Here's the update for this story. Hope you like it, thanks for reading and the feedback.
They drove for miles inside his Porsche with the top down, just the way she liked it. The car skillfully hugged the twists and turns of the highway as the pavement curved its way through the mountain range. In the trunk were their suitcases and in front of them lay the openness of the state of Texas ready for them to explore during their final road trip before they headed towards their separate destinies.
Matt did most of the driving while C.J. remained content to watch the scenery blow by. She had seen most of it before but it struck her as being different than she had remembered. The starkness of the mountains outlined the sky which hovered above them, a bright blue broken up by streaks of white and the blistering sun. They didn't stay still long enough for the afternoon heat to bake them and the wind that whipped through their faces as they sped down the strip kept them cool just enough. They spent each day driving to a new destination without necessarily being sure where they were headed and where they would motel on the road would house them for the night.
C.J. loved every minute of it and as she looked over at Matt, she saw a smile light up his face even as his eyes focused on the road. She could tell that like herself, he had been relieved to see Wild Fork in his rear view mirror at least for a while.
Actually even when they headed back there, it would only be for a few days to wrap up loose ends before they both headed off towards their futures. Hers lay in the carefully manicured buildings of Harvard School of Law and his at Fort Ord where he would undergo basic training with Will and other enlistees before heading off to his first military assignment. Their lives then would become regimented outside of their control and they would have to temper their independent streaks and answer to others.
They had just taken off, leaving behind their families, their friends and other…complications. C.J. had left her uncle behind sitting on the couch in front of the baseball game with a promise to return to finish up her commitment on the ranch before heading off again. He hadn't said much in response but then he rarely did these days having tempered his objection when Matt had promised him that he would hire two ranch hands to cover for her after she left. He had just done that and they had started working the day before the two of them had taken off on their road trip. Matt had left among other things, a trail of women who would surely miss him. His father had been at a board meeting finalizing a merger across the country when Matt and C.J. had left so he wasn't around for a farewell.
Now here they were speeding down the road on the third day and they had traveled partway across the broad state. Driving during the morning and stopping along the way to check out different sights, to go hiking or to just buy some lunch and picnic in some shaded area by the side of the road. At night, they picked some motel to stay into and after hitting the local bar or diner, went to bed in their separate rooms to get some sleep before starting up again the next morning. By the time she turned in, C.J. usually was exhausted as the days were so filled with adventure but as she lay in bed, she thought about Matt doing the same thing a couple doors away or down the hallway from her own room. She figured that he was thinking back to the women he had left behind in Wild Fork, like Scarlett, Dianna and Nanette who had all shed a few tears for him when they discovered that he was leaving town for a while.
And they had gnashed their teeth when they discovered that Matt hadn't been leaving town alone but that she had been invited to go with him. Why on earth if Matt was going to leave Wild Fork and all it had to offer behind, would he pick a scrap of a woman like C.J. to go with him? A woman that sure, might have graduated at the top of her high school class but had been a complete failure during her brief foray on the beauty pageant circuit and in this town, that was tantamount to being branded a pariah and shown the curb.
C.J. realized that she had narrowly missed a cat fight there, not that she couldn't more than hold her own if they tried to pick anything with her. Matt had given them some good loving and they should just accept it and move on. After all, it's not like the two of them were getting it on or anything. They were just spending some final days with each other away from Wild Fork knowing it would be a long time before they shared the same space again. Reigning queen Nanette truly believed it should have been here riding in Matt's Porsche instead though a past queen like Scarlett who had set the standard with her own tenure at the top obviously wouldn't agree. C.J. just figured out that the two women and anyone else could sort out their pecking order in their absence.
The road forked ahead and Matt took a turn off of the highway to a diner that had beckoned at them from the highway. They pulled up into a parking spot underneath a broadly branched tree and then walked inside, eager to get out of the mid-day heat. Sure enough, the diner had been air conditioned and a waitress handed them two menus and then directed them to a booth in the corner. The diner obviously attracted a healthy lunch crowd as most of the tables were occupied.
