Lone Star Longing (Hearts of Broken Wheel, #1)

by Fredrick, MJ

  She still didn't have a maternity bathing suit, and she still didn't have an answer to her question of if Beck had a girlfriend, or wanted one.

  Which was a ridiculous thing to wonder when she had essentially just broken up with the father of her child.

  She had no business having romantic thoughts about Beck Conover.

  As she got closer to home, she grew more tense. She’d texted her dad that she would be home sooner than expected, but she had only told him she’d explain when she got home. She’d ignored the phone calls he’d made to her, really not wanting to rehash it all again in front of Beck, who had heard way more than she wanted him to.

  But now she had to work out what she would say to her dad, to explain to him she was going to need him more than she’d expected. She didn't think he’d mind, but he’d be pissed at Jesse.

  Lightning illuminated the night sky in the distance once they turned off the interstate. Lacey shifted in her seat. She’d been uncomfortable with storms ever since that morning on the bus, but she’d thought the fear had passed.

  Of course, she hadn’t driven through one for a while. She usually just hunkered down in her house as the storms passed over.

  “How far away do you think that is?” she asked, hating the shakiness in her voice.

  “Do you have a weather app on your phone? You could check.”

  She didn’t, and service was too spotty out here for her to download one.

  “We’ll probably be going through it, unless it moves on before we get there,” he said, then glanced over at her. “Don't worry. This is a good truck, has good tires, and I’m a good driver. Just relax. We’re not going to have any problems.”

  At least he understood her fear. He placed his hand on the console, and she put hers there too, so he could cover it soothingly.

  She was amazed by how reassured she actually was by the warm strength of his hand. But she couldn't let herself relax against the back of the seat. She kept her attention on the road ahead, watching for flashes of lightning, then counting as she strained her ears listening for the thunder. She couldn't hear it yet, so the storm was some distance away, but they were definitely driving into it.

  She craned her head to look out the window to try to see stars. They should have a pretty good view, without the light pollution of the city, but she didn't see any, or the moon.

  “You want to put on some music, see if we can pick up a radio station?” Beck suggested.

  She pulled her hand free of his—better for him to have both hands on the wheel, anyway, if they were driving into a storm. She fiddled with the controls on the radio, really not wanting to listen to music, more wanting to hear the weather forecast, but she couldn't find a local news channel, so settled onto a classic rock station.

  “I didn't peg you as a classic rock person.”

  “What did you peg me as?” she asked, sitting back.

  “Country, probably. New country, Carrie Underwood, Kasey Musgraves, that kind.”

  “Oh, I like that fine. And red dirt, too. But I figured who doesn’t like classic rock. What do you usually listen to?”

  “To be honest? I rarely listen to the radio, and when I do, it’s the old country. Conway Twitty, Ray Price, all the ones I listened to growing up.”

  “Now that does take me by surprise. I didn't think you’d be a nostalgic music guy.”

  The first fat raindrops hit the windshield hard enough to make Lacey jump, and she straightened in her seat even more, her left hand tightening on the console until her joints whitened.

  “You’re not going to be able to get to your home,” she fretted. “You’re not going to be able to get through that crossing.”

  “They fortified it after the bus incident. You know that. You drive it every day. It’s higher, and has the car-catchers now. We’ll be fine. I’ve got this.”

  She wished she had his confidence, but she could barely see the road in front of them, without street lights, only the reflection of the reflective paint in the headlights guiding them down the road, along with the occasional flash of lightning.

  The sky opened up then, rain pounding on the roof of the truck, and even Beck must have been alarmed, because he lifted his foot from the gas and slowed significantly.

  “Kinda hard to see,” he admitted with a sideways smile.

  “Maybe we should pull over.”

  “Hard to see a place where we can do that safely, without getting stuck.”

  He tapped a button to turn on his hazard lights, which assuaged her fears that someone would come up behind them too fast and hit them.

  “We’ll just take our time. You can call your dad, if you want, and let him know we’re going to be later than we planned.”

  “Yes, good idea. And I can see, too, if the storm is hitting them, too. So we can kind of gauge how big it is.”

  She fished out her phone, but she had no service. With a sigh, she tucked her phone back in her purse.

  “No service.”

  “Probably the location more than the weather.”

  She knew he was trying to assure her, but her anxiety ratcheted up.

  “Do you like storms if you’re home? Not driving in it?”

  She shook her head. “No, because even then, I think about the people who have to be out in it. How hard it is for them to drive in it. How dangerous.”

  “Good thing there aren’t that many storms in West Texas.”

  “There’ve been more recently. They seem to hit us on the way to Dallas. We got a pretty bad hail storm not too long ago, and we had to get a new roof.”

  A bolt of lightning snaked toward the ground, followed instantly by a clap of thunder, and Lacey pressed herself farther back into the seat. “Maybe I should have seen that counselor the school offered after the accident. I mean, I did see her, a couple of times, but I didn't really like her, so Dad didn't make me go back.”

  The water was already ponding on the road, and Lacey was very grateful to Beck for taking it easy, guiding the truck carefully. She didn't think most men would take her fears into account.

