Cowboy Crazy (The Dalton Boys Book 1) (2 page)

But not enough.

Animals scattered. Limbs and horns darted in all directions. She gasped and stomped on the brakes, sending the car skidding. “Damn!” Bodies leaped in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut, but fear made her look. Two long legs bounded out of the way. The car came to a stop.

Her legs were tingly and her hands shaking. Unable to keep the brake depressed, she made sure she was off the road a little before she slid the gearshift into park. She spread her hands over her face. Breathing heavily, she tried to regain control.

The deer herd loped across the field, safe and sound. Now if only her heart would cooperate. She’d never had such a close call even in heavy rush hour Phoenix traffic.

When the hum left her ears, she figured she was fit to move on.

She put the car in drive and pressed on the gas. The car didn’t budge. She depressed the pedal farther, and the engine revved, but the vehicle didn’t roll forward.

Confusion and worry swirled in her head, making her feel as though she’d drunk country moonshine. What was happening? She hadn’t even
hit
one of those deer. Using her toe, she pressed the gas pedal. Nothing. The car sat there.

Battling rising panic, she moved the car into and out of park and tried again.

Not. A. Thing.

The gearshift felt funny. Was it even working? Tears jumped into her eyes and her nose stung. She held her eyes open wide. She would
not
cry. If she’d survived her ex—literally—she could deal with a little car trouble.

Fumbling in her purse, she found her cell.

Which had zero bars of service.

“Oh my God!” She shook her cell, as if that would help. Then she spent two long minutes stabbing buttons. Nothing happened except a trickle of sweat ran out of her hairline and zigzagged down her neck.

She got out of the car and kicked the door shut. In the field across the road, one of the deer that’d caused this crap lifted its head and gave her an innocent look. “Don’t think I can’t get this car working and run you over.” She shook her phone at the graceful beast, but it went back to grazing.

Walking all around the car, she didn’t see a single thing wrong with the body, not that she knew what to look for. She tried her cell again from all four corners of the car and even walked up the road a little ways.

Dead zone.

Biting off a groan, she opened the hood and peered down into the snakes of hoses and oily gears that might as well be a human brain. She had no idea what she was doing.

Her grunt was the best she could do to swallow her despair, and leaned against the warm metal. “Think, Charlotte.” She dug her fingers under her curls and weighed her options.

No cell service and no vehicle. She could set off on foot. With any luck, houses weren’t far off. Maybe there was some rancher with a set of tools who could get her back on the road in no time. She didn’t have to be anywhere in a hurry, but she didn’t want to be stranded overnight in her vehicle in a strange place either.

She walked to the top of a small rise, which could barely be called a speed bump. But it was enough to see…nothing. Nothing for miles. Only fields, cattle and fence.

True panic started to steal over her, and her hands shook. She shoved them in the pockets of her jeans and returned to her car, head bowed. Where had she last seen a house? At least ten minutes in the other direction. Ten minutes by car would equal an hour on foot.

“Shit damn fucking hell!” She fiddled with her cell again.

Fear froze her. Yes, her only option was to walk, but she was alone, a woman in the middle of nowhere. And in the past half hour since she’d found herself in this predicament, not a single car had passed.

“Why did I leave Phoenix?”

The answer to that sprung up, memories that singed and burned. Stephen had plied her with a romantic dinner and wine—wine that had been spiked with a roofie, according to the medical team she’d awakened to.

Thankfully, she couldn’t remember anything—not the fire or having her flesh seared, thank God. She’d awakened in the hospital to learn she had a nice new skin graft on her outer thigh and hip, and that Stephen had set the fire.

Everything in their apartment—including her—had almost been burned to ash. Luckily the other families in the building had smelled smoke and the rescue crews had…

Scrubbing her hands over her face helped to push the thoughts away. Dwelling on the past wouldn’t do much good. She needed a working vehicle. Or at least a few bars of cell service.

After trying to move the car a few more times, she gave up. An hour passed. Two. While she knew it was insane to sit here and hope for help to come, she was frozen. To make things worse, the sun was sinking.

