Once Crank had made the decision to put some distance between himself and the Bennett’s over the next few weeks he instantly felt better, as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders. His plan for the day was to drop Clare and Willow off in Karnack to buy the supplies they needed while he grabbed the radiator, the new hoses, and some tools and headed back to Ferry Lake Road to fix their vehicle. Then, when it was fixed, he would pick them up and drop them back at Clare’s SUV so she could finally drive it back to their cabin. That only left the fishing trip he had promised them; not such a difficult task considering his love of fishing. He was free tomorrow so he may as well get it over and done with. After that he would be polite and say ‘hello’ whenever he saw them at the lake or in Karnack, but he would make up a suitable excuse if they ever tried to invite him anywhere again. It wasn’t that he didn’t like them or enjoy their company, it was just that right now he was feeling very vulnerable and getting involved in their lives would only lead to more heartache.
***
Soon after knocking on Clare’s cabin door, Crank was greeted by Willow’s smiling face. “Mama’s in the shower,” she said cheerily, “but you can come in and take a seat if you like? I don’t think she would mind now that you’re our neighbour.”
She reached out, grabbed his hand and led him through into the dining room. “Mama cleaned out the fridge last night after I went to bed and filled a jug with water. Can I get you a cold drink?”
“Thanks,” Crank said gratefully. “I am a little parched.”
Willow skipped off into the kitchen. “Would you like to use your favourite cup again?” She held up the hand-painted cup she had given him the night before.
“You betcha!” he smiled.
A few minutes later, after handing him his drink, Willow skipped off to her room to retrieve Mr Truffles, who she informed Crank was coming for a drive to Karnack, and while she was gone Crank moved across from the dining room to the small sitting room to wait for her and Clare on the sofa.
“Willow, Honey, could you please look through Mama’s suitcase for the hair …”
As she spotted Crank she froze. “Crank!” she exclaimed, clutching the bath towel tighter to her breasts. “I wasn’t expecting you so soon. I’m so sorry, please forgive me.”
But her words were hardly registering. He had thought that she had looked hot last night in old jeans and a t-shirt, but seeing her damp and almost naked except for a small bath towel was almost doing his head in. Her shapely long legs seemed to go on forever and he found himself almost wishing that, by some act of god, the towel would drop so he could see the rest of her – explore the rest of her with his hands and mouth.
Instantly he did the gentlemanly thing and turned away, but not soon enough. He felt himself getting hard in his jeans and cursed inwardly. ‘What was it about Clare Bennett that was making his body react this way? He wished he knew.’
Five minutes later Clare emerged from her bedroom fully dressed in a fresh pair of jeans and t-shirt with her straight, shoulder-length, brunette hair now dried and brushed. “I’m so sorry for coming out in a towel before,” she apologised for a second time. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to be here except Willow. I guess I should have been more careful?”
The drive into Karnack was relatively quiet except for Willow, who gave Mr Truffles a continual running commentary of the view from her window. “He likes me to tell him about all the things I can see because he’s too short to see out the window for himself,” she explained to Crank.
“I see,” he said, trying hard not to laugh.
“Yes,” Clare added, winking at Crank. “Mr Truffles got a running commentary all the way from Houston to Karnack as well.”
Crank smiled at Clare knowingly before looking back at Willow through the rear vision mirror and raising a brow. “So, Willow, what do you think of the cabin?”
“It’s great!” she beamed excitedly. “Only we haven’t been down to the lake yet. Mama said she will take us for a walk later this afternoon after our car has been fixed. Would you like to join us?”
Crank felt a twinge of guilt. Given his recent decision to spend less time with Clare and Willow, he tried to think up a quick excuse to avoid hurting Willow’s feelings. “I might have to take a rain-check on that walk if you ladies don’t mind?” he said casually. “There are a few repairs around my cabin that need doing urgently so I thought I might make a start on them this afternoon when I’ve finished repairing your radiator.”
