A few days later, Jack was enjoying awaking without the sun crashing his dreams. He had managed to force the shutters closed, and he'd been able to sleep better, despite some lingering dreams. Most consisted of him and Karen dancing and laughing. He hadn't seen her at all since the day she stopped by to take care of him. It felt odd to him that he could actually talk to her in real life, and she wouldn't be so aloof. Nonetheless, Jack had risen every morning and worked productively every day until mid-afternoon, when he would go in search of Karen in the woods. He was making a great profit off the tomato plants, and had cash to burn. He found himself in the bakery, chatting with Elli and Jeff almost every afternoon. He'd tried to avoid Popuri as much as he could. He feared he'd get another talking to about flowers, and while he did feel they made a place more comfortable, he didn't want to hear about them every waking minute. He had also, luckily, not seen Ann. He was afraid of what she would think when she found out about the night at the bar. Would she be mad at him? Probably. But, not rightfully. After all, they did not own each other. They were simply two people who entertained an afternoon away as friends—or was it more than just friends? Ann had said she "loved" being there with him. Did that imply something? She had also sent that strange thank you letter.
His thoughts were interrupted by a quiet knock on the door. Wondering who it could be this early, he jumped out of his seat at the table and went to find out. He opened the door to find a tattered man. He noted the man's hiking clothes, and that there was a large bird perching on his dog house.
"I'm so hungry…" said the man. Jack could tell this was true by the bags under his eyes.
"Come inside," he said. He led the man to a seat around the table. Jack pulled out some of his breakfast rice balls, and handed them to the man. The man ate quickly, though impolitely, and cleaned up after himself.
"Thank you so much," he said. "I'm Cliff."
"And I'm Jack," he replied, shaking his hand. "Are you new around here?"
"Cain and I just arrived. We hike all over the place by foot." Noting the questioning look on Jack's face, Cliff added, "Cain's my pet falcon. We would've gone fishing in the mountains, but I just couldn't make it all the way up there."
"I'm reasonably new here, too," Jack said. "I moved here in early spring. It's nice here, even though it's a bit small."
"I probably won't be here for long," he said. "Cain and I like to move around. We get tired of a place if we stay there for too long."
Jack nodded. "I can believe it."
Not wasting any time, Cliff said, "Well, I'm going to head on up to the mountains. Don't want to waste any more of your time than I have to," and let himself out. Jack began cleaning up the table, but then heard a thud similar to the sound of Karen falling. He ran outside to see Ann on the ground, and Cliff standing above her.
"You should pay attention to where you're walking!" Ann said, kicking her feet on the ground. Cliff just stared at her, managed a small apology, and then ran out towards the mountains.
Jack was slightly afraid of what Ann might be at his farm for. He knew she was here to yell at him for the bar incident. No way, Jack thought, we're friends. She could just be stopping by. He headed over to her, and helped her off the ground. Her overalls were covered in dirt. He wondered why, every time someone fell on his farm, they were covered in dirt. Lack of rain, perhaps?
"Who was that, Jack?" she asked, dusting herself off.
"His name's Cliff. Apparently he's just passing through."
"I hope so. What a strange guy. Anyway, the reason I'm here. Gray told me about the thing at the bar the other night."
He knew it.
He was going to get it now. He closed his eyes to prepare for the yelling, and expected to see glaring red eyes look up at him if he opened them. He eventually peaked, and saw nothing but the normal, happy blue eyes surrounded in an orangey blonde frizz.
"Uh, yeah," he said, slightly blushing. What was he going to say?
"I just wanted to say—" she began. "Well, Jack, I thought better of you."
Oh no, Jack thought, she hates me.
"So, you're a drunk? I would've never guessed. You give off this impression of being a good person, but you go out and get drunk."
"It's not something I do every night, Ann, or every month for that matter," Jack said.
"Yeah, but you did it in front of my father. That's smart!"
Jack had forgotten that he had been there.
"He hasn't said anything about it, Jack. Maybe he passes it off as something every young guy does, but if he knew you were my boyfriend, he wouldn't be too happy." Ann crossed her arms.
"Boyfriend?" Jack asked suddenly, his face scrunching up in a look of confusion.
"Yes. He wants me—"
"Boyfriend?!" He said aloud again. "Ann all we did was go out for a horse ride, how does that make me your boyfriend?"
"But we danced at the Flower Festival… and you came to the ranch to watch fireworks…" she trailed off. For the first time, Jack saw something other than happiness in Ann's eyes. It was a look of pain.
"I like you a lot," he said, grabbing onto her shoulder, "but we're just friends, aren't we?"
She averted her glance to the ground and remained silent. "How could you lead me on like that…?"
"Lead you on?! Ann, you invited me to the ranch for the fireworks, you invited me to go horse riding. You're my friend, so of course I want to do these things with you."
