“You are a strawberry milkshake girl? Interesting. I'll have to make you my famous strawberry sour cream streusel cake.”
“Wait! You bake? You made those pastries this morning?”
He nods. “Baking is my zen."
Wow. Who’d have thought it?
A carhop delivers our order, and then we are on our way. Asa drives for a few minutes, then turns up a dirt track that just seems to climb, higher and higher. Another ten minutes later, and we are on the top of a canyon.
Below us, thousands of feet down, a tiny river snakes along the valley floor. Above us is blue sky, and the odd soaring eagle. There are no human-made structures to see, just trees and brush and wind.
Hot air blows through the open cabin of the Bronco. Asa switches off the engine. “Private enough?”
“Yes, and you are right, it’s spectacular.”
“Not as spectacular as my view,” he says. I look around.
Asa is gazing at my chest area.
“Eyes up here, buddy.”
“Spoilsport.”
Munching our food, we sit in silence watching the eagles circle on the thermals.
I try to concentrate on how beautiful and peaceful it all is, and not on the ball of anxiety in my stomach. I’m enjoying spending time with Asa, and that, unfortunately, is not a good idea.
He leans over and tucks my hair behind my ear. “Where did you grow up?” he asks. “I want to know all about you, my mystery woman.”
I clutch my strawberry milkshake a little too tight, and answer quickly. “All over the USA.” I throw the question straight back to him. “And you?”
“Montana. My dad is a rancher.”
“Montana? How on earth did you end up in Mercury
Rising?”
“Ah well, even though I was raised a farm-boy, music was my first love. In a much disappointing move to my family, I got a scholarship to Los Angeles College of Music. Met the boys while I was there. Never looked back.”
“Are you close with your parents? They must be proud of your success.”
For a moment, Asa loses his sparkle. “Montana and the ranch are everything to my dad. He has no interest in my life. To him it’s embarrassing. He's embarrassed, not proud. His friends are all handing down their farms to their sons. I’m…disappointing.”
“What about your Mom, can I ask?”
“She died a while back." He smiles, but there is sadness in his eyes.
"Mom was great, the complete opposite to Dad. She was warm and funny and kind. Dad got even colder after she died. The only way he would connect with me was through the farm. Talking about work, or working together out in the fields. But I didn't want to be a cattle rancher, so that was that."
Asa lets out a huge sigh. "I chose a different path, so now he basically says he’s too busy to have a relationship with me. I want to pay for a ranch manager to help him, but my dad won’t have it.”
“Stubborn.”
“You have no idea.”
“So I guess you don’t have siblings?”
"No, there's just me and Dad. But Lennox and Hugo are my brothers now. Have you ever heard of the phrase, ‘there is your biological family, and then your logical family’?” he asks me. “Lennox and Hugo are my logical family.”
