Chapter Five

"Hey guys."

Our little group came to life when Gregory walked over. Even Collin and Kylie had put away their phones and joined us. His smiling eyes scanned over mine to settle on everyone, but me. "This is my cousin Lilly, from Bloomfield," he smiled and brought the beautiful brunette forward a bit.

His cousin? Apparently Sydney already knew they were related. Her arm was companionably wrapped around Gregory's in nothing short of a death grip.

Of course, I couldn't blame her for staking her claim and it looked like I wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Hello, Sydney." Kylie smiled in a perfect imitation of a beauty queen. "Don't you look good?" she cooed. "Almost as good as Gregory does." Her mouth widened into a flirtatious boyfriend-stealing smile aimed right at him. "My, I don't think I have ever seen a specimen as perfectly built as you. How often do you work out?"

Madison smirked next to me and whispered, "She's good."

"Just wait, she'll get better," I responded. "She hasn't even started yet."

Right on cue, Kylie gushed, "Oh my goodness! Is that a 1967 Mustang GT convertible?"

"Uh, yeah, it is." Gregory smiled down at the shocked look on Kylie's face.

"Are you serious? How did you find it? And in red too. Red GT convertibles are only the rarest Mustangs in the world."

He released his arm from Sydney's grasp. "Would you like to see her?"

"Yes. I'd love to." She beamed up at him.

"Would anyone else like to check out Lydia?" Gregory asked before he started to walk Kylie towards his car.

"Sure!" Carson and then surprisingly Collin echoed. All thoughts of showing Madison and I The Beast were obviously gone. The guys practically sprinted to the thing. After a couple of seconds, a pouty Sydney followed.

I guess she's not quite willing to give him up, yet. Good luck. I turned toward Madison and Lilly. Madison was watching the guys with a sort of pensive look on her face. I wonder if she's still baffled by Carson's interest in her.

As quiet as I am, I find I really don't enjoy silences. So without Madison talking I figured that left the conversation up to me. I took a deep breath and smiled at Lilly. "Hi, I'm Amanda," I tried.

To my astonishment she smiled a real smile back and said, "Hi. You were at that party a couple of weeks ago, weren't you?"

"Yeah, at Kylie's house. Did you have fun?"

"Sort of. I mean it was a great party, don't get me wrong, I just don't really like large crowds. The piñata was fun, though," she added as almost an afterthought.

"It's okay. Actually large crowds aren't much of my thing either."

"Well, Gregory worries about me. He tells me I need to get out more. Sometimes though, I wonder if he just wants to have someone to hang with so he doesn't have to go alone." She shrugged and grinned. "Of course, he's gotten so totally cute that it does my ego good to be around him. You should see the looks I get from other girls. It's amazing what three years can do to a guy."

"Yeah," I answered. You have no idea.

"Did you know he used to live here? It's so funny, but I don't think anyone even remembers him."

I do. Before I could voice my thoughts she continued.

"Well, that's understandable since back then he didn't have very many friends. There was this one girl though. He used to email me all the time about her. Honestly, I really thought he loved her. It was crazy the way he'd write about how she was so much better than he was and her family was so rich."

"R-really?" was all I could manage. I glanced over and saw that Madison had slowly started to walk towards the other group. All of the sudden I wanted to be there too.

"Oh yeah," Lilly continued. "I used to get tons of emails telling me how gorgeous this girl was and how funny and smart and sweet and caring and... well, you get the picture."

She's looking at me. I have to say something. "Yeah," I managed.

"I finally got sick of all the emails and told him to just tell her how he felt. Honestly, if he liked her that much, then she needed to know more than I did. Besides, he'd always said how great she was." She stared off for a moment and I watched Gregory as he joked with Collin. They were both laughing. "He really is like the perfect guy," Lilly continued. "I'll never understand why that girl didn't see him for who he truly was. She seemed smarter than that. Oh well, I bet she's eating her heart out now, though." She laughed. "Got to love Karma, don'tcha?"

"Y-yeah," I nearly choked out. "W-what happened? Do you know? I mean with Greg, was he okay? After she—she—"

"Broke his heart?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know really. He seemed okay. Don't get me wrong, he was really upset and angry at first, but everything happened so fast. That girl totally crushed him the same day he found out his family was moving, so he was happy about that. At least he was able to make a clean break and not have to see her all the time, you know?"

I nodded. It was all I could do.

"Eventually it came out that it was her friends who had told her to say it. That killed him more than anything. The fact that she'd believe what her friends thought more than her own heart was something he couldn't get over. He thought he knew her better than that. Anyway, as far as I can tell he's never looked back. Not that I blame him. Besides how stupid can a girl get?" she chuckled. "It's her loss now."

Ouch.

