“Here, Mom.” He opened his grubby fist to reveal a nickel and a dime.
Jenny pulled her son close and hugged him. “You keep it,” she whispered against his overlong hair. “And you know what?” She pulled back to look into his eyes. “Take this and get yourself a pop from the machine.” She handed him a dollar in change from the laundry money Garrett had given her. She’d double up the loads in the oversized driers, and if that left some of their clothes damp, well, the look on her son’s face was worth it.
“Thanks.” He accepted the change almost shyly, and then hurried across the tile to the vending machine.
Garrett returned a short while later with more than a pine scented, tree shaped car refresher from the look of it. “Anyone up for a picnic?” He set out a loaf of bread, peanut butter and grape jelly on the folding table. Chips, cookies and soda pop--all a little boy’s favorites.
Jenny shot him a disproving glare. She owed him so much already, but as with the quarters he supplied to clean the car and the clothes she kept a close count, and managed a half hearted, “You shouldn’t have.”
He shrugged. “It’s past lunch time. We’re going to be here awhile. And I’m starving. How about you, Son. Hungry?”
That was the second time he’d used that endearment. The first had been lost in the earlier commotion. Jenny knew it was a cultural thing, some older men called younger men and boys, son, even when they weren’t related. Garrett wasn’t that old and she wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about him calling her son--son.
Josh rummaged through the grocery bags with wide-eyed enthusiasm. “Look, Mom… He even bought Buster a treat.”
“To tempt her away from sugarcoated pain relievers.” The man looked almost embarrassed. The warm glow softened his features. If she had to guess, she’d say Garrett Erickson was in his thirties. It was hard to tell. He could have been younger, and simply a graduate from the school of hard knocks. Like she was.
Her own embarrassment only served to make her feel more indebted. “I’ll pay you back, every dime--”
“No hurry,” he said, letting her keep what little pride she had left as he handed over the job application she’d requested.
They finished their picnic by the time the clothes were dry and ready to be folded. Josh played with Buster just outside the door Garrett had propped open because of the heat and lack of a working air conditioner.
“Do you have family in Reno?” He folded, and then placed one of Josh’s T-shirts on top of the stack with military precision.
“No.”
“Why Reno?” he persisted.
She shrugged. “Why not Reno?”
“What is it you’re running from, Jenny?” There was no judgment in words, only the warmth he generated by using her name.
“I’m not running from anything.” She looked away, unable to meet the sincerity in his gaze.
“Husband?”
“Never been married.”
“Josh’s father?”
“Left a long time ago.” She didn’t owe him an explanation, but she gave him one anyway--enough to stop the more probing questions--she hoped. “He didn’t want anything to do with me or the baby. He dropped out of high school and joined the Marines. Last I heard he was killed in Iraq.”
“You know Josh might be entitled to survivors benefits—“
“Yeah, well, I don’t have any proof of paternity. It was one night of underage drinking at a party I’d just as soon forget.” She turned her back on Garrett and loaded the folded laundry into an empty basket.
“What about you? Did you ever finish high school?”
“Got my GED.” Even to her own ears, she sounded defensive. The man was just being kind. But kindness often hid a darker motive. Though she didn’t want to believe that of him, she didn’t want to be in his debt either. She couldn’t afford another mistake like the one that had cost her everything. She’d thought her manager was just being kind, too. He owned properties. He could afford to rent her a trailer home cheap. “Look, I appreciate your concern, but we’ll be fine. I have a good friend in Reno. I’m sure she’ll give us a place to stay until I find work.”
It wasn’t a lie. It just wasn’t the whole truth.
They loaded up Garrett’s Bronco, and then she and Josh followed him in the Fairlane to the first used car lot off Main Street. He haggled with the dealer on her behalf, getting her four hundred dollars for the car. Without his help, she would have walked away from the shrewd salesman with a lot less cash.
The dealer handed her the money.
Jenny counted out enough to pay Garrett back for the vet bill. Then peeled off another twenty to cover the car wash, laundry and groceries—even though it probably wasn’t enough—and then another twenty for the one he dropped. Which she still had tucked away in her pocket.
“Thank you, again, for your help today, Mr. Erickson.”
“Garrett,” he corrected, taking the two hundred dollars she forced on him with obvious reluctance. “What’s next for you and the boy?”
CHAPTER FOUR
Jenny hesitated, wishing she knew what was next. “Josh and I will catch a bus into Reno and in the morning I’ll start looking for work.”
“You could hitch ride with me. I’d planned on spending the night in Reno--do a little gambling. It’s no trouble.“
Still she hesitated. “I don’t know--”
“It’s up to you.”
His casual dismissal put her at ease. A ride would save them bus fare. “Guess I could call my friend when I got there--”
“I have reservations at the Travelodge. You’re welcome to wait there for your friend. Or I could even book you a room--”
“I wouldn’t want to put you to the extra expense.” She looked at her son’s eager face, thought about the pup and all the things they’d have to lug. Or wouldn’t be able to carry. Did they even allow dogs on the bus?