For a fleeting second Crank thought he saw disappointment on Clare’s face, but soon dismissed it as nothing more than his imagination considering that he and Clare had only just met. To distract himself from staring at her, he looked in the rear vision mirror and saw Willow looking at him blankly. “But Crank why do you have to check if it’s raining, the sky is blue.”
This time he couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. He looked up into the sky through the windshield. “Why you are absolutely right Willow; it’s completely blue without a cloud in the sky; how silly of me!”
Willow’s eyes and smile grew bigger. “Does that mean that instead of doing a raincheck you will join us for a walk to the lake after all?” she asked, holding her breath in anticipation as she waited for his answer.
Crank looked across at Clare, and saw that her face was now lit up with a beaming smile as big as her daughter’s. “I guess in that case I can come for a walk with you and your Mama to the lake after all,” he said, smiling back at her in the mirror. “Especially now that I’ve figured out that there’s no darn rain around to spoil anything.”
***
After picking up the new radiator and hoses from the garage and purchasing the tools he needed to do the job from the local hardware store, Crank dropped Clare and Willow off near the centre of town and headed back east along Highway 43 to where they had left Clare’s SUV on the side of Ferry Lake Road. He had estimated that the job would take him no longer than two hours and had arranged to pick them up where he had dropped them off in Karnack by eleven a.m. Unfortunately, he hadn’t counted on the bolts that held the old radiator in being badly corroded and by the time he had finished replacing them and refilling the new radiator he was overdue to pick up Clare and Willow by more than half an hour.
Like the previous day, the weather was hot and sticky and Crank had long ditched his faded t-shirt in a futile attempt to keep cool. But as he was fetching it from the passenger seat of his 4WD he noticed there were more than a dozen missed calls on his cell phone, all from his sister Macey.
“What’s wrong?” he asked light heartedly when Macey eventually picked up the phone. “Don’t tell me you miss me already?”
“CRANK, THANK GOD! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” She sounded almost frantic.
Crank couldn’t remember the last time he had heard Macey sound this upset. “Hey Mace,” he said soothingly, “what’s wrong?”
Instantly Macey broke down and began sobbing. “It’s Eli, he’s been involved in a car accident on the freeway south of Austin.” For a few long seconds the phone went quiet.
Crank’s heart started hammering in his chest. “Mace, are ya there? Mace, talk to me.”
“Crank, I’m so worried,” she cried. “They’ve put him in an induced coma because of the swelling on his brain. The doctors say if the swelling doesn’t start to subside in the next few days he may suffer permanent brain damage.”
Crank raked his hand through his sweat-soaked hair and tried to clear his mind. “Mace, do you want me to head back to Austin? There’s a few things I need to take care of first before I can leave the lake, but I could be back by six or seven this evenin’ if you need me to?” He suddenly felt so completely useless being clear across state, but there was little he could do.
“No, Crank, Eli’s parents and his sister, Jane, have just arrived at the hospital and they’re being very supportive, besides there’s nothing much you could do here anyway ‘cept sit around with the rest of us and wait.”
&nb
sp; He wasn’t convinced. “Are ya sure you’re alright? I don’t mind heading back if I’m needed?”
There was a slight pause. “Crank,” Macey said at last, “would you mind having the boys up at the lake with you for the next week or so? What I really need is to stay here in Austin to be close to Eli when he gains consciousness, but I don’t want to leave the boys at the ranch all on their own. They’re worried sick about their daddy, just like I am.”
Crank grabbed his t-shirt and wiped the drips of sweat from his face. “Of course I will. Would you like me to drive back down to Smithville to pick them up?”
“No. My neighbour, Phyllis Graham, has helped them pack a bag of clothes each and their toiletries and she’s bringing them to the hospital. There’s a bus leaving Austin in an hour and it can take them as far as Marshall. Could you pick them up from there?”
Crank breathed a small sigh of relief. Marshall was just a little over a half hour’s drive from Karnack. “Yeah, that’s no problem, what time are they due to arrive?”
