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“Then shut up.” He started to open his mouth, so she held her hand up and said, “Shut. Up.” That worked. She’d scared him silent. It wasn’t the first time she’d done that to someone.
* * *
Brian was physicallyand emotionally exhausted by the time they got back to camp that night. He was covered in dirt and his arms were so tired from digging that all he wanted to do was to curl up in a soft bed after drowning his memories of his day in hell. He showered and strolled back to the cabin he’d managed to score for the night, when a family decided they didn’t want to stay with a “bunch of bikers,” as Jace had heard them say.
The others were happy for a night under the stars, drinking, talking, and joking around the fire they had burning.
They’d given Brian the VIP treatment…or that’s what they told him. The reality was…they wanted a break from him, and they were sure he was ready to break from them now too.
Sure enough, the next morning, faced with a five-and-a-half-hour ride to their next destination, Brian had called it quits on the rest of the journey.
Cruz had spent over an hour talking to Brian before he set off back to New Orleans. From that conversation, Cruz had come up with something special to tell Eden when the time was right…and if she was happy with the arrangement. He was sure she would be.
They had planned on driving US-87 to Amarillo, but Eden and Kayleigh, who had become fast friends since Kayleigh had helped Eden take the plunge and tell Cruz her secret, both wanted to see the Cadillac Ranch. It was only 15 minutes up I-40 on the way to Bushland so they decided to all ride along for a look.
They walked a couple of hundred yards from the road to where the cars were half-buried in the ground. Since the last time the others had been to the Ranch, some fool had set fire to one of the Cadillacs.
Cruz was shaking his head. “Some people think doing bad shit will give them a good life.”
“Yeah, I can never understand that,” Eden said.
“Eventually, when they get to the end of their life, they’ll realize they are no more than an ant on the sand with a poison personality.”
He took photos of the cars, and Eden said, “Old, rusted, burnt and vandalized…but don’t they look so beautiful.” The graffiti-smeared bodies were bursting with color under the morning sun.
When they got back to their bikes, Jace turned up Bruce Springsteen’s song of the same name on his Harley’s sound system and said, “Don’t you just love this fucking country? No matter what they throw at it, it comes up winning.”
Cruz hadn’t said anything to Eden about what had gone down with Jimmy…just that everything had been resolved, as he’d promised, and Jimmy would never be a problem to anyone again.
Eden knew what that meant and left it at that. One day, she was sure he would tell her all.
When he said, “These Cadillacs aren’t the only things buried in this desert,” she knew exactly what he meant.
20
BIG SKY
TAOS, NEW MEXICO
The trip to Taos,New Mexico was long. With stops along the way, it took them almost eight hours before they got to their destination.
On the long straight stretches of road, with big sky forever, and flat plains of parched ground, Eden marveled at the beauty and the emptiness of all the space. It made her think of how insignificant humans really were. Miles and miles of poles lined either side of the highway and faded out of sight into the distance.
The combination of those poles flicking by, and the sound of the Harleys in the pack all around her, was as mesmerizing as the emptiness of the roads.
She was wondering whether this had all been one big dream, until she felt Cruz reach his hand up to her hands, which were wrapped around his waist…and squeeze them gently. It was as if he’d been reading her mind and wanted to assure her that it was real. She’d gotten used to sitting back against the sissy bar without holding onto him, but she still loved the feel of him between her arms.
Yes, it was a dream, but she was living it. It hadn’t been a week yet, and her life had been tipped on its axis. She wanted to tell him she loved him. Her sister, Mel, had told Eden when she first met Tomas that she was in love. They’d only known each other for a short time and Eden had asked her, “Do you believe in love at first sight?”
“Of course,” Mel had said. “I’m proof.”
Eden thought at the time it was just infatuation, but Mel and Tomas had proven her wrong. She’d seen in them, the love that she couldn’t say she ever really had with Grant. Eden had loved Grant, and she liked to believe that he had loved her too, but it was never on the level that every woman dreams of. The love where you know that all of your hopes and dreams are with them, and all of theirs are are with you. That was living the dream…and since Eden had met Cruz he had been in her dreams every night, and living them with her every day.
The road they’d been traveling today had been hypnotic. All of the internal monologue that had told her for so long now, that she was ugly, a monster, deformed and no longer a whole woman, had faded into the background and all she was seeing was a brighter future.
She’d been thinking how fast things had changed.Wow, unbelievable.She looked across at the bike that was driving beside them. It was Razor, with Kayleigh on the back. Eden couldn’t help smiling at the woman she hardly knew, who had helped her more than the paid professionals. Eden mouthed, “Magic,” and Kayleigh mouthed, “Magic,” back at her. Eden knew she would always remember moments like this…for the rest of her life, God willing.
The place they were staying at tonight was an authentic Tao adobe house made of clay and straw. It looked like it had been there forever in all of its weathered beauty. Their host looked like he’d lived forever too, as did his wife. Eden could read the roadmap of wrinkles on their faces…a picture of a simple life lived well.