“You can trust me, Jenny,” Garrett said. “You really don’t have all that many options. You’re going to have to trust someone.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“I don’t have an ulterior motive. I know that thought must have crossed your mind. I simply wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I walked away from you and the boy.”
“What kind of job do you do in the Navy?” As if that had any bearing on his character.
“I’m a SEAL. It’s an acronym for Sea, Air and Land. Special Operations.”
She swallowed, envisioning every good and bad guy in every military movie she’d ever seen. How could she know for sure he was one of the good guys?
“Part of my job is helping people.”
“Is that why you feel the need to rescue us?”
“I guess it is,” he admitted. “Let me help you and the boy. It’s just a ride. No strings attached.”
She stared into those kind eyes. Brown just as she’d thought, and not so very different from Josh’s. “You said so yourself, I don’t have many options.”
He loaded their things in his Bronco while she buckled Josh into the backseat, searching her son’s face for his reaction to her breaking one of their rules--never, ever accept rides from strangers. Accepting Garrett’s help was one thing. Now they were at his mercy. Maybe they had been from the moment he’d called out ma’am at the 76.
Jenny prayed she wouldn’t live to regret this.
#
His waif clung to the passenger side, door handle the entire ride. He’d loaned her his cell phone to call her friend. But she’d been unable to reach her--if such a person even existed. Not that Jenny wasn’t likeable, she was, and a lot tougher than his first assumption. Prettier too. When she smiled, he felt it right there in his gut.
It bothered him that she was so afraid of him.
Despite that, he called ahead for an additional room and added it to his credit card. She had two hundred and twenty dollars to her name and no plastic to fall back on. He’d only helped her sell the car because she was right. She would have bee
n lucky to make it to Reno.
About thirty minutes later, they pulled up to the Travelodge, in this case a Days Inn. Garrett wondered if it occurred to Jenny that he also had something to lose by trusting a stranger. She was desperate. Down on her luck. Low on cash and hope. No telling what that might drive a woman to do.
He dropped their things just inside the first door. “Josh, there’s pool outside. What do you say we go for a swim?”
“Mom, can I?”
She cast a longing look into the room at the two double beds and then at him again. “You were going gambling?”
He only wanted to give her the break she deserved and he’d never had until it was almost too late. “I thought I could take Josh swimming while you rest. Then we could grab some dinner--”
“We still have peanut butter--”
“I’m a meat and potatoes man.”
“Me too!” Josh chimed in, unaware of the adult power play going on around him. There was no way in hell Jenny was going to let her son out of her sight with a strange man. Even one who so far proved he could be trusted. Even one who’s job it was to rescue people.
“Okay.” She gave in to a compromise. “We’ll all go swimming.”
“Yeah!” Josh jumped up and down, becoming more animated then he’d been since they’d left Colorado. Something else she could thank Garrett Erickson for.
“Get your suit on, Josh.” She dug it out of the clean clothes basket along with hers while Garrett went next door to change.
When it was her turn to change, she hesitated outside the bathroom. Garrett had left open the door between their connected rooms. He might find it insulting if she closed and locked it again. But she didn’t want to leave Josh alone with the man either. In the end, Garrett relieved her from the anxiety by offering to walk the dog, and then meet them down by the pool.
Josh glued himself to the TV interspersed with shouts of, “Hurry up, Mom!” during the commercials.
Jenny stood before the full-length bathroom mirror horrified to see her reflection in something other than a rearview mirror for a change. She’d lost weight. Her two-piece did nothing to hide her too-thin frame. She slipped a flowered sundress on as a cover up and told herself the extra effort wasn’t because of the man who’d rented them a room.
She didn’t bother digging out the few makeup items Buster hadn’t eaten. But she did look to the tub with longing, a real bath tonight. There were even little shampoo bottles for her to hoard.
The old Ford had broken down just outside of Grand Junction, Thursday night. The repairs had taken almost everything she had. She and Josh had spent every night since in the car and washed up at a rest stop in the morning--well, Josh had slept--she hadn’t slept much--which is why a nap sounded better than swimming right now. But who knew when she’d be able to give Josh another respite like this.
CHAPTER FIVE
Jenny woke up in a lounge chair by the pool. Her heart stopped at the implication that she’d been careless enough to fall asleep, leaving Josh alone with Garrett Erickson, Navy SEAL.
She zeroed in on them. Her son laughed and splashed the man trying to instruct him in the finer points of floating.
Josh had never had that kind of male attention in his life and she could already see signs that this man had stolen her son’s heart. Her heart felt a little pitter-patter.
“Look at me, Mom!” Josh dog paddled to the side.
Garrett pushed out of the waist high water and onto the concrete with the ease of an athlete. “Did you have a nice nap?”
“Yes, thank you.” Following that long lean, hard body upward, she shaded her eyes against the glaring desert sun to ogle him.
“Throw mom in the pool.” Josh urged from the sidelines.
“Throw mom in?” Garrett repeated, lifting Josh out and dangling his wiggling body over the deep end. “How would you like it?” Buster barked in protest from her post outside the pool fence.
“No, no,” Josh screamed, but it sounded more like a giggling dare.
