Chapter 7
For now I glanced over our schedule. "So we don't have anything to do until tomorrow?" I mused.
"Nope. This is the free day to go wandering around," Susie explained to me. She pulled out another slip of paper from the brochure and unfolded it to reveal a map of the resort. There was the lake, the hot springs, and the lodge with its little cabin children. She tapped her finger on the hot spring to the south of the lake. "How about we go there first? If we hurry we could beat all the old people shuffling up there."
My eyes were on the lake. "I'd rather go see that again," I told her.
She frowned. "But we already saw that and the water's a lot colder," she whined.
"Well, how about you go to the hot springs and I go to the lake?" I suggested.
"It's hot springs or bust," she insisted.
"Then I'll take bust and go to the lake. See you later." I stood and sauntered toward the stairs.
"Hey! Wait! I'm not done complaining!" Susie shouted. She scrambled from her chair and hurried after me. An evil grin slipped onto my lips and I quickened my step. "I saw that!" she yelled.
"Not for long," I quipped.
I broke into a dash and raced down the stairs. Susie's feet pounded after me and I hit the lobby running. In a moment I burst through the front doors and down the gravel road with Susie at my heels. Our laughter hampered our speed and by the time we reached our cabin we were both winded. I bent over and put my hands on my knees. Susie collapsed on our porch.
"Now. . .do you. . .believe me?" she wheezed.
"About. . .what?" I choked out.
"About. . .the place. . .making. . .you feel. . .younger," she reminded me.
I gathered my breath and straightened. I winced when a few bones in my back cracked. "Not quite."
"Well, you'd better believe it because I haven't seen you run that fast since you and I shopped for apartments two years ago and the realtor guy showed us a really expensive one," Susie persisted.
"It was expensive, and I'll see you later," I replied. I walked toward the rear of our cabin toward the trails.
"Aren't you going to put on a swim suit?" Susie called to me.
"Not going swimming," I answered.
"Then what's the point of going to the lake?" she yelled.
I lifted my arm and waved to her without turning around. In a moment the trees swallowed me and I walked in the valley of the wilderness without fear. The traffic was light with only a few other guests who meandered their way to the hot springs. I moved with the traffic flow and left them behind when I turned onto the lake path.
First, though, I paused for a moment at the intersection of spa and lake. The broken sign from yesterday was repaired. Gone were the claw marks and askew post, and in its place was a freshly hewn and painted sign. Recalling those deep marks reminded me of my little adventure the previous evening with the dark lodge and Mr. Young. The loud howl I heard might have been the same creature who destroyed the sign. The howl was certainly loud and deep enough to come from an animal with large enough claws.
I continued my walk down the lake path and ruminated over what beast could be so large as to destroy a thick sign such as stood at the intersection. The howl implied a wolf, but nobody had warned us yet of any dangerous creature like that in the area. There was always a cougar, but again no warnings, and cougars didn't howl. Maybe it was a wolf and we weren't warned about the danger because Young and everyone else didn't want to scare the customers. Maybe they kept things a secret to avoid bad publicity and possibly a police investigation. Maybe-
"-maybe you need to stop over-thinking these things," I muttered to myself. I promised Susie I wouldn't be so suspicious, and I was a woman of my word.
All this time I had my head bent down and watched my step on this relatively unfamiliar path. I heard a branch break behind me and glanced over my shoulder. My inattentiveness caused my foot to catch on a root, and I gave a small yelp as I fell forward. The fall wouldn't have been catastrophic, but still rather uncomfortable. Fortunately, a pair of strong, steady arms caught me, but my face bumped into their chest and the shirt that covered them. I tilted my head back and found myself staring into the blue eyes of Young.
"We seem to stumble into each other quite often," he teased.
"Y-yeah, must be my luck," I returned. I wasn't sure whether it was good or bad. What was definitely bad was when my stupid cheeks blushed. I really had to learn how to apply a pale makeup.
He chuckled. "More fever?" he mused.
"No, nothing like that," I replied. I pressed my hands against his thin white shirt to push away, but I was amazed at the warmth that emanated from beneath the cloth.
"I hope you're enjoying yourself," he commented.
"What?" I glanced at our positions and noticed I practically leaned my whole body against him. I was comfortable, but if anyone caught us the situation would be difficult to explain. "Sorry!" I stepped from his grasp and smoothed my clothes.
Young chuckled. "I was referring to your stay here," he added.
"O-oh, that! Um, yeah, it's great here. Nice people, nice food, nice bodies-um, bodies of water. The lake, I mean." I couldn't have been any more flustered.
