That brought up a picture of a long black hearse, which looped around and made her think of the black Lincoln she’d seen several times in and around Bowie. Could that be her father? Holy hell! Had he been keeping tabs on her all this time?
She slung open the door and announced, “Tag, I want to find my father. I think maybe he’s been looking for me.” She told him about the black Lincoln and the glimpses of the guy in sunglasses and a cap.
“Only way to find out for sure is to ask him.” Tag unbuttoned his shirt and took it off on his way to the bathroom. “You sure you’re ready for that? Want to let this all settle before you take that on?”
“Nope, I want to know. I’m going to that address on the envelopes and cards this week.” She couldn’t take her eyes off his ripped abdomen or the little patch that was just the right amount of hair on his chest. Her fingers itched to see if it was as soft as it looked, so she sat on the bed and tucked her hands under her thighs. He undid his belt, laid it on the dresser, and emptied his pockets. Thinking about him taking off his jeans put a crimson blush on her cheeks.
He stopped at the bathroom door. “So what evening do you want to do this?”
“Monday I have to talk to Mama or the world will come to an end. Tuesday or Wednesday probably,” she said. “Why?”
“I’ll go with you. Pick you up at seven on Wednesday?”
“You don’t have to do that, Tag.”
In a couple of long strides he crossed the room, bent so their eyes were on the same level, and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “I want to go. I can stay in the truck or go up to the door with you. Your choice, but I’ll be there for support.”
“Thank you,” she said softly. “And you don’t have to sit in the truck.”
Chapter Nineteen
Tag went to sleep alone on Wednesday night, but when he awoke on Thursday, Nikki was curled up against his back again. Before he could turn over, she slipped out of bed and went to the bathroom. When she returned, she was fully dressed.
“Nightmares again?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “But they say the third time is the charm, so after tonight they won’t be there anymore.”
“I’d still feel better if you’d either let me stay at your place or you’d sleep at the cabin or with Emily.” He sat up in the bed and stretched.
“I wouldn’t put Emily at risk. He knows where the cabin is, and he doesn’t know where I live,” she said. “But he does know my car, and I just remembered, I have to get my real license plate back.”
“Why?” He stood up and headed for the bathroom.
“Billy Tom switched plates at one of the service stations. Or at least he said he did. God, I hope the nightmares end soon.”
“If we get to Bowie before they close, we can stop on the way. Nikki, I apologize again for everything, but most of all for the horrible dreams that bring it all back to you.”
“I’m just glad that you’ve been there the past two nights to comfort me.” She sat down on the edge of the bed.
She’d never know how much it meant to him that she accepted his apologies and let him stay with her. The whole way to Tulia, he’d figured that she would never speak to him again, and then when she wouldn’t even let him touch her after Billy Tom was handcuffed, it seemed like he’d been right.
He heard her humming when he’d finished brushing his teeth and was getting dressed, but he couldn’t figure out what the song was. At least she was happy. He scanned the bathroom one more time to make sure he’d remembered everything and then went on out to talk to Nikki.
Her things were all in plastic bags and waiting with the snack sack from yesterday on the end of her bed. She was organized and neat, which was another plus in his book.
“Want to eat breakfast in the hotel dining room before we leave or get something on the way?” he asked.
“Food here is free, so we might as well eat.” She picked up the bags on her bed. “We should be home by early afternoon, right?”
“You anxious to get there, are you?”
“I imagine Goldie is getting pretty hungry. She may decide to run away from home if I treat her like this very often,” Nikki answered.
“I’m picturing a goldfish holding a stick tucked up under her arm. There’s a little sack of food at the end, and she’s bouncing down the stairs on her fat little belly,” he chuckled.
“Well, what can you expect? You gave her to me, so she’s probably a renegade just like you.” Nikki threw her bags into the backseat of her car. “Man, this looks and smells new, like it did the first day I bought it.”
“We’ve got a real good detail guy. He even takes care of Granny’s vintage ’59 Chevy pickup.”
“You’re kiddin’. She’s got a sixty-year-old truck?” Nikki asked as they started toward the motel.
“Yep, Grandpa was driving it when they went on their first date. She wouldn’t let him trade it in or sell it. She gets it out at least once a week to ‘blow the cobwebs out of the engine.’” He put air quotes around the last phrase.
“What color is it?”
He held the door open for her to enter the lobby first. “Two tone. Gold on top. White on bottom. It has a special stall in the barn and stays covered except for her weekly trip to town or once a year when she has it detailed. But when Grandpa was alive, they used it every year on their anniversary. They’d usually leave the ranch for a week.”
“Where’d they go?” Nikki asked as she scanned the small dining area with its buffet laid out on one side.
“Road trips. No reservations. No plans. Grandpa said they went where the wind took them. They ate when they got hungry and stayed in hotels whenever they were tired. Granny looked forward to the trips all year. I’ll get two cups of coffee and set them on that table.” He nodded toward one at the back of the room where he could watch the door. He’d feel a lot better when Billy Tom was in a more secure place than the county jail.
“That kind of travel sounds amazing.” She picked up a paper plate and started down the line.
