“You broke your word.”
“Hey, Tex, just beware of those friendly ladies, pal,” said the man Cal had called Breadman.
Cal pushed in the button to talk. “Oh, this one is not so friendly, I guarantee it. See you at the chicken coop,” said Cal. “Over and out.” He shut off the radio, and smiling, turned and looked at her.
“What do you mean I’m not friendly? You made me sound like some kind of shrew to your friends.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“I heard you.”
“A friendly lady is a whore, Twiggy.”
“Oh,” she said, swallowing deeply. “Well what was all that about my . . . beaver?”
He laughed. “I was just having fun, Twiggy. I’m sorry if I upset you.”
“You looked in the mirror at me when you promised you wouldn’t. How could you?”
“Sweetheart, you’ve got a knockout body that gets me excited. And I don’t give a rat’s ass if you dye your hair or not. I kind of like the two-toned thing you’ve got going.”
Suddenly, she didn’t know what to say. Cal Reeves said she had a knockout body? And did she really get him excited sexually? She kind of liked that. Especially since he used to think of her as an ugly duckling, even if he never said it to her face.
“Really?” she asked, feeling her cheeks blush, hoping he wasn’t lying now.
“Take a look for yourself if you don’t believe me.” He nodded to his groin.
Sure enough, he wasn’t kidding. “That’s not the part I was talking about,” she said, feeling embarrassed. She held her hand up to her eyes and turned her attention out the side window. “I was talking about the knockout body part.”
“I meant every word, Twiggy. And even if you didn’t dye your hair and wear colored contacts, I’d still say the same thing. I think you’d look just as pretty without all that.”
“Thank you,” she said softly, smiling and still looking the other way. “So what’s a chicken coop?”
“It’s the weigh station,” he told her. “I hope they’re not crowded because I have no time to waste. It’s coming up right ahead.”
Well, they were crowded and it took a while to even get the truck on the scale. Maggie woke up and started wailing. Twiggy tried to calm her but the little girl kept putting her fist in her mouth, crying. That only made Burrito start howling.
“Can’t you shut her up?” snapped Cal, getting back in the truck with papers in his hand. He looked very perturbed.
“She’s teething, Cal. I told you this was going to happen. You should have let me buy that teething cream.”
“Damn it all to hell,” he spat, thumping his hand hard against the steering wheel, making Tuesday jump in surprise.
“Don’t be mad. Maggie can’t help it,” explained Tuesday, sticking up for the baby.
“That’s not what I’m pissed about. I didn’t pass the safety inspection. They caught me on the patched radiator hose.”
“Oh? So what does that mean?”
“It means I’m out of commission until I get it fixed. Shit, I’ll never get this load delivered in the promised time now.”
“Can’t they do something to fix it here?”
“You’d think. They’ve got a mechanic. It’s a simple process and wouldn’t take more than ten minutes, but there’s a line of trucks to be fixed ahead of mine and I have to wait. I tried to bribe the woman who wrote me up to get me to the front of the line, and that just made her angrier.”
“A woman?” asked Twiggy. “Where is she?” Holding the crying baby, she craned her neck to see out the window.
“She’s the one that is swooping down on us like a vulture.” He pointed out the window at a middle-aged, overweight woman with really short hair.
The inspector stood right outside the truck. “I’m going to get out to talk to her. You take the baby, and follow me. Let Burrito out, too,” she told him, opening the door.
“What? No.” His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist to stop her. “What do you think you are doing, Twiggy? You’re only going to make her angrier and she’ll make me go to the end of the line.”
“Trust me,” she said, handing him the crying baby. Once outside the truck, she waited for Cal to get out. Then she headed right over to the woman in charge with the baby wailing and the dog howling as Cal headed in their direction.
“What’s that? What’s going on here?” asked the inspector woman, spinning around. She was dressed like a man and had really short hair and a low voice as well. She looked scary. Tuesday hoped the woman had some kind of maternal streak under all those greasy clothes, or this was all going to be for nothing.
