by Cat Johnson
Tuck shook his head. “Sorry, Tara, but you should have thought of this before you signed up for the internship.”
“I did!” She threw her hands in the air. “That’s why I bought the car.”
“And what’s wrong with this new car of yours, anyway?”
“It’s broken.”
“What did you do to it?”
Of course Tuck would assume it was her fault.
“I didn’t do anything—”
“I’ll drive her.” Until that declaration, Jace had stood silently in the doorway, watching the battle between her and Tuck as if it was a tennis match. Now, he came all the way into the kitchen and eyed the dark liquid filling the glass carafe. “Coffee ready?”
“Uh, yeah. Should be.” Tuck took down another mug from the cabinet and turned to Jace as he filled it. “What do you mean, you’ll drive her?”
Taking the coffee Tuck handed him, Jace shrugged, glancing at Tara before looking back to his friend. “Just that. I’m driving to the events to ride anyway. She can ride along with me.”
“Um, wow. Thanks.” Of all the people Tara had hoped would help her out in this situation, Jace was the dead last one she’d expect to volunteer.
“No problem.” Leaning against the counter, he raised his mug and sucked in a big swallow of steaming liquid.
Tara noticed the arena dirt staining the knees of his jeans where he’d hit the ground after making his eight-second ride last night. In fact, he was in the same exact clothes he’d been wearing yesterday, right down to the dusty logo-covered shirt. Now that she looked closer, dark circles shaded beneath his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept.
Normally, she would have joked that he’d been up indulging in buckle bunnies all night, but since he’d dropped her off so late and driven off alone, she knew that wasn’t the case.
“What the hell did you do last night? You look like shit.” Tuck said what Tara had been thinking. For once, her brother was proving useful.
“Thanks a lot, Tuck. Is that the gratitude I get for towing your sister’s car all the way here from Shawnee?” Jace swung the subject back to her piece of crap car, the exact thing Tara didn’t want to talk about. “By the way, I took a quick look at it in the parking lot. I think it’ll cost her way more to fix it than it’s worth, but you can take a look yourself before towing it to the scrap yard.”
Tuck’s gaze swung to her. “What the hell is that about, Tara? You get a car and before you’ve had it—how long?—it’s ready to be junked!”
“Uh, I gotta get dressed.” Tara hopped down off the stool at the island and headed out of the room before her brother could yell at her. She didn’t go far. She wanted to hear what Jace was going to tell Tuck about her ill-advised car purchase so she’d know how bad the lecture would be when it came.
She hovered in the hall, out of sight but within earshot.
“It could be a cracked block. Might need a radiator,” Jace said.
“What the hell? Was she driving with no oil or coolant in it? Wouldn’t surprise me if she was.” The judgment was clear in Tuck’s tone.
“Don’t know. Maybe there was a leak. I didn’t look that close. Sorry.” At least Jace wasn’t throwing her under the bus and jumping on the Tara is too stupid to own a car bandwagon with Tuck. Jace’s support was shocking, but nice.
“Don’t apologize. Not your fault. And thanks for bringing her and the car home last night. I couldn’t have driven to Shawnee even if I had seen her message.”
“Too much wine?” There was a smile in Jace’s tone.
Tara heard Tuck laugh. “Yeah. That shit sneaks up on you. So, what are you doing up and out this early on a Sunday?”
“I’m just . . .” Jace released a loud breath of air. “Hell, I was gonna make something up, but I’m too damn tired. I’m here ’cause I can’t go home.”
“Why the hell can’t you go home?”
“Jacqueline and I had it out again last night. It got pretty bad. Now she’s stalking me. I slept in my truck in the parking lot of the practice arena, but when I drove past my apartment just now, she was sitting outside in her car so I turned around and came here.”
Tara’s eyes opened wider. The fight she’d heard last night between Jace and his ex-girlfriend on the phone must have continued live and in person. Feeling guilty for invading his privacy, she still inched closer so she could hear better.
