Catalyst, Book One - Chapter Seven - "Neighbors"

 

"They both should be here somewhere," said Celine, sitting up from the back of her chair and looking around. "I wonder what they're up to."

"Oh we don’t need to bother them on my account," I said nervously. "I’m sure I’ll meet them someday."

"Nonsense. Its just a matter of locating them. We’ll find them after lunch."

"Whatever you say." Wonderful. Now I had to be charming.

Despite my protests, after lunch, we got up and went for a walk through the property. The place is incredible. Out back, behind the house and barn, there is a little lawn area that leads right onto the forest edge – a magical and never ending backyard. Not bad digs.

We walked through a labyrinth of well worn trails and found our way to Rosewood Lake, a tiny body of water so calm I could have walked straight out onto it. Two old row boats rested on their gunnels under a huge willow tree – while a tree almost identical loomed in the afternoon sun directly across the lake.

"Where does the road come out?" I wondered, pointing over her shoulder.

"Way out on the other side. See that little dock there?" she asked, pointing across the water.

I heard them before I saw them. Rustling through the woods wasn’t a big enough describing word. They were tearing through the woods. I was almost surprised I couldn’t see trees falling in their wake. They were laughing, swearing, and yelling at each other, obviously playing a game of some sort – racing down the mountainside. I half expected the ground to start shaking, but instead of an earthquake, they burst through the woods on the other side of the willow tree, out along the little dock, and both dived into the still water, the sounds of their outburst stopping as aggressively as they started. Only the echoes reverberating through the air accompanied the ripples of the disturbed water.

Suddenly Cole burst through the surface, closely followed by his brother. "I won," he gasped.

"In your dreams, sucker," Carter laughed, splashing his younger brother before swimming to the shore.

"Finished your chores I see," Celine sang out, her voice echoing across the silent water.

"Hey Mom!" Carter yelled, waving from the beach. "Who’s that with you?"

"Your new neighbor. Come say hello." My expression must have been horrified because she put her arm around me and smiled. "Are these the two clowns you saw this morning?"

"I think so." I was sure it was them but didn't want to seem eager to meet them.

Carter jogged over with a gigantic, goofy smile on his face. He thrust out his soaking wet arm before he said anything. Cole jogged nonchalantly behind him, his playful expression totally sullen now.

"Hi Miss, I’m Carter, how do you do?"

I was taken aback. "How do you do? What a gentleman," I laughed. "I’m Lana, your new neighbor," I said, taking his hand. He shook it rapidly with both of his.

"Captain Rick's daughter? Right. He's been working on the house, getting ready for you to move back in right?" he said, his friendly eyes disappearing into little twinkling slits. Cole nudged him in the arm as I replied.

"Just found that out, but yes, that’s right." I looked from Carter to Cole, incredulous. "Captain Rick? Is he making everyone call him that?"

"He hates it actually," Cole said bluntly.

"All I know is, that if I were a Captain, I’d want everyone to call me Captain," Carter said, holding his hands out in an exaggerated shrug.

There it was. My first sincere smile since my friends left. "Well then," I said, laughing, "I guess that’s a good reason to call him Captain."

I could tell already that this guy was going to be a friend. Instantly, I wanted to hug him – Carter was like a beacon of hope that had been sent down by some unseen force. Cole on the other hand, I was automatically defensive. Celine, as though she had heard my thoughts, took Cole by the shoulders and pushed him in front of Carter.

"Say hello," she ordered. He quickly wriggled free of her grip.

"It’s nice to meet you," I said, holding out my hand to shake his.

"Hello," he said shortly, taking my hand.

I hadn’t really been paying attention before, but when he looked up, I finally noticed his eyes. While Carter and Celine both had friendly dark brown eyes, his were a bright and clear pale blue. They were beautiful and frightening against his dark brown hair. They seemed almost white next to theirs, like a dog's eyes. After our eye contact held a moment too long, his eyebrows pulled into what seemed like a half glare, as though he was trying to concentrate on something, see through my eyes.

