Midnight Heat

by Cat Johnson

  She glanced at the lettering on the trailer. “From Double L Ranch in Oklahoma?”

  Shit. Now she knew exactly where Bonnie was. All she’d have to do was dial Information on her phone. Rohn’s listing was public. Of course it was. He was operating a business. It had to be.

  For the first time she smiled when she realized the same thing. She could get to Bonnie with or without his help.

  “The way I see it, I could rent a car and go on my own, or I could go with you. I really hate driving alone. And if I go with you, you can keep an eye on me. Make sure I’m not a crazed stalker.”

  There was no proof this chick wasn’t crazy, but what she’d said was accurate. The one way for him to keep an eye on her, and thereby protect Bonnie and Rohn, would be to keep her close to him.

  As much as he hated to admit it, he said, “If I bring you with me . . .”

  Her expression brightened. “Yeah?”

  “I said if.”

  “Okay. Go on. If I go with you, what?”

  “I’m not lying to Rohn and Bonnie that you’re my friend or anything like that.”

  She drew in a breath. “Fine.”

  “I mean it,” Justin warned.

  “I know you mean it. I can tell. You’re not the kind of guy who says something he doesn’t mean.”

  “Really? So now you think you know me?” He crossed his arms over his chest.

  “No. No more than you know me. But I suppose fourteen hours in the truck together will fix that.”

  “Jesus.” Justin groaned and glanced at the sky, not believing he was actually going to do this. His peace and quiet had just been wiped away in one fell swoop.

  “So you’ll take me?” She looked hopeful.

  “Yeah, I’ll take you. For Bonnie and Rohn. Not because of some misplaced noble nature you think I possess. Which I don’t. Get that through your head right now.”

  “Okay.” Her smile told him she didn’t believe him.

  He smothered another cuss. “If I’m taking you, you better help me finish loading the truck.”

  “No problem. I’ve very strong.”

  “I don’t care how strong you think you are.” He led the way to the house. “Take the light boxes that say Fragile, not the one box marked Books. It’s too heavy for you.”

  “Not noble my ass.” She mumbled the smart-ass comment, but he heard it anyway.

  He glanced at her over his shoulder. “I heard that.”

  “Good.” She smiled.

  Annoyed at her and himself, he grumbled all the way to the boxes on the floor. “And we’re dropping your car off at the service station because I’m not going to try to fix it myself.”

  “I never asked you to try.”

  “I know.” He bit out the response because she was right. She hadn’t asked, but his own damn conscience was nagging him to do just that.

  He was going to regret this decision to take her with him. He felt that deep down to his bones.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Phoenix watched Justin expertly pull the truck and trailer along the curb, as if he’d been driving the oversize vehicle for most of his life. Thinking about it, she realized he probably had. Especially if Justin worked on a ranch.

  Just because the guys she knew drove economy-size cars that made sense in California didn’t mean the rest of the country wasn’t hauling big rigs.

  There were probably all sorts of things Justin did that would surprise her. Things she’d only seen in movies. She’d have to ask him about them.

  There’d be plenty of time. According to what he’d said, they’d have fourteen hours alone in the cab of his truck on their journey to Oklahoma. They’d have time to talk about all sorts of things.

  Why wasn’t she worried about spending that much time with a stranger?

  There was a definite flutter in her belly, but it seemed to stem more from anticipation and nerves similar to what she’d feel on a first date with a guy.

  This was definitely not a date. But hell, being captive in a tight space with a hot cowboy was probably a better way to get to know a man than some forced social situation like dinner.

  She was really jumping the gun, because there were a ton of other things she should be concerned with instead of this hot cowboy.

  First on the list—her car.

  She opened the door and stepped out of the car, taking the keys with her. She turned to catch Justin’s attention and motioned that she was going into the station. He nodded and remained in the truck. Smart. It wasn’t like he could leave something so large parked along the curb on the main street. There was probably some sort of law against that.

  As she pushed through the door of the service station and stepped inside, a bell tinkled above her head.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Yeah. The bartender at the place right off the interstate suggested I come here. My car—the yellow VW Beetle parked in your lot—keeps overheating.”

  The man, dressed in navy blue overalls with the name Ben embroidered on the chest, glanced past her through the glass door.

  “Out-of-towner? You got California plates.”

  “Yeah.” She hated to admit that. Was he going to charge her double, knowing she couldn’t do anything about it because she wasn’t local?

  “I’ll take a look at it, but I can’t say how long it’ll take to fix. If I have to order a part, it could be two, maybe three days. That gonna be all right? How long you here for?”

  “Actually, two or three days would be fine. This is only the first leg of my trip. I’m heading to Oklahoma for a couple of days.” She motioned to the truck and trailer. “My ride’s waiting for me now.”

  The mechanic followed her gaze and nodded. “Nice rig.”

  “Uh, thanks.”

  “All right. Let me get some contact information.” He slid a clipboard with a form and a pen attached toward her. “Once you fill that out, you and your ride can take off. Just leave me the keys.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ll take a look at it and call you with an estimate of the cost and how long it’ll take me.”

