mom would not be sad."
"Cody..." Matt said, his voice cracking as his kid brother, who was only seven-years-old when their parents split, remembered the conversation they'd had eight years before, while tucked up together on the sofa, listening to their parents have one final argument as their mother packed her car with Matt's things.
Cody moved closer, until they both sat cross-legged, knees touching.
"I remember crying as you drove away and seeing you in the window crying. And when I looked up at Dad, he was crying too. The only one I don't remember crying, was Mom."
"She was too angry to cry," Matt admitted. "The whole trip down, all she did was rant and rave about Dad and the Rangers. About how the Rangers tore the family apart."
"They didn't..." Cody began.
Matt wrapped his hand around Cody's wrist. "I know. Mom hated the mountains, she always had. She hated being so far from town and her friends." He began unconsciously rubbing his thumb against Cody's arm. "She was always telling me how much better it was in town. How I could go to school and play ball." He shook his head. "And I know she meant well, but..."
"You didn't want to go, did you?"
Matt looked away, at the trees and mountains around him. "I hated it there, Cody," he said softly. "I missed the mountains so much. I missed you and Dad. But Mom was so excited about being there, about me being with her. She kept talking about coming back for you..." his voice trailed off.
"You talked her out of it, didn't you?" Cody asked. Matt nodded but didn't say any more. "Thank you. You sacrificed a lot for us, and for Mom. I'm glad I was able to grow up here, in these mountains, with Dad. And I'm glad that you still come visit as often as you can. And now that I'm getting older, I want to start coming down to Tahoe to visit you."
Matt looked up, a smile growing on his face. "Yeah?"
Cody grinned. "Yeah. Dad and I have been talking about it..."
"...and we both think it's a great idea." The boys turned to see their father climbing up onto the rock. "Cody's old enough to go into town on his own and spend some time with his big brother." Jesse knelt down next to his sons, placing a hand over Matt's on Cody's arm. "I am sorry that the problems between me and your mother made it so difficult for you boys. But I am also thankful that I have two sons who love each other enough to want to spend time together and make the effort to do so. I am so proud of both of you."
"Thanks, Dad," Matt said.
Jesse cuffed his eldest lightly on the side of the head. "So, did you catch dinner?"
"Of course," Cody replied, affronted that his father would think they had been unsuccessful in the fishing.
"Well, then, let's get back and get them cleaned and ready to cook," Jesse said, standing up and reaching a hand down to each of his boys.
As they gained their feet, Cody and Matt exchanged devious grins. As Jesse started to release his hold, both boys grasped on tighter and started moving toward the rock edge. It took only a moment for Jesse to realize what they were doing, but it was a moment too late, as all three Hawkes men were launched off the rock into the water.
Cody and Matt surface, laughing, Jesse between them, his clothing drenched and his hair plastered to his face. The look on his face spoke only one word: Payback.
"Cody, grab the fish!" Matt yelled, striking out for the shore. "I'll get our clothes!" Both boys quickly swam to shore and gathered up their gear and their catch, then headed toward the cabin, laughingly calling back, "Come on, Dad, or you'll miss dinner."
Jesse trudged out of the water, muttering under his breath. But as he removed his shirt and wrung out the water, he chuckled. Oh, he'd get them back, but it was good to see his sons able to laugh, especially after the serious conversation he'd overheard.
It was times like that, when he got a glimpse of what the separation had done to his kids, that he almost hated Jackie. Almost. He would always love the woman who gave him such wonderful sons, and he knew that he probably could have been a better husband. But she had known coming into the marriage that he lived in the mountains and had no plans to move to town, for anything or anyone. She said she had no problem with it when they'd gotten married. It was only after Matt was born that it became an issue. And it became the major issue in their marriage once Cody came along.
He sighed. It did no good to dwell on those things now. It was well in the past and he and his boys had weathered the move and, later, Jackie's death. Cody and Matt couldn't be any closer, and judging by the trick they'd just played on him, they had no problem banding together against their old man. He frowned at the squishy feeling in his boots. It would take a full day in front of the fire for them to dry out.
But revenge would be sweet. He'd just have to think of an appropriate punishment. He'd take his time and make sure his boys were properly chastised for taking their father for a swim.
/
The rest of the weekend passed quickly. Matt kept his distance from Aaron, spending most of his time outside with Cody and Jen. The trio saddled up and took a long ride through the wilderness, Jen riding with Matt, the older Hawkes brother giving her some pointers in how to handle the horse, since she didn't have much experience.
Although she'd been living with her grandfather for several months, and he was teaching her a lot, she wasn't allowed to venture far from the cabin without him. So she relished the chance to get out and explore with Matt and Cody. They showed her some of the places they found interesting and some places to stay away from. They talked about others that lived in the area, who was friendly, who to stay away from, and pointed out different trails and landmarks.
On the ride back, Matt settled the young girl in front of him and handed her the reins, allowing her to guide the horse back, but ready to take over if needed. But Jen was fearless and eager to learn, picking things up quickly. They took it slow, in no real hurry, since they still had a couple hours of daylight left. Along the way, she asked a multitude of questions, absorbing all the information the two brothers passed along.
And they'd managed to shoot a couple of good-sized rabbits on the return trip that would be a good meal when they got back. They managed to return an hour before sunset, handing off the rabbits to Jesse while they took care of the horses. Jen followed Jesse to help him with dinner, regaling him with everything she'd seen and learned during her ride.
During dinner, she continued to effuse on their adventure, to the amusement of everyone. She asked more questions and the others tried to answer as best they could, barely getting a reply out before she began talking again. It was obvious that she was excited about everything she'd seen and was anxious to learn more.
When Cody and Jesse had first met Jen, she seemed more reserved and shy. Jesse knew it was likely because of all the changes that had occurred, first with her parents' deaths and then the relocation to the mountains, which was a total change from the city she had been living in. Jesse felt that this exuberant and lively child was the true Jen and now that she was becoming more comfortable in her new environment, she was eager to learn everything she could.
Jesse glanced at Aaron who sat at the other end of the table. The older man appeared a bit dazed by this heretofore unseen version of his grandchild. Blinking, Aaron looked at Jesse, who could almost hear his thoughts. Who is this child and where did she come from?
Jesse chuckled to see his old friend so flummoxed. He raised his glass of homemade wine, a smile spreading wide across his face. And he was grateful he'd only had sons.
/