  “Have you thought about names?”

  “What?” His question came from left field, though she thought she understood the reasoning behind it—keeping her mind occupied.

  “Names? For the baby? I know you don't know if it’s a boy or girl yet, but I thought maybe you’d be playing around with some names anyway.”

  “Oh. Well. Sure. I’ve been thinking about it. I have a list a mile long of girl names I like, but not as many boy names. There’s so many that just sound the same as everyone else, though. You know, all the Bible names, or then just your basic names like John and Ben and Jerry.”

  He laughed. “Like the ice cream?”

  “Do not overestimate my lack of control around ice cream. If Mrs. Lopez carried that brand, I’d already have doubled my weight.”

  “So that’s where you’re looking for inspiration for names? The freezer section.”

  She scoffed, knowing he was trying to tease her into forgetting about the storm, but not really wanting to laugh. “No, I have an app of baby names, which of course I cannot access now because no service. But I also look at credits on movies and TV shows, and in magazines, and people I know.”

  “So what are some of the names you like?”

  “I like names, and I didn't realize this until I started writing them down, I like names that start with vowels. Ella and Emma and Iris and Olivia.”

  “Those aren’t that unusual.”

  “No. Why do you say that?”

  “Because you said all the boy names were similar, but those names you listed aren’t wild and crazy.”

  “Well, some of them are, but then I have to think of what kind of name I want to saddle her with, and what kind of person she’ll be, and if she’ll be that way partly because I named her a wild and crazy name. It’s a big responsibility.” And one of so many she would be taking on by herself. “How did your mom come up with your name? It’s pret
ty unusual, and she doesn’t strike me as someone who would name a kid something so different.”

  “Yeah, well, she named me after Thomas Beckett, and since my uncle was also Thomas, she started calling me Beckett, and we shortened it to Beck. Now, don't think that people didn't call me Becky, and all those kinds of names. So every name has a kind of danger to go with it. You have to think about that, too. What about your name? Lacey’s a pretty name, but not very common.”

  “My mom was a big Fleetwood Mac fan. I’m lucky she didn't name me Stevie. But she liked Stevie’s style, and kind of riffed off of that.”

  “Well, what about if you did something like that? Found something you were really passionate about and name your baby after something like that?”

  “And if I lose that passion? The kid’s stuck with the name. Why? Are you going to name your kids like, ‘Piston’ and, I don't know, ‘Brake Light?’” She waved her hand in the direction of the dash.

  He laughed. “Are those the only car parts you know?”

  “No, of course not. Just the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.” She turned to grin at him. “My dad made sure I can take care of my car, especially since I drive so much, and to remote places.”

  “Good man.”

  “He is. I’m really lucky to have him.” She checked her phone again. Still no service. She wanted to know how big this storm was. It could be just passing through, but it could be huge and stretch for miles. She wanted to prepare herself.

  As she put the phone away again, she realized that Beck had relaxed her a bit with talk of her baby’s name, even though the storm was getting stronger the closer they got to home. The roads through town would be worse. Lightning was nearly constant, as was the rumble of thunder, the violent claps closer together, then fading to a roar that rolled into one another.

  Part of her wanted to blame Jesse for her going through this. If he had arrived like he was supposed to, she would still be in San Antonio with him, not traveling through this.

  Part of it was her fault, too. If she hadn’t wanted to go to the grocery store in San Antonio, they could have left an hour or more earlier, and would maybe have missed this.

  But she knew she couldn't lay the blame anywhere. The situation was hers to deal with, and she’d confront her fear and make the best of it.

  The truck hit a low part of the road that had filled with water, and Beck had to fight to keep the truck on the road. Lacey had to stop herself from screaming in alarm. She had to admit Beck was a good driver, paying close attention, driving a reasonable speed.

  But if anything happened to them, they were so isolated. They hadn’t passed another car for miles, and they had no cell service. They would absolutely be on their own.

  Chapter Fourteen

  BECK WAS TRYING TO keep his cool for Lacey’s sake, but yeah, this storm was a bad one. The road was dark anyway, even with the flashes of lightning, and he had his wipers on full-speed, but he could barely see beyond the hood of his truck. His headlights just reflected the torrential rain back at him.

  He wondered if his cell had service, since he had a different provider. He thought about asking Lacey to unlock it for him and check, but he didn't want to scare her. He would just keep driving until he found a place where he could pull over and wait out the storm.

  He tried to recall this road, but he couldn't think of any pull-outs, or any truck stops, or gas stations, or any place like that where they could take a breather.

  “Can you remember passing a restaurant or anything along this road when we came down?”

  “No, but we weren’t looking, since we had food.”

  “There was a rest stop, though, wasn't there? Just with picnic tables? A place we can park for a while?”

  “Yeah, I think so, but I don't remember if it was on this side of the road or the other. And I don't remember how far it was from the highway.”

  He didn't know how far they’d come from the highway, to be honest, since he reduced his speed. The fact that no one else was on the road scared him a little. Not this was a highly traveled road, but he had to wonder if other drivers knew something he didn’t.