  “That would be wonderful.” She finished scribbling her name and phone number, her home address, and her license plate number, and then slid the form back toward him. “Thanks so much.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Phoenix turned to go as he said, “Uh, I’ll take those keys.”

  “Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry.” She was scattered on a good day. The day she was heading to Oklahoma to meet her birth mother, riding shotgun with a hot cowboy, forget about thinking at all.

  She slid the keys across the counter to the man. He reached for them while saying, “You got everything you need out of the car?”

  It was a valid question. She probably would have forgotten her bags if Justin hadn’t already transferred all her belongings to the cab of his truck.

  But the mechanic didn’t need to know that, so she was happy to report, “Yup. I got everything. Thank you.”

  He tipped his head in a nod. “No problem. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Thanks.”

  She pushed through the door and headed for the curb. Justin had the window rolled down. “What’d he say?”

  “He’ll take a look at it today and call me with an estimate.”

  Justin tipped his head. “A’ight.”

  She walked around to the other side and opened the passenger-side door. She had to hoist herself up into the high cab with the grab bar on the doorframe, but finally she was settled in the seat.

  “You tell him the bartender recommended him?”

  “Yes, I did.” She pulled the seat belt across her and then frowned. “How did you know that? Did I tell you?”

  He looked as if he didn’t want to answer her but finally said, “The bartender told me.”

  “Why?”

  “A boring day shift, a cute customer with car trouble. What else did he have to talk to me about? I guess you were the highlight of his shift.” Justin sh
rugged and flipped on the directional signal.

  Meanwhile, all Phoenix could think about was that Justin had referred to her as cute. “Did he say that?”

  Justin concentrated on the side mirrors before pulling out into traffic and then asked, “Did he say what?”

  “That I’m, you know, cute?”

  Grinning, he shot her a look. “Why? You interested? He’s a bit old for you, no?”

  “No, I’m not interested.” She felt her cheeks heat.

  She let the subject drop. She could only hope he would, too. She’d been baiting him to see if he’d been the one to think she was cute, but it had backfired on her. All she’d done was look foolish and make him laugh at her.

  She sucked at flirting. It was going to be a long drive if she continued to be so ridiculous in the small-talk department.

  “So, tell me about yourself.” His question surprised her.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Eh, I don’t know. How about how you know Bonnie?”

  Phoenix scowled. “I thought we agreed you were fine not knowing that.”

  “Oh, I never said I would let it go, just that I’d drive you even if you didn’t tell me—you know, to keep an eye on you because of you being a possible crazed stalker and all.” His grin told her he didn’t really believe that and was teasing her again.

  “How about you tell me about yourself?”

  A dark expression settled on his brow. “I don’t like talking about myself.”

  So much for that. She’d hoped to turn the tables on him, but he hadn’t gone for it. A few minutes passed in silence. Finally, she had to say something. She’d caused the conversational drought by asking him about himself. She felt the need to fix it.

  “So, what’s the Double L Ranch like?”

  He glanced at her and lifted one brow high beneath the brim of his cowboy hat. “You really wanna know?”

  “Yeah, I do.” To her own surprise, she wasn’t just being polite. She really did want to know, especially if Bonnie was connected to the ranch somehow.

  “Well, it’s mainly a cattle operation. But Rohn—he’s the owner—has a pretty successful rough stock business going, too. And of course we also deal with trained stock. We buy green horses and then saddle break them to be pleasure horses. And we train cutting horses. As far as competitive rough stock, his bulls are good, but I’d say his broncs are probably his bread and butter.”

  Most of what Justin had just said had gone right over Phoenix’s head. When he stopped talking and glanced across the cab at her, she realized she’d yet to respond. She nodded. “Oh.”

  His wide grin told her he’d caught her in a lie, pretending she knew what he was talking about. “What part you need explained to you, city girl?”

  City girl? She wasn’t sure whether to deny it, however true, or feel honored he’d given her a nickname. She opted not to respond to the name and answer truthfully. “Pretty much all of it.”

  He laughed. “Yeah. I figured.”

  “How?”

  “That glazed expression in those big blue eyes of yours was a dead giveaway.”

  He’d noticed her eyes were blue . . . and she had to stop letting her mind run away with her every time she was near this guy. It could very well be her imagination that he looked at her a bit longer, a tad deeper, than necessary.

  This was a ride only, and he’d taken her to keep an eye on her. Even so, she could enjoy listening to his cowboy speak.

  She did just that as, still looking amused, he launched into an explanation of the difference between rough stock and trained stock. Then moved on to a rundown of the different events in a rodeo and all the kinds of animals the ranch would truck in to supply for the competitions.

  He seemed to relax when he talked about the animals and the ranch. The tension she’d noticed in his shoulders eased until it disappeared. The tight control he seemed to hold on personal information about himself eased a bit, too, as little tidbits about himself slipped out along with his explanation of his job at the Double L.