"I hope the burgers are good," C.J. said, "I could eat a bunch of them right now and some potato wedges dipped in ranch sauce."
Matt's brows rose.
"Really C.J., we didn't do anything yet today besides traveling so I don't know where this appetite of yours is coming from."
She leaned back against the plush of the booth.
"This has been so great Houston," she said, "I guess it's been all this freedom that's making me hungry."
Matt glanced at her, dressed in her casual attire of worn jeans and a tee-shirt. Her dark hair framing her face with its eyes that sparkled and the fullness of her mouth that had seen a lot of laughter in the past few days. And they had spent a lot of time doing just that, laughing at something silly the other had said, but mostly because they were together and having a lot of fun. The atmosphere between them had become more relaxed the more miles they had put between themselves and the ranch, not to mention the town that smothered them both. Matt clearly remembered the night before he had left, which had begun at the Wrangler.
He had been playing pool after working a full day at the ranch with C.J. as they had ridden out to bring some loose steers back to their herd. She had casually referred to their upcoming road trip and he had felt anticipation fill him, a headiness that he didn't know where it came from but it remained with him. He had put Ruckus in the barn and then jumped into the truck to head off to shoot some pool and that was where he ran into Nadine. She had been dressed in her halter top and short skirt which had hugged her generous figure. After having hit the sheets with her earlier, he had no intention of doing so again. But after she offered to buy him a drink, one thing had led to another and soon enough they had headed to the motel.
Afterward, she had stroked the hair on his chest and had started talking, and he half listened, his mind already elsewhere, thinking about his vacation.
"I don't know what the matter with you is," she drawled, "One minute you're with me and the next…you're a million miles away."
He paused.
"I'm right here," he said, "I'm just a bit tired. I've been working hard on the ranch to get a lot done before I head to basic."
She licked her lips and looked at him.
"You're really going to do it," she said, "Go into the military to be sent somewhere just to get your ass shot off."
"I'm going to serve my country if that's what you're asking," he said.
"You don't even have to like most guys here," she protested, "You've got a ton of cash coming your way when your old man dies…"
He frowned.
"Hey, I'm not interested in his money," Matt said, "I'm going to make my own way starting with the military and after that, I'm going to start my own business."
She sighed.
"That's noble and all but it's a waste," she said, "but I'm sure I'm not the only one to tell you that."
No she hadn't been, Matt thought but his mind had been made up for a long time now and he wasn't about to change it. Contrary to what most people thought, he had worked hard his entire life on the ranch and while playing football in high school and at Rice University.
"I know what I'm doing," was all he told her but the conversation had rankled him later mostly due to its familiarity.
That Matt had been nothing more than a playboy living off of his daddy's money and that he sat around all day waiting for the old man to die. Matt loved his father though he hadn't really seen much of him in the past several years. Still he had been the only parent he had ever known since the untimely death of his mother who lived only in his memories and the photographs which lined the staircase at the ranch house. Snapshots taken at different stages of her life, mostly before his time.
Nanette had prodded at him further and said that while he was gone, she wouldn't exactly be sitting by and twiddling her fingers until he returned. He of course had no problem with her living her life with him not in it and if that meant seeing other men, then that was perfectly fine with him. When she had hinted that Dylan had asked her out, he had bristled a bit only because he didn't like how the guy had treated his best friend.
"Be really careful with him," Matt said, "He's not exactly the nicest guy."
Nanette had just folded her arms.
"This is Wild Fork Matt," she said, "Nice guys are in really short supply here. A girl's got to take what she can get and he's making his way in the world."
Matt didn't know much about that, only that Dylan had been a ranch hand as long as he had known him, but one with dreams of rising up in the ranks of power in this small pond in a remote corner of Texas. But even here, it wouldn't be easy for any newcomer to do that given the closed nature of the power structure favored an established clique of long-standing old money clans. And its members didn't exactly trust outsiders much. Even those with much more money than Dylan could ever hope to accumulate. Still, although he didn't like the guy, he figured what Nanette did and who she did it with was her own business.
