Sierra Hearts (Part One) Read Online Free PDF

it out. The storm was even
rougher now, and the snow was coming down at a monstrous pace.
Visibility was low, and almost everything was just a snowy white
color. If it got any worse, Jenn wouldn’t be able to make it back
home. She looked at Danny, and the look on his face revealed he
must have been thinking the same thing.
    “It is getting pretty treacherous out there,” he
said. As if on cue, a strong gust of wind began to howl.
    “Do you mind if I use your phone?” Jenn asked.
    Cellphones were practically worthless at Bear Lake
except for a few pockets of coverage, so that meant betting on
people being near the phone when you called. Luckily Mick MacKenzie
was at home to answer. He was adamant about the current weather
pattern. To him it was a blizzard. And he wasn’t going to take no
for an answer. He said to ask Danny to drive her home, but the way
he said it meant she should order Danny to drive her home.
He barely paused for her to get a word in.
    It was settled, then.
    Danny was back on the sofa near the fire.
    “What’d your Dad say?” Danny asked, quickly trying
to change the subject. He stood up and sauntered to the kitchen. It
was like he was physically retreating from whatever he had been
thinking about, and by getting up and moving around he could
somehow outrun it.
    “He doesn’t want me to walk home in this,” Jenn
motioned outside with her hand. “Do you think you could give me a
ride?” Jenn asked.
    “Sure thing. I’ll make this tea to-go,” Danny said.
“Just a sec.”
    Danny went to the kitchen to get a travel mug and
dumped the remainder of his tea into it.
    “Let’s roll,” he said.
    Outside the snow was coming down in buckets. Jenn
could barely see anything. She was glad she wasn’t the one who had
to drive. She walked over to Danny’s car, an old Subaru wagon.
Danny unlocked the car and Jenn climbed in.
    “Do you mind holding this?” he asked, holding out
his mug before he climbed into the car.
    How could someone have such friendly eyes? Jenn thought.
    She could feel the steam from the tea pass through
the opening in the mug and rising past her cheeks.
    “You sure do drink a lot of tea for a mountain man,”
Jenn said, clasping the mug from him. She accidentally grazed his
fingers, and instantly hoped he didn’t feel her hands on him. For a
moment she thought about his hands, how good they would feel on
her, falling down her back like the water from the shower had. Jenn
told herself to get a grip.
    “You can blame my mom for that,” Danny said as he
slid into the driver’s seat. “She would have the kettle on morning,
noon, and night when I was growing up.”
    “And you’re not worried it cramps your style?”
    “If I can handle all of the teasing I got in the
army for my love of tea, I can certainly handle any other teasing
about it. I’m comfortable enough in my masculinity to not let
teasing about my masculinity upset me, if that is what you are
getting at, Miss MacKenzie,” he said.
    “Miss MacKenzie? Wow, I must really have it a nerve,
Mr. Williams,” Jenn said, surprising herself with how much she was
enjoying this. “I don’t think anyone has called me Miss MacKenzie
since freshman year English class.”
    “Are there not masculine tea drinkers in LA?” Danny
asked. “Or is that what you like most about it?” He grinned.
    “No,” Jenn said, growing serious. “For the record:
My favorite part of LA is the ocean.” Jenn paused, unsure if she
should continue. “I worked as a waitress at this tiny little
hole-in-the-wall café in Venice Beach close to the water,” she
managed to blurt out. “The café was mostly a breakfast place, and
it slowed down in the afternoon.”
    Now that she was on a roll, she figured she might as
well keep talking.
    “I love Venice in the afternoon. People from all
walks of life go there. Everyone walking by the sand, sunglasses
on, and not a care in the world. Couples holding hands, people
riding bikes or skateboarding or