Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (37 page)

“That’s Rioja. They’ve been making
it here for over a thousand years. There’s a bunch of it in the cellar. Enjoy.”

“Where’s the cellar?”

“Beneath the kitchen. There’s a stairway
in the back of the pantry.”

#

Upon returning to the villa, Abby
pulled into the garage. As they got out, everyone stood staring at the bright
red sports car parked beside them.

“A Ferrari California?” said Jeff.

Abby nodded. “Yeah, Mom’s car. Brad
gave it to her as a house-warming present.”

“Brad?” said Gabe.

“Dad. He’s not really my dad, just
Mom’s fourth husband. But he’s the closest thing to a dad I’ve had, so I
usually call him that.”

Jeff peeked inside the Ferrari.
“Wow, nice house-warming present.”

“Yeah. Mom hardly ever drives it.
She loves it, but usually lets Dad drive.” Abby chuckled. “Even after three
years, she still has trouble with the Formula One paddle shifters, not to
mention the torque.”

“Have you driven it?”

“Yeah, it’s a gas, particularly on
these mountain roads. It’d leave your Aston Martin in the dust.”

“I’ll bet.”

Inside, Jeff sorted out the hi-fi
system and put on some music, Abby found a bottle of vintage port to her
liking, and they all sat down in the pavilion to enjoy the Andalusian evening.

Susan sniffed the night air. “I
smell jasmine.”

Abby nodded. “Yeah, there’s a bunch
growing down below the pool. Intoxicating, isn’t it?”

She smiled. “Yes.”

Chrissie leaned back in the sofa,
stretching her arms out. “It is so pleasant here. I would have thought it would
be hot or cold or… something. But it’s so very nice.”

“It’s kind of like southern
California, boringly pleasant. Gets up into the 80s in the summer and down into
the 50s in the winter. But mostly it’s just pleasant.”

“Pleasant works for me.”

Gabe tilted her head, listening to
the music. “Rodrigo?”

Jeff nodded
. “
Yes
,
Concierto de Aranjuez
.”

“It’s beautiful.”

Abby got up, walked
around to the pool steps and splashed the water with her hand. “Ah, it’s warm.”
She walked back to one of the lounge chairs, undressed and stepped naked into
the pool. Gabe stood and glanced over the half-wall of the pavilion. “That
woman just has no shame.”

Jeff watched Abby
enter the pool, smiled and sighed, “Honestly, I don’t see where she has much to
be ashamed of.”

Gabe laughed softly.
“Point conceded.”

Between the soft
splashes of her strokes, Abby called out, “Ah, this is wonderful.”

After a minute,
Chrissie stood. “Alright, if she can do it, I can do it.” And she trotted over
to another lounge chair and began to undress.

“Now this is getting
interesting,” Jeff mused.

“Chrissie,” Abby called from the pool.

“Huh?”

“There are towels in
a locker in the shower room next to the bar.”

“Ah, good idea.
Thanks.” She finished stripping, retrieved a couple towels and stepped into the
pool.

Jeff rubbed his
forehead. “Mercy.”

Gabe and Susan stared
at one another for a moment, then both shook their heads. “No.”

Susan scratched her chin. “I think I’d
need a few more drinks.”

Gabe nodded. “A lot
more.” She glanced at Jeff. “What about you?”

“No, I don’t think
so.”

“Why not?” she
grinned.

“Well, because I’m
still the boss and not quite ready for that yet,” he chuckled.

“When you hired us,
you never thought of this, did you?” Susan asked.

“No, I didn’t.
Unintended consequences.”

“Is it a problem?”

“Not at all. Like Abby once said,
we’re all going to be living in pretty close quarters for a long time, may as
well get used to it. Besides, we’re all grown-ups.”

Gabe stood and leaned
over the wall looking at Abby and Chrissie in the pool. “I should get my
camera.”

“If you do, I’ll find
the lights. We could post pictures on the website.” He laughed. “Bet that’d
boost our hit-count.”

Gabe sat back down.
“Eh, probably not a good idea.”