Tag was thinking about a week on the road with Nikki and overflowed the first coffee cup. He dumped enough to get the lid on the cup and then wiped down the outside. His thoughts went back to where he’d like to take Nikki, and he did the same thing with the second cup.
“A little distracted?” She was already seated when he set the coffee on the table.
“Little bit.” He spun around and headed toward the buffet. The beach at Florida would be a nice stop for a couple of days, he thought. When he realized what he was doing, his plate had a mound of scrambled eggs on it big enough for three lumberjacks. He couldn’t scrape them back, so he covered them with sausage gravy and added a couple of biscuits to the side.
Nikki’s eyes popped out at the sight when he set it on the table. “You need sideboards for that.”
“Distracted again,” he muttered.
“Billy Tom?”
He took a sip of the coffee. “No, I was thinking about a road trip with you.”
“Oh, really, and where are we going?”
“East to Shreveport, south to New Orleans, then over to a little secluded beach in the panhandle of Florida, maybe back up through Montgomery, Alabama, and Nashville, Tennessee,” he said.
“Do we get to take Opal’s truck?” She spread cream cheese on a bagel and then added strawberry jam.
“She doesn’t even let Emily drive that truck, and Emily is her favorite,” Tag chuckled. “If you could do a weeklong road trip, where would you want to go?”
“That one you said would be pretty nice for a starter. I’ve always wanted to see the ocean,” she said.
“The beach I had in mind is in the panhandle, so it would be the Gulf of Mexico, not the ocean,” he said between bites.
“Is the water salty?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Then it’s the ocean to me, but as much fun as it is to think about that kind of trip, I don’t see it happening,” she said.
“Me neither. At least not for two or three years until we get the ranch going good. If things were to work out on a long-term basis for us, maybe we’ll never sell my truck.”
“So you’ve got hope that this chemistry between us could be more than a flash in the pan?” She finished off her bagel and sipped at the black coffee.
“Oh, my hopes are mighty high.” He polished off the last of his breakfast. “How about a coffee refill for the road?”
“No, thanks.” She covered a yawn with her hand. “Am I driving or are you?”
“I’ll be glad to,” he offered. “Looks like you’re still sleepy. I’m wide awake.”
“Thank you. It was a rough night. I’d love to catch a little more sleep,” she said as she got into the passenger seat and leaned it back as far as it would go.
For the first hundred miles, he constantly kept an eye on the rearview mirror. He wouldn’t have been surprised at any minute to see a motorcycle coming up fast, but it never did. He settled down to listen to the radio and let his thoughts wander back to the conversation about a road trip. They’d just passed the city limits sign to Childress when Nikki roused.
“Where are we?”
“You’ve slept a little less than two hours. We’re on Highway 287. It will take us all the way to Bowie,” he answered.
“Can we stop at that Pilot station up ahead for something cold to drink and a bathroom break?” she asked.
“Of course. No nightmares?” He flipped on the turn signal to get off at the next exit.
“Nope. Slept like a baby,” she answered.
The parking lot was crowded, but he snagged a place right in front of the store. Nikki was out of the vehicle and practically jogging to the store before he could be a gentleman and open the door for her. Once he stepped outside the car, he understood her rush. The heat was downright oppressive, and it was only midmorning. He hurried after her, pressing the button on his key fob and listening for the click to tell him the doors were locked. As much as he’d loved his motorcycle, he was glad that he wasn’t riding it that day.
He made a sweep through the place before he went to the men’s room. There was no one who even resembled one of Billy Tom’s gang in the store or in the restroom. When he came back out, Nikki was standing in front of the glass doors where the cold soda pop was displayed.
“Root beer is over there.” He pointed.
“I’m trying to decide if I want something in a bottle or a fountain drink with ice,” she said.
“I’m getting a big sweet tea with ice. It’ll stay cold for at least another hundred miles and then we’ll stop for lunch,” Tag said.
“That sounds really good.” She headed toward the drink machine at the front of the store.
They didn’t have to stand in line, so they were back in the car and on the way in a few minutes. Tag groaned when he slid behind the steering wheel. “I miss my truck.”
“I guess my car is a little small for you, isn’t it?” she said. “What about your motorcycle? Do you miss it?”
“Not in this heat.” He took a long drink of the tea and then put it in the cup holder in the console.
“Y’all rode out to Bowie and back when you came to visit Emily last spring,” she reminded him.
“And the weather was fairly cool. Come to think of it, where were you while we were there?”
“Working and studying to take my test to be a registered nurse. If anyone had told you what would be happening this past couple of months back then, would you have believed them?”
He pulled out of the parking lot and merged with the traffic on the highway. “I could have believed that we’d own the ranch. Hud and I have been looking for something we could afford for the past couple of years. I wouldn’t have believed that we could talk Maverick and Paxton into moving with us so we’d have some help. Or that you’d finally agree to go out with me.”
“Maverick and Paxton seem more like brothers to you and Hud than distant cousins. I’d think they’d be happy to join you,” she said.
“They’ve been with the Rocking B since they got out of high school, and we’ve been through a lot together even before that. It’s complicated. Granny’s cousin went to Ireland when he was in the military and brought home an Irish wife. She and Granny became fast friends and have remained so all through the years.”