“Ma’am, would you happen to know where I can get some teething cream?” asked Tuesday.
“What?” The woman made a face. “Who are you and what are a baby and a dog doing here?”
The baby continued to wail and Burrito sat there howling louder, just to be heard.
“I’m with Cal Reeves and we have to get this baby some help.” Tuesday told her as Cal and the menagerie approached. Tuesday reached out and touched Maggie’s forehead. To her surprise, the baby felt really warm. “Cal, I think she has a fever. Did we buy a thermometer? Oh, God, do we have anything to bring the fever down? I can’t remember buying baby aspirin, do you?””
“You’ve got your wife and child, not to mention your dog along with you on the road?” griped the woman.
Cal opened his mouth, probably to tell her that he wasn’t married, but Tuesday intervened.
“Do you think it’s easy being married to a trucker?” asked Tuesday. “The only time we see Cal is if we’re with him. Little Maggie doesn’t even know her daddy.” Everything she said was true, and she was careful not to say she was married to Cal, but just to insinuate it so the woman would think they were. “Traveling with Cal is the only thing that makes us feel like a family.” Once again, her words were true, but also deceptive. Still, if this worked, it would be worth it, so Cal wouldn’t lose his job.
“I know what you mean,” agreed the woman. Her frown turned into a slight grin and she reached out to touch Maggie on the head. “My husband’s been in the trucking industry his whole life, and runs this weigh station. Our son works here, too. I never saw either of them and that is the only reason I took this job in the first place. So I can be with my family.”
“Then you know how important it is that we get back on the road immediately,” said Tuesday. “If not, we’re going to be late with the shipment and my hus – Cal, is going to lose the account. It’s already hard enough to make ends meet since we’re living in the truck. We really can’t let that happen.”
“You live in that truck?” asked the woman. “Or do you have a house somewhere?”
“We’re living in the truck,” said Tuesday with a nod, once again not lying but also not being totally honest. “And we don’t have a house.” Not together, anyway.
“I’ll tell you what,” said the woman, her eyes shifting back and forth. “My son is the mechanic here, and I know for a fact he can slap a new hose on that radiator in a matter of minutes. Just bring the truck around to the back garage door, and I’ll let you cut to the front of the line.”
“Thank you,” said Tuesday, watching the astonished look wash over Cal’s face.
“Anything to keep a family together,” said the woman, sounding so much softer and feminine now and no longer hard and harsh. “Now, please hurry and get over there so you don’t miss your deadline.”
It wasn’t fifteen minutes later and they were back on the road with Cal still shaking his head. Maggie held the crying baby on her lap, having put the teething ring in the freezer and now at least little Maggie’s pain was lessened by the coolness of it in her mouth.
“I can’t believe what you just did back there. Thank you,” said Cal, sounding surprised, impressed, and sincere. “If nothing else goes wrong, I might just be able to still make it there in time after all.”
“Anything I can do to help,�
�� she said.
“I didn’t think you’d ever lie, Twiggy. That surprised me when you let that woman think we were married and that Maggie was our baby.”
“I didn’t lie. I never said you were my husband, and I never said this was our biological baby.”
“Well, maybe not, but you led her to believe it was true.”
“She thought what she wanted to think. Besides, it worked, didn’t it?”
He nodded. “Yes, I suppose it did, and no harm was done.”
“Now, Cal Reeves, if you ever talk about me to your trucker friends again in the manner you did earlier, I swear I will never, and I repeat never, help you again. Do you understand?”
Cal looked over at her and she saw a tick in his jaw. He looked like he was about to explode and was holding it all in. “Well, in that case, sweetheart, if you ever try to feed me tuna or throw my magazines in the garbage again, it’s not going to be pretty. Now, do you understand?”
She bit her lip and nodded. Then she mumbled under her breath, “Touché.”
