Revved Up Hearts (33 page)

“What time is it?” he
grumbled.

“Good morning to you too,” she said. “It’s twenty minutes until
eleven.”

“Sorry. Good morning,” he grumbled again. “But I’m usually a grouch before my first cup of
coffee.”

“It’s okay.” She stood there staring at him. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. She had never seen him shirtless before either. She knew that he had a nice tan on his face and arms. Now she could see that his chest was also nicely tanned. He had some dark hair on his chest, but not too much. He had a flat stomach with the beginning of six pack abs. Her gaze wandered lower. When she saw the waistband of his blue boxers, Dawn knew she was entering dangerous territory. Her eyes shot up to look at his
face.

He was grinning at her. “Like what you
see?”

She couldn’t speak. Unfortunately, her blush spoke volumes. His grin got even bigger. “How long will it take for you to get ready?” she asked when she found her
voice.

“Twenty minutes or
so.”

“I’ll wait for you downstairs,” she said, right before turning away and running down the
steps.

Jeremiah came downstairs thirty minutes later. “Sorry that you had to wait,” he said as he walked up to the table where she was sitting. He braced one hand on the back of the chair and one hand on the table so that he could lean down to give her a good-morning kiss. “I hope that makes up for the terrible good morning I gave you
earlier.”

She smiled up at him. “Jackie said there were some donuts left, and I made you some fresh coffee. If that’s not want you want, we can walk up the street to get some
lunch.”

“Coffee and donuts sounds good to me,” he told her as he walked over to the buffet to get the last three donuts and a cup of coffee. He walked back to the table and took a seat beside Dawn. “What have you been doing while you were waiting on
me?”

“I talked to Jackie for a little while. I just came inside. I’ve been sitting on the swing, watching people and
traffic.”

“See anybody that you
know?”

“No. Most people I know are at work this time of day. I did see a few tourists walking
around.”

“You look really cute
today.”

Dawn looked down at what she was wearing. “What’s cute about
this?”

“You’re wearing it.” He winked at her as he stuffed the last of the donuts in his mouth. “Let’s go,” he said when he
finished.

They spent the day going all over the countryside. They started by going up the mountain where Dawn showed him the “Arkansas Grand Canyon.” This was the valley between several of the mountains. It was so green and beautiful on that warm spring day. It was absolutely picture postcard perfect. He had seen some postcards in the gift shop of the bed and breakfast. He’d buy a couple and send one to his mom and another to his dad. Maybe even one for Wes. Dawn had her camera with her and asked another tourist to take a picture of them. When he saw the image on the digital camera, he knew he would have it framed and put on his desk at work. From there, they drove the rest of the way up the mountain and had a late lunch at this little family-owned diner. It was the best hamburger Jeremiah had ever eaten. When he told that to the owner, he proudly told Jeremiah that he used a secret recipe that had been passed down through his family for
generations.

Then Dawn took Jeremiah over to the property her family owned. The house her dad had grown up in was still there. Dawn showed Jeremiah the natural spring that ran behind the house and explained to him that the house had never had running water or electricity. The spring was cool enough to keep milk and eggs cold year round. She told him that her dad, with his brothers and sisters, would carry water from the spring to the house. Her grandmother would heat the water on a wood burning stove to be used for everything from cooking, washing dishes, and bathing. Then it was off to bed at dark because there was no electricity to light up the house and because they had to get up before sunrise. Jeremiah had heard that people had lived like this, but he had to see it to believe
it.

“There are deer tracks all over the place,” he said as he pointed to the latest set he had
found.

“I love to come up here and take pictures of the deer.” She pointed to a window at the back of the house. “You can sit up there all day, and the deer can’t see you. Shane says it’s the perfect hunting spot. The property is posted no hunting because we don’t want just anybody up here. But if you ever want to come up here and hunt, it’ll be okay.” Dawn took several pictures while they were there. A couple of times she caught Jeremiah in a good spot, like when he squatted down to take a drink out of the spring. She took a few scenery shots to show Bryan. He told her that he loved to hunt and was looking for new places to hunt. He might want to come up here when the season was over, too.