There was another slight pause. “Crank, sorry, I was just checking the bus timetable. It should arrive in Marshall at around seven this evenin’. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, no problems, I’ll be there,” he promised. “You just take care of Eli and let me worry about Edward and Michael, and keep me informed.”
As Crank hung up his cell phone, he heard the loud rumble of a V8 engine shifting down through the gears and pulling off the road onto the shoulder behind him. As he turned to investigate he recognised the old classic Chevy Camaro as belonging to Brodie, the young mechanic from the garage where he had picked up the new radiator and hoses. A few seconds later the doors opened and Brodie, Clare and Willow all alighted from his vehicle.
Without bothering to put his shirt back on, Crank immediately jumped out of his 4WD and walked over to apologise to Clare for running late.
Clare watched mesmerised as he headed toward her. With a will of its own, her gaze wondered over his large biceps and strong, broad shoulders and then moved down to his perfect six-pack, stalling on the crooked line of hair that started at his naval and disappeared under the soaked band of his jeans.
“Clare, I’m so sorry that I didn’t make it back into town at the time we arranged,” he apologised. “It’s just that most of the bolts holding the radiator in place were badly corroded so the job took a lot longer than I thought and then just as I was about to head back I received some bad news.” He used his balled up t-shirt in his hand to wipe the sweat from his eyes and Clare felt small jolts of electricity just watching.
“My brother-in-law, Eli, was involved in a serious car accident this morning just outside of Austin and he’s been placed in an induced coma because of swelling on his brain.”
Clare’s face turned pale. “Oh Crank, I’m so sorry.” She forced her gaze to shift from his rippled six-pack to his sad grey-blue eyes. “Does this mean you will be leaving the lake?” she asked, realising for the first time that she would be extremely disappointed if he said yes.
Crank sucked in a deep breath and thanked her for her concern. “No, but it does mean that I will be getting some visitors at my cabin for a week or so. My twin, sixteen-year-old nephews, Edward and Michael, are arriving in Marshall this evenin’ around seven and I’ll be driving in to pick them up.”
As he was busy talking to her, Brodie walked over to Clare’s SUV and stuck his head under the hood. “Looks like you’ve done a thorough job Crank. I doubt I could have fitted this radiator better myself.”
Crank felt a surge of pride. “Thanks, Brodie.”
“Yes,” Clare added, “and thank you so much for getting the parts so promptly. I guess now that my SUV is finally fixed I can follow you back into Karnack and fix up the bill for my radiator and hoses.”
Brodie slammed the hood shut and turned to face Clare. “There is no bill,” he said, surprised that she didn’t already know that. “The cost of the radiator and the hoses has been taken care of already.”
Clare’s mouth fell open in complete surprise. “But I don’t understand. How and by who?”
Brodie looked over at Crank. “Your boyfriend, Crank here, rang his business partner, Kurt Waylon, in Austin last night and explained what happened to your SUV, then asked him to arrange for the new radiator and hoses to be sent to my workshop overnight. I had nothing to do with it. If I had ordered them it would have taken days for them just to get here. Obviously his pal has some pretty good contacts.”
Clare glimpsed regretfully at Crank’s muscular frame before turning back to face Brodie. “Crank’s not my boyfriend,” she piped up a little too defensively. “He’s just a friend.”
She turned her attention back to Crank. “Why would your business partner in Austin pay for my radiator and hoses? I don’t even know him.”
Crank tried not to show his bemusement but couldn’t stop himself from smirking. “I’m afraid he’s a bit of a sucker for damsels in distress. We both are; that’s how we were raised.”
She hated the fact that he found the whole situation humorous, but at the same time she couldn’t help but notice how handsome he looked when he grinned. It had the effect of making his whole face light up. “But, why pay for them?” she asked. “Why not send them C.O.D?”