Just one more reason to get behind the wheel of his favorite car to drive away from it all with the only person who really understood him and have some fun. Someone who needed no alibi or explanation from him and would just go with the flow or roll with the punches. That last thought made Matt wince as he remembered the bar fight that he had nearly been caught up in just two nights ago. He and C.J. had stopped overnight in a medium sized town, bordering on becoming a city and after settling at a hotel had gone to check out a honky tonk bar on the edge of what passed for the main strip. Mostly just to unwind from a long day of driving and C.J. said, to burn off the road stop food they had eaten along the way.
They had walked in there and C.J. found herself being hit on by two different guys dressed up like cowboys, with shiny belt buckles and boots which squeaked when they hobbled up to her. Matt had run into a blonde woman with a wide hat at the bar and already had lined up some shot glasses. C.J. just shook her head at him and let the taller cowboy buy her a margarita which had been laced with too much tequila so she had put it down after a couple of sips and focused on the scenery around her including couples on the small dance floor.
The taller cowboy, Salt he called himself, regaled her with stories about the ranches he had worked on, all which she suspected were more fantasy than reality. After all, his hands had told a much different story as she guessed that he spent more time inside an office at the Xerox machine than outdoors. As he talked amiably to her, she wondered if Salt was his real name.
"Want to dance," a shorter dude said after sauntering up to her his thumbs under his belt buckle.
Salt just shot a beady look at the guy and told him to get lost. That this attractive woman with him was his date and to go find himself another woman. C.J. said nothing but took another sip of her drink because right now she needed that extra tequila.
"Excuse me, I've got to go refresh my drink," she said, watching Salt tower over the shorter guy.
"Now don't you worry about a thing sweet pea," Salt said, "I'll do it for you after I'm done with this guy."
Sweet Pea?
C.J. rolled her eyes at the both of them.
"No thanks…Salt," she said, "I can handle my own drink at the watering hole."
Salt shot her a look before returning to his conversation with the short guy. C.J. didn't really need to be within earshot to know that she had become the focal point of a territorial squabble between two testosterone infused men. And here she thought she had left that all behind when she left Wild Fork but since she still remained inside Texas, no such luck. She loved her home state but the machismo that more than a few men wore like a badge of honor got old after awhile. Ahead of her across a crowded bar of standing room only lay the bar where Matt still stood talking to the blonde whose name had been given in a breathy whisper as Chelsea. She stroked his arm with one carefully manicured finger.
"Oh you are just so handsome cowboy," she purred, "You obviously aren't from around here."
"No I'm not," Matt responded, sipping from his glass.
The woman flipped her hair back expertly from off of her shoulders and then shot him a slow smile. Well-rehearsed but otherwise a nice presentation, Matt thought.
"So where are you from?"
Matt smiled in response.
"Wild Fork," he said, "But I'm going to be heading to basic soon…"
"Basic training," she asked, "That sounds…different. So you're going into the army?"
Matt nodded.
"Military intelligence," he said, "So I don't know if I'll spend much time out on the field."
"So you're…smart," she said, twirling her own drink with her finger and then licking it.
Out of the corner of his eye, Matt saw C.J. approach and wondered how she had been making out with the pair of urban cowboys. Hopefully she had sent them packing, because they didn't look like they would last even one round with her beginning on the dance floor.
"What's up C.J."
She grimaced at him when she reached the bar and got an eyeful of Chelsea who sidled even closer to Matt when she saw C.J. approach. C.J. just eyed her briefly.
"You found a friend Houston," she said, "How nice."
Chelsea frowned at C.J.
"In case you're thinking about poaching, he's taken," she snarled, "And I don't do threesomes."
C.J. took a deep breath, exhaling.