"Who's that?" Lilly's face completely lit up as she pointed to a fully rigged blue Jeep pulling into the parking lot.

"That's Ethan, Carson's brother," I answered grateful I could change the subject. "He's the San JuanCounty reigning four-wheeling champion at the moment."

"Really?" She seemed intrigued.

I could see why. There was definitely something about the Franklin brothers that drew attention.

Ethan honked his horn pleasantly as he parked and then naturally leapt from the driver's seat. He wasn't as tall as Carson, but just as easy-going and cool in his mannerisms. His dark-haired, green-eyed, athletic build was a girl's dream. You could tell just by looking at him that he was adept at all types of sports. He was there to have good wholesome fun—no strings attached—and anyone was welcome to join him.

"Yo, Ethan!" we heard Carson holler, before we saw him break away from the group. "Finally. You made it."

Everyone felt the brothers' magnetic pull as we all naturally gravitated toward them.

"What is up with your shirt, man?" Ethan laughed at his brother.

"What do you mean?" Carson grinned as he stared innocently down at the large white cross on his red shirt.

"Are you a part of the Red Cross now, or what?" Ethan chuckled as he threw an arm over his brother's shoulders.

"What? Do you even hear yourself? This is a white cross, not a red one. What are they teaching you at that college, anyway? Don't you know the Swiss flag when you see it?" He playfully nudged his elbow into Ethan's ribs.

"So that explains why you got that stupid red square and white cross on your hat then, too."

"Yep. My lucky Swiss army hat. I've gotta wear it today."

I noticed Ethan was wearing the same pink wristband as Carson.

"Hey, guys! I'm Ethan if you don't know me, and well uh—Ethan if you do." His arm was still over Carson's shoulders when he turned to him and asked, "So you're driving right?"

"Heck yeah, I am! Do you honestly think I would let my lil' bro get behind the wheel of my beast?" he grinned and shrugged out of Ethan's hold. "Let me introduce you to the whole gang." With a nod Carson pointed to Gregory. "This is Gregory, Kylie—you know, Sydney, Collin, Madison—she's taken—so hands off (he winked right at her), Lilly is Gregory's cousin and then A-Alana, right?

"Amanda," Gregory corrected. Eight pairs of eyes flew to him. His gaze connected with mine. After an embarrassed second I turned away and looked right into Lilly's contemplative gaze.

"So are we going to hit the road or what?" teased Ethan.

"I'm ready!" Madison laughed. "What do we need?"

"You guys brought your picnic stuff, right?" asked Carson.

"Ours is in the car." Kylie looked over at me.

"Ours too," hollered Madison.

"Well, let's get the food and head out of here. Follow the signs and meet me around back." Carson clapped his hands once and we took off.

Within a few minutes we all found ourselves snuggled nicely into The Beast. Carson and Ethan were in the front seat, while Collin, Madison and I made up the second bench seat. The back was set up military cargo style where two bench seats lined up under the Land Rover's side windows—seatbelts and everything. Gregory, Kylie, Sydney and Lilly were in the back facing each other. It was a really cool set up. I was surprised at how fun the very back seemed. For such a large vehicle there wasn't all the extra room inside like the typical SUV's. We were literally huddled up next to each other. My knees hit the front bench seat and Gregory sat right behind me. It was a bit disconcerting to feel him so close, and a couple of times the truck bounced and jolted my head into his arm where it rested on the back of the bench.

I let out a slight involuntary shriek when Carson pulled off the main road and crossed onto the rough ground in front of us. After the first ten minutes or so, I found I really loved the rocking rhythm the SUV made. Everyone around me was chattering happily above the din of the engine. The whole atmosphere in the vehicle was animated and hummed with vibrant energy as the golden rock and sandstone of the Animas Valley crunched and yielded beneath the Beast's tires.

We jounced and bounded across the New Mexico desert for about forty-five minutes, narrowly missing cactuses and evergreen shrubbery along the way. At one point, when the ride became extra bumpy—causing a few whoops and excited giggles from the group—Carson hollered back to us that we were actually on a dry riverbed trail. The miles of jagged golden landscape were so beautiful and definitely something I never thought in a million years I would ever see up close.

All too soon we made it to our designated picnic spot. Carson pulled out his CB radio and communicated his whereabouts to the sporting goods store before he climbed the ladder that was built onto the back of the Beast, and went up to the roof rack. He unlatched the large ice chest that stored our lunches and handed it down to Ethan and Gregory. We followed the guys to a makeshift picnic table, made of crudely cut logs. It was really rugged, but cool in its own way.

"Carson, did you make the table?" I asked, around a mouthful of turkey and cheddar, after we had all settled down. "It's really cool." Everyone turned to stare at us.

