“That’s okay.” I tried to shrug but couldn’t under the weight of his arm that was draped over me. He didn’t move it. In fact, he seemed completely fine with how close we were, as if it wasn’t weird to wake up next to a girl he barely knew.
Then the thought hit me. Did he do this a lot? Pick up random girls?
Oh my God, he could have a girlfriend. He could have several girlfriends back home. I mean, why wouldn’t he? He was extremely good-looking.
My lips pressed together and my brows furrowed at the thought of Travis going home to another girl tonight. Maybe he had someone missing him, waiting for him. If that was the case, it would make staying with him torture. I wasn’t sure I could watch him be with someone else for three weeks.
“Hey, where’d you go just now?” He interrupted my thoughts, and smoothed his fingers over the worry wrinkle between my eyebrows.
“I was just wondering if you have a girlfriend,” I blurted out. Immediately, I felt embarrassed. I wasn’t entitled to the details of his private life. I needed to just stop talking. “Because if you did, this would be really inappropriate.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “No, I don’t have a girlfriend. And yes, this would be highly inappropriate if I did.”
Travis reached out and ran his fingers through my hair. The action had no practical purpose behind it. He wasn’t doing it to get hair out of my face or to tuck it behind my ear.
No, he was touching my hair because he wanted to.
And I didn’t want him to stop.
Goosebumps broke out on my arms and I sighed at the feeling of his fingers scraping over my scalp.
An uneasy feeling came over me when I thought about saying goodbye to him today. I didn’t know what this was, but I didn’t want it to end yet.
With our eyes connected, my blue to his green, I made my decision.
TRAVIS
Smooth, silky strands slipped through my fingers when Angel said the words I’d been dying to hear.
“Well, that’s a relief.” She paused. “Because I’m going to take you up on your offer. So that means I’ll be hanging around for a while… And it would have been really awkward explaining that to a girlfriend.”
“Really?” My hand stopped moving through her hair and I felt my face stretch out into a huge grin. I probably looked like a kid on Christmas. “You’re seriously going to stay with me?”
Her smile matched mine. “Yep.”
I couldn’t help it—I wrapped my arms around her.
“Oh my,” she said. “You really are a hugger, huh?”
“Not usually,” I said, my voice muffled in her hair. “Are you telling me you don’t like hugs?” I asked, not loosening my arms at all. If anything, I squeezed a little tighter.
“Not usually,” she grunted, because I was squeezing so tight she was having trouble breathing. “But for some reason I don’t mind when they’re from you.” She wrapped her free arm around my back and laid the side of her head on my chest.
She liked hugs from me.
We didn’t have time to talk about her confession because my phone started ringing from the front seat.
Hank’s ringtone.
Reluctantly, I let go of Angel to retrieve my phone and I sat down in the driver’s seat.
“Hey, Hank,” I greeted. “I’m up.”
“Just givin’ you a wake-up call, son,” he chuckled.
“I know, I know. I’ll be dropping the trailer off within an hour and I should be back around noon. Will you be at the shop?”
Hank almost always called me bright and early when I was on the road. He knew I had a tendency to oversleep. I wasn’t normally a morning person, but I was extra chipper today—because of a certain someone—and it didn’t take long for him to notice.
“Yep, I’ll be here.” His tone turned suspicious. “What’s goin’ on?”
“I just, ah,” I looked over at Angel. “I got someone I want you to meet.”
“Ah, hell, Travis,” he said. “What did you do?”
Hank was a smart guy. He knew how life on the road worked for some people and I knew what he was thinking. He was wrong.
“It’s not what you’re thinking,” I promised.
He sighed. “Alright. I’ll see ya here at the shop later.”
“Ten-four,” I said and I could hear him snickering at my trucker lingo as he hung up.
I put my phone aside and looked over to find Angel threading her fingers through her hair, swiftly putting it into another messy side-braid. I fucking loved her hair like that.
“Alright, Angel.” I reached over and gave her braid a little tug. “It’s time for you to see how this impressive piece of machinery works.”
*
After we left the rest stop, we went by a fast food place for some breakfast and coffee. We briefly argued over the fact that I insisted on paying again, but she gave in when I told her I would keep track of the amount I spent so she could pay me back once she got a steady income.
Did I have any intention of actually keeping her money? Hell no. But I didn’t tell her that.
She made a face when she found out I drink my coffee black, and I learned that Angel doesn’t drink coffee but it’s her favorite ice cream flavor.
The residence where I was taking the trailer wasn’t far from where we stopped, so the ride was quick, and Angel looked excited when I explained the process of detaching the trailer from the truck.
“So, you just leave the trailer at their house?” she asked.
“Yep. Colton comes back in two days to hook it back up, then he’ll bring it up to Champaign to where they’re moving.” I told her about how Hank & Sons got started, how our company worked, and how I liked the longer hauls, while Colton did most of the deliveries closer to home.
“That’s so neat, how you guys started this business,” she praised, looking genuinely impressed. “What do you do between deliveries? Or do you have them all the time?”
