“No. That.”
Steam poured from underneath the hood of her car followed closely with a loud ticking sound. “Oh no! Please no! No, no, no!” She pumped the gas, but little good it did. She barely had time to pull the car to the side of the road before it died. “This can’t be happening.” Burying her forehead into her palm she forced the tears away. Reminding herself that she’d managed to make it through far worse conditions, she felt relieved until she remembered that she was in the middle of nowhere with her son, a couple bags of groceries in the back, and trash bags full of their clothing. Even with four hands, how could they carry everything? She didn’t have a clue how far the B&B was up the road. Two miles could seem like ten in this heat.
How could she continually get them into crazy situations?
“Are you okay?” River’s soft voice intruded her pity-party.
Looking at him, she forced a smile to her lips. “I’m okay. I just hate that this happened.” She patted his hand. “Let’s get out of this hot car and see what we can figure out.”
Within seconds she was sweating and silently swearing. Taking off her long-sleeved shirt, she tied it at her waist and glanced both directions on the quiet stretch of road. Something told her people out this way didn’t see much traffic. This seemed foreign to her because she was used to the hustle and bustle of the city. Cars everywhere. Horns beeping. Car shops around every corner. Well, not here.
A fly buzzed around her head and she waved it away as she glanced back at River, who was scraping the toe of his untied tennis shoe across the dirt. She started to remind him that his shoes needed to last longer than six months, but she didn’t bother.
Using her hand as a shield against the bright sunlight, she walked up the road a few paces, attempting to see a house in the direction they were headed. Nothing. Not even an outhouse. Grabbing the directions Genevieve had written down, they didn’t help much. Alaska swore the first thing she was going to do was buy a phone when she was back in town.
Her white cami was already drenched and tendrils of hair stuck to her face. With her arm, she pushed the damp hair away, deciding they had no choice but to hoof it.
CHAPTER 2
A FLY BUZZED around his head and Arc cursed. He waited patiently until the pest landed on the dashboard and then he swatted it. The heat was so suffocating that even the flies begged to be put out of their misery.
Turning up the radio, one of his favorite country songs played and he sang along, thrumming his fingers to the drumbeat. After meeting with Baxter at the diner to go over a list of the things that needed done at Grinning Spurs, Arc was due for an escape, or a drink. He guessed it was five o’clock somewhere, but unfortunately, he couldn’t shuck his responsibility today and take a detour to the local honky tonk. All the drinks in the world wouldn’t change the dismal facts.
At home, Stillwater Spurs Ranch, he wouldn’t be this tense. If a long, hard day’s work didn’t fix the problem, a long, hard ride with Trinity Sparks always did the trick. Thinking of the voluptuous blonde brought a smile to his face and a hitch below his buckle. Before he and his brothers had been brought to Tarnation, he and Trinity had been getting along just fine. He liked a woman who expected nothing from him but a good time and to be gone before sunrise. He was a pro at those terms.
That was all about to change.
Thanks to Buzz Colt.
Arc pounded the heel of his hand against the steering wheel and ground his teeth. This was a fucked-up situation.
Nearing forty, he guessed most men his age were already married with a couple of kids, but Arc wasn’t the marrying type. Never even thought about matrimony. Wedded bliss was for others—men who had bigger hearts and a truckload of patience. So, to have a stranger who just happened to share the same DNA demand that Arc and his brothers get hitched didn’t settle well. It could take years to find a woman to marry, but in six months? This stipulation felt like another way for Buzz Colt to prove he was a cold-hearted sum’bitch.
Yet, Arc and his brothers did have a choice. They could leave Grinning Spurs and start somewhere new. Arc, Ash and Adam could say goodbye to Stillwater Spurs Ranch, a place to which he’d dedicated his life. Their home. Their legacy. They wouldn’t be the first cowboys who had to pick up and leave their homesteads. If it was just up to Arc, he’d be gone already, but he didn’t only have himself to think about. Adam and Ash, his biological brothers, were in this too. And so were his half-brothers, Baxter and Brennan. They’d all made a pact to stick this out. If Arc up and left, he’d be letting down a whole lot of people who were as innocent in all this as he was.
