Wild at Heart

“I still can’t believe you used to live here.” Brian said playfully.
Matt looked at the wooden sign with A little bit of heaven, welcome to Wimberley written in big white letters. He looked to his left, seeing Zacky behind the wheel, a wide smile on his face.
“It’s a nice place to grow up.” Zacky shrugged.
Once they plunged into Wimberley, Zacky’s brows furrowed. The once quiet village in Texas was now pulsating with tourists and summer camp kids. The same old shops were still there, but now the souvenir ones filled every empty space left. A lot had changed in a ten years.
They drove by a big poster that advertised a trip to Blue Hole and Zacky lips curved into a silly smile. Blue Hole, he thought to himself, how could I forget the memories I have from that place?

As Zacky drove away from the village center, the concrete road turned into a dirt one, with rolling countryside and tall grass plains surrounding it. He slowly stopped in front of the white wooden gates that led to a big white two story ranch house with a rocky driveway. Johnny was the first to open the car’s door, letting the Texas’ heat get a hold of him.
A wooden fence separated them from a field with slightly overgrown grass decorated with dandelions and wild daisies, where a couple of horses roamed by a brownish red barn with a white trim.
“It’s funny; you never mentioned her before…” Matt commented while Zacky reached the old, brass, gate bell and rang twice. They probably still wouldn’t now she existed if she hadn’t run into him back in Austin, a few days ago. At first she didn’t recognize him, last time she had seen him he didn’t have any tattoos nor did he dress that way. He, on the other hand, recognized her almost immediately.

The four men looked towards the house’s front door as it slowly opened, revealing a woman’s silhouette.
“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Zackary Baker himself…” The girl with long, sleek, raven hair said out loud, showing sarcasm in her smile. She climbed down the porch stairs, jumping the last two steps and making dust rise from underneath her cowboy boots.
She walked towards the gates, hands on her belt loops. “Ah was starting to think you weren’t comin’.” She said in her Texan accent, making Brian chuckle. She lifted her cowboy hat with her index finger, revealing her blue eyes, just as blue as the sky that was above them.
“How could I not come?” Zacky managed to say, while she unlocked and opened the gates.
“Yeah…” She muttered in a wouldn’t-be-the-first-time way, opening her arms to receive Zacky’s embrace.
“Everybody, this is June…” He said with a reserved smile, pausing for a few seconds. “…my cousin.”
For the first time June took a good look at them. They were all quite attractive, but also quite peculiar. Zacky had talked about them when they had accidently met in Austin, just when she was leaving work. She was genuinely surprised to see him and tried to suppress the anger she felt when his green eyes met her blue ones, all the memories flooding her again. No, she hadn’t seen him for almost ten years and yes, she was really mad at him, but she also missed him a lot and, somehow, the anger she had stored for ten years, vanished in one second.
“June; this is Brian, Johnny and Matt” He introduced them. “They’re my friends and band mates.”
“Howdy.” She tipped her hat, making everyone smile widely.
Brian glanced down her body as she walked them inside the house. He never thought that Zacky would have such a hot cousin, why didn’t he talk about her before?

“So, how come we never knew you had a cousin?” Johnny asked Zacky as they took a seat at the big rectangular table that was in the middle of large, light colored kitchen. The whole house was very bright, with tall white windows and painted in shades of beige and champagne.
June handed which one of them a mug with fresh made coffee and sat right next to Zacky and facing Johnny.
“Well, I understand why he never talked about me before.” She started after taking a sip of her coffee. Everybody’s attention focused on her, even Zacky’s. “You see, we’re cousins, but we never got along. Then a lot of things happened which just made even harder for us to see each other again.”
“Robert was my father’s younger brother and her father. He and Madison, her mother, died in a car accident about three years ago.” Zacky explained.
“Yeah, and someone didn’t even come to their funeral…” June muttered, her lips gliding against the mug’s rim.
“I couldn’t come!” Zacky almost yelled. “I was…”
“Yeah, yeah.” She cut him off, showing him her hand palm. “Your parents explained me everything, you’re a big shot now.”
Zacky let out a low growl while she got up from her chair and headed towards the sink. “Anyway, we never really grew fond of each other.” She turned to face them after placing the mug on the kitchen sink.
That is so not true, Zacky thought, staring at the black liquid inside his mug. “Exactly.” He said. “She made her day by pissing me off.” He let out a dry laugh.
“But it has been a long time since we last saw each other, I thought it was a good idea to invite you all to spend some time with me.” June continued. “ I also wanted to meet Zacky’s friends.” She winked, heading then towards the glass door that led to the backyard porch. She opened it and then opened the screen door, disappearing for a few seconds.

“Come on y’all, let’s go!” She clapped her hands, as she walked inside again, but this time barefoot. “Let me show you the rest of the house, so you can go pick up your stuff and make yourselves at home!” She grinned, hands on her hips.
They followed her outside the kitchen, her feet thudding against the white hardwood floor.
She stood in the middle of the big hall. “At your left is the living room.” She pointed towards the pair of French doors. “Down the hall there’s a bathroom to your right and the library to your left.” She took a few steps towards the big white arched stairs with light brown colonial balustrade. “The bedrooms are upstairs and the last one to your left is mine so don’t you dare to go in there without my permission.” She warned, turning around to face them. “Feel free to make yourselves comfortable in the other bedrooms.” She winked before heading towards the kitchen again.
She heard them leave the house and then return with their stuff while she washed the mugs. She wiped her hands and headed towards the living room, sitting on the dark leather sofa, her elbows on her knees and her hands cupping her face, staring at the floor.
Ten years ago she could say that her life was perfect. She had everything a girl could want and Robert and Madison were great parents, she had always loved them.
And then there was Zacky. She couldn’t say that she was lying when she said they didn’t liked each other, in fact they were always almost jumping at each other’s throats, until one summer, when everything changed.
Footsteps made her snap out of her thoughts, looking at the tall man that entered the room. Matt was about to speak when Brian appeared at the door, his eyes wandering around the room and suddenly stopping. “What’s that?” He asked looking at her, but he was actually looking at something that was behind her. She turned around to follow his gaze and her mouth suddenly got dry.
He walked towards the small table that was next to the sofa, with a lamp on top of it, a book and a picture frame with a photograph in it.
“That’s Zacky!” Matt laughed while Brian held the frame. The photo showed a little girl with black hair into pigtails and big blue eyes, her arms around a boy who was taller and older than her, with a big smile on his face and one arm around her shoulders. “And that’s you, right?” Matt asked June. She slowly nodded, one hand clutching the other.
“You seemed to be good friends.” Brian stated.
“We had our moments.” She said, quickly taking the picture frame from Brian’s hands and placing it where it belonged as she heard footsteps heading towards the room again.
Once they were all downstairs, June led them to the backyard, showing them the surroundings and the barn where she had two horses.
“And I guess that’s all…” She said as they headed again towards the house. “We used to have about five acres and some cattle, but I sold pretty much everything after my parents died…”
Zacky glanced at her, the expression in her eyes making his heart clench. He had missed her, and he hadn’t realized that until now. He had tried to forget her, tried to suppress all the memories, beautiful and yet painful to remember, memories that he had simply chosen to forget.