“The transport business isn’t always consistent, so I still work at the auto shop between hauls. My next trip is in a couple weeks,” I said, realizing Angel would still be around. I could have her stay at my apartment during the trip, but I’d be gone for at least three days. “Would you want to ride along with me?” I asked her, hopeful.
I don’t know why I was afraid she’d say no. I guess I just really liked the idea of her being on the road with me.
“Yes!” She bounced excitedly in her seat. “Where are you going?”
“Denver, Colorado. When I drop the trailer off, the clients have a six-hour window to get their things unloaded, so I usually sight-see or do touristy stuff for the day. That’s one of the reasons I like long road trips. It’s like getting paid to take a mini-vacation.”
“Can we go snowboarding?” she asked, still jumping in her seat. Biting my lip, I held back a groan because the movement was causing her tits to bounce up and down. I tried to avert my eyes but it was a struggle. “I’ve never been snowboarding before,” she continued, oblivious to my ogling.
“We can do anything you want,” I told her, and I meant it.
I had a feeling she would get her way with me a lot.
ANGEL
I followed behind Travis while he prepared the trailer to be detached from the truck. There was a lot of unhooking, unplugging, and hissing sounds.
“You gotta release the fifth wheel pin—that’s this part right here,” he explained as he pulled on a metal bar under the trailer.
He said a few more truck terms I’d never heard before, and I tried not to let my eyes glaze over. It’s not that it wasn’t interesting, because it was. But he may as well have been speaking another language.
The most interesting part was watching him, watching his body as he moved around the semi. He definitely knew what he was doing. It looked like he’d done it a hundred times, and I guess he probably had.
A couple times he bent over and his white T-shirt rode up exposing tan skin and two dimples in the muscles
of his lower back. The jeans he’d changed into were worn and they fit snugly to his backside.
He has such a nice butt.
I blushed because I’d been openly checking him out, but luckily he was too busy concentrating on the truck to notice.
Travis pushed some buttons inside the cab and two thick metal legs descended to the ground where he’d placed square wooden platforms. He explained that the legs would support the end of the trailer once it was fully detached.
After he seemed satisfied with all the tinkering he’d done, he hopped back into the driver’s seat and shot me a sexy half-smile while I stood a good distance away to watch.
The engine rumbled as he drove forward and just like that, the huge semi looked… Tiny.
Well, it was still a big vehicle, but it was tiny in comparison to what it used to look like with the trailer on the back end. It was unbelievable.
I stood next to the truck while Travis had the clients sign a form saying he had delivered the trailer, and I heard him tell them Colton would pick it back up in two days and bring it to their new location no later than 4PM that same day. I was impressed with how professional he was.
After that, we were back on the road headed to Travis’s hometown. When I agreed to stay with him for a while, one thing I hadn’t considered was the fact that I was probably going to meet his family and friends.
Suddenly, I was nervous. Really nervous.
How could I explain how Travis and I met?
Oh, I was just hitchhiking across the country because I’m a homeless runaway…
It was that moment when I realized how screwed up my life truly was. I was a mess.
Travis had it all figured out. He had a home, a stable job, and family that loved him.
The crush I had on him suddenly seemed ridiculous. Did I really think I had a chance with him?
How could I be so silly? There was no way he needed someone like me barreling into his life, stirring things up, then leaving.
Just as I thought about backing out of our deal, I felt something slide across my palm. I looked down into my lap to find Travis’s fingers intertwined with mine. His hands were callused and rough. A working man’s hands. Tingles raced up the skin on my arm as I felt his thumb gently rub back and forth across my knuckles.
He gave me a reassuring squeeze before putting two hands back on the wheel. “It’s gonna be okay,” he promised.
It was as though he could read my mind, and his words were reassuring. How was it possible for him to instantly make me feel better?
Maybe it wasn’t normal to feel so safe with someone I just met. Maybe there was something wrong with me. But maybe I just didn’t care.
*
“Do you have any good friends back in Maine?” Travis asked once we got out on to the highway.
“I had a few friends at my old school, but we lost touch when I moved away. The foster family I lived with had a no social media rule. I had to deactivate my accounts and they took my cell phone.” I shrugged because it really wasn’t that big of a deal since I didn’t have a lot of people to call anyway. “Plus, we were all graduating and a lot of people planned to go to college out of state. They had their big plans and now I have mine.”
“You didn’t want to go to college? I’m not judging, by the way,” Travis added.
“I’d gotten accepted to the University of Maine, but that was before…”
He nodded in understanding. “And now you’re here.”
“Yep. Now I’m here.” I shrugged.
The next couple of hours went faster than I thought they would. Travis let me have complete control over the radio, telling me he liked everything except for death metal. I decided on an oldies station, but neither of us seemed to pay attention to the music.
To pass the time, we played Twenty Questions—celebrity edition. Eight questions later, I correctly guessed his pick was Tom Hanks, while it took him twelve questions to figure out I was thinking of Lady Gaga. Travis retold the story of how he and Colton met, since I’d fallen asleep in the middle of it the night before, and he fondly described the town of Tolson. When he talked about his home, small town pride was evident in his voice.