“Good Lord, Jace. This is insane. You have to cut ties.”
“I know. I told her that last night, but she won’t leave me alone. Look at my phone. There are a dozen texts from her and almost as many voicemails.” The frustration was clear in Jace’s voice.
“I’m sorry, man. When I introduced you to her at that event all those years ago, I never imagined she’d turn out to be some sort of crazed stalker.”
“Not your fault, Tuck. Hell, her parents are friends with your parents. It was inevitable we’d meet at some event or another. You sure as hell didn’t tell me to move her to Stillwater with me three years ago, or to live with her. With her still living in our old place and my apartment being so close . . .”
“You can’t get away from her, even in your own home.”
Jace let out a snort. “Pitiful, huh?”
“You know you can hang here if you need to. We have a spare room.”
Tara screwed up her face. That figured. Tuck was giving Jace the room she was hoping to stay in if she needed a place to crash between competitions and didn’t want to drive all the way to her parents’ house, not that she had anything to drive. Didn’t being family count for anything?
“I thought about that, asking you if I could crash here for a bit. But besides you and Becca being newlyweds who sure as hell don’t need me as a roommate, hiding out here’s not gonna help. Jacqueline knows where you live. I figure I’m on borrowed time drinking this coffee. It’s likely she’ll be doing a drive-by any time now. Thanks for the offer, though.”
“So what are you gonna do?” Tuck asked.
“See if the kid who works with me can handle my weekly lawn-cutting customers for a little while, push the bigger jobs off until next month, and follow the Central States circuit. Life on the road. Cheap hotels and greasy take-out food for the next three weeks. It’ll be just like the old days when you and I did it, except it’ll be me and your sister. Traveling partners.” Jace laughed. “Imagine that?”
Tuck echoed Jace’s laugh. “Ah, no, I can’t imagine that. That’s a hell of a plan you got there, Jace. Now I know you’re desperate.”
“Desperate times, Tuck. Desperate times. I figure by the time Tara’s done with her internship and I come home, Jacqueline will have cooled down enough to at least talk rationally. I hope, anyway.”
“That’s if you and Tara don’t kill each other before then. You and my sister. On the road. Twenty-four seven. I wish you good luck with that, ’cause you’re gonna need it.”
“You ain’t kidding.”
Feeling a little insulted, Tara shook her head at both men and their comments, although her mother always had said nothing good came of listening in on others’ private conversations.
It didn’t matter. Tara had a ride for the duration of her internship, and she hadn’t even had to grovel to Tuck about borrowing his truck to get it. Problem solved. Sure, it meant putting up with Jace for the next three weeks, but for a free ride, she could put up with a lot.
With newfound energy, she headed for her room to get dressed. There was a competition in Bixby tonight. It looked as if she and her new traveling partner would be driving there together, and the sooner they left the better. Apparently, they had to evade Jace’s stalker ex-girlfriend.
Tara’s weekend may have started out crappy, but things were sure looking up.
Chapter Five
Hand son the steering wheel and eyes on the road, Jace began to plan out the next few weeks. “Read me the schedule.”
“Please.”
He shot Tara a look that he hoped showed her how he fel
t about her treating him like child. “Listen here, girl. We’re traveling partners. That means, like it or not, we’re going to be spending a lot of time together in close confines, in good moods and bad, healthy and hurt.”
“Sounds like wedding vows.”
“Traveling partners are closer than married people. At least Tuck and Becca are apart while they’re at work. We’re even gonna be together then. Get used to it. Little things like please and thank you tend to fall by the wayside. Got it?”
“Still, I don’t see why—” Tara glanced in his direction and cut herself off. She folded her arms and looked out the side window. “Fine.”
Jace waited, and then finally cleared his throat. “Tara? The schedule.”