Tag watched the landscape change from flat as a pancake to rolling hills. Sometimes he missed what he’d grown up around, too, and a day didn’t go by that he didn’t miss his family. “How’d you handle it when your dad left?”
“I was mourning for my brother, so I guess I kind of clumped it all together and grieved for him like he was dead too. I don’t know where I got it, but since Mama was so…” Nikki frowned like she was searching for the right word, then finally threw up her hands in defeat. “Well, you’ve met her and I told you what she said when Quint died, so you can guess how she was. I felt like I owed it to both of them to grieve for a whole year. It sounds insane, but a year passed before I had the first little bit of closure.”
“When did you have it all, the closure, I mean?” he asked.
“I still don’t, not any more than you do for Duke,” she answered.
“Giving up the motorcycle has helped,” he said.
“Seeing my father in person might do it for me.” She reached into the backseat and brought up the snack bag, dug around until she found a package of chocolate doughnuts and a bag of peanuts. “Can I open something for you?”
“Maybe a candy bar if there’s one left,” he said. “Something about riding makes a person hungry.”
“Why did you decide to give up your motorcycle?” she said.
“I haven’t ridden it since we bought the ranch. But more importantly, I thought about it all the way to Tulia. Granny told me once that if I was arguing with myself, then I should go somewhere quiet and take five minutes to imagine not doing whatever it was. And then spend another five minutes imagining doing it. Whichever vision delivered peace at the end was the way I should go.”
“So you did that?” Nikki bit off half a miniature doughnut.
“I was going down this very stretch of highway. I didn’t have a clock, so for twenty miles from this spot I tried to remember all the really good times I’d had on the bike. There was only one that I could really say was fun and not dangerous. That was last spring when Hud and I rode our cycles to Bowie. Then I thought about the fun times I’d had in my truck and on the ranch, especially Canyon Creek with the guys and with you. It wasn’t a tough decision after that.”
“You think if I think about not seeing my father and then seeing him, it will do the same for me?” she asked.
“I thought you were already resigned to going to see him on Wednesday evening,” Tag answered.
“Give me ten minutes. Don’t talk to me, but you can turn on the radio. Sometimes songs help me more than words,” she said.
He found a country music station and set the volume low. He looked at the digital clock on the dashboard and got ready for ten minutes of nothing but soft music and no talking. Three songs later, Nikki turned to him and said, “I’m going to see him on Wednesday. The last card he sent was dated three months ago, so I hope he still lives there.”
“Then I guess we’ve both made the right decision,” Tag added. “Any of those songs help you?”
“Not a single one.” She finished off the doughnuts and picked up her tea. “How much farther is it to Bowie?”
“If we only take thirty minutes to eat dinner, we’ll be there by one,” he answered.
“After that breakfast and our road food, we don’t really need to stop, do we?”
“I’m game if you are,” he answered.
“And now a classic from 1996,” the DJ said. “Let’s give it up for Deana Carter.”
“1996,” Nikki said. “I was just a little girl back then.”
“Me too. Born in August 1990.”
“July,” she said.
�
��I always did like older women.” He grinned.
Nikki stayed just long enough at the ranch to drop off Tag and retrieve her purse and phone. Of course, the phone’s battery was dead, so she couldn’t call Emily on the way to her apartment. It seemed like a year since she’d seen her friend, but she wanted to get home, collect her thoughts, and feed Goldie.
She parked in her usual spot and climbed the stairs. She was about to unlock the door when she heard the crunch of tires on gravel. She whipped around to see Emily getting out of her van. She unlocked the door and held it open while Emily took the steps two at a time and almost bowled Nikki over when she wrapped her up in a hug. Then she stepped back and eyed Nikki from her toes to the top of her head. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“No, just made a lot of threats,” Nikki answered.
“I’ll get out the ice cream and two spoons and then you’re going to tell me every single detail.” Emily headed straight to the freezer while Nikki fed Goldie a double amount of food.
Emily carried the container of ice cream and two spoons to the sofa, kicked off her shoes, and sat with her legs drawn up under her. Nikki took the spoon Emily handed her, sat down on the other end, and dipped deep, bringing up lots of chocolate bits.
“Talk,” Emily said.
“How much do you already know? What did Tag tell you?” Nikki asked.
“I haven’t seen Tag. Mama called and said that she’d talked to him, that y’all were home and he was going out to help the guys for the rest of the afternoon. I knew you would come straight home. This is your nest, like my apartment used to be mine. So start from the beginning and tell me the whole story. I hear you and my brother shared a hotel room. Did you?” She raised an eyebrow.
“We did not.” Nikki put emphasis on the last word. “I’m sure you know the basics. Kidnapped. Threatened. Rescued.”
“Just start talking or I’m not sharing this ice cream,” Emily said.
“It’s my ice cream,” Nikki reminded her.
“But I’m bigger than you are, so I can keep it away from you,” Emily laughed. “I want to hear, so please start talking before my head explodes. I’ve been so worried. Here’s your phone and your purse.”
Cowboy Rebel--Includes a bonus short story Page 18