Sierra Hearts (Part One) by Ash Elko

life.
Now she was cracking jokes, listening to rock music, and
cooking.
    While she prepared the Brussels sprouts, Danny kept
busy with peeling potatoes, chopping onions, boiling water, cooking
bacon, and whatever else in a complex dance of movement. Jenn was
impressed. It was refreshing to see someone take pride in what she
usually thought of as a chore. She watched as he chopped some
parsley. He mixed the two in a bowl and added some olive oil, salt,
and pepper to make a paste. He marinated the rack of lamb with it.
He did it like someone who had done this before. He passed the
bottle of red wine to her.
    “Mind opening this? I’m going to add some to the
lamb.”
    “Sure.” She grabbed the bottle by its neck. She was
careful opening the foil and uncorking it. The cork came out with a pop sound. She handed it back to Danny, then turned to
finish chopping the Brussels sprouts. Next, she put the pot under
the tap to fill it with water just like he had told her. She placed
it on the stove and turned on the burner.
    “OK. Now what?”
    “Now? Now we throw the lamb in the oven and wait.
When it gets close to being done, we can finish up the
sprouts.”
    “How long?”
    “Oh, probably around a half an hour,” Danny
said.
    “In that case, I think I will have a glass of wine.”
Jenn put on her best devious grin she could manage and picked up
the bottle. He grinned back and offered her a glass.
    “Should we sit? Take a break from the kitchen?” He
cocked his head in the direction of the living room.
    “Sure.” She followed him. It wasn’t as warm in the
living room as the kitchen. She saw the stack of puzzles again.
    “Cheers,” she lifted her drink. “You must do a lot
of puzzles. Is that why you compared cooking to puzzles?” She was
surprised how forward she sounded, but Danny didn’t seem to
mind.
    “Oh those?” He turned to the stack. “Yeah, I guess I
do a lot of puzzles. I like solving them.” He paused and an uneasy
silence followed.
    Jenn took a sip of her wine. “Yesterday… yesterday
was scary,” she said.
    “Yes.” Jenn waited for him to say more, but it
didn’t seem like he was going to.
    “How do you do it? How can you just get over
something like that so quickly?”
    Danny took a long pull of his beer. He seemed lost
in thought until he finally spoke.
    “You have to sometimes just react. Things can be
scary or they can hurt, but you have to keep moving on otherwise
you will be scared of everything or everything will hurt.” He
finished his beer. “More wine?”
    “Yes, please,” she said.
    He stood up and ambled over to the kitchen. Jenn
could hear the refrigerator open as Danny opened it to get another
drink. Then the sound of the drawer with the bottle opener sliding
open, followed up the light hiss of the bottle opening. Without
thinking she was up and gliding to the source of the sound. Her
body was on autopilot again. She wasn’t aware of consciously
willing herself to get up and head towards Danny. He had is back to
her.
    Yet another rock song was playing. Jenn didn’t
recognize it.
    “I think the sprouts are soft now.” Danny turned his
attention to frying the bacon and onion. “Here,” he said. “Move
everything round like this with the spoon.” He gestured for Jenn to
take his place.
    She couldn’t help but notice that he guided her to
the stove with his hand. Not counting the time he hauled her out of
the wrecked car, this was the first time he touched her. And she
didn’t mind it.
    “Do you only listen to classic rock music?” she
asked as she stirred. “Don’t you ever listen to anything else?” As
soon as she said it, she knew it was the booze talking. No way
would she have the confidence to ask such a rude question.
    He laughed. “Like what?”
    “I don’t know. Like, something you can dance to?”
Jenn said.
    He made a fake frowning face. “Hmmm. Let me see.” He
picked up an old, scratched iPod that was connected to some
speakers on the counter. He