She shook her shoulder out of his grasp, and looked up at him. One small tear escaped from her eye, and she turned and ran out of his farm. He felt terrible. How could he not see that Ann was taking things more seriously than he was? How could he break her happy little heart like that? He felt like a heartless jerk, though this incident was hardly his fault. He glanced over to his fields. The corn plant he had planted, after much encouragement from Zack, had grown a single ear of corn.
Later that day, Jack had ventured to Green Ranch. He felt so guilty about the events earlier in the day that he wanted to somehow make it up to Ann. He didn't want to tie himself to her, but he wanted to at least repair the friendship they had. He saw that she was standing in the field along with Gray, as usual. Jack timidly stepped into the grass, said hello to Gray, and approached Ann.
"Hey," he said, softly. She turned around, a dismal look on her face. Jack's heart dropped. Seeing that saddened look in her once cheerful eyes for the second time hurt more than the first. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
She said nothing, but nodded in response.
"I brought you this," he said, revealing something from his knapsack, "I know this can't nearly compensate, but I knew you liked corn, and the corn plant I planted could be harvested today."
Her lips curled into a coy grin. She took the corn and examined it. "I guess I shouldn't get too bogged down in it," she said, smiling wider. "Nothing's better than being in good spirits!"
He was surprised by her reaction. "So things are all right?"
She nodded. "Ironically, I was going to break up with you for getting drunk. But I guess since we weren't dating in the first place, it saved me the trouble." She shrugged. Jack smiled. She was cute and he could see himself dating her, but not anytime soon. Not until he knew whether he had a chance with Karen.
As Jack exited the ranch, he glanced over at the beach. Looking at the waves made him think of the night he first talked to Karen. He thought he was so close to breaking through her veneer. In reality, he was much farther than he could ever imagine. Looking closer at the beach he saw her. She was dancing and she was beautiful. It made his heart ache. With every twirl and twist her hair flew in a parachute around her, billowing down and landing messily in her face. Her eyes were closed in a look of euphoria.
He'd never seen Karen look happier than she did that afternoon on the beach. He couldn't help but smile.
She paused her dancing for a moment, and looked up to see him watching her. A look of embarrassment came over her face. Jack was afraid to go near her, but she'd spied him and he felt he should. As he approached, her face turned redder. Jack kicked off his shoes and stepped barefoot into the warm sand.
"Hi," he said, walking closer.
She turned on her look of defensiveness and said, "You shouldn't spy on people."
Jack laughed. He couldn't help it. Here he was thinking that maybe she'd be a little bit nicer to him, but, ironically, no matter how nice he was it seemed she would never accept him into her heart.
"Sorry," she added quietly.
"Oho, what's this?" Jack asked, laughing again. "Karen's being friendly?"
A tiny smirk teased her lips. "Like I said, don't get too spoiled."
Jack smiled. He couldn't seem to keep that goofy smile off his face when he was around her. "You're a beautiful dancer—Err… I mean you dance beautifully." He blushed slightly, but hardly enough to notice. His heart was racing.
"Thanks," she said. "Maybe I'll teach you sometime."
Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise. "That'd be great, but what would Kai think?"
"Kai doesn't have to know…" she trailed off, and walked down the edge of the waves. Jack followed, being lured by the soft, sneaky grin on her face. He was hanging off every glance he got from her. "Summer is halfway gone," she said with a tone of sad excitement.
"Fall must be beautiful here," he said, delicately, not taking his eyes of her searching gaze. What was she searching for in the horizon? What was eluding her?
"With fall comes the harvest of the grapes," she said plainly. "Another failed harvest."
"Failed?" He had always heard such good things about the local vineyard. The idea of a failed harvest threw him off.
"Our wine is so much different than my Grandmother's was. I don't know why. We use the same grapes… but it's different."
Jack didn't know what to say. He wanted to encourage her, but the words were escaping him. The sea wind began to blow, and sailing on it were the whispers of memories; memories of the city, his friends, and the death of his mother. Staring at the sea always did this to him. He looked away.
Suddenly an idea came to him.
"I'd like to stay here all day, Karen," he said, "but I need to get back to the farm."
She turned away to see his back to her. "Okay," she said.
He started to walk off, but when he stopped to put his shoes back on, Karen said something that made him extremely happy. "I come out here every Sunday," she said. "You can join me again sometime."
His heart jumped into his throat, and he cracked a huge grin. "Okay," he said, nodding, trying to play down his happiness. "Goodbye."
She waved, and turned back to the sea. Jack rushed back to the farm, his idea pounding in his brain.
Well, what'd you think?? I know it's a lot longer than the previous chapters. I've been out of school for the past four days because of snow so I had plenty of time to work on this fic. I actually finished it, and the finished product will have 11 chapters (the 11th is a short epilogue). I really like it, and I'm excited to see what you think!!
