River's End (River's End Series, #1)(13)

She paused. She didn’t know why. But a feeling came over her. A strange feeling. Of what? Coming home. The view before her made her feel like she’d come to the spot she’d been searching for her entire, pathetic, brief life.

Erin walked closer as her feet sunk into the cold, deep sand. She picked over twigs and sticks of driftwood. Then she stood at the edge of the Rydell River. It was a beautiful place. She couldn’t explain why. It was special. Different. Better than any place she’d ever been. Before the Rydells’ beach was a deep section of calm water, green and clear as it flowed past. It looked so perfect, it urged Erin to put her feet into it, despite the chilly air and icy river temperature. She bent down and ran her hand in it. It was cold. Snow cold. To her left, she saw a jutting of rocks that rose into a formation that stood like a lookout point over the river.

“This is our swim beach.”

Erin glanced at Joey. Swim beach? That sounded like a trite description of this place. It was glorious; moving swiftly in the middle, but deep and placid along the shoreline. Across the river, mountains formed a deep V, cupping in the entire view. It was private and perfect.

“That is Rydell Rock. Anyone around here knows it. It’s one of the most popular spots on the river. Kids like to jump off it all summer.”

“You too?”

Joey shook head and laughed. “Sure.”

Erin looked up at him. “This place is amazing.” Like no place she’d ever been to in her short, city-filled life.

“Yeah, when the summer hits, and the hundred-degree days come, there is no better place to be.”

“Do you guys use it a lot?”

He shrugged. “Sure.”

She tried to picture Jack here and couldn’t do it. She couldn’t see him lounging on a beach towel or floating aimlessly down the river. She couldn’t even imagine him taking off his worn cowboy boots to go barefoot in the sand.

“Want to walk by the river?”

“Yes.” She barely glanced at Joey, she was so entranced with the surroundings. The soft gurgling of the water as it dipped and tripped over the round river rock that filled the bottom was soothing. The water was so clear, it was like invisible ink streaming next to her.

She could sit and stare at it, entranced, all day. There was something about this place that touched her like no place ever could. She wished she could stop, and just sit, to be alone and figure out why she felt so different there.

The shore was rocky as they walked along it until they came to a set of scary-looking, white water rapids. Suddenly, the banks of the river rose ten feet off the water. She glanced up to the top and oriented herself. The edge of the ranch was there, just behind the barns.

“How much land do you own?”

“Almost a thousand acres. No one has land like this around here except us. We held onto it through all these years.”

“That’s incredible. I’ve never heard of anything like this place. You must love it here.”

Joey shrugged, his eyes looking across the river at the steep bank. “It’s all I’ve ever looked at my entire life. How do I know what else there is? There’s like three neighbors along the road here. You haven’t been up in the hills behind us yet. There is nothing up there for miles and miles. It’s pretty rough around here. There are places without electricity even. So yeah, this place is special to me, but then it’s also my chain and anchor.”

“Do your brothers feel the same way?”

Joey shook his head and pitched a rock overhand into the rapids. “I never asked them, so how would I know? Shane doesn’t stay around much. He takes off a lot on his Harley. Ian works with the horses and farming the feed for the horses. Who knows what Jack likes. This place is all him. You can’t even understand what he is to this place. Or how many hours he works here. I can’t do it. I can’t work like that. It’s a problem that is growing between us.”

Among other things. “So you all work here? You don’t have to be anywhere?”

Erin couldn’t imagine having control over your own schedule and hours, and the tasks one does and when. She’d been at the beck and call of one low-level manager or another ever since she was sixteen.

“Yeah, we all work here if we want. Shane’s a mechanic. He has one of the shops turned into a workshop. He takes in work from the outside and can fix anything. He keeps the ranch supplied in trucks and machinery.”

“And this is what you want? To work here?”

Joey shrugged, his gaze pinned on the river, but his mind obviously somewhere else. “I don’t know what I want to do, or where I want to be. Sometimes I think I should just leave. I don’t know where I’d go… but maybe, I should just go somewhere. You know what I mean? Maybe join the military or something. Go see something besides horses and farmlands.”

“I know about wanting more than what is right before you. So yes, I know what you mean.” Erin looked out at the river too, feeling a kinship with Joey. She knew exactly what that felt like. She had never belonged anywhere and never knew what she wanted to do. Then again, she didn’t have the luxury of wondering what she wanted or where she wanted to be. She was usually too busy trying to survive whichever particular day she was caught in.

Joey glanced at her. “You wanna come down here with us tonight?”

“Us? Where?