His face was angular, compared to Carter and Celine's more rounded features, and Cole wasn’t nearly as clean kept as his older brother. He looked effortless, like he didn‘t care too much about what he looked like, but somehow didn’t look like he had just rolled out of the mountains either. When he spoke, the wrinkles between his eyebrows smoothed back out and some of the hardness faded from his face.

"I think we saw you this morning? You were running?"

The defensiveness from before suddenly erupted into a flood of uncomfortable stammering in my own head. His voice was beautiful. In less than ten words he had entranced me. It was literally captivating to watch him talk – the way his lips formed words and stretched to reveal bright white teeth in an incredulous smile.

Why was he smiling? What was coming out of my mouth? Great.

Reply, stupid.

"Yep!" I squeaked out. The smile got bigger. My stammering got louder. I cleared my throat, buying myself some think time. "That was me."

So awkward.

"And have you been here a long time?" he asked. He was still holding my hand and was shaking it slowly, as if to propel the answer through my shaking arm. I could tell – he was enjoying this. His smile faded into a look of sheer amusement as he interpreted my discomfort. What an ass.

"Just got here last night," I squeaked out. What the heck was I so awkward for? That was not a difficult question. I pried my hand out of his. "So," I said, taking a step back. "Your a firefighter, and you are a..."

"Cop."

"Well, a fish cop right? You work with fish?"

Carter erupted into a fit of laughter. "Fish cop!" he howled. He choked off the booming laughter when Cole shot him a look. Celine's mouth moved in awkward, contorted directions, like she was trying to mask a smile.

"Not a fish cop. A fish and wildlife officer."

"You forgot the wildlife," Carter squeaked out, trying not to laugh. Cole glared at him again.

"Okay," I said, glad to be back on an equal playing field. "You work up in the woods too then? The ranger's station?"

"Up the road there, yes," he said, nodding his head toward a road to the side of us. There was a well worn path his truck had made in the wide dirt road. His eyes fell to the ground. I hope I hadn't offended him, but what was I supposed to do? He was torturing me. And he knew it.

"Boys, you still have a couple things to do, yes?" she turned to me. "Should we go back and have another glass of lemonade?"

"Sure, sounds good. It was great to meet both of you," I said quickly.

"Lana doesn’t know many people around town yet, so you two be friendly if you run into her again?"

"See you around Lana," Carter yelled wildly as Cole shoved his hands in his pockets.

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket as Celine laughed quietly to herself as we walked away from the sopping wet boys. I heard someone snickering, followed by a thud, followed by a yelp of pain. I could see the sequence acted out by Brody and JT perfectly in my head.

"Wow, it got kind of late didn’t it?" I said, after checking the time on my cell.

"It did. When is your dad due back?"

"A little over an hour. Maybe I should skip that last lemonade and head home?"

"Sure. You should have a minute to get ready for Rick. Hide the beer cans, get the boys out of the house, you know," she chuckled, elbowing me.

"Oh yeah, that’s me alright. I thought we just discussed how mature I was?"

I turned to wave once more to Celine who was in the doorway of the house. I had just turned the corner on the dirt road and started at a decent clip down towards the next bend in the driveway. I had recovered sufficiently from my embarrassment and had just enough time to decide I would hold it together if I saw Cole again when, as I passed the barn, I came face to face with none other than Cole Chadwick. Fantastic.

He hadn't seen me yet and was struggling with two of the half bales I had seen him loading earlier. Carter was nowhere in sight but he still had two bales in his hands. He'd never make it with that much. I walked over and reached for a bale just as he dropped it.

"Need help?" I offered.

"Nope. I've got it," he said, surprised.

"I realize you've got it. But I can help. I’m standing right here. Where are we going?" I demanded, sliding my hands under the twine running around the heavy bundle. So much for being awkward. What a relief. The famous Lana Baker cynicism wins again.

"You don’t take no for an answer very well do you?" he said, smiling out of the side of his mouth.

"Glad we're getting to know each other here."

"Okay, then. Follow me." He braced the bundle against his quad muscle and I mimicked him, somewhat less gracefully as I followed him through a gate in the wood post fence and into the pasture where the horses were. Cole clicked his tongue against his teeth and the horses came trotting over immediately. We walked crossed the field, a mini herd of horses following us, until we got to a elevated trough made out of large, bulky pieces of pine. A huge white horse, the one I had seen earlier started nibbling on the bale I was carrying. It startled me.