For a brief second he almost confided to her that he and Kurt were rich enough to afford an entire new SUV for her without even making a dent in their bank accounts, but instead he took a more cautious approach. “Kurt has been my best friend for as long as I can remember,” he explained, “and any friend of mine is a friend of Kurt’s. You could try arguing with him, but I’m afraid he would never accept any money from you. He don’t work that way; Kurt’s one of the most generous and decent men I know.”
As he finished his sentence, he realised that Willow was no longer by Clare’s side. Looking around, he spotted her over by his pick-up, sobbing, and walked over to see what was wrong. “What’s the matter Sweetheart?” he asked, kneeling down in front of her.
Willow wiped her eyes with the back of her hands but almost immediately more tears flooded out. “I heard you say that your brother indoors had an accident.”
Crank smiled. “You mean my brother-in-law?”
“Yes,” she sobbed. “Does that mean he’s gonna die like my Daddy?”
Crank scooped her up into his arms and gave her a gentle hug. “Oh no Sweetheart, he should be okay. Not everybody who has an accident dies.”
“Then why did my Daddy die?” she sobbed, spilling hot little tears onto his shoulder.
Crank felt like his heart was about to explode. Holding Willow in his arms felt just like holding Ellie when he would pick her up to comfort her or tuck her into bed at night. “I don’t know Sweetheart,” he said, wiping a tear from her cheek with the back of his finger. “Sometimes bad things happen to good people.”
Willow put an arm around Crank’s neck and hugged him. “Sometimes you look sad too Crank,” she said soothingly. “Did something bad happen to someone that you loved too?”
As Crank nodded, a stray tear rolled down his own cheek. “Yes Sweetheart it did. But life must go on and we have to find a way to be happy.”
She smiled and arched her blond brows. “You mean like asking you to come for a walk to the lake with us this afternoon?”
Crank’s heart lurched. “Does that make you happy?”
She nodded her head. “Aha, and it makes Mama happy too, that’s why she bought herself some new clothes today; to impress you.”
This time his heart started hammering. “Did your mama say that she likes me?”
She nodded her head. “Aha, last night after you went home, and there’s something else.”
Crank’s heart was now beating like a jackhammer. “What else?” he asked nervously.
“I’ve been watching the way she looks at you,” she explained.
Crank felt a tightening in his chest. “The way she looks at me? What do you mean Sweetheart?”
Willow giggl
ed. “She looks at you the same way she used to look at my Daddy.”
Chapter ten
As Crank and Clare set out toward the lake from Clare’s cabin, Willow slipped in between them and grabbed a hand of each. “Is it far Crank?” she asked.
“Not too far,” he replied happily. “And when we get there I have a special surprise for you and your Mama.”
“What is it?” she asked excitedly; her blue eyes almost popping with curiosity. “Please tell me!”
“If I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise,” he reminded her, “but I have a feeling you are gonna like it.”
As they meandered their way along the well-used trail Clare couldn’t help but admire the picturesque beauty of the forest. “This place is truly amazing,” she exclaimed dreamily, craning her neck to look up at the towering cypress trees, draped with layers of Spanish moss, giving them an eerie, other-worldly appearance. For some reason the whole world looked perfect this afternoon and her heart sang as she drank in the beauty of the magnificent birds that soared in the sky above them and the wildflowers and ferns that filled the forest floor between the tall trees. Even the scent of the forest smelt sweeter than it had yesterday when she was broken down on the shoulder of the road.
Suddenly she felt Willow’s hand break free from her grasp. “Crank, is that the lake ahead?” her daughter squealed, pointing excitedly as she spotted the water about twenty yards in front of them.”
She watched with a lump in her throat as he looked down at her daughter’s beaming face. “It sure is, Sweetheart.”
Willow looked up pleadingly at her, breaking her trance. “Mama is it okay if I run ahead to the lake? I promise to be real careful and not go near the water!”
Clare looked up at Crank. “What do you think Crank? Is it safe for her to go ahead?”
Crank stopped and knelt down so he could talk to Willow eye-to-eye. “Do you promise to stay in view until we reach you?”
Unbreak my Heart Page 5