Baby, Drive South (32 page)

And right now, she couldn’t wait to get out of Sweetness, either.

33

P
orter stretched long and tall in Nikki’s bed, feeling utterly sated. So this was what it felt like to be in love—tingling head to toe, and already looking forward to the next time he’d see her, caught between wanting to show her off to the world and wanting to keep her all to himself. His mind rolled forward. He couldn’t stay here in the boardinghouse with her, and she couldn’t stay with him. He’d have to make the time to start building a house on the family homestead.

Only a few weeks ago, he couldn’t have imagined thinking about these things, but now he
wanted
to—how was that possible? Porter gave a self-deprecating laugh. His brothers would never let him live this down.

Suddenly he felt a pang for Kendall. So this was how he’d felt about Amy. No wonder he’d been impossible to live with after she’d left. How did a person handle going from such an amazing high to the low of losing that person? He didn’t want to know.

He rolled over and inhaled the scent of Nikki from her pillow. He couldn’t get enough of her. But he intended to spend the rest of his life trying.

Suddenly the door burst open. He looked up to see Nikki standing there. He smiled…until he realized she didn’t look happy.

“You should leave, Porter.”

Alarmed, he pushed up on his elbows. “Did I do something wrong?”

She walked over to the closet, pulled out a suitcase, and carried it to the bed. “No. Apparently, you did everything right.”

Porter shifted to avoid the falling suitcase. “I’m confused.”

She wouldn’t look at him. She began yanking things from the closet and tossing them into the suitcase. “I know everything. I know you sabotaged my van so I couldn’t leave. And I know that Marcus promised you the family land if you could get me to stay. Congratulations, you almost pulled it off.”

Panic licked at him. “Wait a minute—”

“Are you denying it?” she asked, her voice thick. “Are you denying that you did something to my van?”

He squirmed. “No.”

“And are you denying that Marcus promised you the family land if you convinced me to stay?”

Porter was starting to see how bad things looked from her point of view. “That’s not why— I mean, my wanting you to stay had nothing to do with…the other thing.”

She gave a bitter laugh. “Right.”

“Can we talk about this?”

“No.”
She grabbed the remaining clothes from the closet in one armful, then stuffed them into her suitcase.

He pushed up and reached for the only crutch he had, scrambling to his feet. Damn, where were his clothes? He pulled a sheet off the bed and wrapped it around his waist while he hobbled forward on one crutch. “Nikki, please listen to me. This isn’t what you think.”

She stopped. “Really? Then what is this?”

Porter felt paralyzed. He’d never said “I love you” to a woman. He’d never been in love before, didn’t know how things were supposed to work. Suddenly, he felt the weight of Nikki’s expectations descend on his shoulders. Her decision to stay or leave Sweetness would depend on his feelings for her. And in that moment, he wasn’t sure he could live up to that responsibility.

After a long, painful pause, Nikki nodded. “Just what I thought.”

“I’m sorry, Nikki.”

“It’s my fault,” she said, zipping her suitcase with jerky movements. “My friend warned me this would happen.”

He just wanted to keep her talking while he looked for his clothes. “What friend?”

“My friend Amy Bradshaw, back in Broadway. She’s from a small town. She warned me what the men were like, and I didn’t listen.”

Stunned, Porter’s mind raced down a tangent. Amy Bradshaw? Could it be the same person he was thinking of? When Nikki picked up her suitcase and walked out, his attention snapped back to the moment. He followed her, unable to keep up with only one crutch and still clutching the sheet around his waist. A small crowd had gathered in the hallway to gape. He didn’t care.

“Nikki, please listen to me,” he called after her. “You can’t leave.”

“Watch me,” she said over her shoulder.

34

B
y the time Porter got dressed and made it downstairs, Nikki was climbing into Darren Rocha’s car. He stood in front of the boardinghouse, leaning on his crutches, feeling like his heart was being torn out. Nikki was right that he’d tried to manipulate her…at least in the beginning. He just hadn’t planned to lose his heart in the process. She gave him one last glance, then swung into the passenger seat and closed the door. The car pulled away, taking Nikki with it.

Away from Sweetness.

Porter swallowed hard. His heart felt like an anvil in his chest. Suddenly he felt the familiar sting-and-ring of his ear. “Ow.” He looked up to see Kendall standing there. “What was that for?”

Kendall nodded at the disappearing car. “You just going to let her go?”

“Hey, brother, you’ve got some explaining to do.”

Marcus walked up, scratching his head. “There’s a limey doctor at the clinic. What does Kendall have to explain?”

Porter gave Kendall a pointed look. “How is it that the newspaper ad ran in the same town in Michigan where Amy Bradshaw now lives?”

Marcus frowned. “What?”

The look on Kendall’s face confirmed that it hadn’t been a coincidence. And suddenly Porter realized why Kendall had been in such a funk since the women had arrived—because Amy wasn’t among them. He’d hoped to lure her back. After all this time, he was still pining for his first love. Porter started to ask Kendall that if he’d known where she was, why hadn’t he just gone to be with her after he was discharged from the Air Force. Then it hit him. Kendall had put his commitment to rebuild Sweetness above his own happiness. His life was here now. If he and Amy had a future, she’d have to come back.

“Like I said,” Kendall murmured, nodding in the direction of the dark car rolling down the long paved road they’d built with their own hands, “are you just going to let her go?” Like he’d let Amy go.

But Porter shook his head. “It’s not the same.”

Kendall looked unconvinced. “Isn’t it?”

Frustration and self-loathing boiled in Porter’s chest. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from the car that grew smaller and smaller. Yet he felt powerless to stop her. He needed to be alone with this unbearable ache.

The water tower.

