Chasing Shadows (complete)

Chapter 15

“Ready to go?” Carter stood in the doorway wearing a pair of faded jeans and a checkered shirt open over a gray T-shirt. So, not a business trip, then.

“I’m not sure,” Jenny said, glancing over at the wheeled bag Marianne had been kind enough to loan her for the weekend. She didn’t have any luggage of her own, not even a gym bag. For the two classes this week she had simply changed before she left the house and then Carter had driven her straight home afterwards so that she could shower. He’d assured her she didn’t smell, but she’d kept her window rolled down nonetheless.

“Wow,” he said, giving the hot-pink carry on a once-over. “That’s… very colorful.”

“It’s Marianne’s,” Jenny felt compelled to explain. “I don’t really travel much.”

“Well, then I guess it’s high time we hit the road, then,” Carter smiled and walked over to grab the handle on Jenny’s borrowed suitcase.

“Wait,” Jenny stopped him. “I don’t even know if I packed the right things for this trip. Can’t you tell me where we’re going?”

“Well, what did you pack?” Carter asked instead, crossing his arms.

“Um… a little bit of everything, I guess.”

“Comfortable clothes?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re set. Now let’s get a move on.” He grabbed her bag and wheeled it out, leaving Jenny with just her handbag and jacket. She looked around her apartment and wondered if she’d see it again. Even since the accident, that particular thought crossed her mind every time she left the house. Knowing Carter was waiting for her, Jenny locked up and headed downstairs.

Carter drove them smoothly through town and past the outskirts of Northcrest, into a mountainous area Jenny had never visited. She was a little anxious at first, looking around for vehicles potentially following them, but the further they got, the easier she could breathe. The moon was full and the stars alight on a velvet canvas above. It took her breath away.

“It’s not much further,” Carter said as he made a turn onto a small road.

As promised, they soon pulled up in front of a two-storey log cabin with a porch and gabled windows,   a sloped grassy hill leading down to a lake. Carter turned off the engine and Jenny stepped out of the car.

“This is gorgeous,” Jenny said as she took in the sight of the moon reflecting on the lake and the solar powered lights bathing the cottage and the trail down to the jetty in a soft glow. “I didn’t know you owned a lake house.”

“It was my mom’s,” Carter explained. “Before she signed it over to me a couple of years ago, after I’d opened my first restaurant. She said I needed to take a time-out now and then, and she’d always loved the tranquility up here.”

“Do you come up here often?”

“Not as often as I should. I have someone who looks in on the place from time to time, keeps the lawn mowed and the spiders out of the house.”

“Spiders?” Jenny looked up at him, startled.

“It’s clear. I had the house cleaned and the supplies re-stocked this week,” he assured her. “Come on, let’s get you set up and I’ll start dinner.”

The house was as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside, Jenny noted. The high, exposed beams in the living room made it feel spacious and the staircase leading up to the second floor looked as though it was floating on air, lacking risers and being without handrails. It was not a house for children, at least not young ones.