Jenny leaned forward in her lounger. “Set him down, please. He can’t swim.”
Garrett set Josh on his feet. “Why don’t you show your mom what you can do?”
“Look at me, Mom. Look.” Josh dove into the deep end, paddled his way to the surface, and then paddled back to the edge.
“You learned that today?”
She looked to the man toweling off beside her. He had a swimmers body, tanned and toned. How fair was it that underarm hair looked sexy on a man? But not as sexy as the line that tapered below his taunt abs.
Jenny lifted her gaze to his face and blushed. Tucking her curling toes beneath her sundress, she feigned interest in their surroundings. The lodge where she’d worked in Eagle, Colorado as a housekeeper wasn’t part of any chain. Quaint and quiet most of the year, it got extremely busy during ski season. She’d miss it, as well as the trailer house that had been their first real home—though that had been deceptive.
The sad thing was she couldn’t think of a single person she’d miss.
Not a friend. Not a boyfriend.
Certainly not the owner/manager of the Little Eagle Lodge.
Garrett Erickson raised the bar in what she’d be looking for in a man. Sexy didn’t even begin to describe him. It had been a long time since she’d even thought about sex and she pushed the thought right out of her mind. “How can I ever thank you for this day?”
#
He’d made their worst day one of their best in a long time, Jenny decided on the way back to the room after dinner in the restaurant. Josh hadn’t been able to stop talking about the pool and the in room movie Garrett had promised for after dinner.
“Bath before movie.” Jenny reminded her son.
“But I already took one today.”
“Rinsing off after swimming doesn’t count.”
While Josh bathed, she straightened and re-straightened the room. Garrett flipped through the channels on the remote in their room, rather than return to his. He sat on the bed closest to the door. Her bed.
His presence made the room feel smaller somehow.
It left her feeling claustrophobic. She had no escape route with him by the door. What made her think she’d need one? He hadn’t acted inappropriately toward her or her son in any way. But since seeing him in swim trunks, she’d become very aware of him as a man.
Josh emerged from the bathroom. “Can we give Buster a bath?”
“No, hon, Mr. Erickson has to be somewhere tonight. So if you’re going to watch a movie together—”
“Go ahead,” Garrett offered, looking up from his game scores. “I can wait to start the movie.”
Jenny would have liked nothing better than to be next in line, but she’d pass until after he left. Buster needed a bath as much or more than Josh. Although she’d probably never get the tub clean after bathing the dog. “Let’s make it quick.”
About five minutes into the dog’s bath, Buster escaped and showered them all. Garrett reacted with his usual good humor as he helped Josh towel off the pup. “How did this little lady get the name Buster?”
“I named her.” Josh beamed at the attention. “She gets into trouble a lot. When she pees on the carpet, mom stands over her like this,” he demonstrated with his hands on his hips. “Hey, Buster.”
“Maybe I’d better take her for another walk.”
“Can I have a pop?” Josh directed his question to Garrett.
“No, you may not,” Jenny said.
When Garret came back from taking the dog outside, he kicked off his shoes and got cozy on the other bed before selecting the agreed upon Disney movie. As the feature began, Jenny settled next to Josh on his bed.
Halfway though the movie Josh and Buster snored blissfully at her side. Even a sugar high couldn’t keep them awake after the emotionally exhausting day.
Thanks to Garrett, Josh had been able to play off all that extra energy in the swimming pool. Plus he’d received the focused attention of someone oth
er than his stressed out mother for a change.
“He asleep?” Garrett asked after several minutes.
“Yes.”
“You’re not going to get any rest tonight, are you?”
She met his gaze across the space between the two beds.
“How long has it been since you’ve had a good night’s sleep?”
“Three, four days,” she answered honestly.
“Sounds like BUD/S training,” he said. “SEAL trainees stay awake a week straight during the fifth week. It’s called Hell Week.”
“Oh.” She did feel like hell. Hopefully, he wasn’t implying she looked like hell. Not that it should matter what he thought.
“You know,” he spoke softly. “It’s not going to get any easier than this with only a couple hundred dollars in your pocket.
She shifted her gaze to the worn carpet. “I know.”
“You can trust me, Jenny. I trust you.” He reached into his back pocket for a well-worn wallet, opened it and fanned out the contents. “Twelve hundred dollars. All the cash I have until next payday. My credit cards are in there, too.” He closed it again and tossed his wallet to the nightstand between them. His keys followed. “Brand spanking new Ford Bronco. I’m going back to my room to take a shower and trust that everything, including you, Josh and Buster will still be here when I’m done. Know why?”
She shook her head.
“Because you wanted to steal that banana and didn’t.”
“Maybe I just thought I wouldn’t get away with it.”
“I’m betting you wanted to set a good example for your son. Even when he wasn’t right there to know the difference. He’s a good kid, Jen. You’ve done right by him. Just keep doing right by him and you two will be fine.”
Tears welled in her eyes at his kind words.
“After my shower, I’m going to get out of your hair for the night. I’ll meet you back here for breakfast. He tossed his room key to the nightstand as well. “Trust your gut, Jen. It’s brought you this far.”
One Night In Reno Page 2