Midnight Heat

by Cat Johnson

  Phoenix’s eyes widened at the suggestion. “I can’t just go there.”

  “Why not? School doesn’t officially start for a couple more weeks. Your meetings are done, right?”

  “Yes.” Today had been the last one. “But my classroom. . .”

  “Ah, jeez. You can hang the new calendar and whatever else you need to do when you get back. How long will that take?”

  Her friend was right. There really wasn’t any reason not to go. “Okay.”

  “Really? You’re going?” Kim sounded surprised.

  Phoenix was pretty shocked by the decision herself. “Yeah. I think I am.”

  “Yay! I’m so excited for you.”

  She laughed at her friend’s reaction. “Why?”

  “Because it’s amazing. It’s fate revealing this secret and guiding you.”

  “No, it’s more like my lack of organization.”

  “I don’t think so. Everything happens for a reason, Phoenix. The universe made you lose that certificate so you’d have to get the new one. Forces bigger than yourself provided you with your birth mother’s name so you can find her.”

  Phoenix wished she had Kim’s faith. In her opinion it was simply a combination of the mistake of one incompetent clerk and Google that had provided her with the name and then the address of her birth mother.

  Whether it was the universe or the Web, she could still use the information—if she chose to.

  “Why are you not packing already?” Kim’s question had Phoenix sighing.

  “Because I’m still not sure I’m going to do anything with this information.”

  “Pfft. If we all waited until we were sure to take action, nothing would ever get done. What if you wait a month or a year or more and then get there to find she died just before you arrived? How would you feel?”

  “That’s horrible.” Sometimes her friend had a warped mind.

  “It is horrible. You’d never forgive yourself. Don’t live with regrets, Phoenix. Go. Follow your destiny.”

  Phoenix shook her head at the over-the-top drama of Kim’s argument. Sometimes it was easier to just do what Kim wanted and not fight it. “Okay. I’ll take a road trip.”

  “Thank goodness. You won’t be sorry.”

  Phoenix blew out a breath. “I certainly hope you’re right.”

  Chapter Six

  As Justin turned onto the driveway and headed toward his boss’s house, he was in no mood to talk to anyone, but he had no choice. He’d have to take a few days off to regroup so he’d be able to act human again. And to get that time off, he had to talk to Rohn.

  Lucky for both of them, Rohn tended to be a man of few words himself. Nope, the older man wasn’t a big talker at all, but tonight, after that scene with his momma, even a “Howdy” delivered in the wrong tone could be enough to set Justin off.

  Rohn had better give him the days he was asking for because in this mood, Justin was even losing his patience with the animals, and he loved animals. More than people some days. He should probably work on that.

  He pulled Jeremy’s truck into the long drive that led to the house and barn belonging to the Double L Ranch. Rohn had named the place for his late wife, Lila.

  Justin had worked here for years. Since before Jeremy had died. Over the years, Rohn had stood by Justin with whatever he needed.

  Through grief as well as Justin’s various rodeo-related injuries, Rohn had given him the time off he needed to heal. He could only hope he’d do the same now.

  The moment he turned onto the property, a black and white streak ran at full speed from the house toward the truck. Justin slowed to avoid hitting the crazy dog that had more energy than good sense.

  While the dog bounced around him, Justin threw the truck into Park, figuring it was safer to stop where he was than pull all the way to the barn where he usually parked. He didn’t want to risk hitting the dumb animal. He wasn’t planning on staying long anyway. Just long enough to get permission from Rohn to take those few days off.

  Rohn stepped out of the kitchen door and meandered toward the truck. He whistled for the dog, who ignored him in favor of bouncing around the vehicle.

  No surprise there.

  When Justin opened the driver’s side door and stepped down, she bounced as if on springs until he finally gave in and reached down to pat her head.

  “Hey, Justin.” Rohn finally made it over to him. “Daisy. Come here.”

