Page 85 of Whiskey Chase
I pointed to an empty picnic table under a copse of trees, and we snagged it and sat.
We ate in silence, staring off at the blue of the lake, the reflections of the sun on its choppy surface.
“What would you be doing on a morning like this a couple of weeks ago?” I asked Jonah.
He chewed his mouthful of pepperoni goodness and thought. “I’d be telling Mike that he didn’t need that donut, and if he thought about it again, he’d have to give me twenty.”
“Why can’t Mike have the donut?”
“Because he paid me a lot of money to be his personal trainer. And part of that job was slapping food out of his hands. Same with his wife Betsy whodidlisten to me and dropped thirty pounds over the course of a year.”
“Do you like what you do?” I asked. I’d been giving a lot of thought to actually loving something versus doing what was expected. The difference had never been more striking.
“Yeah. I do. The human body is an amazing thing. It’s capable of miracles, even with all the abuse and donuts we heap upon ourselves,” Jonah said.
I stared out at the lake and thought about the toll I’d allowed stress to take on me. How much better I felt now that I was—sporadically—putting forth a physical effort.
“How about you?” Jonah asked.
I sighed. “If we were in session, I’d be sitting surrounded by my party delegates while we tried to stop the other side from accomplishing anything. Then, around lunch time, we’d switch. There were some days that felt like our entire focus was stopping the state from accomplishing anything.”
“How about when you weren’t in session?”
“I’m a partner in the family law firm. There are always cases to consult on, court dates, clients.”
“Sounds busy,” Jonah ventured.
I shrugged. “Most of my time was spent focusing on how to get to the next step. How to get re-elected. How to go from state legislator to federal. Who to meet. Who to side with. Who to befriend.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes watching everyone else around us.
“Do you ever feel like your whole life is in limbo?” Jonah asked finally.
“Only from the second I wake up until I close my eyes at night.”
He gave a half laugh. “What are we doing here?” he asked. Jonah didn’t mean here at the lake on a weekday morning.
“I’m not sure. Recuperating? Restarting? Reviving?”
“Until I got here, I didn’t even know I had anything to recuperate from,” Jonah admitted.
“I guess sometimes it can just sneak up on you.”
“Did you like your life? I mean, before here.”
“I thought I did. Until it all fell apart, and then I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I felt happy. You?”
Jonah shrugged. “I don’t know. I was happy. I liked my job, my apartment, my life. But maybe something always felt like it was missing?”
I nodded. “And if you just kept busy, just kept moving forward, maybe that feeling would go away.”
“Yeah. I didn’t want my mom to ever think that she wasn’t enough. That I was wishing for a father she couldn’t give me.”
“Have you told her you’re here?” I asked.
He blew out a breath and wadded up the wax paper from his pepperoni roll. “Yeah. After Scarlett gave you the albums to give to me. It wasn’t a great conversation. But I wasn’t going to lie to her about where I am and what I’m doing.”
“Do you think the Bodines are the missing piece?”