Chapter 10
“Well, you’re all set to go,” Tuesday heard the man at their destination say through the window, handing Cal the papers after the truck was unloaded. “I must say, I didn’t think you’d really get here in time.”
“It’s a pleasure doing business with you,” said Cal, shaking the man’s hand. “Come on, Burrito, it’s time to go.” He opened the door and the dog bounded in, but stopped when it saw Twiggy sitting on the front seat. Hanging his head, the dog headed to the back.
“Well, we’re all set.” Cal filled out some travel logs while Tuesday waited. She didn’t speak until he was finished.
“I finally got Maggie to sleep, but she is in pain because her teeth are coming in.”
“She’ll be fine,” he said, looking down at the papers. Then he picked up his phone and talked to the next place where he was to pick up a shipment. When he hung up and started up the truck, she stopped him.
“Cal, we need some supplies for the baby. Can you stop at a store?”
“Can’t.” He used his mirrors and backed up, pulling out onto the road. “I’ve got to pick up this next shipment by five and it’s at least a good two hours away.”
“Then can we please stop afterward? Maggie needs you.”
That got his attention. He looked at her from the corners of his eyes and nodded. “All right. We’ll stop somewhere to eat and get supplies right after I get loaded.”
“When you say get loaded, I hope you’re talking about the shipment and not about drinking a lot of beer.” She grinned at him, and he knew she was joking.
“Maybe both,” he said with a smile of his own, heading to their next destination.
Cal was tired as all hell by the time his truck was loaded with his next shipment which happened to be electronics. All he wanted to do was sleep. Normally, he would get a few energy drinks and some strong coffee and just drive through the night since there was less traffic when it was dark. But he’d promised Twiggy dinner and another shopping trip for doggone baby supplies, so he figured he’d call it quits for the night and get an early start tomorrow.
“Let’s make this a fast trip,” he told her, pulling into the lot of the grocery store.
“I will,” she promised.
“Why don’t you run in, and I’ll air out the dog.” He handed her his credit card. “I know of a nice restaurant up ahead where we can eat outside so Burrito can sit with us. I also have a spot in mind where we can park for the night.”
She took his card and then eyed him up. “Park for the night?”
“To sleep,” he added.
“Oh. Of course. Make sure not to go too far from the truck since Maggie is alone in there.”
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” he told her.
“No, but it is your first baby.”
“Touché,” he mumbled, and headed out the door.
Before long, Tuesday was finished shopping and they were at the outdoor restaurant having dinner. The baby sat in a high chair and Burrito was under the table. Cal had a steak and loaded baked potato, plus he ordered a bottle of wine for them to share. Twiggy had some kind of Portobello mushroom burger that looked to Cal like a sad excuse for a real meal. Never could fungus take the place of meat.
She fed the baby applesauce and cottage cheese, making Maggie happier than he’d ever seen her.
The whole thing felt so right. It was almost as if they were a family. Family was something that Cal hadn’t experienced much since when he was a child and lived at home.
A whine came from under the table, and Cal could feel Burrito’s hot breath on his knee.
“You’re lucky I ordered a T-bone,” he told the dog, taking the bone with some meat still attached and placing it on the ground.
“You know, he’ll never eat dog chow if you’re going to constantly spoil him,” said Twiggy, wiping Maggie’s mouth.
“I like spoiling my dog,” Cal said proudly. “I plan on spoiling my family, too, so don’t even try to stop me.” He picked up the bottle and poured her another glass of wine.
Twiggy’s blue eyes looked up at him, and he could tell she was becoming relaxed from the alcohol. He had a feeling she didn’t drink often.
“Your family?” she asked, blushing as she took a sip of the wine and peeked up at him over the rim of the goblet.
Suddenly, Cal became scared. What had he said, speaking so loosely? She seemed to think when he said family that it included her. Actually, he did include her but, still, he couldn’t admit it. He didn’t want to lead her on. After all, they were only going to be together for a few days and then he’d probably never see her again.