Working the Grinning Spurs together for six months was a cakewalk. But where the hell would each of them find a woman who wanted to marry them? Question was, how would Arc find a woman willing to tolerate him? Hell, no doubt he wasn’t the easiest to get along with. A man his age was set in his ways and those ways wouldn’t suit a wife. He’d never even lived with a woman he wasn’t related to.
He might as well just pick someone. Any woman.
Lifting his gaze to the blue sky, he stretched his arm outside the window and gave a thumb’s up to the sky. “God, I sure hope you have a sense of humor because I’m needing your help about now. Can you bring me a woman who can put up with my nonsense? A wife who can get me out of this mess.”
Laughing, he brought his attention back to the road and let out a growled curse as he slammed on his brakes to miss hitting the woman waving frantically. The tires slid, leaving a stretch of rubber, and he finally came to a complete stop several feet from the grassy ditch. Slamming the gear shift into park and shutting off the engine, he slid out, shaking his head in agitation. “What the hell?” Then his eyes found her. The same woman from the diner. The one who’d looked so lost sitting alone in the booth.
“Do you always drive like a maniac?”
Her long hair was pulled up into a messy topknot and her fists were fitted to her flared hips as she looked at him like she was about to read him his last rites. “You’re upset with me? Really? What woman stands in the road and waves at an oncoming vehicle?”
“The same woman who noticed that you slowed down and gave a thumb’s up,” she bit out.
Ah, shit! She heaved a sigh and her breasts gave a little bounce. His heart slammed against his ribs and his zipper felt tighter. What the hell? Had he become a walking dick? She wasn’t his type, not even close. She looked too innocent—too…what? The way the tiny, damp shirt almost became see-through certainly did make her interesting. “Hey. I—” Then he noticed the kid. A short, scrawny boy who had her blue eyes. Arc searched his brain. Did she have a kid back at the diner? Wouldn’t he remember? Not when certain parts of his body numbed his logic. His libido deflated. She was a mom…a.k.a “hands off”.
“Hi, mister,” the boy said.
“Hi, there.” Arc dipped his hat in greeting. “What seems to be the problem here?” Obviously, they had car trouble, judging by the heap sitting along the roadside.
“I think it’s the radiator. The car overheated and then steam rolled out from under the hood,” the woman said. He pegged her as a northerner by her accent.
“That happens frequently. The heat index rises and radiators and batteries go bad fast if they’re not new. Care if I take a look?” This wasn’t in his plan for the day, but he couldn’t leave a mom and her son stranded on the side of the road either.
“I-I hate to ask—”
“You didn’t.” He chuckled. “I volunteered. I can’t guarantee there’s anything I can do to fix it, but it won’t fix itself either.” Dragging off his hat, he tossed it through the open window and onto the front seat of his truck and strolled to the front of her vehicle. “Can you pop the hood for me?”
There was a good two second hesitation before she did as he requested then came around to join him at the front of the car, keeping a decent five foot of distance between them. Hell, he didn’t take offense. A woman could never be too careful, even in a place like Tarna
tion.
“Definitely the radiator.” He dropped down to the road and slid under the fender, the heat from the cement quickly warmed his skin through his shirt. When he popped back out, he swiped his hands down the thighs of his jeans. “You didn’t by chance hit something, did you?”
Her brows scrunched. “No…wait, yes. We ran over the remains of a tire on the highway before we got off on the exit to Tarnation. That’s been a while though.”
“That’s your problem, ma’am. The tire bent the radiator and it’s been slowly leaking fluid since. You’re lucky you made it as far as you did.”
“Bent radiator? Slow leak?” Her face paled. “That sounds like a lot of money to fix.” She looked back at the boy.
