The Bartender's Daughter

Chapter 6

We drove for a few more hours and a lot of bad pop songs later before coming upon a dirt road I hadn't even noticed before Jack took a sharp turn onto it. We drove for a while under a canopy of trees before coming upon a huge iron gate. On either side of the gates was a ten foot stone wall stretching farther than I could even see.

"Hey, are you sure you turned down the right suspicious dirt road? I mean, not that I don't love large, imposing properties, but I'd prefer not to face the police again or anything," I told Jack as he drove slowly up the gate.

He chuckled and shook his head. "I'm sure. Just sit back and watch." He hit a few buttons on the console and the gates started opening slowly, creaking loudly.

My eyes widened as Jack drove forward onto a paved driveway and he gunned up the gas a little. The drive seemed to take a lot longer than it probably did with Jack taking lefts and rights everywhere, until we finally pulled up in front of a little wood cabin.

I couldn't help but laugh out loud as Jack turned off the car and I climbed out. The cabin was well maintained on the outside with cute little bushes of flowers under the window and a large maple tree in the yard with a tire swing. I could see lace curtains hanging in the windows and I was dying to get inside. If this was Jack's doing I was either expecting neat and girly or manly, there was no in between in my head.

"This little house is surrounded by all this property?" I asked, bewildered.

Jack shook his head. "No, this is the head grounds keepers house. Couldn't you tell by the well maintained yard?" He asked, pointing to some flowers.

I stared at him. "Wait, you mean there's a bigger house? Why aren't we staying there?" I asked, following Jack to the door. He picked a key from his key chain and stuck it into the door.

"Because if anything should happen, I was given permission to destroy this house, not that one." He opened the door and I followed.

"What do you mean destroy...." I was taken aback by the surrounding, cutting my question short. The house was neither manly or girly, but it was absolutly adorable. The family room was organized with comfortable looking leather couches and coffee tables looking out a window to the grounds outside. There were some bookcases on a wall and they were absolutely stuffed. I followed Jack through the house down a hallway with beautiful landscape painting hanging on them past some closed doors and into a kitchen.

It wasn't too big or small, but it was big enough for two people to move around comfortably. The counters were granite and the cabinets were, shocker, wood. It was, however, full of windows letting in a bunch of natural light. I moved aside a curtain and looked out at a beautifully manicured backyard with a little fish pond, birds bath, and everything.

"This is adorable! I love it!" Jack smiled as he reached into the refrigerator and grabbed a Coco-Cola.

"Thank you." He opened it and took a long sip.

"How did you even know it was here? Do you know this grounds keeper? And what did you mean when you said you were allowed to destroy this house?"

Jack held up his hand. "One question at a time please." He finished his drink and crinkled it up before throwing it into a trash can. "I can't really answer the first two except for the fact it had to do a lot with my past. And destroying this place?" He scratched his chin. "Well lets just hope those men from the bar don't send more guys after us."

I threw my hands up in the air as he walked out of the kitchen. I stomped out after him, hating all the crypticness coming from him right now.

"Will you stop with all these cryptic answers and give me a real, truthful one? I think I deserve to know what's going on."