“Yeah. Maggie and the dog,” he said, feeling uncomfortable, pushing the scraps of food around his plate.
“Cal, you know as well as I that you’re going to eventually have to find a mother for Maggie. With your job, you can’t raise her on your own. You need help.”
“I’ll figure it all out. Don’t you worry,” he said, downing some wine, knowing she was right. Hell, the only woman in his life right now besides Twiggy was Shelby, and he had been planning on breaking it off with her as soon as he got back to Texas. Shelby was a leech and only good for one thing. Well, that same one thing he could get on his own with Miss May and Miss June for visuals.
“Did you grow up with both parents?” she asked him. “After all, you were a senior when I was a freshman so I don’t know much about your family.”
“I thought my sister was a good friend of yours,” he said. “I figured you’d know everything about my family.”
“Your sister was my friend, but she was also the most secretive person I’ve ever met. She never spoke about your parents, and it was like pulling teeth getting her to tell me anything about you.” Her words sounded a little slurred and she giggled as she took another sip of wine.
“So . . . you asked her about me, did you?”
“I was always attracted to you, Cal, even though you didn’t know I existed. That’s why I was so ecstatic when you asked me to the dance. I had the silly notion in my head that you liked me. But I know now that you didn’t and it was only a joke. You dated me on a dare. So, how much did your friends pay you to do it?” She chugged the wine and reached for the bottle again. “I hope it was worth it.”
His hand shot out and covered hers to keep her from taking more wine. “No more,” he told her, picking up the bottle and emptying the rest into his glass. “And I told you I made a mistake back then and that I am sorry for it.”
“I’m just a mistake then?” She was definitely looped now. “I should have known it was just a joke back then. I was the ugliest girl in school and you were so popular and handsome that you could have had any girl you wanted.”
“Stop it, Twiggy. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Don’t I? So you didn’t think I was homely?”
“I’m not going to answer that.”
“Why? You can’t hurt me now
anymore than you already did.”
“Damn it, Twiggy, okay, I admit I thought you were a nerd. Face it, with those braces and all, you weren’t a real looker.”
Tears started to well up in her eyes. “I know that.”
“Wait a minute, I’m not done yet. Like I said, I did it on a dare, but after I kissed you, something happened.”
“What? You felt like vomiting?”
“Stop it.” He reached out and took her hand in his. “Twiggy, you are too bright of a woman to act this way. Now, the honest to God truth was that I kissed you and I liked it.”
“What?” She looked up and sniffled. “Really?”
“Yes, really. I liked it and it scared me since you weren’t the normal type of girl I usually dated.”
“If you liked it, then why did you leave me so quickly?”
“Because. I had to. I wanted more, and I knew it wasn’t right.”
“Why not?”
“Sweetheart, you were young and innocent, and not one of the floozies I normally dated just to get them in bed. I didn’t want to hurt you. Plus, I didn’t deserve you. Don’t you see? I left you alone out of respect. I wanted you to stay just as innocent as you were.”
“Well, I don’t want to be innocent anymore. Kiss me, Cal.” She leaned closer to him and their faces were almost touching. It took all his control not to press his mouth up against hers right now and give her the kind of kiss he’d wanted to since that first kiss the night of the prom.
“Twiggy, I think we should get going. The baby needs to get to bed.”
“Just one kiss. That will prove to me that what you just told me is true.”
“You’ve had too much to drink. I can’t take advantage of that.”
“Do it. I don’t care. I want you to.”
She leaned forward again and, this time, he couldn’t hold back. He pressed his mouth up against hers and felt a bolt of excitement flash through him. Damn, she tasted good. With just one kiss, his senses were reeling.
“Maybe we should go back to the truck now and . . . find a place to park? For the night?” She giggled and he reached out to cradle her chin.
Trucker Daddy (Working Man Series Book 3) Page 13