I was surprised to see his timid grin, before he modestly replied, "Yeah. I thought it'd be fun to have something like this out here. It's not much to look at, but with the tools I had at the time, I guess it didn't turn out too bad."

Madison's jaw dropped, "You're kidding! You made this? Out here?"

Ethan nudged Carson in the ribs and laughed out loud when he actually blushed. "Yeah, my big brother's got a whole lot of talents. Haven't I ever told you about them before?" His wink was directed right at Madison.

Flustered she looked down at her sandwich. It was obvious to everyone at the table the brothers had spent a lot of time talking about her. Well I shouldn't say it was obvious to everyone, because the only guy who seemed to not notice was her boyfriend.

Curious, I glanced at Collin; it looked like he had lost his cell signal. His food was untouched and still wrapped in cellophane while he raised and lowered his iPhone around Madison's head. It's like he's in his own little world. Looking back at Carson and Ethan, I could see they hadn't missed Collin's odd behavior. They both seemed completely baffled and shook their heads slightly. They're probably wondering how Madison ever ended up with a guy like that.

With the sun in Collin's eyes his expression was kind of funny looking. I smiled a small smile to myself and turned my head to connect directly with Gregory's glittering eyes over the table. He must've been watching me. My heart sped up a bit as his mouth slowly formed a slight grin in acknowledgment of mine. The humor of the situation was not lost on him either. My smile grew.

Kylie's comment to the left of Gregory broke the fragile contact we'd made. Without delay I finished the rest of my meal and left the table before my heart had fully stopped racing. Everyone else was still eating—or playing with their phone—so I used the time alone to explore the place a bit.

After a good five or ten minutes of following a small trail I came into a little section of wilderness that was filled with large wide cedar bushes and pinon trees. The small green pinon cones were literally dripping from their thin evergreen limbs of the short trees. It looked like this year would be a good harvest. I walked through some of the cedar bushes and examined a couple of the cones.

Look how many nuts these will have! I had never seen so many cones on the pinon trees near the city. I'm going to have to come back out here in the fall and bring a tarp to collect these. I wonder if Carson would bring us back? Collecting the tiny pinon nuts was one of my favorite things to do. Not to mention one of my favorite things to eat. They're so good. Just then, I heard a faint noise and had the distinct feeling that I wasn't alone.

"Over here, Gregory. Look. There's loads of pinon cones over here." Kylie's laughing voice caused me to freeze. It was soon followed by Gregory's deep baritone.

"What are pinon cones anyway? I've only ever heard of pine cones."

Oh my gosh. They're getting closer. I was indebted to the wide branches of the cedar bush from behind that completely concealed me.

"That's because they're rare. Usually you can only find them in West. They're so good. Seriously, you have to try one."

Standing, I watched the shrubbery beside me shake and I knew they were on the other side of it. I stepped back further into the sticky limbs of the overgrown bush on my left.

"Here. Here's one. See? One day it's gonna be full of yummy nuts to eat. You should try gathering them, it's really fun." Kylie laughed again.

"Do you pick these a lot?"

"Nah, usually just with Amanda."

"Amanda?" Gregory paused, before he casually asked, "Do you two hang out?"

"Sometimes. We're friends, if that's what you mean. It's just usually she doesn't do much. This is just about her speed, you know? Coming out into nature collecting seeds. I mean I can't tell you how many times she drives me crazy when she refuses to get out and do something, or go with someone."

"Refuses to go out with someone? What do you mean?"

Oh my gosh. Please let this tree swallow me whole.

"Oh, you know, guys—when they ask her out on a date or something—she's always telling them no."

"Wait. Amanda? Are you talking about Amanda Ellis?"

"Uh-yeah."

"She's had guys ask her out and she won't go out with them?"

"Yeah. Crazy, huh?"

"You're kidding." Gregory's voice sounded strained when he asked, "Why? Do you know?"

"Uh—well—I don't know." Kylie seemed a bit taken aback. Apparently she'd heard the edge in his voice, too. "I mean, I definitely wouldn't go out with some of them. But, you never know why Amanda does anything, really. Maybe she thinks she's better than them or something." I could almost imagine Kylie as she shrugged her shoulders.

"When did they ask her? Recently?"

"No, not that recently. I mean, honestly I think she's scared off all the guys around here. They know she'll just tell them, no."

I couldn't make out anything significant in his answering, "Oh." But I've never known such relief as when in the next breath I heard Kylie exclaim,

"Well, let's go show everyone what we've found. I bet the Franklin brothers are gonna want to know where these trees are. By September this will be a great treat for people to try."

"Cool."

I waited until I thought the coast was clear before I stepped back out of my hiding spot. And then startled, I spun around at the accusing voice behind me.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

i