“Nah, probably not.”

“Speaking of websites,
do you know if they have Internet here?”

“Yeah, Abby told me
there’s a WiFi system and DSL.”

“Oh, okay, I was just
thinking of email. Vacation or no, with the launch just two and a half months
away, there are still some things I need to stay on top of.”

“Sure, you should be
able to just fire up your laptop and you’ll be online, login through the
website as usual. If you need AC, you’ll need a voltage converter. There are
probably some around here somewhere. Ask Abby.”

Susan sipped her
drink and stared at the villa. “I remember Abby telling me her parents lived in
Spain. When I asked her why, she just said they like it. I can see why.”

“Yeah.”

“Have you met her
parents?”

Jeff shook his head.
“No, not yet. From what Abby tells me, they’re pretty busy. What with all their
books and the movie…”

“Movie?” said Gabe.

“Uh huh. Somebody’s
making a major motion picture from one of their books, and they’re involved in
the screenwriting and executive production.”

“Wow. What’s it
about?”

“It’s some sweeping
historical fiction novel about life here in Spain back in the Roman era. I
haven’t read it, but it’s something like that. New York Times best seller, so I
guess it’s pretty good.”

“That’s why they’re
not here?”

“Yeah.”

“So, how’d this come
about?”

“Abby suggested it a
while back. Seemed like a good idea.”

“By the way,” said
Susan, “when do we get to meet your parents?”

Jeff glanced at the
pavilion floor and shook his head. “You don’t.”

“Why?”

“They’re dead.”

She smacked her
forehead and grimaced. “Oh god, Jeff, I’m sorry. Me and my big mouth.”

He smiled softly.
“No, it’s okay.
They died in an automobile accident about eight years
ago. Drunk driver ran a red light. He walked away, they didn’t.”

Gabe began to tear
up. “Oh god.”

Jeff reached over and
grabbed her hand. “Now, don’t. It happens. Just one of those things.”

Susan shook her head.
“And then you lost your wife on top of that?”

He sighed. “Yeah, it was a rough
couple years.”

Chrissie called from
the pool, “You guys really should come in. This is great!”

Susan set her glass
down. “Um, yeah. Suddenly, drowning myself sounds like a good idea.” She
glanced at the pool, then back at Jeff. “Do not resuscitate.”

He chuckled. “Stop
it. It’s okay.”

She stood, strolled
over to the edge of the moonlit pool, ignored the lounge chairs, unceremoniously
dropped her clothes on the deck, and jumped in.

Jeff got up and
looked over the pavilion wall. He glanced around the pool and saw no sign of
Susan. “If she’s not up in 60 seconds, I’m going in after her.”

Gabe got up, stood
beside him, and glanced at her watch.

A moment later Susan
surfaced on the other side of the pool.

Jeff sighed with
relief. “Okay, crisis averted.” He wrapped his arm around Gabe’s waist. “What
about you? You’re not going in?”

Gabe bit her lip and
drew up the softest of smiles, an expression that said… something, something
Jeff had not seen in her before. Then she barely whispered, “No. Not yet.”

Deep inside Jeff
suddenly felt the faintest hint of an emotion he had not had in many years. He
nodded and returned her smile. This was something he definitely hadn’t counted
on.

Saturday, September
21, 2013 (T minus 914 days)

It was eleven o’clock
on a late-summer morning in the Gibralmedina Valley. The sky was clear, the temperature
around 70ºF, a light breeze out of the southwest and Gabe stood petrified,
staring at the horse. “She’s not going to bite me, is she?”

Jeff smiled and shook
his head. “No Gabe, she’s not going to bite you. This is a horse, they’re not
carnivorous. Now, just put your left foot in the stirrup, grab hold of the
horn, hop up and swing your leg over. Nothing to it.”

Abby, already astride
her horse, groaned from nearby, “And while we’re still young would be good.”

The gray mare turned
her head and stared at Gabe. Gabe took a step back. “I don’t think she likes
me.”