  The dog, apparently satisfied that Justin had acknowledged her, ran to Rohn’s side. Her herding dog genes finally kicked in, and the dog stared up at him, waiting for the next command. Rohn wasn’t her master, but she came to work often enough with Tyler that the dog minded Rohn more often than the rest of them.

  “What’s Daisy doing here?” Justin asked.

  “Janie stopped by. She’s inside visiting with Bonnie, and this little girlie decided to tag along.” Rohn reached down and rubbed the dog’s ear, turning her into a wiggling, tail-wagging bundle of uncontained joy.

  Even while feeling like a bastard who didn’t want to be amused by man or beast, Justin had to admit the dog was cute. That didn’t mean he wanted to deal with the dog’s daddy or Tyler’s inevitable incessant questions.

  Justin raised his gaze to Rohn. “Ty here, too?”

  “Nope. He’s next door at Janie’s place, tinkering with that old truck of his.” As he said that, Rohn glanced at the truck behind Justin.

  No doubt the man had noticed Justin wasn’t driving his own vehicle but instead had his brother’s truck. If he did, Rohn didn’t comment on it. He didn’t comment with words anyway, but he sure as hell said a lot with that one glance.

  “What brings you back here?” Rohn drew his graying brows low. “I remembered to give you your paycheck, didn’t I?”

  “If I said no, would you give me another one?” Justin asked.

  “No. My memory might be going, but my bookkeeping is still sharp as a tack. I’d notice the stub in the checkbook.”

  “A’ight. Then no, you didn’t forget to pay me. I was wondering—hoping—I could have a couple of days off.”

  “Okay.”

  Justin raised a brow. “That’s it? Just okay?”

  “Son, I’m well aware this time of year is tough on you and your ma. You need a few days off to be home with her, you got it. No questions asked. Tyler and Colton can pull the extra weight.”

  Guilt rode him too hard not to be honest with his boss. “You’re right about the anniversary coming up. And I will have to be there for my ma. But I was hoping to get away for a couple of days on my own. All alone. Just get in the truck and drive until the scenery ain’t familiar. Then turn around and come back home.”

  “A’ight.” Rohn tipped his head. “When you leaving?”

  “As soon as possible. Probably not tonight. I wanna talk to my ma and then make sure my aunt can look in on her while I’m gone. Tomorrow morning, most like. By first light.”

  Rohn nodded. “In that case, maybe we can help each other out.”

  “Whatcha mean?” Justin asked.

  “You know Bonnie’s mother?”

  “Miss Tammy? Yes, sir.”

  “Well, she packed up the place in Phoenix she and Bonnie had been living in and she’s fixin’ to sell it. Now that she’s decided to move back into the old house.”

  “And now that Bonnie is living here with you.” Justin grinned.

  Rohn lifted his brows. “Watch how you say that, son.”

  “How did I say it?”

  “Like we’re some kids, shacking up.”

  “Nope, you’re definitely not some kids.” He couldn’t help the grin growing wider as he teased Rohn. “But as for the shacking up . . .” He wobbled his head back and forth.

  “We’re engaged. That’s as close as I can get to marrying her right now. I’ll make an honest woman of her as soon as she and her mother can get the wedding together. Damn women take forever to plan these things.” He shook his head. “If it was up to me, I’d dr
ive to the justice of the peace and be done with it. But if Bonnie wants the church and white dress, then that’s what she’s gonna get.”

  “Spoken like a man in love.”

  Rohn rolled his eyes. “I know, God help me. But I already waited too damn long for Bonnie Martin to become Bonnie Lerner to rush her now.”

  Justin frowned. “Didn’t seem like all that long to me. Seems you two went from friends to, uh, whatever, pretty fast.”

  Rohn snorted. “Not exactly. Bonnie and I dated for a bit during the summer after we graduated high school.”

  That information was a surprise to Justin.

  Rohn continued. “That was twenty-five years ago, if you can believe it.”

  “Oh, I can believe it,” Justin teased. “I just didn’t realize you’d dated then.”

  “Yup.” Rohn looked kind of nostalgic as he nodded. “Even back then, when we were only eighteen, I knew I wanted to marry her.”