Arc had never been the most compassionate man around, but when it came to animals and children nothing reached him quicker. Although she didn’t come right out and say it, he surmised from her expression that she didn’t have a lot of funds available. By the age of the car and the amount of rust holding it together, she was probably making do with what she had. Looking from the woman to her son and back to her, he shrugged. “I can get you a tow. I know a close shop that’ll fix this in a jiffy for next to nothing.” From the time he could walk, he loved to tinker with cars and by fourteen he’d bought his first car with the money he raised doing odd jobs. It was a vintage Mustang that needed more work than it was worth, but he spent every available minute for two years, between chores at the ranch and football, making the car run, and, by the time he was finished, she was amazing. He couldn’t call himself a mechanic by a long shot, but if he could help this woman and her son it was the right thing to do. Otherwise, she’d be shelling out some cash and stranded.
She seemed to muddle over his offer and then her shoulders slumped slightly. “It doesn’t look like I have much of a choice. Thank you for your help.”
“You’re quite a way from the highway. I can take you back to Tarnation and you might be able to find a room at the Inn until the car’s fixed. Could be a few days to weeks.”
“Weeks?” She frowned. “The Inn won’t be necessary. We’re headed to a B&B—”
“The Grinning Spurs B&B?”
“Yes. You know where it is?”
His breath came out in a hiss and he rubbed the tension from his forehead. He should have known…
So, this was Alaska Kellington?
The woman who somehow found herself with a shit load of money and a house—a house owned by Buzz Colt—rather his sons now. The same woman he’d researched to find information on, but didn’t find a damn thing. Suddenly his steel wall erected. “Yeah, I know where it is. You’re less than a half mile away.”
“Then we’re exactly where we need to be.” She didn’t quite smile but he saw some relief in her expression. The boy saddled up close to her and she placed her arm around his shoulders protectively. “Close enough for us to walk.”
“In those shoes?” He doubted she’d make it fifty feet in the flimsy leather sandals.
“I had no clue I’d be stranded on the side of the road.” She looked almost embarrassed.
“Apparently so. I can take you both,” he offered. Although he didn’t trust her, he couldn’t leave her and her boy in this heat. There was that expression again, the one that spoke volumes that she didn’t trust him either. He wasn’t sure how that made him feel. “Before you say it, it’s no sweat off my brow. It’s right up the road and you can’t have your son out here. It’s hot enough to fry the hair on a pig’s a—rear.” He caught himself.
Did he see a glimpse of a smile before it got lost under a frown? “Okay. I have a few things. I’ll grab them and put them in the back of your truck.”
“Let me help.” He met her at the back of her car. She opened the trunk and inside she had two brown bags and two white trash bags that were tied at the top. “Is this all?” He had trouble containing his surprise. He expected to find suitcases galore, especially if she planned on moving into the B&B.
“This is it,” she answered a little shyly.
Grabbing both grocery bags, he let her take the trash bags. They placed them in the back and piled into the front seat of the truck, the woman—Alaska—took the passenger seat and the boy was in the middle.
“Don’t worry about your car. I’ll make sure it’s towed.”
She nodded. The wind caught tendrils of her hair sending them sweeping her flawless cheeks. As they drove over bumps in the road her breasts bounced, and he tore his gaze to the safety zone of the window. Now that he knew who she was and that she had a son, this switched up things a bit. He needed to concentrate on his situation with Buzz’s will and not the fact that the woman sitting in his truck was the cutest and shyest he’d been around in a long time, if not ever. He’d never had a problem getting the interest of the opposite sex, and by now, most women would have been offering him smiles, maybe even a few flirty actions. Alaska, however, seemed to care less. He wasn’t sure if that intrigued him or made him even less trusting of her. Did she have any clue who he was? That he was one of Buzz Colt’s sons? He had many questions that begged to be answered.
“The B&B, huh? How long do you plan on staying?” With one trash bag he fathomed not long.
She brought her chin around, her eyes meeting his for two lengthy heartbeats before she lowered her gaze. “I’m not sure. Now it might depend on when my car is fixed.”