The great orange orb was traveling down the sky too fast. In no time, she’d be sitting here in the dark. At least she had a cooler of bottled water and an energy bar. She could sleep in the car and set off walking tomorrow.

She shivered at the thought then steeled her spine. For months she’d been alone while she healed and got her head on straight. Spending the night alone in the middle of nowhere should be a breeze.

Folding her fingers together, she tried for calm when she really wanted to throw her head back and scream into the sky.

That might not be a bad idea.
She got out of the car and gave it a try, but only a pathetic wail came out. She tried again, staring up at the beautiful dark blue nothingness, and let loose. The yell rose from the tips of her toes and sent the deer running.

Smug satisfaction swelled in her. She leaned against the car and drank in the scenery. Everything about this place stimulated her. Too bad she couldn’t be stimulated from a hotel window right now. Hell, she’d settle for a grungy motel.

Wait! GPS on my phone!
She could find out her exact location and see how far walking would get her.

Wait. No cell service
. She issued another bellow into the sky.

Then heard a noise. Straining, she made out an engine. Straightening away from her broken-down vehicle, she waited.

Each beat of her heart was a painful throb. What if this person wouldn’t help her? What if she took one look at the driver and hoped he’d speed past? God, this was turning into a bad screenplay. Lone woman, country road…

As the engine grew louder, she shifted her feet. When the red pickup came around the corner, her stomach sank but she stood her ground.

He rolled by, and she almost burst into tears. The old Charlotte would have gotten sassy, swearing at a person who refused to help someone in obvious distress. But after her trauma of the past months, she’d grown resigned. Her shoulders slumped.

The driver braked, and her heart did a two-step. She watched him back up and expertly whip his truck off the road. It wasn’t a new truck. In fact, it had seen the years Charlotte’s car had, and she doubted the vehicle could get her much farther.

The door opened, and a work boot hit the ground. She followed it up to worn jeans and the longest leg she’d ever seen. The man that leg belonged to was a real cowboy.

Nerves zinging, she let her gaze skitter over trim hips holding up those jeans and a wide belt and buckle sporting what looked like a steer. Top it with a denim shirt rolled over muscular forearms and she was looking at a movie star.

Did the Texas temps rise in the evenings, or was it her? Her clothes suddenly felt damp and restrictive.

The sun was behind him, but he wore a hat, shadowing his eyes. Stomach flip-flopping, she waited for him to speak.

“Howdy. You got car trouble?” His long strides ate up the ground between them in seconds. Using his knuckles, he rapped the brim of his hat, giving her a perfect look at his tanned face and piercing eyes.

Square jaw, full lips, a straight nose and high cheekbones that could have earned him a modeling career. However, he was far from polished like a model. His nails were grungy and his pants had a grease stain. But his hazel eyes glowed. Actually, they might be grayer now that she looked closer, but no, there were definitely green and amber flecks—

The corner of his mouth turned up, and she followed the crease around his eyes to the one bracketing his mouth. Her heart thumped double-time and awareness flooded her veins.

“Did you have an accident?” he asked, and she realized she’d never answered his first question.

“I—no. Well sort of.”

The other side of his mouth twitched up to match the left. She stared at his white teeth, fighting to find her voice. But she knew exactly where her nipples were, as the traitorous buds were pinched tight.

“Which is it?”

“I drove into a herd of deer. I didn’t hit any, but I came to a stop. When I tried to go again, the car wouldn’t move.”

He grunted and hitched his thumb in his jeans pocket. The frayed edges of his pocket told her he’d done this time and again. Realizing she was gawking, and at a bad spot on his body, she raised her gaze and met his.

That didn’t help a bit.

Mentally shaking herself, she tried to make herself less of an idiot. “I tried everything, but the car won’t move.”

“The engine runs?” So help her God, he was unbuttoning his shirt as he moved around the vehicle. She stared for a minute then realized he was stripping off his outer layer to reveal a faded black T-shirt. It strained across his chest and biceps. A tiny hole near the shoulder revealed a patch of tan skin, making her wonder what else was tanned.