Jeff held the mare’s
reins. “I think she’s just bored. Come on Gabe, climb on. She’s an old mare,
very docile, picked out just for you.”

Gabe gingerly walked
up to the horse, put her hand on the saddle horn and glanced nervously at Jeff.
“I’m a physicist, not a cowboy.”

Jeff grumbled, “Oh
lord, just get on.”

Gabe gritted her
teeth, put her foot in the stirrup and hopped up, about halfway, returning to
the ground with a thud. “Oops.”

Jeff stepped over
right behind her. “Shall we try again. Maybe a bit more hop?”

“Right,” Gabe sighed.

She hopped again. As
she did, Jeff put his hand on her butt and pushed hard. Gabe squealed and threw
her leg over the mare’s rump, landing square in the saddle with a plop, and an
“Ummph.”

“Excellent.” Jeff
smiled, handed her the reins and quickly mounted his ride. “
Muchas gracias,
Señor Hidalgo.
Volveremos antes de noche
.”

The old rancher
smiled and waved.
“
De nada, Señor Grey
.”

Jeff turned to his motley
band, “Let’s ride,” and headed west across the meadow.

“Where are we going?”
said Susan.

Abby pointed west.
“Over those hills and down into a valley on the other side.”

“What’s there?”

“The Rio Guadiaro.”

“What’s that?”

“A river.”

Abby led them south
along the foothills on an old dirt road, through groves of cork, pine and wild
olives.

“How you doing,
Gabe?” said Jeff.

“I haven’t fallen off
yet.”

“Well, that’s usually
a good sign.”

“What kind of horses
are these?”

Abby twisted in the
saddle and glanced back. “Andalusians. Señor Hidalgo’s family has been breeding
them for centuries, and these are some of the finest in all of Spain.”

“They’re pretty.”

“They’re
magnificent,” said Jeff.

Abby grinned. “Jeff,
I’ve ridden that stallion you’re on. You’ll want to be careful not to kick him
too hard. You do and you’ll be in for Mr. Toad’s wild ride. His name is
Relámpago
.”

“What’s that mean?” said Gabe.

Jeff grimaced.
“Lightening.” He leaned forward and patted
Relámpago
on the neck. “Calm,
calm.”

After an hour’s ride
over the foothills and winding down into the valley, they came to a glade of
oak, cottonwood, rhododendrons, ferns and rosemary just above a rocky passage
of the Guadiaro, where the river cascaded through a terrace of pools. In the
depth of the valley the air was calm, the temperature warming and, except for the
melodic babbling of the water, deathly quiet.

Abby reined up.
“We’re here.”

Chrissie rode up
beside her. “Wow, this is gorgeous. How’d you know about this?”

“Señor Hidalgo told
my folks about it, and the three of us rode here once.”

Susan gazed around. “It doesn’t look
like it’s been disturbed since the dawn of time. It’s beautiful.”

“The road between El
Colmenar and San Pablo de Buceite is half a mile or so up the hill on the
opposite side and there’s a ranch house about two miles downstream but, other
than that, it’s all ours. So, tie your trusty steeds to a cottonwood and let’s
break out the picnic. I don’t know about you but I could use a drink. Who’s got
the wine jug?”

“Marvelous idea,”
said Jeff. “Right here.”

After a little
exploring, they settled on an opening just above the river, spread out a couple
sheets and sat down to a luncheon of tapas they’d picked up in Gaucin the day
before: banderillas and stuffed mussels, carne mechada and calamari, chorizo al
vino, battered prawns, and a large bowl of fresh fruit.

After a time, Abby
fell back and lay staring at the sky. “I’m stuffed. I can’t eat another bite.”

Susan dropped a half-eaten piece of
calamari on her plate. “I keep this up and I’m going to need a bigger space
suit.”

Jeff smiled. “Beats
the hell out of Senate subcommittee hearings, doesn’t it?”

Gabe nodded and
stared at the river. “Crew launch isn’t for nearly three years. Can’t we just,
you know, stay here?”