"You sure picked a winner there Houston," she said, "I'm just here to refresh my tequila and then I'll leave you with your…friend."
The bartender filled up her glass and she took it, looking once more at Matt before walking across the bar. Matt watched her leave, her mahogany hair tied loosely behind her and wearing jeans and a print blouse. He saw one of the cowboys, the taller one walk towards her and they started talking again and then they walked away, the man's arm wrapped around her, his hand resting on her lower back.
"Excuse me…"
Chelsea looked at him, her mouth hanging open as he headed off where C.J. stood with the two men. It felt strange to Matt but he had felt an overwhelming urge to have his best friend take a spin on the dance floor with him. Sure, they had danced together in the past more so at events held at the auditorium in the center of town rather than at places like the Wrangler. Even a slow dance here and there and damn, she could move her body in many different ways to ballads be they country or rock.
Suddenly, he saw the shorter cowboy grab her arm, nearly causing her to drop her drink and then his walk became much faster.
"What's going on," he said, even before he reached C.J.
Luckily the jam packed room of people had parted like the Red Sea when he had maneuvered his way across to find out what the hell was going on.
"Houston, I was just telling junior here to get his hands off of me," C.J. answered, "But really it's nothing I can't handle."
"C.J. if you need me to go take him out and teach him some manners, I will."
She shook her head.
"Like I said Houston, I can handle him," she said, and then turned toward Salt, "and you too. I think I'm done with our conversation tonight now that you've decided to let your hands do the talking."
Salt stepped forward.
"But I thought…"
Matt stepped in between him and C.J. without even thinking first.
"Didn't you just hear what the lady told you," he said, "Now you best leave, both of you."
The two men looked at each other and even though they had been ready to lock horns like bulls over the woman in front of them, they decided that they were more than angry enough to forget that for a moment and focus on Matt.
"We will leave when we're good and ready to leave," Salt said, "Isn't that right, Wayne?"
The shorter guy nodded. C.J. just rolled her eyes.
"You've got to be kidding," she said.
Matt looked at her.
"I don't think they are," he said, "but this shouldn't take long."
She turned to face him.
"Houston…"
But Matt had already put himself between the two of them. And they approached him from both sides with their hands raised. Matt put his hands up as well.
"I don't want to fight you," he said, "but if you start something here, I will finish it."
The men looked at him, doubtfully.
"What we just want is for you to leave and let the lady decide what she wants to do," Salt said.
Matt looked over at C.J. who just looked at all of the men around her.
"I think I'm ready to go back to the motel," she said, finally, "So if you want to fight each other, you'll have to come up with something else."
"C.J. They were hassling you…"
She put a hand on Matt's chest as he stepped closer to the two men.
"It's nothing I haven't dealt with before Houston," she said, "You know that."
Yes he did know that but right now, these men were looking for a fight and if he had to, he would give it to them. Whatever it took to protect his friend.
Now Matt sitting behind the wheel of his car thought back to that night and what had happened. C.J. stopped looking out the window and caught the expression on his face.
"You're thinking about the fight aren't you?"
There was no point in denying it so Matt didn't and she could tell by the way he clenched his jaw that she had hit it in the mark.
"I didn't need all that," she said, "I can handle myself, you know."
Matt paused before answering.
"C.J. those men…"
"They were a pair of urban cowboys Houston," she finished, "who never worked outdoors a day in their life. I could have handled them without even really thinking about it."
He heard a trace in her voice of what he had heard the other night after the first of the two urban cowboys, Salt he thought it was, had thrown a punch at him. He had sensed it coming as he had been trained and had ducked, then counter struck with an upper cut that made contact with Salt's face. The sound of the impact and Salt's eyes rolling in the back of his head was enough to tell C.J. that one of the men was already down for the count but the other one proved more crafty. He had gotten hold of a pool cue from one of the tables that lined the bar and had taken to swinging it at Matt's head.
