Sweet Jane: A Story of Awakening by Louise McBain

Author:Louise McBain [McBain, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2018-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12 – Mountain House

Jane’s boots crunched across the gravel driveway toward the front entrance of the Sinclair’s vacation home. Her suitcase was not heavy, but given the terrain, Zoe balanced it atop her head like she was going to market with a basket full of fruit. Jane stopped a moment to admire the house. Big, but not ostentatious, it was set on the slope-side of Sugar Bowl Mountain, providing the coveted ski-in, ski-out experience for the Sinclair family and their guests. Architecturally stunning, the house’s contemporary design was comprised entirely of wood and stone, milled and mined from the region. The effect was tastefully low key but clearly expensive, and the house blended into the mountain side almost as if it were meant to be there.

Jane noticed that, in addition to Robert’s sporty coupe, there were three additional black Cadillacs parked in the circular driveway. She turned to Zoe.

“Did the Cadillac King of Southern California bring his court?”

Zoe peered out from under the suitcase and laughed.

“No, Stephen is just really nice. He hooks everyone up with the best deals. Maybe it’s time to upgrade your Subaru.”

Jane laughed.

“Maybe.”

Zoe nodded the suitcase toward a beefy Escalade.

“That one belongs to Kendra and Zeke. She insisted they buy it after she got stuck in the drift last winter. Remember that?”

Jane nodded. How could she forget? It had been an easily remedied, nothing incident that poor, bored Kendra had escalated into the topic of the week.

“That one,” Zoe indicated an elegant sedan, “belongs to Martha and Sam. And that cool one over there with the fins is Stephen’s 1959 Cadillac Eldorado. I call it the Batmobile.”

Jane smiled.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

“Of course, you were,” Zoe laughed. “We saw those movies together, remember?”

“I do.” Jane rubbed her daughter’s lower back as they stepped onto the polished planks of the front porch. No matter what fallout occurred from the thwarted setup with the Cadillac King of Southern California, she knew Zoe would be there for her. She lifted the suitcase off her daughter’s head and placed it on the ground. The purpose of the vacation was to spend time with her Zoe. How had it suddenly become about Jane’s love life?

Zoe gave Jane’s hand a light squeeze and positioned the other over the brass door knocker.

“Ready?”

Before Jane could reply the door opened in front of them to reveal a smiling Robert who, without preamble, pulled Jane into a full body hug lifting her off her feet.

“Robert!” Zoe admonished. “Put mother down. Don’t you dare break her on the first day!”

“I’m just giving her a proper, mountain greeting,” he said with a broad grin, but lowered her gently to the ground all the same. Jane returned the smile. Darkly handsome, Zoe’s boyfriend was more bear than man, and at nearly six-four, one of the few people who made Jane feel petite. They’d always enjoyed a warm rapport based on their mutual love for Zoe. It was as if they were members of the same exclusive church. They valued each other not just as individuals but as devotees of the same religion.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.