“Oh. Right.” She dug into her purse, nearly as big as his gear bag, and emerged with a fist full of papers. “Tomorrow is a travel day. Then Tuesday and Wednesday nights are in Broken Arrow. Thursday is a travel day. Norman is on Friday and Saturday. Sunday—”
“Okay, gotcha.” When Tara glanced up at his interruption, Jace explained. “It’s pretty much the same as it used to be when I was riding full-time with Tuck. Ride a couple of days and then drive to the next venue.”
“Do you miss it? Riding full-time?”
“Oh, hell no. What I’m doing now is perfect. Ride on weekends, work during the week.”
“Yet, you’re riding every event now.” Tara’s unspoken question hung in the air. If she were fishing for information as to why he was riding full-time again, she’d be disappointed because he wasn’t biting.
“Yup.” Jace left it at that.
She didn’t come back with a follow-up question. Thank God for small favors. It seemed Tara would let the subject drop. The truck’s cab remained quiet save for the DJ on the radio babbling about something Jace had no interest in.
Nice and peaceful . . . until the cell phone in the console vibrated.
He didn’t need to check to know who it was, but he did. A glutton for punishment, he picked it up and glanced at the read out. Jacqueline. Drawing in a breath, he slid the phone, unanswered, back to where it had been. There it continued to vibrate, doing a little dance within the confines of the console beneath the dashboard.
Tara looked sideways at Jace. “Not gonna answer that?”
“Nope.”
“All right.” She turned to stare out the window and the peace and quiet returned.
Maybe this drive wouldn’t be so horrible, after all. He’d been prepared to lay down the law with Tara. Tell her that if he was going to drive her all over the state of Oklahoma, and cover the cost of the gas himself, there were going to be some rules. No nasty comments. No personal questions. But maybe the lecture wasn’t necessary.
He was too tired to give it right now, anyway.
Jace leaned back farther in his seat, set the truck on cruise control, and let his mind go on autopilot. He was just starting to relax and get into that Zen state a long drive always put him in, when his phone started to do its thing once again. He set his jaw and reached for it, far less calm this time.
No surprise, it was Jacqueline calling again. He should have known to expect that, which made him madder at himself for not doing what he should have before they left Stillwater.
Jace swung to look toward Tara. “You have your phone on you?”
Her dark brows rose. “Yeah.”
“Is it turned on so Tuck can get a hold of you if he needs to?”
“Yes.” She nodded, still looking at him strangely over his questioning.
“Okay.” Glancing down at his phone, Jace hit IGNORE and then powered the cell totally off.
That was one way to handle things with Jacqueline. Not a long-term solution by any means—Jacqueline got even more crazed when he didn’t answer her calls—but if it got him to Bixby in peace, it would do for now. He braced himself for Tara’s onslaught of questions, but they didn’t come. He waited another mile and when she still didn’t start her interrogations, he let himself breathe easier.
He leaned back in the seat again, letting the miles of road stretched before him soothe his nerves. Nothing like a road trip to get a man’s mind off things. He wouldn’t let himself admit what this really was—running away. He’d face his problems and Jacqueline . . . eventually.
With the phone off, the miles passed quickly. Even after taking the time to stop for take-out, they pulled into town way early for the competition, which left them plenty of time to find a hotel. Bixby wasn’t a terrible drive from Stillwater. Jace could have driven out and back in one night in a pinch. He’d done it in the past to keep Jacqueline happy. Every time he slept away from home after a competition, she assumed it was because he had another woman in his bed.
Tonight, he’d be getting a room. Partly because he was so tired he didn’t trust himself to stay awake for the drive home. Mostly because he knew what would be waiting for him in Stillwater.
Jace steered the truck into the parking lot of a hotel not too far from the arena. He’d stayed there years ago when he rode full-time. Back then, it had been clean, cheap, and convenient—the three things he looked for when on the road. He’d done without one or two of those qualifications in moments of desperation, such as when he was too drunk or too hurt to look for a better place.
He turned to Tara in the passenger seat. “Here we are. Home, sweet home for the night.”
She glanced at the sign announcing there were vacancies, free Wi-Fi, and HBO. “Is it expensive?”