Fortunately, if Matt knew how to defend himself against any weapon best, it was a pool cue given how many similar fights he had either participated in or broken up at the Rangler on a really slow summer night. But the smaller guy had gotten some solid hits in that Matt knew he would feel later on. As it turned out, the shorter guy had a couple of friends and soon enough, it turned into a brawl.
"They called the police on you guys," C.J. reminded him, "You're probably wanted across county by now or you would be if you hadn't thrown a couple Ben Franklins at the owner."
"Everybody walked away from it C.J.," he countered, "No permanent damage."
She felt like rolling her eyes at him for that. So then had the fight been because he had been cooped up during most of the day inside his car on the road? Maybe he was blowing off a bit of steam before he headed off into the much more regimented life of the military which appeared to frown on bar fights.
"I worry about you when you fight," she said, more softly, "One of these days you're going to get hurt or even killed."
The tone in her voice then made him look at her, her hair whipping in the breeze, her face tanned by the sun.
"That's not going to happen C.J."
"So you say but you don't know what's out there," she said.
Confusion filled him.
"Wait a minute, are we still talking about the odd bar fight or my going into the military?"
She remained silent for a moment and he thought he knew the answer. He realized that C.J. had qualms about his decision to join Will in enlisting in the army. That he would be putting his life at risk in some unknown place. That he would die on foreign soil thousands of miles away from the land that raised him. They had talked about it some but each time she had tried to broach the subject, he had cut her off, insisting that he knew what he was doing and that nothing bad would happen either to him or his cousin. That after his tour was over, they would return home to Texas and he would start up his new business away from his daddy's –with her at his side. If he could sweet talk her away from her dream of practicing criminal law.
"Houston I'm not ever going to tell you not to follow the course you've planned for yourself," she said, "but I'm not going to say I won't worry.
"You'll be too busy studying law to have time for that," he reminded her.
She turned her head to look at him directly.
"I won't ever be that busy."
After that statement, she let the subject drop as she usually did ever since he had made that decision which would so alter the course of his life. She knew that the military would change him in ways that he certainly couldn't anticipate. It would mature him surely though at times, he already seemed ahead of his years but she hoped it wouldn't harden him in the process. That when they both returned to Texas after their years of servitude to their respective masters was done, they would still recognize each other. But more than one veteran had returned to Wild Fork a changed man, having fought through one war or another until they returned home, broken.
At least now the nation was in between wars and at peace. If it could just stay that way until Matt returned home, she told herself not for the first time. Then she reminded herself again how selfish that was but she couldn't help herself. If anything happened to him…something inside her would just break too.
"Hey C.J."
"What's up," she asked him.
"You know you promised me a going away present," he said lightly.
She paused, looking back out the window.
"I told you it's a surprise so don't think you're going to get it out of me."
He chuckled.
"I wouldn't dream of it," he said, "though I'm mite curious of what it might be. You packed lightly."
She shrugged, not willing to play his game.
"You'll find out."
"When?
She licked her lips as her mouth had suddenly gone dry.
"I'll…let you know," she said, "Hey look, isn't that beautiful over there?"
Matt looked at the lake ahead of them with a surface as a mirror though you couldn't see your reflection in it, just an endless blend of blue and green, interwoven together. He had taken a couple of fishing trips there when he had been in high school, with his friends and an ice chest of beer and had planned to stop by it during the road trip to see if it resembled his memories.
"I did a lot of fishing there," Matt said, "back when I was younger."
She chuckled.
"And you're an old man now?"
He smiled and kept looking straight ahead. C.J. thought he looked comfortable sitting behind the wheel as they neared the lake. He wore one of his university athletic tee-shirts and jeans which molded to his body as he turned off the main road.
"Oh let's stop here," she said, "I could easily drop down here for a month…"
"We've only got several days," he said, and she remembered they were already heading back.
Back to Wild Fork to wrap up their lives there before taking off again, the place where they'd say their goodbyes for a long spell.
