Sacred Ground. Adrienne Ellis Reeves

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СКАЧАТЬ hoped Drew was picking up information that he’d remember. For himself, he was ashamed of his own ignorance. If nothing else good came out of this adventure, his New York insularity had been revealed to him. There was much more to be seen and to be appreciated beyond the five boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.

      They passed small towns where there’d be rural sections where empty houses and other structures had fallen in upon themselves and were covered with vines. He’d read somewhere that the green plant that clambered up trees and smothered them was a parasite called kudzu. It was extremely difficult to get rid of. He noticed there were a number of houses with trees, shrubs and flowers around them, but the houses were standing alone except for a garage and perhaps a shed. He wondered who lived in those dwellings and what their lives were like without other people close by.

      The contrast between the South Carolina countryside and what he saw daily in Manhattan was fascinating to him.

      Signs told him he was coming up on Florence where he knew he’d have to feed the hungry gas tank. Might as well feed his always-hungry brother, too, before he began complaining. He could leave I-95 here and pick up 20 West, get a glimpse of what Columbia, the capital, was like, then go southwest and make his way to Swinton.

      “Are we gonna eat anytime soon?” Drew asked right on schedule.

      “We’re stopping in Florence for gas and we’ll eat there.” He filled the tank at the first Shell station he saw then drove away.

      “Hey! There’s a McDonald’s right next door,” Drew pointed out.

      “I see it. Let’s go someplace a little nicer. Aren’t you tired of fast food?”

      Drew shrugged and began looking earnestly on both sides of the street. “I just wanna eat sometime soon,” he grumbled.

      They came to a small shopping area that had a homey look with its trees, benches, and turn-of-the-

       century lamp fixtures.

      “There’s a restaurant next to that bookstore,” Drew said. Gabe turned in and found a parking place. He took his new casual jacket from the backseat and slipped it on. After they visited the men’s room and came out into the nicely decorated dining area, Gabe felt a sense of excitement. This was the final leg of their trip. Their next stop would be Swinton.

      Business was brisk, with a stream of people at the buffet counter. Many of the tables were already occupied and there was a buzz of conversation throughout.

      “The food looks good,” Drew said as he picked up a tray and silverware. “I’m sure hungry.”

      “Get whatever you want.” Gabe was behind Drew and had already decided on the steak and baked potato combination, a green salad and cherry pie. A lady farther down the line was having some problem at the cash register. As Gabe leaned a little forward to see what was happening, his attention was caught by the profile of a young black woman just past the third person beyond Drew.

      She turned slightly to look at the vegetable casserole she’d passed and seemed to be making up her mind whether to order it.

      Her skin, the color of creamy milk chocolate, was flawless and the contour of her face seemed perfectly designed. He couldn’t see her eyes but a turquoise earring sparkled in the lobe of a delicate ear and matched the jacket she was wearing.

      As she shifted her shoulder bag, her left hand came into view. It was bare. I’ve got to see her face, Gabe thought.

      The line began to move swiftly as a second cashier was added. Drew and Gabe had to answer questions from the server about their steaks and by the time they’d received their meal, the young lady was nowhere to be seen.

      “I don’t see an empty table in this section,” Drew commented, and led the way around a partition into a smaller area where the tables and chairs were bunched together.

      Gabe was suddenly struck from behind by a tray and felt something damp landing on the left arm of his new jacket.

      “What the—” he began and turned while trying to keep his tray of food upright.

      The girl in the turquoise jacket was trying to keep the rest of her food from sliding off her tilted tray while apologizing at the same time.

      “I’m so sorry.” Big hazel eyes glanced up at Gabe and a deep flush reddened her face.

      “Here, let me clean the potato salad off of your sleeve. Someone bumped me and before I knew it my tray hit you. I’m so sorry.”

      She needed her hands free but there wasn’t an empty table nearby. Among the diners watching the fiasco was a woman who took the tray and offered a clutch of napkins.

      Gabe wanted to be anyplace but where he was. Everyone was looking at them as the girl bent and wiped at the oily salad, making the spot worse than it had been. Where was Drew? He could at least come and get Gabe’s tray so he could move.

      “It’s all right,” he told the girl. “Don’t bother with it.” Gabe didn’t think she even heard him, she was so upset as she kept rubbing.

      “Little accident?” Drew said with a broad grin as he came up beside Gabe and took his tray. He rarely had the opportunity to see his big brother lose his cool.

      Annoyed at being the center of this kind of attention, Gabe captured the girl’s hands. They were slender, soft and smooth.

      “It’s only a cotton jacket and it’ll wash out,” he said firmly, letting go of her hands and taking a step away.

      Gabe saw she was nearly as tall as he when she straightened up to discard the damp napkins. The profile he’d seen of her at the counter hadn’t prepared him for the interesting tilt of her eyes, the generous shape of her mouth, the nose that fit perfectly with her other features and above all, a sense of strength and determination. No wonder it had been so hard to make her stop her cleaning job.

      “I’ll be glad to have the jacket cleaned,” she said. Her voice was businesslike as she met his eyes but her face still had a rosy flush.

      “That isn’t necessary, but thanks.” Wanting to put an end to the already overlong scene, Gabe turned away and walked over to the table where Drew was waiting.

      “Eat your food so we can get out of here,” he growled as Drew welcomed him with a smirk. “I’m tired of being the afternoon’s entertainment!”

      He’d wanted to meet the girl in the turquoise jacket, but did it have to be a disaster?

      If this muddle was an indication of things to come in the next three months, he might as well turn the car around and head back to New York.

      A few hours later, Gabe was convinced this might be one of the weirdest decisions he’d ever made in his thirty-five years as he slowed his car to a mere crawl, trying to avoid the potholes in the one-lane country road, which was already guilty of layering what used to be his sparkling black Lexus with dust.

      The fact that the afternoon sun held a softness that he’d never experienced in New York City in March didn’t make him feel any better, and even though it illuminated spectacular trees, which stood like ancient sentinels, their branches arched over long approaches to houses СКАЧАТЬ