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself so far. Linda tells me you've been very kind to her," he commented.
I shrugged. "It's nothing. We're just treating her like a little sister," I countered.
"Some of our guests are not so kind, and your kindness is especially gratifying since this is Linda's first session," he replied.
"That's what she told us, but I wish she'd tell us how the guarantee about this whole Fountain of Youth thing works," I commented. That opened a hole in a conversation I'd be meaning to have with someone of higher rank at the resort. "How does that work, anyway?"
"You mean how is it done?" he wondered.
I gave a nod. "Yeah. I'm guessing it's through the food because you were pretty insistent last night about everyone eating the meals."
Young paused for a moment and his crystal-clear blue eyes scrutinized me. I felt like they were x-rays that examined not only my body but my very soul. "You're right to guess it's in the food because it is," he admitted.
I raised an eyebrow. "So is it the cut of the meat or something?"
He shook his head. "No, it's a special herb sauce in which the meat is soaked before cooking."
I raised an eyebrow. "That's it? Just an herb?"
Young nodded over his shoulder in the direction of the lake. "The herb is grown on the other side of the lake in the employee garden. That's how the resort received it's name."
"So is this just any old herb you can get at the store?" I wondered.
He chuckled. "If it was we would be out of business very quickly. This is a rare herb that I discovered on my property many years ago."
I swept my eyes over his young appearance and snorted. He couldn't have been older than thirty. "You look pretty good for speaking about many years ago."
A grin slipped onto his lips. "It's good advertisement for our youth product to look young," he pointed out.
I crossed my arms and scrutinized his interesting physique-er, his interesting reveal about the origins of the Herb of Youth. "So if this is such a big secret why are you telling me?" I asked him.
He smiled and shrugged. "You don't seem the type to sneak into a garden and steal a secret ingredient."
I snorted. "No, only the type to sneak around the lodge and cabins in the middle of the night, but to be honest you're probably right. I wouldn't know what I'd be looking for. I'm not that into vegetables."
"Then I'm afraid you're going to have a terrible time here. All our meals are served with vegetables grown from our garden," he told me.
I shrugged. "I guess I'm just going to have to be a meat-eater."
The corners of his lips twitched up higher and his eyes widened just slightly. I swore I saw a flash of strange color
glide over his pupils, but the look was gone in a moment and I doubted my senses. "That can be arranged, if you desire it," he offered.
I shook my head. "Nah. My friend will probably convince me to try all the food here and I'll end up liking it. I'm funny that way."
"I'm glad to hear your friend can persuade you." He glanced at his wristwatch and frowned. "Unfortunately, it appears I have to cut short our interesting conversation. I'm scheduled to conduct a meeting this afternoon with a group of the less easily pleased patrons to discuss the menu, and I need all the time I can get to prepare for it."
I cringed and stepped to one side. "Good luck. I think you're going to need it."
I expected him to pass by, but instead he stepped closer to me and grasped my hand in his. He leaned down and pressed a soft, chaste kiss on the back of my hand. His eyes flickered up to me and I saw a hint of some strange, orange-ish color in them. The were the color of an autumn forest with a clear blue sky. "I hope to see much more of you later."
"Y-yeah, definitely," I stuttered.
He released my hand and straightened. "Have a good day."
Young left me alone, or so I thought. When the brush and trees hid him from view I heard a squeal. I spun around and glared at the bushes behind me. That squeal sounded familiar. "Susie, what the hell are you doing?" I snapped at the bushes.
Susie stepped out with a wide, sheepish grin on her face. She wore her bathing suit with the addition of shorts. A towel was draped over one arm. "You two are the cutest couple I've ever seen," she teased.
I nodded at her towel. "Aren't you supposed to be drowning in a hot spring?" I growled.
She shrugged and walked over to me. "It's no fun doing all this stuff alone, so I thought I'd catch up to you and see if you had a change of heart."
"You mean see if you could give me your big brown eyes look again and get me to come with you," I corrected her.
She winced and her bottom lip trembled. Her eyes got bigger, the better to see me with and mesmerize me with her puppy-dog look. "You don't have to be so mean about it," she whimpered.
"Oh no, you're not going to do this to me twice in the same day. No. Just no," I insisted.
She dropped the puppy eyes, but a sly smile slipped onto her lips. "Young and Abby sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love-"
"That's not how it is!" I insisted.
She slowly retreated down the path toward the intersection while still singing that diddy. "-then comes marriage, then comes Young with the baby carriage."
I picked up a non-threatening twig from a tree and chased after her. She laughed maniacally and turned tail down the trail with me hot on her heels.