He glanced down at his cast, then decided he could make the climb. The pain might actually feel good. He could watch Nikki go for miles. Without a word to his brothers, he lumbered toward a four-wheeler. Kendall smiled, as if he thought Porter was going to take off after the car, then frowned when Porter went in the opposite direction.

Porter tore up the winding, hilly path, pushing his speed and the vehicle’s endurance to make it to the base of the water tower within a few minutes. The climb up the ladder was a bit more challenging, but he got the hang of pulling himself up while putting as little weight as possible on his bad leg. He stopped once and looked down, conscious of how much damage he might do if he fell again. When he reached the platform, he made his way gingerly to the front, handicapped without his crutches.

Because of the winding path out of Sweetness before leveling into a straight shot to a state road, the black car was still easily visible from the water tower on this clear, hot morning. He could even make out the two seated figures. He wondered what kind of conversation they were having, if they had already reconciled.

Porter banged his fist on the handrail, angry with himself for not taking off after her and telling her how much he loved her. If that oaf of a cheating ex could tell Nikki he loved her and it wasn’t even true, then why couldn’t he work up the nerve to tell her about these very real feelings thrashing around in his chest?

With a surge of determination, Porter pulled out his cell phone to call her, then remembered her phone didn’t get service here. Exasperated, he returned his phone to his belt. At a loss, he waved his arms. Cars approaching and leaving Sweetness could see the water tower for at least ten miles. But could she see him… Was she even looking?

His mind flitted to the tornado sirens mounted on the tower—they would certainly get her attention. He even opened the metal cabinet, although deep down he knew he’d never raise a false alarm.

But wedged inside the cabinet next to the bullhorn sirens was an old can of red spray paint. Porter smiled. Why not?

Marcus and Kendall would string him up for mar-ring the clean, white surface of the water tower, but he didn’t care.

His prayers that the paint can still worked were answered, and he was buoyed by the fact that it was almost full. He shook the can vigorously and quickly sprayed “I,” then drew a large heart, then wrote the word “Nikki” in letters that were as tall as he was. Then he turned to watch the car getting smaller and smaller, holding his breath.

“Please,” he whispered, hoping the brake lights would come on, some indication that she’d seen his message, that she was going to turn around and come back to him. “Please.”

But the car kept going…going…and then it was gone over the horizon.

Porter sagged against the handrail and exhaled noisily. His mind raced frantically for other options. He wasn’t giving up on her. He’d have her van repaired, then drive it back to Broadway. He’d tell her how much he loved her and make her believe him…

Then a harsh realization hit him. He was in the same boat as Kendall…his life was here in Sweetness. And he’d probably already ruined this place for Nikki.

He threw his head back and shouted in frustration, then listened as the strangled sound echoed back to him as it rebounded off the valley walls.

Totally defeated, Porter started to turn around when something on the horizon caught his eye. A movement…too small to be a car…probably an animal…

He reached for the binoculars always clipped to his belt and lifted them to his face. He adjusted the focus and brought the moving shape into focus.

Nikki.

Walking back, carrying her suitcase.

Walking back to him.

Porter’s heart took wing. He whooped and waved his arms. “Nikki! Nikki!”

She lifted her free arm and waved back.

Eager to drive out to pick her up, he made his way back to the ladder and began to descend. Adrenaline pumped through his body and he couldn’t stop smiling, but he forced himself to slow down. He didn’t want to fall and break his neck. Not now.

He almost made it.

He was about fifteen feet from the ground when his cast caught and he slipped. A sense of déjà vu enveloped him as he tumbled through the air.

35

T
he flat-back landing jarred Porter’s body and drove the air out of his lungs. He lay there for a few seconds and waited for the initial pain to subside before daring to breathe.

When he did, he dragged in enough air to breathe a prayer of thanks that he wasn’t dead. Then he moved gingerly. To his great relief, his broken ankle didn’t seem any worse for the fall.

His left arm, however, hadn’t fared as well.

He grimaced, then laughed into the air as he pulled his phone from his belt and dialed Marcus’s cell phone.

“What now?” Marcus asked.

“How do you know something’s wrong?” Porter asked.

“It’s you, isn’t it?”

But even his cranky brother couldn’t bring him down today. “I kind of took another tumble from the water tower.” He held the phone away from his ear until Marcus’s string of curses petered out.

“Did you break your other leg?”

“No…just an arm. But I’m going to need a doctor.”

Marcus sighed. “I’ll bring the limey.”

“Why don’t you bring Nikki instead? She’s on the road to Sweetness, walking back.”

Marcus was quiet for a few seconds, then grunted. “Okay, you get a pass. But this is the last one. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

Porter disconnected the call and smiled. It was as close as Marcus would get to telling him he was happy for him.

He pushed himself up with his one good arm and leaned against a rock. A few minutes later, he heard the sound of an ATV coming up the hill, then it came into view. Marcus was driving, and Nikki was riding on the back. Porter’s heart catapulted at the sight of her. When they pulled to a stop, Marcus busied himself with the four-wheeler to give them privacy.

Nikki climbed off and hurried to him. Her beautiful face was creased with concern as she crouched down. “This was a little extreme, don’t you think? I was already coming back, after all.”

“I had to make sure you’d stay awhile,” he joked. Then he pulled her face close to his and looked into her green, green eyes. “I love you, Nikki.”

She smiled. “I saw that.”

“Is that why you came back?”

She shook her head. “I came back because I love you, too.”

Porter captured her soft mouth in a sweet, profound kiss that promised all there was to come….

ISBN: 978-1-4592-0525-3

BABY, DRIVE SOUTH

Copyright © 2011 by Stephanie Bond, Inc.