"That's Charlotte," Cole said, nudging her out of the way. "She won't hurt you."

I shrugged it off. "So, did you get ditched?" I asked him as I handed him the bundle.

"Carter got a call into work," he said, shaking up the dense stack into the container.

"Well that’s not fair, what excuse do you get to use?"

"I don’t mind this work. I do most of it by myself anyway," he said, turning back towards the truck.

"I guess I was kidding."

"Oh," he looked at me, his expression softening a little. "Sorry."

Cole had just slammed the tailgate of the truck up after we had finished.

"Thank you very much for my second workout for the day," I said, tossing my gloves into the bed of the truck.

"Thank you for volunteering for manual labor."

"No problem." I fished my phone out of my pocket and grimaced when I saw the time.

"You late for something?" he asked.

"No big deal. Dad is getting home any minute."

"I can give you a lift back if you want." He looked uncomfortable at the thought, which made it more endearing that he'd offer.

"Really?"

"Sure. I’m going into town any way."

I could feel my heart beat in my throat all of a sudden as we climbed into the truck.

Dad was most inconvenient with his timing. His Camaro came thundering down the highway the opposite way Cole and I were coming. He turned down Hemlock just before we did.

"And there's Rick," Cole laughed, making the left hand turn after Dad.

"You can drop me at the corner if you don’t want a scene." Better yet, because I don't want a scene. Dad would certainly freak out if he saw me in some guy's pickup truck already.

"What are you talking about?" He asked with a smile as he pulled alongside the lawn.

"You’re in for it now," I sneered. "Your own fault."

Dad was on the porch with his rolling suitcase already, but he leaned it up against the front door when he saw us pull in. His dark blond hair was a little unkempt and his normally clean shaven face was sporting a rough five o clock shadow, speckled with a little gray. I was used to Dad looking like this after a trip. His nose wrinkled and crow's feet formed at the corners of his eyes when he smiled, but he wasn't old – only 42.

"My college graduate!" he called as I came up the three stairs in one leap to his big hug. He planted a big wet kiss on my cheek. "How’s my girl?"

"Good. How was your trip?"

"Long," he said, slapping me lightly around the shoulders. "And who do we have here?" he said, letting me go.

"How’s it going Mr. Baker?" Cole waved from behind the driver’s door of the truck.

"Cole, you hooligan, don't call me that. How many times to I have to tell you, it makes me feel like your elder."

Cole smiled and slammed his door shut. Dad pulled him into a hug, slapping him on the back.

Huh?

"Good to see you, kid," he said.

"Good to see you too, Rick. It’s been a while," Cole said, smiling.

"I can see you’ve met Lana," said Dad. "I’m a little confused how she’s already running the town though. What’s with the shuttle service, Lenny? Bronco brake down?"

"Nope, I walked up to see Celine. I just met Cole today and he was nice enough to drive me home so I wouldn’t be late to see you," I said as I thumped back down the steps to come stand with them. "Thanks again for the ride by the way."

He shifted nervously and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "No problem," he said, his eyes firmly fixed over Dad's shoulder.

"Well I’d really appreciate a cold one right about now, Cole? Can I tempt you? Stop in for a quick beer? How about it? There’s a game on I think," Dad said, unlocking the door. That reminded me about my keys - I snatched them off the front tire when Dad's back was turned. Cole gave me a questioning look and I smiled and shrugged.

"Thanks Rick, but I should get going – got a couple more things to do before dark. Next time though, I‘ll take you up on it." Dad slapped him on the back again and Cole slid back into his truck.

"Thanks again," I called after him, but he had already cranked up the volume on his radio and didn't hear me.

"Thanks again," Dad mocked in a high pitched voice. "Someone’s sure making friends fast."

"Oh shut up you old goat," I called after him. "We need to talk about this bedroom renovation project you so graciously told me NOTHING ABOUT." I ran inside after him, his booming laughter echoing through the house.