  “Get my phone. The code is nineteen twenty twenty-one. See if I have any service, and maybe you can pull up a map to see if it shows the rest area.”

  “I thought you weren’t worried?”

  Yeah, he’d known that suggestion would make her nervous.

  “I can keep going, sure, or we could wait a few minutes and let it pass, and I won’t have to be driving twenty miles an hour just so I can see the road.”

  The minute she picked his phone out of the cupholder where he had stored it, the noise on the roof magnified.

  “Shit. Hail.” He brought the truck to a crawl as ice pellets bounced off the hood of the truck, pinged the window. Thankfully, they weren’t big enough to crack the windshield.

  Yet.

  And worse, in this part of the state, hail could mean tornadoes. They’d never see one coming.

  “You have service!” She practically yelled it, and he wasn't sure if it was because she was relieved, or because she wanted to be heard over the sound of the storm.

  “Find my map app and see if you can locate a place where we can pull over.” He was going about fifteen miles an hour now, but he didn't want to stop and get stuck in the mud. And if by chance there were other cars on the road, he didn't want to get hit.

  “I see it!” Her voice rang though the cab. “About seven miles ahead. On this side.”

  He accelerated a little. “How straight is the road between here and there?”

  “Almost arrow straight.” She turned to look at him. “Why?”

  “As long as I won’t have any surprising turns, I’m going to speed up a little. The sooner we pull over the better.”

  “Okay.” She turned her attention back to the phone. “I’ll let you know if any turns are coming up.”

  He nodded with a smile. “That will be helpful.” And maybe if she focused on that, she wouldn't be so afraid.

  They drove in tense silence as he guided the truck down the road, and she counted down the number of miles to their destination. The hail let up, thankfully, as they progressed.

  Finally the reflective line on the side of the road veered off, as she told him to turn in. He saw the silhouettes of the picnic shelters and knew they were as safe as he could make them. He put the truck in park and sat back in his seat. He hadn’t realized how wound up he was until now.

  “What’s the weather app say?” he asked. “How big is this thing? Any warnings?”

  “Flash flood,” she said as she tapped his screen. “Looks to be the entire distance between us and home.”

  “Great,” he sighed, craning his head to look at the screen. “Well, we’ll just wait here a while.

  The rain was quieter without the added force of the truck moving through it. He wished the console wasn't so big, so he could slide out from beneath the steering wheel, sit closer to Lacey. Her nerves seemed to ease once he put the truck into park, but her gaze was focused on the screen of the phone. She realized she was holding his phone and handed it over. He tapped through the app to any alerts listed.

  “Flash flood warning, but no tornado warning or anything like that.” He hoped that would reassure her. “We should have packed snacks for the ride back.”

  She twisted suddenly in the seat. “I put my groceries in here.”

  “Yeah, but those aren’t snacks. Those are for you and your dad.”

  “He doesn't even know about them. I only wish we had some water or something to drink. You want ranch, barbecue or pickle chips?”

  “Let’s try the cheddar.”

  She pulled it free of the reusable bag and sat back in her seat with a bounce, placing the bag on the console between them.

  “I didn't even think I was hungry, until you said something.”

  “Well, we did eat a lot today.”

  “Ha! The last two days. It’s almost like
we don't get food like that at home. And it’s a good thing, or I would be as big as a house by Halloween.” Their hands bumped as they both reached into the chip bag at the same time. “I mean, I guess that’s an argument against moving into San Angelo. I’d be eating all the time.”

  “Well, that, and you’d have to find a place to live, and another job.”

  “Speaking of jobs, have you looked into what you want to do? I mean, if you’re going to stay. Which I don't know if you’ve decided.”

  “I’m going to stay for a while, and I’ve been looking into jobs in the basin, which isn’t exactly close, but close enough that I could check in on my mom more often. Some of that work is probably more physical than I want to do, but if that’s what’s available, that’s what I’ll do.”

  “It’s good money. I know Jess Nazareth has gone out there and he paid cash for his truck, and he throws money around like nobody’s business.”

  “Yeah, there’s that.”

  “You don't sound particularly convinced.”

  “Yeah, I’m not. I mean, I got paid a lot for doing next to nothing, for traveling and seeing the world.”

  “And you walked away for family.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s not urgent for me to get to work right now, so I’ll just keep looking and see what comes available.”

  “Must be nice.”

  “Yeah, I wish more people had that flexibility.” Especially single mothers. Newly single mothers. He had to remind himself that she hadn’t broken up with Jesse more than a day ago. Until that moment, she’d thought she had a future with the man. Now she was casting about for a new future, and it was ridiculous to try to make her think of what might be coming. But he cast about to think of something to talk about, because when they weren’t talking, he could see her getting more anxious with the storm.

  “What if the roads are flooded and we can’t see? It’s so dark.”

  “I do think we should hold on here a bit longer until the intensity dies down. There will still be water on the road, but the low water crossings will be marked. We’ve been going pretty slow. I’m not too worried.”