  She liked this Justin much better than the elusive, hard version she’d first met yesterday—the guy at the bar who’d ignored her while he ate his burger and the even harder man who’d walked into Bonnie’s house and closed the door without giving her the answers she needed or wanted.

  This Justin might actually answer some of the dozen or more questions she had about Bonnie and her mother—Phoenix’s grandmother—if she asked. But it seemed she didn’t have the nerve to dig for more answers. Or maybe she just didn’t want to bring back the guy from yesterday, or even this morning. She was enjoying this friendly, smiling incarnation too much, and with another dozen hours or so in the truck, it wasn’t worth risking annoying him so he withdrew into himself. She didn’t want to spend the rest of the long ride in silence.

  Justin was in the middle of regaling Phoenix with a tale about a black Arabian stallion and some cowboy he worked with by the name of Tyler when she felt her phone vibrate in the bag she held in her lap.

  She ignored the signal. It could be her mother calling. What would she say to her mother or to Justin? She couldn’t see him sitting there while she lied to her mother, pretending she was home in California. Just as she couldn’t risk having her mother hear she was in a truck with a strange man.

  That would really open a can of worms. How would she explain it?

  Sometimes it didn’t feel like she was twenty-five, working and living on her own. Mostly she still felt like she was a preteen looking to her parents for approval at every turn. Looking for their guidance as well.

  Maybe that was why she didn’t know how to diagnose car problems or do anything else on her own. Her father had babied her. Her mother had sheltered her. And she’d let them.

  Not anymore. At least not on this trip. Look at the results of her not seeking her parents’ approval. She’d gotten into a truck with a stranger for a trip that would take her halfway across the country. They definitely wouldn’t approve.

  Justin glanced at her. “You gonna answer that?”

  “Um.” She cringed. A person never realized how loud the vibrate mode on a cell phone was until they were hoping another person didn’t hear it.

  He raised a brow. “Well, now. This is interesting.”

  “What is?”

  “You dodging that there call.” He tipped his head toward her bag, which had thankfully stopped vibrating where it rested in her lap.

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Oh, I think it’s something.” His grin widened.

  “It’s probably just my mother.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I’m serious. It’s got to be my mother. Who else do you think I’d be dodging?”

  “That I don’t know. Any more than I know why you’d be avoiding your poor momma and not answering her call. That’s just not right.”

  She let out a huff. “I have my reasons.”

  “I’m sure you do. What would they be?”

  She was attempting to come up with a smart comeback when the phone started to vibrate again.

  She watched his smile widen further.

  “You’re not even gonna look? That’s even more telling.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s like you know who it is.”

  “No.” It could as easily be Kim being nosy as it was her mother checking up on her. But now Phoenix wanted to know who it was. The curiosity was too much for her. She let out a huff. “Fine. I’ll check to see who it is.”

  “Don’t look on my account.” He focused his eyes on the road, but she could tell he was most definitely laughing at her as she opened her purse and pawed through the contents until her hand connected with the cell phone. It had stopped vibrating by the time she’d retrieved it, but she could see by the readout that she had two missed calls, both from Kim.

  “So?” Justin asked.

  “It wasn’t my mother.”

  “Interesting. Who was it? Your boyfriend, I bet.�
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  “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “You don’t? Hmm. Yeah, that makes sense.”

  “What? Why does that make sense?” She was definitely feeling insulted at that comment.

  “Don’t get your panties in a twist. I’m just saying no man would let you go carousing around the country in a broken-down old car alone. At least I wouldn’t if you were my girlfriend.”

  “I’m too busy for a boyfriend right now.” She skipped over the male chauvinism and moved on to making sure he knew she wasn’t incapable of attracting the opposite sex. She just chose not to at the moment.

  “Oh, really. Busy doing what?”

  “Teaching.

  “Teaching? So you’re a teacher?”

  She bit back a curse when she realized she’d played right into his hands. She’d given him plenty of information about herself in the past few minutes alone, all unintentionally. He now knew she was dodging her mother’s calls, she had no boyfriend, and she was a teacher. Not bad for just a small effort on his part.

  However, if he thought she would spill what he really wanted to know—why she wanted to see Bonnie—just because she was spilling some other tidbits, he was sadly mistaken.

  She decided to turn the tables on him and do a little digging of her own. “So you really wouldn’t let your girlfriend take a road trip alone?”

  “Alone? Nope.”

  “So what, are you one of those overprotective guys who locks a girl away and doesn’t let her out? What is she doing while you’re gone? Waiting at home baking pies like a good little girl?”

  “Baking pies?” He cocked a brow. “Can’t say I’d object to some pie, but no, I got no girl waiting on me with any form of pastry.” His gaze cut to her. “You find out what you wanted?”

  Her heart pounded. He’d seen right through her.

  “What?” Her voice sounded higher than she’d thought it would.

  “You were snooping around to find out if I had a girl.”

  “No—”

  “It’s a’ight. Women are naturally nosy.”

  She raised her brows high. “And you haven’t been snooping around asking me all sorts of questions, including about boyfriends?”

  He shrugged. “Just wondering who let a helpless girl like you go wandering around.”