"They've got cabins here," he continued, "Pretty nice ones. I know a guy who works here who knew my father."
C.J. just focused on the sunlight dancing on the water as they drove by it.
"Didn't your daddy used to come here on fishing trips," she asked.
Matt grew silent for a while.
"When I was a kid," he said, "Though they were more like business junkets with some of the power players in Laredo County and elsewhere. Though he did bring me here once."
And though his father had been holed up in a conference room for much of the weekend, he did spare a few precious hours to spend with his son on the lake. They packed up their fishing equipment and sat on the banks beneath the sunlight fishing in the great lake. And on one special afternoon, Matt's father had taken him up hiking in the surrounding hills, up a series of switchbacks and a meadow or two finally reaching a rock face where water cascaded down into a series of a larger pool and several smaller ones.
Matt had never forgotten that sight, the roaring of the water and how the chilliness of the water had been tempered by the heat that cloaked in the still air. How his father had showed him the schools of tiny fish that lived in the pools. How he had waded in the water up to his knees in anticipation until his father had nodded and said he could wander in further.
"How would you like to see a waterfall that's as high as you can see?"
She smiled at him and nodded.
"Okay I'm game Houston," she said, "But I'll be watching you."
"What for," he asked too innocently.
"Oh…you know," she said, not taking her eyes off of him, "I've learned not to trust you around bodies of water."
He grinned at her, as they turned into the parking lot and parked close to the cabin where his father's friend still lived.
"It looks really nice," C.J. said as they left the car.
The heat still scorched but a nice breeze wafted in from the lake and C.J. looked out at the fishermen, some with young kids standing there with their rods cast, looking seriously at work. They walked into the office where an elder man sat watching television from his couch. He looked up at them and his eyes soon brightened.
"Why you must be Bill's young boy," he said, getting up to meet them.
Matt smiled and stuck out his hand to shake the man's.
"Not so little now, but how long has it been?"
The man sized him up. C.J. couldn't blame him. Her friend now didn't look anything like the kid he had been, having filled out his lanky frame completely, growing muscles in all the right places due to his years of ranch living not to mention football playing.
"Oh it's been quite a while," Matt said, "We're just dropping by for a couple of days before we head back home."
The man nodded.
"I'll give you my best cabin," he offered, looking for the keys , "It's beautiful this time of year but not too crowded like it was last month."
The man gave Matt some paperwork to fill out and the keys and C.J. looked around the office, seeing photos of fishermen all over the wall, even spotting one with Bill in it, along with the father of the DA that she had worked for, Jack Prescow, sr and a former mayor. Quite a crowd, she mused.
"Oh we used to get together once or twice a year and go fishing," the man said, standing behind her, "More for the conversation than the fishing. The mayor couldn't catch a fish even if you threw it at him."
"I worked for Jack's son," C.J. said, "before Houston and I set off on this road trip. I still don't know that much about him."
The man shrugged.
"What's there to know," he said, "A chip off of the old block as I remember. Has stronger political ambitions, wants to be state attorney general or even governor some day."
C.J. had figured out the political ambition but a person needed a campaign chest and political machine to shoot for state office. She wasn't sure that despite his father's connection, Jack had either yet. And she thought his daily dalliances with the mysterious beautiful woman that wasn't his wife might bite him some day if he did seek serious office.
The man handed Matt the key and he and C.J. went to the car to get their bags before heading off to find it. And when they did, they were amply rewarded because it stood there, in front of them nicely painted with a small yard in front of it and it looked even better inside with two bedrooms and a kitchenette just off of both the living room and a back patio deck where people barbecued. C.J. took her bag into her bedroom and just dropped it, then returned to the living room and sank in the sofa. Matt stood in the doorway watching her.
"So you want to go check out the lake?"
She nodded enthusiastically and walked out with him, his arm casually wrapped around her shoulder. And while walking, she looked at him sideways, smiling to herself.
Thinking that the best part of the vacation still lay ahead of them.