Before I knew it, we were driving down Main Street of the smallest town I’d ever seen. The strip of houses was only about a half a mile long with a few businesses in between, including Hank’s Auto Shop. Across from the shop there were two taverns, a small bank, and an even smaller post office.
As Travis pulled the semi up next to the side of the white brick building, the gravel of the parking lot crunched under the tires and the apprehension I’d been feeling earlier returned with full force.
For a second, I honestly thought about making a run for it. Looking around, I saw nothing but a couple side streets and a lot of cornfields. We were literally in the middle of nowhere, so, unfortunately, making a run for it was out of the question.
Travis killed the engine then turned to me. “Let’s go meet Hank.” He smiled, seemingly oblivious to my inner panic attack.
Before we got out of the truck, he grabbed his bag and I did the same because he told me we’d be leaving the semi at the shop. As we were walking, he lifted my backpack off my shoulder and carried both bags in one hand.
Show-off.
I scoffed. “I can carry that, you know.”
He shrugged. “It looked heavy.”
Two garage doors were at the front of the building, one of which was open. Travis sauntered into the shop while twirling the keys around his finger.
“Yo, Hank!” he bellowed and I had no choice but to follow behind.
As we walked through, I saw a blue sedan with the hood propped up. The scent of tire rubber and motor oil permeated the air with the typical auto shop smell. An older man came out of a small office on the right and stopped in front of us, glancing back and forth between Travis and me.
“This is Angel,” Travis introduced me, and I gave an awkward wave.
“Hi, there. I’m Hank Evans.” He smiled. “Welcome to my shop. I’d shake your hand, but mine are a little dirty right now.” He held his hands out and I could see that they were dark with motor oil and grease.
“Angel Thomas,” I responded, wishing I could read his mind. He was looking at me as though he was trying to solve a puzzle.
Another guy, close to Travis’s age, came from the back of the garage. There was no doubt in my mind this was Hank’s son. Both men were wearing gray coverall uniforms with ‘Hank’s Auto Shop’ embroidered over the left breast pocket, but the similarities didn’t end there.
While Hank had hair that was mostly gray, Colton’s was a dirty blond and both men had it buzzed short. They also had the same color eyes—a blue so light it almost looked silver. As I studied them, I noticed they also had the same build. Hank and his son were an inch or two shorter than Travis, but their shoulders were broader.
I wondered if all the men of this town were good-looking.
Is there something in the water?
“Look what the cat dragged in,” the guy clapped Travis on the back. “And who do we have here?” he asked while giving me the same inquisitive look as Hank.
Both men had their heads cocked slightly to the right as they eyed me curiously. It would have been comical if I hadn’t been so nervous.
“You must be Colton,” I said, and I suddenly had to fight off a grin because I was picturing a younger version of him and Travis stuck in a shirt together.
“Colton, this is Angel,” Travis said. “Angel, this is Colton. Best friend. Roommate. Pain in my ass,” he said as he roughly hooked his arm around his friend’s neck.
Colton guffawed. “I’m the pain in the ass? Tell her about the time you threw guinea pig poop in my mouth.” He reached up and knocked Travis’s hat off before attempting to get the upper hand on their impromptu wrestling match.
“You deserved it,” Travis grunted as they started grappling in earnest.
“Alright,” Hank interrupted their good-natured
ribbing. “That’s enough, boys.” He turned to me. “So, Angel, where are you from?”
“Maine.” I knew the questions were coming. My plan was to keep my answers short, if possible.
“And what brings you to these parts?” he asked.
“I was just… traveling. And Travis gave me a ride. I’m on my way to California,” I answered vaguely.
“When you say ‘traveling’ you mean hitchhiking?” Hank crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a very effective ‘dad’ look.
I sighed. “You’re not going to let me get away with the shortened version of this, are you?”
He chuckled. “Not a chance.”
I took a deep breath, preparing to give my entire life story to someone who was not only a complete stranger, but also a father figure to the guy I was crushing on.
Thankfully, Travis came to my rescue again.
TRAVIS
“Yeah, she was hitchhiking, but it was the only time she’s ever done it. She wants to find her mom in California and doesn’t have much money to get there,” I cut in before Angel could ramble on about sushi and The Beatles for ten minutes.
Not that I minded her rambling. Actually, I thought it was pretty cute, but I could tell she was uncomfortable. Angel shot me a grateful look and mouthed a ‘thank you’ for taking over the conversation.
Technically she was a runaway, but we left that part out as we told Hank how I picked her up on the side of the road in Ohio.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous hitchhiking is? Especially for a young woman.” Hank’s eyes burned into Angel as he gave her his most stern voice. He wasn’t usually a serious guy, but he had the ability to make a person feel two inches tall if he wanted to.
Angel swallowed hard. “Yes. It’s the only time I’ve ever done it and I know it was risky. I’m just glad it was Travis who pulled over for me.”
“That’s why she’s going to stay in Tolson for a few weeks,” I chimed in. “And I’ll drive her to California when I have the Sacramento delivery.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Hank said before turning his serious voice on me. “And you. You know better. I set rules for you boys when we made this business.”
Trucker (The Good Guys #1) Page 5