Hell, she’d been in the sun too long. Heat stroke had set in. Or she needed that energy bar. Her blood sugar was low. Why couldn’t she stop looking at him?

“Lady, you’re not really giving me a lot of answers.” His tone was amused, and the crinkles around his eyes said the same.

“Sorry. Yes, the engine runs.”

“Good. Pop the hood.”

She did and took a second to bring her curls to order before she went out to join him. She’d obviously baked her brain in the Texas sun, because she was acting like a smitten schoolgirl. She wasn’t even in the market for a man—far from it. What was wrong with her?

He leaned over the engine and shifted a few things around, giving her a perfect view of his strong back rippling with muscle. His shoulders were broad, and she imagined him easily hooking a calf around them, carrying the animal out of a ravine without losing his breath.

She shivered, and it had nothing to do with the sun setting.

“Do you mind starting the engine for me?” He cocked an eye at her, and her nipples bunched into hard peaks under her tank top once more.

“Not at all.”
I need something to do before I make a bigger fool of myself.

She ran around and started the engine then rejoined him, gazing at the moving parts that might as well belong to an alien ship. “Do you know what’s wrong?”

He scuffed his knuckles over his jaw, creating a rasping noise that lifted every hair on her body. “Not yet, but I’ve got an idea.”

“What’s that?” Damn, he smelled clean, like soap and water, even if he looked as if he’d put in a solid day of work.

“I’ve got an idea you won’t be getting anywhere in this car tonight.”

“Motherfuck.”

His hazel eyes widened. He threw his head back and laughed. The sound ricocheted around her body. She tried to compose herself, but he kept on laughing, and seeing a cowboy laugh was an amazing sight.

His shoulders rolled and his eyes gleamed. His teeth flashed white. Damn, watching him was like a party for her body. Parts she didn’t know she had took notice.

Still chuckling, he removed the metal roof prop and lowered the hood. Once he’d shut it, he turned and wiped his hands on his jeans, leaving another grease smear.

They stared at each other for a minute. Apprehension flooded her system. This guy might seem as wholesome and good as the landscape, but he could easily overpower her and hurt her. After all, she’d been hurt by only a match.

But the cowboy’s good looks and boyish gleam in his eyes invited her trust. Besides, what choice did she have? Sleep in her vehicle and walk tomorrow or accept his help.

“So what’s wrong with the car?”

“I think it’s the transmission.”

Her jaw dropped. “That sounds sort of…big.”

“It is.”

“Is there a garage around here?”

He pushed a breath through his nose. “You don’t know where you are, do you?”

“Um…” If she admitted she was clueless, it made her more vulnerable. He could dump her in a ditch and leave her for dead. Or worse—rape her then leave her for dead.

It was pretty damn hard to trust anyone when the man who’d claimed to love her had tried to kill her.

Slowly, she shook her head.

“Well, where are you headed?”

Again, she shook her head.

“You don’t know? Or you can’t remember?”

“I’ll know it when I see it.”

He cocked a long, dark brow. “That so?”

She raised her jaw a notch. “Yes. What are my options? I don’t even have cell service.”

At that, he laughed again. The sound was becoming too familiar, and her body reactions were taking over her thought processes. “It’s not likely you have cell service anywhere in this valley.”

“How far does the valley stretch?”

“Nine miles give or take a few footsteps.” He tapped the hood. “I don’t see any way around this.”

Around what?
Her heart sank, and those tears she’d battled earlier were too close to the surface. “I was thinking I’d spend the night in the car.”

His jaw shifted, showing a bulge of tendon in the crease. He shook his head. “My momma raised me right, and you sleeping in your car don’t set well with me. Look, I live about ten minutes that way. I can take you to my house and you can use our phone.”

Our phone. He’s married, has a family.

She eyed his truck. Would a family man hurt her? She made her decision. “I’d appreciate it.”

Of course, once she had a phone in hand, who would she call? Her parents were in Phoenix, and they’d scoffed at her notion to go in search of a different kind of life. Calling for help would make her seem weak. More than ever, she needed to stand on her own after what Stephen had done to her.