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“Wow, good morning to you too, sunshine,” Bastian says, batting his eyelashes.
I give him a pointed look. He sighs and points to the warmer. I open it and find two plates with quiche.
I take one out and set it at the kitchen bar. Isa and I eat in silence as Bastian drones on about the winter festival. Isa discusses it with excitement. Apparently, this is the big festival that Isa had mentioned to me.
A honk at the front of the house has me heading to the front door. I open it to find Max standing by a trailer with two four-wheelers on it.
“You ready for a joyride?” he asks.
“No,” I state.
He laughs nervously. “Uh…Isa suggested…” He trails off as he motions to the four-wheelers.
“I know,” I state flatly as Isa bounds out of the house behind me. Apparently, she woke our dogs who must have taken a nap after Bastian fed them breakfast. Because they come flying out the front door and run over to Max who laughs as he gets knocked to the ground and licked to death.
“Get off, you crazy mutts,” he yells.
“Those are purebred rottweilers,” I point out.
“And a Great Dane,” Isa adds.
“Whatever…they need some mint mouthwash,” he says as he gets onto the flatbed of his trailer and drives the four-wheelers down.
He parks them and hands us the keys, and then goes over all the safety information and how to drive them. We put on our helmets, and each get on one.
“You ready?” Isa asks.
I feel myself shaking a little, but this feels more like a bike than a car, or at least I keep telling myself that.
“Yeah…I’m ready,” I say as I try driving it around the circular drive before I lead us down my driveway and onto the trail we took yesterday. Isa follows me. At first, I’m hesitant, but then something happens about halfway down the trail. The breeze blows against my face, and I breathe in the cold winter air, and suddenly…I feel free. I feel years of anxiety float away like clouds on a breezy day, parting to reveal the sun.
I go a little faster, and when we reach the park, I pull over. Isa pulls up next to me. I pull my helmet off and smile.
“I take it…you enjoyed that?” she asks cautiously.
“I did,” I admit. “I enjoyed it a lot.”
She smiles. “Good. Uh, should we just park them here? You think they’ll be OK here?” she asks as she looks around us.
I turn off my ATV and pull the key out. “Isa, we’re in Storyview Falls and it’s the middle of winter. No one but us is coming here, and even if they did, I could probably park one of my cars here with the doors unlocked and nothing would happen.”
She rolls her eyes and takes off her helmet. “Don’t be so sure. Last spring, Eleanor Hudson, who owns the little gift shop next to Max’s restaurant, left her car unlocked by accident and Joey Lutz, this high school kid, decided to take it for a joyride. Fortunately, Sheriff Wallace caught him before he wrecked the thing. I think he’s still grounded.”
“Well, I guess I’ve missed out on all the town gossip,” I say as we walk hand in hand to Main Street.
“Let’s get ice cream!” Isa suggests.
“Ice cream? It’s not exactly warm out,” I laugh.
“It’s not super cold. It’s like what, forty-eight degrees? That’s a winter heat wave around here,” Isa protests as we come upon the small ice cream parlor that’s a block down from the library.
She stops out front and I open the door with a shake of my head, motioning for her to enter. She walks inside like she owns the place. “Hey, Leo,” she says warmly to an older gentleman behind the counter.
"Hey, shortcake, how are you?” he asks, walking around the glass cabinet filled with ice cream and hugging her. An irrational part of me wants to pry her from his embrace and tell him to lay off, but when I see his weathered hands as he pulls back and his white hair that comes out from under his baseball cap, I decide beating up an old man would be a bad idea.
“Who’s your friend?” he asks as he looks over at me.
I hold out my hand to him. “Adam Wellington, sir. Nice to meet you.”