Hell, if that was the case he’d pay to have a mechanic fix it and send her on her way, but then why did a part of him resist that idea? Sure, she was cute, but he wasn’t interested. He was practically engaged, to someone he’d never met, literally. But maybe his inquisitiveness had the best of him. What had she and Buzz shared that would make the man want to help her? Arc would like to think Buzz did it out of the kindness of his heart, but it didn’t make sense. The old man wouldn’t have done anything unless it was to his advantage.
Had they been lovers?
No, not possible.
Why should he care? Why should he waste time figuring out what Buzz was thinking about anything?
Because Arc needed closure. Deserved it.
From the time he was a kid, he wondered why Buzz had left. How could a man leave his family? Then, years later, expect them to work to own the deeds to their ranches when those were the only homes they’d ever known?
Anger spilled through Arc’s veins like Anthrax.
He stayed quiet until the boy started switching the music station. “You don’t like country?”
“I’ve never heard it.”
“Never heard country music? Where have you been living? Under a rock?” Arc teased. “If you plan on hanging around these parts, you’re going to need to start listening to the likes of George Strait and Blake Shelton. And get yourself some new boots. You never know what you might step on in these fields. I once stepped right on a rattlesnake’s head.”
“You did?” The boy’s eyes lit.
“Sure did. My brother blew that snake to smithereens with his new gun, dang near got my foot too. My mom both whooped him and hugged him after that.” Arc laughed. “Boy, that was a sight. Then I received the same.”
“Where’s your mom?”
“River!” Alaska hushed him.
“It’s okay.” Arc winked. “My mom passed away a long time ago.” He smiled and turned the station back. Kane Brown was on. “Here’s a good start to building your country playlist.”
CHAPTER 3
ALASKA KEPT HER eyes glued to the road ahead, otherwise she would have been ogling the cowboy. The second he slid out of his truck she’d recognized him as the cowboy from back at the diner, the one she’d spent too much time thinking about. Certainly, he showed no signs of remembering her. In fact, he seemed agitated. What had she been thinking? As if he would say, “Hey, you’re the woman I made eye contact with over coffee and eggs.”
She was being ridiculous, and the fact that the butterflies were wreaking havoc on the inside of her stomach made this situation even more foolish. H
e was just a man, a handsome man with the clearest blue eyes and charming smile, but still just a man. She wasn’t looking for one, especially in Tarnation.
Inhaling sharply, she caught his scent across the seat. A mixture of masculinity and leather. Was this what all cowboys smelled like? Did they all have large hands? Strong, powerful shoulders? And rescued women and children on the side of the road?
Who was she kidding? He didn’t rescue her and River. He simply offered his help and she accepted.
You’re putting too much into this, girl.
Once they reached their destination, she’d quickly send him on his way, probably to never see him again.
Damn, why did he have to start talking to River about staying and music? She could see the excitement in her son’s expression. And then, when the cowboy divulged that his mom had died, Alaska felt something close to sympathy.
“This looks like it,” Alaska said, pointing to the swinging sign that was so weather worn the words were illegible. She felt a sense of…what? Excitement that she could take a shower? Fix a homecooked meal? Tuck her son into bed tonight? She needed to stop those train of thoughts. This wasn’t home. Not until she decided what was best. Now that her car needed fixed, she and River were stranded in the small town. For how long? Could she afford it? Her intention was to spend very little of the money Buzz gave her until she knew there were no other surprise strings attached, but if it came down to needing it, what choice did she have?
The narrow gravel lane was sandwiched between two overgrown fields. She guessed that, once upon a time, they were horse pastures, which made her wonder why that changed. They drove around the bend and the two-story house came into view. It was once white, but lack of TLC had turned the clapboard siding gray. Expansive columns and a long porch adorned the front. The red tin roof looked bright against the green background of the cypress trees, blue sky, and wildflowers, and for a second, the beauty of nature could have hidden the rundown quality of the house. A lump grew in her throat as she surveyed the cockeyed shutters, peeling paint, untidy flower beds, and neglected wicker furniture that lined the front porch.
Pour me a Drink (Tarnation, Texas Book 3) Page 4