Jace glanced at the building, which looked as if it hadn’t been renovated since the nineteen-fifties, right down to the hole in the ground with a cover over it—a pool that had never been operational for as long as he’d been staying there. It wasn’t the Ritz, but still, hotels cost money. “Not so bad. Why?”
“I’m on kind of a tight budget. Internships don’t pay anything, and most of my savings went to buying that car.”
The car that was on its way to the junkyard. “This internship is three weeks long?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“How you planning on getting by with no income and no cash? Traveling with the circuit takes money, darlin’.”
“I’ll just have to get by as cheaply as possible.”
“You ask your parents?”
“No. I don’t want to. They already pay for my college tuition and give me spending money for expenses. It’s my own fault I blew it on the car.” Tara shook her head. “I’ll be fine. You driving and paying for gas is helping a lot. I guess I’ll just have to figure out how to afford someplace to sleep . . . and eat.”
Tara’s financial situation explained why she’d been so quiet on the drive. Jace was far happier she was being nice to him because she was desperate for the ride he was providing than because she pitied him over whatever she knew about his personal situation.
Even with as much as they’d fought in the past, he’d been where she was now—broke and needing to travel anyway. Sleeping in the truck because he needed the money to pay his entrance fee to compete. Eating as cheap as he could. Carpooling to split the travel costs. It brought him right back to the old days—the pre-Jacqueline days, which was a good thing.
“All right. I’m gonna offer up a suggestion and you see what you think about it.”
“Okay.” She sounded wary, but open.
Jace figured that was as good as he could expect from her, given their history together. “Back when Tuck and I used to ride full-time, money was tight.” Wasn’t that an understatement. “There were nights we’d cram four, sometimes five or six guys into one hotel room to save money. Now, I can pay for the room, but being away from my business in Stillwater, I’m going to be hitting up my own savings. I can’t be paying for two rooms a night. If you’re agreeable, we could get a room with two beds—”
“You’d really pay for the room and let me sleep there?”
She looked so excited about the prospect, Jace felt he had to clarify. “Not your own room. One room with two beds, and I’ll be sleepi
ng there, too.”
“Oh my God, Jace. That would be so great.”
He frowned.
“What?” Tara asked, frowning herself.
“I was expecting some sort of comment. Like how you’d rather sleep with a snake. Or how you’re not gonna share a room with me and my buckle bunny du jour.”
Tara broke into a smile. “That would have been a good one. Too bad I didn’t think of it. Nope. No comments. Beggars can’t be choosers. I’d always heard that saying but now, I know what it feels like.”
“And you’re gonna be okay with sharing a room with me?”
“I grew up with two brothers. I’ve shared rooms and a tent . . . even a bed with them a few times when I was little.”
“They were your brothers. I’m not.” The last thing Jace needed was Tara freaking out when he came out of the shower shirtless or something. Better to make everything clear now, rather than have her crying for her own room in the middle of the night after he was broken up and exhausted from riding.
She rolled her eyes. “Jace, jeez. It’s like we’re brother and sister. We fight as if we’re related. And I have no interest in you physically whatsoever. Do you have an interest in me?”
He drew back at that question. “No. Of course not.” “Then there you go. We’re traveling partners and roommates. Just like you and Tuck used to be.” She laughed. “Me and you attracted to each other? What a joke.”
“Yup. Funny,” Jace agreed, while thinking she didn’t have to put her total and absolute lack of interest in him quite so vehemently.
Good God, he’d better still be attractive to other women or he had no hope of getting over the last one. He’d been with Jacqueline for so long, maybe he’d lost his mojo. On that depressing thought, he reached for the door handle.
“Come on. Let’s go check in.” He waited for Tara to climb down from the truck, and then headed for the office to book a room for him and his platonic female roommate who’d laughed at the thought of being attracted to him—the one he’d be sharing a room with every night for the next three weeks. Even if he did miraculously get his taste back for buckle bunny, he had nowhere to indulge it.