Later they went down into another valley onto National Park Service land. They found a good spot on the side of the road. The elk would show up here for their evening meal. Dawn and Jeremiah weren’t the only ones there. She told him that this was a pretty popular place on any warm evening. There were some people from Texas there, and they recognized Jeremiah as he pulled some camping chairs out of the trunk of the car. He signed autographs while they told him they had been at the race at Texas when Jeremiah won there last year. Dawn snapped a picture of the happy family with their favorite driver. She was giving the camera back to the mom when the first of the elk appeared through the trees. “The river is behind those trees,” Dawn explained. “The elk stay back there during the day and then come into the field at dusk to
eat.”

“Awesome,” Jeremiah said, never taking his eyes off the creature. The elk slowly wandered into the field, and there were about twenty-five present when the alpha male of the group appeared. It was easy to tell that he was the boss because all the other males gave him space while the females gathered around him. One of the medium-sized males challenged the large older male, but it was a short duel. A couple of steps toward the younger male and a long snort was all it took for the smaller bull to see that he was biting off more than he could chew. Jeremiah watched the whole exchange in silence with a look of awe on his face. “This is great,” he said finally looking at Dawn. “This is one of the things I miss about home. Just sitting around, watching wildlife in their natural environment. Thanks for bringing me
here.”

They stopped for supper at another local restaurant. It was three different buildings that had been opened up so that they were all connected. One end was a pizza parlor, and one end was a more traditional place with everything from fried chicken to thick hamburgers. The middle was a seating area with a stage at one end where they did karaoke sometimes. You could sit anywhere and order from either menu. Dawn and Jeremiah sat in the middle and ordered pizza. Lawrence, one of Dawn’s lifelong friends, was the main cook at the pizza parlor. There wasn’t anything Lawrence couldn’t cook. He made the best BBQ brisket Dawn had ever eaten. Lawrence brought the pizza out to them and then sat down to catch up with Dawn. He showed her the latest pictures of his
kids.

Lawrence and Jeremiah instantly hit it off. They were laughing when Kevin walked in. The laughter instantly stopped as all three watched him. Kevin tried to act like he didn’t notice them, but Dawn saw him looking at them out of the corner of his eye. Jeremiah got up and took a step toward Kevin, but Dawn put a hand on his arm to stop him. “He’s just here to pick up a pizza. Please don’t start
anything.”

“He’s in violation of the restraining order. You could have him
arrested.”

“I know, but he has a right to be in a public place. You can’t expect him to scope out everyplace he wants to go to see if I’m there. When I’m home, I’ll see him at the grocery store, restaurants, and other places like that. As long as he doesn’t do anything, I’ll let him come and go. I’d rather just forget it and move on.” Jeremiah finally sat back
down.

“Good for you,” Lawrence said as Kevin paid for his pizza and left. “I used to like that guy. Now I’d like to see him fall in front of a moving truck. Lord, forgive me for feeling that way, and help me to do better, but I see him and think that if my little boy ever treats a girl the way he treated you, I don’t know what I’d do. If a guy ever treats my little girl like that, they’ll never find the
body.”

“Lawrence!” Dawn
gasped.

“I mean it,” he urged. “I pray for my kids every day. I also pray that I don’t do something totally stupid if someone ever hurts my kids, because without the good Lord’s help, I
will.”

Jeremiah was still watching the door Kevin had just left through. “You’ll have to pray for me, brother, because I’m a new Christian, and I really want to follow that guy and beat him to a
pulp.”

“Don’t let the enemy get the best of you,” Lawrence said. “Don’t let the snake
win.”

“I know,” Jeremiah said as he finally turned his gaze away from the door. “The old me would’ve met him at the door and dragged him back
outside.”

“Good for you,” Lawrence repeated as he patted Jeremiah on the back. “Now, I want you two to try my new recipe for cinnamon sticks, and tell me what you
think.”

Later, with some of the cinnamon sticks in a box for Jeremiah’s midnight snack, Dawn and Jeremiah once again sat on the porch swing at the B&B. “I’ve got to get one of these things for the deck of my house,” Jeremiah
said.

“That would be nice,” Dawn replied as she snuggled closer. “Do you want to go to Branson
tomorrow?”

“Branson, Missouri? Where they have all the country music
shows?”

“Yes. It’s just about fifty miles north of
here.”

“I’d love to. Mom has always wanted to go there. She’ll be jealous when I tell
her.”

“They have great shopping up there. Bryan and Valerie told me they’ve always wanted to go. I promised to bring them some
brochures.”

“I’ll get Mom some
too.”

“We probably need to get an early start in the morning to beat the traffic, if we
can.”