  “So what happened?”

  “She moved away to Arizona for college. I went to school around here. Things ended.” He shrugged.

  The conversation had taken a turn toward the serious suddenly. Rohn drew in a breath and Justin could almost see him shake off the memories of the distant past.

  “Anyway, Bonnie’s mother is in town now. She had an interview and got the job. Bonnie and I convinced her to stay here for now, in my guest room, but—”

  “But what man wants his future mother-in-law living with him and his girl?” Justin asked.

  Rohn lifted one graying brow. “I was going to say that because she got a job, she wants to go back to living at their old house, which at the moment has next to no furniture in it. We were deciding if we were gonna just hire a moving company to drive her stuff from Arizona to here or if I was gonna go get it all myself. But if it’s a road trip you’re looking for, maybe you want the job.”

  Justin considered that. He hadn’t been looking for any responsibilities. Just to escape.

  “I’ll cover all fuel costs and throw in two hundred extra for your expenses and trouble.” Rohn dangled that addition temptingly.

  The offer was hard to refuse, considering the price of fuel and Justin’s limited funds because he was the sole earner in the household at the moment.

  Decision made, he nodded. “A’ight, boss. You got yourself a moving man.”

  A smile bowed Rohn’s lips. “Good. Glad to hear it. I’m assuming that there pickup has a trailer hitch.”

  Justin glanced at Jeremy’s truck and back, nodding. No self-respecting man around there would buy a truck that didn’t. “It does.”

  “Then you can take the small trailer. Just make sure to sweep the horse shit out of it before you put Bonnie’s stuff inside or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “I don’t know about that. We didn’t negotiate for shit removal.” Feeling lighter just at the prospect of getting away, Justin teased Rohn.

  “Let me put it in a way you’ll understand. If Bonnie ain’t happy, then I ain’t happy. And that means—”

  “None of us are gonna be happy either.” Cringing, Justin finished the sentence for him. “Yeah, I got it. I’ll sweep out the trailer before I leave here.”

  “Good idea. I doubt the real estate agent would appreciate a pile of manure in the driveway in Phoenix.”

  “You never know. They could put it on the flowers. City people pay top dollar for quality manure.”

  Rohn laughed. “Yeah, but let’s not take that chance. Back the truck on up to the trailer. I’ll run in and write down the address in Phoenix for you.”

  “Get the house key from Miss Tammy, too. I don’t want to be arrested in Arizona for breaking and entering,” Justin called after him.

  “You sure? It’d make a good story.” Rohn grinned.

  Justin shook his head at Rohn’s joke. “Yeah, I’m sure. Thanks.”

  Rohn raised a hand in acknowledgment and headed into the house, the dog at his heels.

  Justin pivoted toward the truck. The visit hadn’t gone quite as he’d expected, but this new turn of events could be good. He liked having an excuse to get away. It would look to his friends like he had a job to do, not that he was running off.

  And the two hundred in cash wouldn’t hurt either.

  Chapter Seven

  It was peaceful on the road.

  Justin realized just how peaceful as the miles between him and home grew, along with the distance that separated him from everything he knew. He should have done this long ago.

  Getting away, even for just a couple of days, would help.

  With nothing but the open highway ahead, all his troubles seemed to shrink like the passing scenery in the rearview mirror.

  A man could think on the open road.

  Sometimes that was a good thing. Sometimes not so much.

  Right now, Justin’s mind had turned to taking inventory of his own life. He didn’t like the results.

  He lived with his mother. There were reasons for that, but still, it seemed a man of his age should have his own place. It was no wonder he had no girl. Hard to hook up when you were bringing her home to your old bedroom at Mom’s place.

  He owned his truck—minus the small loan with the bank. And though he’d never gotten around to switching the name on the registration, he supposed he could count Jeremy’s truck as one of his possessions, too.

  He had a decent job—the hours weren’t bad and the pay wasn’t too shitty. But really, where was it leading? He had no clue. It just seemed easier to show up every day and let Rohn tell him what to do than to think too hard about the future.

  He had friends. Though they’d drifted apart a bit since Jeremy’s death. The former ladies’ man Tyler had started to act married, always working over at Janie’s place, never going out. Ty was now the opposite of Colton, who was still single and wanted to go out all the time.

  His boss Rohn was a good guy. Of course Rohn was so busy with Bonnie, he wasn’t really present in Justin’s life lately, other than to tell him what to do at work. When even your widowed boss had a new woman in his life, it made a man wonder why he was still alone himself. It was enough to make Justin feel even more lonely.

  Though, to be fair, Rohn’s new girlfriend was really his old one. Justin now knew that Rohn and Bonnie had dated back in high school. He just didn’t know the full story of how they’d broken up or how Bonnie had somehow ended up living in Arizona for the last quarter of a century.

  But fate must have been at play so that the two had reconnected when Bonnie came back to town to settle her father’s estate. Good thing, too. Rohn had gone from grumpy old man to acting more like a teenager. Justin had come up on them giggling in the corner when they thought no one was looking.

  At one point Rohn had even gone so far as to dye his mustache to hide the gray. That’s what love did to a man, Justin supposed. Love made him do crazy shit like dye his damn hair.

  Maybe Justin should be grateful he wasn’t in love. That didn’t mean he was opposed to some lovin’, though.

  It had been too long since Justin had had some of that. Way too long.

  Hell, maybe this little road trip to Arizona would be a good opportunity to partake of some guilt-free, risk-free lovin’.

  A girl couldn’t expect anything from a man who was just passing through for forty-eight hours. As long as she knew upfront that he was just in for some companionship for the night, it should be good.

  Of course women didn’t always think the way men did.

  A shame, that. Life would be so much simpler if they did. But women were a different breed.

  Then again, there were plenty of differences between men and women he was more than grateful for.

  The softness of their skin. The sweet smell of their hair. Those little teeny tiny thong undies they liked to wear. How they licked their lips when they were flirting.

  And damn, now he had a hard-on while driving down the road.

  Enough of those thoughts. He’d have to move on to so
mething else.

  Unfortunately, the something else his mind turned to was that he’d left the area and was far enough away from home that he’d started to lose the radio station. As the signal faded, the static increased.

  Crazy as it was, he couldn’t bring himself to change the damn station his brother had last left tuned on the radio.

  Justin hit the button and turned off the radio completely.

  One day he’d get over it. Or he wouldn’t. Either way, the quiet wasn’t bad now.

  Scenery sped by the window at seventy-five miles an hour. He glanced down at the speedometer and saw he was actually going closer to eighty.

  Looking in the side mirror, he saw the highway was as empty behind him as it was in front. He could probably risk a little more speed.

  What the hell. Why not? Might as well open up the engine and let this truck breathe a bit. He didn’t take the truck out enough, but he’d make up for it on this trip. There was nothing better for an engine than to blow out the carbon once in a while.

  While he was at it, maybe it would help blow some of the cobwebs out of his own head. He hit the accelerator harder and felt the thrill of speed fill him. Yup. He should have done this long ago.

  Motion behind him caught his attention. Glancing in the rearview, he saw the trailer hitched to the truck sway with the increased speed.

  Justin sighed, easing off the gas pedal.

  Rohn’s horse trailer cost more than he could afford to pay to replace it if he flipped the damn thing by speeding too fast while towing an empty trailer behind him.

  Oh, well. It had been fun while it lasted. He slowed to a little over seventy and glanced at the mileage on the counter, and then the time on the dashboard clock.

  Two and a half hours down. About twelve more to go.

  That was a long damn time. Keeping an eye on the trailer, he hit the accelerator a little harder and allowed his speed to creep back up to close to seventy-five again, hoping to cut at least a part of that time.

  It was a long haul. He’d left well before dawn, and driving straight through with minimal stops, he’d hit Phoenix after sunset this evening. That was all right. He could handle it. He’d driven longer for a competition when he’d been riding on the rodeo circuit.